Page 5 of Hopeless Kingdom
My gaze trails the wide room until I spot the last one.
Prince Ryder leans against a towering bookshelf. The warm sunlight that manages to peek through the grimy windows shines in his narrowed sea blue eyes. The bulge of his muscles catches my attention as he stiffly folds his arms across his wide chest. The blonde locks of his hair are disorderly and pushed back from his gorgeous face.
Anger rolls off of him in violent slashing waves.
“Pay no attention to my pouting big brother.” King Tristan’s amused voice travels up the vaulted ceiling and lingers.
Big brother.The term ‘step mother’ circles my memory.
Are they step siblings?
Thoughts fly through my mind as my gaze stays on the smooth features of my prince.
Myprince?
Hardly. I swallow dryly, confused by the affectionate term.
It is interesting that Ryder’s father was the ruler of this land, and yet his younger step brother now owns the crown.
This fae was pushed out of his kingdom. Exiled into the Hopeless realm at a very young age.Did he come back for his father’s funeral five years ago?
“Ryder, you cannot let a woman ruin our budding friendship.” The king pins him with a sneering look.
Are they talking about me?
The ridges of Ryder’s back tighten, bunching together with tension that’s beginning to fill me as well.
“Queen Anna didn’t ruin our relationship, Tristan.” His black boots swivel against the tile until he’s staring hard at the queen. “The lies she used to lure the three of us from the Hopeless realm were your own.” His gaze hardens and his twisting smile sinks a peculiar feeling into the pit of my stomach. “Did your wife relay everything back to you?”
“Of course, she did. Everything she did was my own doing, Ryder. Your relationship was a pawn placed by my own hand.”
That haunting smile turns crueler. “Did your pawn tell you how often she choked on my dick, or was that just improvised? When she met me in the forests at midnight here, begging for me to fuck her, was that a perk for the pawn?” The flashing anger is mixed with amusement in his eyes.
My brows rise at his bold words. Ryder … slept with Tristan’s wife. In an instant, my gaze swings to the high and mighty king and his whorish queen. Shame reddens Anna’s ivory skin. The tops of her breasts push against the silk corset that’s restraining her heaving breaths.
“Do not speak of my queen in that tone. Our father would be ashamed of you, brother.” The cooled expression he gives Ryder is one of complete control.
“I’d think it was the colorful description he gave rather than the tone that it was given in,” I whisper on a bubbling laugh. My jaw snaps shut with realization.
Oh, my gods, why did I say that?
A coughing laugh falls from Daxdyn’s lips just as Darrio turns to give me a stunned look that says ‘are you fucking serious right now’. Ryder smiles at me, and the feel of his happiness flutters through my nervous stomach.
The attention in the room falls back on me; the idiot prisoner with the big mouth.
“Have they been good to you, the fae?” Tristan asks. He looks at me with intense interest. In fact, no one’s ever looked at me the way King Tristan does. Sexual lust isn’t in him. It might not exist in this sleazy man at all. He looks at me the way he probably looked at that crown that once sat atop his father’s head. He looks at me as if I’m a thing of power.
And now he owns me.
The sound of my boots shifting fills the deliberate silence. I let my lashes flutter down to admire the harsh cuffs that adorn my wrists; bracelets of imprisonment. Suddenly I notice all four of us are wearing matching cuffs as if at any minute they might shackle us once again.
The time I spent with the three fae skims through my thoughts like a soft caress against a painful scar.
“They were very charming. Thanks for asking.” I flash a short-lived smile before pulling my lips tightly closed.
Tristan stands, ignoring everyone including his tainted wife. The sound of his heavy steps striding toward me sinks dread through my body with every echoing move he takes.
The twisting feeling within my stomach is swallowed down as I steel my spine and wait for whatever displaying act he’s about to perform.
