The Kingdom's Crown (Inheritance of Hunger Book 3), page 12
Aric's grip tightened, not painfully so, and both he and Wendell stepped in protectively.
Michael stopped in the center of the hall, and so did we. "Keep your head down," he whispered, eyes widening. "Let the council have their way long enough to birth a child and secure your position with an heir. They won't give up their hold on Kimmery."
Aric was ready to snap, and Wendell was his wonderfully stoic and patient self, but neither of their opinions mattered to me at the moment. I had my own.
"They will," I said, lifting my chin and narrowing my own gaze back at this man. Perhaps he was my father by blood, but he was next to nothing to me in reality. "I will pry their fingers away myself."
Michael sighed and shook his head, and his worry seemed sincere. "You don't have the power. You don't have enough hands to manage to hold back all their efforts at the same time. Not with them in your mother's ear. In her bed and constant company. The grip is too strong."
"Then I will cut them away at the knuckle," I snapped.
Michael blanched and stepped back. Aric's throat cleared, and I suspected he was stifling a laugh.
I turned my chin to Wendell and offered him a tight smile. "You are appointed to the council, by the way. By the queen."
Wendell nodded, eyes smiling. It wasn't a surprise to him, we'd already discussed the subject.
"Perhaps I shall appoint Aric to Head Mage next," I mused.
"Don't you dare," Aric growled, laughter in his tone.
I turned back to face Michael, and he had the same kind of confusion in his expression that my mother had worn when I asked for Wendell's place on the council.
"I'll do what I can for you," Michael said, so obviously doubtful that it wasn't really any kind of support.
I shrugged, swallowing all the newly bubbling hopes I might've invented when it came to this man in my life. "Your duty is to your mistress."
He looked thoughtful but nodded, and we walked the rest of the way to my suite in near silence, only exchanging a polite goodbye at the door. I didn't know if Michael felt a fatherly duty to me, if he was lying and trying to get me to ease my battle against the council for their sake, or if his temperament was so similar to my mother's—just wanting to keep the peace for the sake of it.
Wendell shut the door on the hall, and I paced away from them both quickly, scrubbing my face with my hands.
"This place is absurd," Aric snarled, following me closely.
"You really never knew who your father was?" Wendell asked more tenuously.
I could hear footsteps approach, my other Chosen drawing closer at our return. I shook my head, stopping my feet in the center of the room, biting down the urge to scream.
"Truth be told, I never gave it much thought. It wasn't discussed," I muttered.
"Who raised you?" Aric bit out, snatching my waist in a firm grip before I could start pacing again.
"Nurses, maids, tutors. My grandmother, when I'd reached an age to be reasoned with."
"Look at me," Aric said, reaching up briefly to snatch my hands from my eyes.
Thao and Cosmo had entered from one end of the room, and Wendell filled them in with a low murmur as Daniel and Owen came in from the other door.
I turned my face up to Aric's, trying to keep my expression steady so he wouldn't have to see the turmoil churning through me. It was a useless effort. Aric could probably feel the magic biting at me, snapping with my temper.
"You know I will obey you," he said. I snorted, and Aric's lips twitched. "Well, within reason. But I swear to you, if you have a child by any one of us, I will act as a father to them. And I will positively turn you over my knee and spank you raw if you do not act as a mother."
My eyes filled immediately, stinging and burning, and Aric growled at the sight, tugging me roughly against his chest. His arms wrapped around my back as sobs clawed their way up my chest and into my throat where I bound them behind clamped jaws. The only sound that escaped was a faint and strangled whine.
"Darling girl," Aric whispered in my ear, pressing firm kisses to the side of my face. "For all their carelessness, you really turned out spectacularly."
I could hold in my screams and sobs, but not my sudden and surprised laughter, so they all rushed out in a tangled mess. My arms whipped around Aric's shoulders as he lifted me into a tight squeeze. The others were moving closer, and the door to the suite squeaked.
"Shit, what's happened?" Cresswell growled with one glance at us upon his arrival.
"I'm not sure, but it doesn't matter. Bryony just needs us," Cosmo answered.
