Bound to the Queen: A Fantasy Romance (Our Fae Queen Book 3), page 1
Contents
Title Page
Book Description
Dedication
Bound to the Queen
Chapter 1 Lyall
Chapter 2 Gloriana
Chapter 3 Gloriana
Chapter 4 Gloriana
Chapter 5 Gloriana
Chapter 6 Nolan
Chapter 7 Rorik
Chapter 8 Thressa
Chapter 9 Gloriana
Chapter 10 Lyall
Chapter 11 Thressa
Chapter 12 Gloriana
Chapter 13 Angelo
Chapter 14 Lyall
Chapter 15 Gloriana
Chapter 16 Gloriana
Chapter 17 Thressa
Chapter 18 Gloriana
Chapter 19 Kenji
Chapter 20 Nolan
Chapter 21 Gloriana
Chapter 22 Gloriana
Chapter 23 Rorik
Chapter 24 Kenji
Chapter 25 Lyall
Chapter 26 Nolan
Chapter 27 Gloriana
Chapter 28 Gloriana
Chapter 29 Gloriana
Chapter 30 Gloriana
Chapter 31 Rorik
Chapter 32 Gloriana
Thanks for reading!
Read Book 4
Acknowledgments
About Traci Lovelot
Copyright & Attributions
Book Description
I never wanted to be queen. But I won’t let just anyone take my place. Or my men.
To defeat the Unseelie, our allies need their long-lost magic, and that means someone has to become queen. I had to leave both of my lovers behind in the human realm, and I can’t return to them until I find someone who’s worthy of the throne.
Of course, nothing is ever easy, and I embark on a desperate plan to save the Fae by helping my fellow heir. Along the way, I’m drawn to another potential lover, even though we both know he should be off-limits.
To become queen, Una needs one final consort, and she chooses one of my handsome, powerful guards. Suddenly, I’m not willing to surrender him.
But who am I to stand in the way of our future queen?
————
Note: 18+ only. Steamy group scenes in later books involve MFM, FMM, and MMFMMM. All intimate encounters are consensual.
Bound to the Queen is the third of six books in the new adult Our Fae Queen reverse harem (RH) series. Expect unusual shapeshifters, new love and friendships, surprising betrayal, and two uncertain heirs finding their way.
This book is dedicated to my first metamour. She showed me it’s possible to be friends with my partners’ other partners.
Bound to the Queen
Author’s Note:
Due to regional variations in Gaelic and Irish, there is no standard pronunciation of ‘geas,’ but the most common are: guess, gesh, gas, or gash. Pick the one that sounds right to you, dear reader!
Get updates from the author and exclusive bonus content:
~ sexy bonus chapters from the guys’ perspectives
~ release-week freebies
~ the Fae Encyclopedia and Bestiary
< Sign up here >
You’ll also get new release & price drop reminders, along with the opportunity to read future books before anyone else. So, be sure to join!
Visit Traci Lovelot’s website to learn more about the author and Our Fae Queen.
Thanks for reading this reverse harem series!
Chapter 1
Lyall
As we crossed the veil between worlds and entered the Encante, realm of the Fae, I glanced over at Glori, whose once-white dress was now covered in the blood of her human friend. I should have been there when Glori needed me most. Instead, I had fallen for Vidonia’s tricks. We were lucky Glori’s consorts were with her during the ordeal.
The young heir looked around, inhaling and scanning the empty skies before heading directly for the narrow strip of land leading across the canyon. She strode ahead of me through the ruined landscape of a place that had once enchanted humans, enticing them to their deaths in the depths below. Up ahead of her, our fellow Elves, Thressa and Lauren, led the way across the land bridge to secure the other side before Glori could race across.
She had changed much since the first time we had come here together, not so long ago. Then, she’d been meek and compliant, completely ignorant of Fae customs and overly sheltered even by human standards. I understood now that her supposed ‘mothers’ — the Unseelie who had kidnapped her as a child — had nearly succeeded in turning her into the docile puppet they wanted, a figurehead they could rule through without obstruction. I longed to help Glori break free of that illusion and fulfill her potential, which was growing every day.
Raised as a human, Glori hadn’t even known how to cast a glamor and hide her pointed ears. As a result, she’d grown up feeling out of place, uncertain of herself. At least now Glori accepted herself as Fae, and more specifically, as an Elf. With only a slight gap between her feet and the stones below, she levitated her bare feet above the rocky terrain of the Edge, displaying no hint of concern as she crossed the narrow land bridge over the canyon. A small surge of pride filled me at seeing her implement my teachings to hover and avoid tripping.
Her back was straight, her eyes forward toward where Thressa and Lauren awaited her. Her bearing was becoming that of a future queen. I followed Glori along the bridge, ready to catch her if she stumbled, but her feet hovered above the ground as I’d taught her.
Before I’d met her, I’d felt every minute of my 1,687 years, with each new year wearing on me more and more. It reminded me that, unless I recovered the Elven heir and protected her until she could complete the Tree of Life ceremony, we might all die much too early. The Tree of Life slowly withered in absence of a queen, and our magic dwindled with it. As our magic faded, so too did our life force. Even among the guard, some had never known the full strength of power they would have enjoyed when the Last Queen lived.
