Page 11 of Bride of the Black Dragon
I can feel my cheeks getting hot as I remember the compromising position I saw Dorian in.
“It wasn’t my intention to spy on anyone,” I say quickly. “I was just in the stable after my morning ride and I heard, um, strange noises. That’s all.”
“Yes, well…” She looks miffed. “Whatever the case may be, it appears that the Crown Prince will not be impregnating you.”
“Oh…I see.”
I don’t see at all. What does this mean? Will I be allowed to go home?
“Er…” I clear my throat. “Will I be sent back to my family now, Your Majesty? Since the Crown Prince doesn’t want anything to do with me?”
She makes an incredulous face.
“Certainly not! We paid through the nose for you, girl! All because of your bloodlines and your hair and eyes. You’re going to give us a royal heir one way or another.”
“But…but I don’t see how,” I said, spreading my hands. “I tried going to the Crown Prince’s rooms but he threw me out. He won’t even talk to me—how am going to have a baby with him if he doesn’t even want to touch me?”
“Well, he’s not the only Royal male with a Drake who can impregnate you, is he?” she snaps. “Someone else will just have to do the job.”
For a moment I think she means King Harrow. With his long white hair and the way he crouches when he walks—why, he must be nearly eighty! I have a horrifying mental image of his withered form covering my own. He’s so much older than me! Does his male equipment even still work? I’ve heard my married sisters say it gets limp as men get older and they can’t “do the job” anymore.
I’m so horrified by the picture in my mind’s eye that I nearly miss the Queen’s next words.
“Tonight you will go to Prince Xaren’s rooms and wear the dress I sent for you. He will get you with child.”
“What?” I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I’m to go to the Dark Prince? He’s been kind to me in the past but for the last week or so he can’t even be bothered to look at me! Also, he’s frightening. I don’t mind sitting by him at dinner sometimes, but I can’t imagine laying under him and letting him…do that to me.
Oh, can’t you? whispers a little voice in my head. Another mental image forms in my mind’s eye—Xaren’s muscular form on top of me, him parting my thighs as he looks into my eyes…his big hands exploring me…maybe even moving under the white lace gown to stroke my bare flesh beneath…
This image gives me a shiver down my spine…but not in the same way picturing King Harrow did. No, it’s nothing like that. I feel the tips of my breasts get tight and between my legs I feel achy.
But though my body responds to the idea of going to the Dark Prince, my mind is still in turmoil.
“I cannot lay with Prince Xaren, Your Majesty!” I protest. “It was Prince Dorian who I wed!”
“No, you wed them both,” she says decisively.
“What? No, I didn’t!” I exclaim, too upset to be polite. She’s obviously telling a lie. “I was there at the wedding,” I point out. “I know who I married.”
“You know nothing, you little idiot!” she snaps. “You wed both of the princes. Do you not remember the singing part of the ceremony?”
“You mean the part where I was singing vows in a language I didn’t even know?” I ask pointedly.
“Yes, that part,” she says coolly, refusing to take the bait. “You gave your vow to both princes to be loyal—to obey and submit. And they both accepted your vow. That’s what you were all singing.”
“But…but no one told me,” I say weakly. I’m so shocked I don’t know what to think. I have two husbands? How is this even possible?
“It is always so in our wedding ceremonies when there is more than one prince,” the Queen says coolly. “When I wed King Harrow, I also wed his younger brother. Unfortunately, he was killed in battle,” she adds blandly. “But we make it a practice to be certain that a Royal heir will be conceived…one way or another.”
One way or another indeed.
“I should have been told,” I protest. “And frankly, Your Majesty, I don’t think that Prince Xaren has any interest in me, er, that way, either.”
“Be that as it may, he will fulfill his duty,” she says.
I want to ask why Prince Dorian isn’t going to be made to fulfill his duty. He is the one they told me I was marrying. Why is he allowed to just bow out in the important business of providing a Royal heir?
But I think I already know the answer to that. It’s clear that Dorian is the Queen’s favorite. She barely abides Xaren. He doesn’t seem to like anyone in his family and they return the sentiment. I doubt he’ll be any more willing to bed me than Dorian was.