"I won't even know where to begin," I moaned to Aric.
"Well I certainly wouldn't either, but I imagine we'll sort our methods out as it goes. We can't do worse than they did." I made a strange noise, a squawk and a sob, and one of Aric's hands reached up to cup the back of my head. "I could've strangled him, but I object to hurting the elderly."
I choked a little and leaned back, Owen's temple touching my cheek as his head bent to kiss my shoulder. Aric was smirking at me, mad humor in his eyes. Strange as it was to admit, Michael probably wasn't a great deal older than Aric.
"I love you," I said.
Aric smiled and leaned in, pressing a kiss to my nose. "We love you too, princess."
11
Cosmo
“Oh, stars! Daniel!"
I glanced up from my sketch, smiling and flipping the page. Bryony's hands were clutching at Daniel's thick strands, her knees high and bent. Her heels rose off the bed and toes curled in the air as her back arched, breasts tipped sharply and begging the air to be sucked. Daniel wasn't faring much better, hips bucking into nothing as he sucked and licked and feasted on Bryony's sex.
I waited before setting my pencil down on the page again, eyeing the others. Thao and Wendell were kissing and groping one another on a couch by the fire, waiting patiently for their turn with our princess, torturing themselves for fun. Owen was in the bath, washing up from the stables before joining us, and Cresswell stood to the side, eyes too focused on the couple on the bed to really be guarding us.
"How can you stand to be sketching and not touching?" Aric muttered, sitting at my side, his heel jiggling on the floor.
Bryony came again with a bright cry, eyes going wide and hands fisting in the sheets.
"The sounds she makes for him while he does that make me feel as though I should grow a beard," I said, laughing at Aric's almost feral focus on Bryony. "How can you stand to be reading? Sketching is like touching."
Vaguely, but it was a tangible experience in my mind, and I knew what I wanted from Bryony this evening. Sketching passed the time until she was ready for me.
"I'm not reading," Aric bit out, snapping his book shut.
Bryony scrambled out from under Daniel, yanking him up onto the bed and pushing him down onto his back. She straddled him quickly, an intense focus fixed to his face as she settled herself onto his cock.
"We ought to make her a saddle for that thing," Aric said.
"I am her saddle," Daniel said with a note of strain in his voice, a faint quirk on his lips. His eyes never left Bryony's.
I snorted and waited till Bryony was fully seated on Daniel's ample length—and girth—before putting my pencil to the page again. This time it was Daniel's face I sketched, the utter rapt attention he gave to our princess, the sudden open devotion he wore.
Daniel was still fairly reticent, hovering at the edges of our numbers, and if it weren't for moments like this when he came suddenly alive under Bryony's attention, I might still resent the man's presence. But the second Bryony turned to Daniel for any reason, he lit up, and it became so obvious that our princess was his entire world.
Aric and Cresswell both moved for the bed, and I watched with interest as Aric deferred to Cresswell's determined pace. Bryony gasped as Cress took the back of her neck in a firm grip, pushing her down chest-to-chest with Daniel.
My pencil froze as Cresswell spread Bryony's ass open to his gaze first, and then his fingers. She squealed, riding Daniel's cock roughly as Cresswell stretched her.
Footsteps slapped against carpet as Thao and Wendell abandoned their post to hurry onto the bed and watch Bryony. I turned the page again, quickly outlining the figures on and around the bed.
Pages and pages of erotic unions, tender embraces, every single feature of Bryony outlined and shaded. Not for the sake of art, not really. I was trying to capture the power of the moments, as if one flat image by my hand might preserve a perfect memory. Except every one of those memories was me on the wrong side of a page. I hadn't learned how to sculpt my favorite flavor—Bryony's sweat and violets. Or the sound of her voice breaking, breathless pleads for mercy and for more.
I closed my sketchbook on the attempt, setting it to the side and watching as Cresswell sank himself into Bryony, sandwiching her between his and Daniel's chest, their bodies taking over the rhythm she'd wanted, slowing and extending it to make her tremble.