I had envisioned the day I would victoriously present the recovered Elven heir before the Seelie High Council. As her guardleader, it was my duty to serve the heir as her liaison, attending Council meetings with her and acting as her agent when asked. I had always hoped my heir would be the one to ascend as queen. After all, every queen to come before had always been an Elf. In my fantasy, the Elven heir would revive the Tree of Life that very same day, renewing magic for all Fae at last, and prolonging our lifespans once more.
All would be set right.
It had been foolish of me to imagine the Elven heir would magically arrive with all five consorts raring to complete the ceremony with her. When we found Glori, I gained a new aspect to my responsibilities as guardleader — mediator between potential consorts.
And because her Unseelie wardens had kept the truth from her, I had also gained the burden of introducing her to the Fae, explaining our customs and even things as basic as the abilities we had as Elves. From the beginning, I sought to share all of the information she would need at a manageable pace, afraid to overwhelm the diffident and insecure girl who suddenly found herself in an entirely new reality.
I’d failed miserably on that score, losing Glori’s trust with each new clue she uncovered about the responsibilities surrounding her queenhood. Not only had I failed to delicately navigate that particular issue, I’d also ignored the fact that an heir would have her own hopes and dreams, her own wishes and desires.
As I waited for the others to cross the canyon, I took stock of my companions, the rest of the Elven Heir’s Guard. They looked as exhausted as I’d felt. We numbered only seven now that I’d ordered Valente and Fen to stay behind and train Glori’s consorts, Angelo and Kenji. At Glori’s behest, her two consorts guarded Glori’s human friend Merc as she healed.
Erynn’s shoulders drooped, not only tired but disheartened.
Thressa squeezed her shoulder and murmured, “It wasn’t your fault.”
We all felt like we’d failed Glori, but Erynn had been particularly mistreated by the enemy. They’d captured her alongside Merc, compelled them with Nixie magic, and then left Erynn knocked unconscious.
It was an anomaly we’d puzzled over, a clue we didn’t recognize until too late. The Unseelie didn’t treat life as sacred like the rest of us, so it was particularly suspicious that the enemy had also left Fen alive and unconscious. After all, the Unseelie considered Kitsune as ‘lesser Fae.’
Of course, it had turned out the culprits weren’t Unseelie at all, but Seelie traitors following their treacherous leader, Vidonia, former member of the Council. As our primary concern was to secure Glori, we’d let our enemies escape the three-way battle. But if we ever crossed paths with those Seelie traitors again, they would answer for their crimes.
Next to cross the canyon was Nolan, the diminutive Duwende. He’d seen through the Kitsune illusion surrounding the house where Vidonia and her traitors had taken Glori, aiding in her rescue. The bags under his eyes said this wasn’t his first sleepless night recently. Nolan was our scholar, and he’d been feverishly working to translate the copies of ancient scrolls in his possession. The palace librarian held little hope they would explain the Last Queen’s actions in splitting her magic across five heirs, but Nolan was determined anyway, working day and night when I let him.
“You’ll be on third watch tonight,” I told him. “And leave off the scrolls for now. You need your rest.”
It was a sign of how tired he was that the bearded Duwende merely nodded at my order.
Last to cross the canyon, Jovanka and Rorik traveled across the land bridge with more casual confidence than the other guards, for they’d been born to live on the Edge. The Veela loved to dance, and their footwork made them excellent fighters. They scanned our surroundings, forever alert and on guard, but their steps were heavier than usual.
We’d all hunted for Glori nonstop after she was kidnapped at Merc’s graduation, and the Veela in particular had been eager to battle whoever had taken her. We’d all expected a fight, but had been surprised to find the enemy already engaged upon our arrival — the Unseelie must have followed Vidonia’s agents, either from the Encante or the graduation ceremony. Just thinking about how our fellow Seelie had almost allowed the heir to fall into Unseelie hands made the world turn red.
Perhaps more gruffly than usual, I called ahead to Lauren, “Scout ahead to the village and have them prepare for our arrival. We will spend the night once more. Thressa, go with her and secure our cottages.”
The two Elves dipped their heads before blurring toward the forest ahead, their speed stirring up dust even though their bare feet didn’t touch the ground.
Glori’s lips pursed, and I turned to her next.
“We’ll get you in fresh, clean clothes, Glori. And we could all use some rest.”
She nodded. “You’re right. None of us slept last night.” But from the longing in her voice, I could tell she would have liked to press on to the palace tree.
Nolan and Rorik walked on ahead, while Jovanka and Erynn brought up the rear as I walked alongside the heir. “I’m thankful you are safe, Glori.”
She stared straight ahead. “I’m sure everyone is glad the queen’s magic is safe.”
“It’s not just the queen’s magic that I care about,” I told her, but if she guessed at the meaning behind my words, her expression didn’t reveal it.
Now that another heir — Una, the Nixie — had resurfaced, Glori was resolved to rid herself of the queen’s magic, giving it over to Una. Glori had said as much on the drive to the veil between worlds.
In Glori’s mind, that would solve all her problems. She would be free to live however she wished after that. No longer would she attend Council meetings and weigh in on matters she barely understood. No longer would she be expected to gather five consorts, one from each race. No longer would she be pressured to perform the Tree of Life ceremony as soon as possible.
I hoped that spending tonight in the village might give her time to reconsider before we reached the palace tree. As the latest in a long line of Elven queens, Gloriana would face far less resistance with the Council and her other subjects than Una might as the first ever Nixie queen. I also remembered the wave of power we’d all felt when Glori bonded with Kenji, claiming him as her first consort. Somehow I doubted Una or the other heirs had displayed such power. Perhaps the Last Queen had split her magic five ways so that the other four heirs could act as decoys. Surely she had always intended the Elven heir, Nuala, Glori’s mother, to ascend.
I wondered which heir the Council would back. They would probably be more than happy for Glori to give Una her portion of the queen’s magic, adding to Una’s power. Una had been raised among the Fae. She understood our ways and had the same priorities. Additionally, Edana and the other Elves on the Council probably expected Una to depend upon them to advise her as the first ever Nixie queen. It would only increase their power.
Glori startled me out of my thoughts. “What will become of Vidonia, if she is captured?”
“I will gladly end her life for daring to threaten you,” Rorik said over his shoulder.
Glori’s eyebrows shot up, and I noticed her eyes scanning the warrior’s back, her eyes lingering on his powerful shoulders and their Veela tattoos.
“It will be the Council’s decision on what to do with her,” I answered Glori more directly.
Never again would I fail to answer her questions. I still had much to atone for in expecting the Council to explain the intricate details of her responsibilities as the heir. It had been an unmitigated nightmare, which I had inadvertently compounded more than once since.
“That doesn’t seem right,” Glori mused. “She’s one of them. It’s a conflict of interest. The Council seems to wield too much power.”
Her insight surprised me. “Unfortunately, only a queen can overrule the Council. Heirs cannot.”
“But there’s never been a time where there were only heirs and no queen, right?”
“Correct.”
“Then the Council’s power is unchecked. That needs to be fixed.”
The regal way the words rolled off her tongue pleased me. She was beginning to think more like a leader, in spite of her wishes to relinquish the responsibility.
“Indeed,” Rorik’s voice rumbled once more. “Imagine their faces when we tell them one of their own is a traitor. Perhaps they all need to declare their oaths to the Seelie once more.”
The Seelie High Council would lose face thanks to Vidonia, and they wouldn’t be eager to share that embarrassment widely.
“Could Una make them swear an oath to serve her?” Glori asked me, dashing my hopes once more.
“Typically, the Council is appointed by the queen, and each new Council member swears an oath to serve both the queen and her people,” I said. “A new queen generally only fills empty seats when she ascends, as some Council members choose to retire alongside the queen who appointed them.”
“But Makoto and Athne…” Glori mused. “They weren’t appointed by the Last Queen.”
“The Council has taken some… liberties in the absence of a queen.”
“Was Vidonia chosen by the Last Queen?”
I nodded, and Glori’s eyes grew distant as she considered this new information. She still had so much to learn, so much I hoped to teach her. As her guardleader, I couldn’t countermand Glori’s wish to rid herself of the queen’s magic, but perhaps I could make her reconsider. I wouldn’t let the Guard down without putting in more effort to convince Glori that she could grow into the role of queen.
My mind wandered back to the origins of this small group of warriors, all of whom I considered my friends. A millennium and a half ago, I was in training to join the Guard that would one day protect the Last Queen’s heir, though she hadn’t yet chosen one. Despite having no heir to protect yet, we took our duties seriously and trained daily.
Soon after I joined, the Unseelie had kidnapped, tortured, and killed the Last Queen and her consorts. The Unseelie had also killed any of the Queen’s Guard they’d taken, as well. Rorik and a few others hadn’t been captured. We were long-lived, and suicide was a great tragedy among us, but even the Fae tenet that life was sacred hadn’t prevented most of those survivors from ending their own lives over the centuries, ashamed of failing their queen.
Reeling with the loss of their queen, the Seelie High Council had been forced to create five separate Guards to seek out and protect the five new heirs, a first in Fae history. Some who’d already been trained to join the Guard became deputized as guardleaders, and thus I became guardleader of the Elven Heir’s Guard.
As a former member of the Queen’s Guard, with more experience than any of the rest of us, Rorik could have had his pick and served as guardleader himself, but he’d chosen instead to join my Guard and serve as my second. Then I’d sought out other skilled and experienced Seelie warriors I knew to join me, and the rest of my Guard filled out quickly.
Yet as centuries passed with no new queen and no Tree of Life ceremony, our most experienced members died out, and others grew disenfranchised when Nuala refused to accept us. They stepped down with my reluctant permission. I found myself adding new, younger members to the Elven Heir’s Guard, and we learned to come together as a team again. I was proud of each and every one of them, and serving as their guardleader had always been my greatest honor.
Glori’s decision jeopardized our future. If she relinquished her queen’s magic to Una, there would be no further need for the Elven Heir’s Guard. As we neared the forest, I decided to try a different approach.