What kind of artist am I if I'm only interested in one subject? I thought, and I was only really surprised to find there was no note of bitterness. I would never say as much to Bryony. She wouldn't accept it. She still visited me in the studio I'd fashioned in our suite, poking about and quizzing me on projects I had less interest in than she did.
She would balk if I told her the truth. I was hers, her Chosen. I would sketch and sculpt to pass the hours where she was busy wrestling for the reins of Kimmery, just as Owen would tend horses and sneak down to the beach. Wendell had a purpose now that Bryony had positioned him onto the council. Aric spent his time sneaking around the castle for one reason or another. Even Thao was helping navigate Bryony through the public role of being princess and eventually queen. But Owen, Daniel, and I, and probably Cress too, now that he'd surrendered the grip he'd had on his role as her guard, we were Bryony's Chosen in the more traditional sense, waiting for her to call on us for comfort or sex or just company.
I watched them take their turns with her, Thao and Wendell hurrying to take Daniel and Cresswell's place when their will to resist joining Bryony as she came apart failed. Owen returned from the bath, kissing Bryony so senseless, she barely noticed as Aric helped himself to her magic and fashioned vines around her wrists and ankles, suspending her in Thao and Wendell's embrace. The vines bloomed with Bryony's ecstasy, breathed at half-time from her gasps.
I still waited, undressing slowly, kneeling at the edge of the bed, barely able to feel the movement as Thao and Wendell collapsed in heaps and Aric claimed Bryony for himself, urgent and consuming, fucking her to the precipice and then pulling away for Owen to chase her there again, the pair of them taking turns back and forth.
"Please! Please, both of you," Bryony begged, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.
It was the first sensible words she'd managed since she had mounted Daniel, and Aric and Owen both raced to obey her, thrusting into her cunt together. Daniel gasped at my side, but Bryony's own shout was obviously one of satisfaction, and Aric and Owen were too close to their own finish to stop once they knew she was fine.
"Why are you abstaining?" Thao whispered in my ear, his arms circling my chest. One teased down to where I was half-hard, and I sighed as his fingers circled my length, stroking me. Aric and Owen were both moving wildly, near their finish.
"I'm not abstaining. I'm just patient," I answered Thao, turning my head and stealing a kiss from his swollen lips.
"He's smart," Wendell added, stretching on the bed and grinning at me. "He's done the math and realized if he's the odd man out, he'll have her to himself."
Thao scowled, and we laughed as Aric let out a great bellow, Owen's own voice swallowed in Bryony's kiss. They lowered Bryony down to the bed with kisses on her skin, limbs still tensing and quavering with aftershocks.
"Wa-wait, where's—" Her voice was slurred, but it pulled my smile higher.
"Here, little muse," I answered.
Bryony sighed and shivered, tried to lift her head, and then immediately gave up. Her body was splayed out, release leaking out of her and painting her inner thighs glossy. I stroked her legs gently as I knelt between them, balancing on my palms to hover over, finally feeling the shine of her smile beaming up at me.
"Where have you been?" she asked.
"Watching."
Bryony pouted, and I leaned down, kissing her swollen bottom lip gently. She was almost never sore, even after demanding more from all of us, but I wanted to bring her down from the high she was drifting on until she was grounded back in the moment with me.
"Was it inspiring?" she teased.
I laughed and sank against her, stroking my cock against her soaked sex and watching her arch and moan. "Very."
Bryony was always inspiring, in any number of ways.
"You look tired," I said, watching the slow blink of her eyes. She was either sinking under pleasure or exhaustion, but she tried to widen her gaze and look alert at my words, struggling to raise her hand to reach me.
"I've been told I sleep poorly without you," she murmured, and it was stated in a dazed honesty that gutted me, an exquisitely sweet blade.
I'd wanted to draw this out, tease Bryony to begging, but the compliment of her confession left me pressing myself into her swollen and sensitive cunt, my arms circling her back to hold her to me.
Bryony gasped, her sex clenching and sucking me in as she came immediately. I buried my groan against her throat, wrapping my lips over her pounding pulse and sucking on the spot as she rocked weakly into me from below. The bed shifted slightly around us as the others moved, but I was absorbed in Bryony's cries as I pulled nearly out of her and then let gravity and her fluttering walls do the work of drawing me back in again.
"Oh, Cosmo, I love you," Bryony breathed out, voice hitching, and one hand clutching at my back.
You possess me, I thought, but I knew Bryony well enough to know the words would unsettle her. I kissed her instead, tenderly probing, swallowing her sighs. The others had worked her body into an unending loop at the edge, every stroke of my cock making her spasm and gasp. I wouldn't last long with her body demanding I join her this way, but I moved as slowly and steadily as I could, drawing the minutes out. I'd wrap myself around her as she slept and claim those hours, but I wanted this too—this moment of being Bryony's entire world, as she was now and forever mine.
"Mine, little muse," I gasped, a strangled half-version of the thought.
"Yes!" Bryony whimpered.
Her legs wrapped around my hips, heels hooking together to hold herself in place, and the fire of the Hunger licked between us until the heat was burrowing at the base of my spine, shooting warning shots of lightning into my sac.
Bryony's nails dug into my skin as she came again, and I followed her, my teeth claiming her lip as I buried my groan in her kiss, hips finally bucking out of the rhythm I'd set.
If I could've, I would've sculpted this—the mindless moment where I didn't know my own edges, so wholly joined with the woman I loved. I'd seen her tangled up with the others, but I'd always seen the lines of shadow between their limbs, and at that moment I couldn't imagine them between us.
The feeling faded, replaced with Bryony's thighs shaking weakly against my hips, her breasts swelling with her catching breaths, nose nudging against mine. I sighed, and the bed dipped near our hips. I rolled to the side, turning Bryony with me, and Wendell was there with a cloth, Cresswell approaching the bed with a tray of glasses. The world was closing in around us again, and even in the peace of the moment, it drew out a slightly sour note.
And then Bryony's fingers stroked my cheek, drawing my eyes to hers, a king's wealth of love in her stare.
"I love you, muse," I whispered. She nodded, our eyes closing as our foreheads pressed together.
12
Bryony
The room was stirring around me, my Chosen taking care to try not to wake me, or at least to let me continue the illusion of sleeping.
"Her ladies-in-waiting arrive today," Daniel whispered on the other side of the room.
"Doesn't matter. Waiting is in their title," Aric answered.
Someone snorted, probably Thao or Wendell, and a faint kiss brushed over my eye. There was a soft scratch of stubble, and I pressed my face into warm skin, finding a sweet and potent scent. Cosmo. My hand clutched a little against his chest, and his fingers covered mine. There was an especially hot and long body at my back, and since there weren't thunderous snores ruffling my hair, I guessed it was Cresswell rather than Owen.
"If you keep pretending to sleep, I will wake you up with my mouth between your thighs," Cosmo whispered warmly. "But you will probably miss the pies I heard Owen mention were waiting for us."
I sat up immediately, my stomach growling, and Cosmo let out that wonderful belly laugh that was so rare.
"They might already be gone by now!" I cried out at Cosmo, wrestling back Cresswell's arm that tried to wrap itself around my waist.
"I think there are a great many," Cosmo said, grinning as the others gaped at me. I was scrambling out from under male limbs and the thin blanket, stark naked, and I gasped as I looked down. There were faint little bruise marks all along my limbs.
And then I blushed and swallowed hard as I remembered the vines Aric had fashioned to hold me up for their taking and the little tendrils that had teased my skin like mouths while I'd been fucked and caressed by my lovers. I looked up, found Aric admiring his work from across the room, and huffed.
"I never underestimate Owen's appetite," I muttered.
And it must've been Wendell who'd laughed at Aric's assessment of ladies-in-waiting because there was no sign of Thao. My lovely prince would absolutely not defend my right to breakfast pies.
Daniel picked up a velvet robe from a chair and brought it to me, holding it behind his back and grinning up as I balanced at the edge of our massive bed. He was face height with my breasts, and as I reached out for the robe, his free arm wrapped around my hips, lips helping themselves to my nipples. My Hunger applauded him. My stomach growled in warning.
