Page 6 of Vicious Fates and Vast Futures
I’m sick of Aidan. He’s spineless and has no honor. My mate deserves a better parent. I pull out a small blade and throw it, hard, into the coffee table near his glass. It thrums back and forth quietly in the silence. I lean forwards, elbows resting on my knees as my eyes bore into Aidan. “Think well before you speak, as I’m not a male who takes kindly to liars.”
I sit back, confident my point was made. I smell Adi respond, her sweet cunt getting wet for me, for my actions, and I feel my dick thicken in return. I flick her a heated glance, making sure she knows from my look that I’ll thoroughly fuck her when we are done here.
Aidan stares at the embedded blade for several long moments before drinking again. He closes his eyes and says, “Yes. Barclay’s wife, Queen Blair, was responsible for the death of Elspeth and your sister.”
Adi leans forwards again. “‘Your sister,’ you call the babe. Not ‘my daughter.’”
Aidan sighs deeply. “She was not my child. She was Barclay’s.”
“And amIyours?” Adelaide asks, her voice tight.
I see a flicker of life in Aidan’s eyes.Finally.
“Oh yes, Daughter. Of that I am sure.”
I look at him again. He alone of Seren’s children has the dark curly hair of the long-dead king. The same as Adi’s rich curls that seem to shine auburn in certain lights. He has green eyes, unlike my mate, but I can see the similarities in their bone structure. I’d bet all of my cabins that he is indeed her father.
Adi sits back. “Why would Barclay think I was his?”
The smile on Aidan’s face is unexpectedly kind. “Are you sure you wish to hear of your parents’ sex lives?”
When Adi merely glares, he continues. “As you know, your mother killed a human man who tried to force himself on her. That ‘crime’ happened within the unseelie lands, in the old country, so the Dark Court had jurisdiction. Barclay was immediately infatuated with Elspeth and sentenced her to time as a servant in his court. She hated him initially, knew her sentence was unjust. But eventually, over many years, she came to care for him. They became lovers, but she would never agree to step into the spotlight, much to Barclay’s chagrin. No matter how often he offered to put aside his queen—given that they, at the time, had no heir—she always declined, though they stayed lovers. Shortly before The Call, the unseelie court visited ours. This was decades after her sentence was enacted. And, well...Elspeth and I fell in love. It was immediate, love at first sight and all that. We were not Goddess-blessed mates, but we adored each other from the first instant.”
“She loved two men?” Adi asks.
“Do you truly find that so odd?” he says, with the slightest hint of annoyance. He continues without waiting for a response. “Elspeth became with child, with you, quickly. Very quickly. She decided that coming to join the Green Court with a child of the blood was a better choice than trying to survive the unseelie throne with a babe that would be assumed, rightly or not, to be the bastard of the king, and thus, a target. Having the child there would make Barclay’s life hard. Make his rule unstable ifhis queen, newly delivered of a son, rebelled against his mistress bearing a child as well. But moreover, it would be dangerous for her and you.Thatis what swayed her decision.
“I don’t know if she ever told Barclay that you were mine. I never asked. But I was happy to have a wife and a child. I have never truly had a life here. Perhaps I would create a life, a family of my own, with them, I had hoped. Barclay continued to visit me and Elspeth regularly. They continued to have sex.” Aidan shrugs. “What did it matter to me? She wasmywife. Barclay gave her joy and had little effect upon our life together. Why would I care?” He rubs his head, smiling at the memory of Elspeth. “She got pregnant with your sister while I was in FEC4 for an extended ambassador visit. So she told Barclay the child was his. I had no objections. She would be raised by Elspeth and me, in my court, and you well know nymphs don’t care much for parentage. But apparently his wife Blair did.”
Aidan falls into silence here, tears shimmering in his eyes as the memory of his wife, and his hope for a family and a life, haunt him. “Barclay and I should have protected her. Between the two of us, we should have known. Should have done something.”
I feel an unexpected swell of pity for this broken male. Adelaide’s eyes meet mine. Without breaking my gaze, she says quietly, “Thank you, Father. We’ll take our leave now.”
I PULL THE HEAVY WOODENdoor to our rooms shut after Adi slips in ahead of me. Ossy and Nairna are nowhere to be seen, but I can feel from our bonds that they are here somewhere. Maybe playing pool. Maybe strangling each other. Toss-up, really.
I follow Adelaide to her bedroom, her hips swaying and the scent of her need in my nostrils. I’m removing blade sheaths as we walk, shedding them in a little trail leading to her bed.
She turns and I step up to her, pressing myself to her body, and step forwards with her, walking us until the backs of her legs are pressed to the bed. I wrap my fingers in her sumptuous hair and gently angle her face outwards. I hold her head still as I lean to lick over the exposed tops of her breasts and slowly up her neck. I start undoing the stays on her dress with my free hand.
She squirms, probably wanting to help and get herself naked quickly, but I’m not interested in that. I undress her slowly without removing my grip from her curls, licking and nipping at her the entire time. Eventually, her dress pools around her feet and she stands fully nude before me, her head still at a slight tilt from my grasp, and finally I kiss her mouth fiercely.
She melts under me, so Goddess-damned needy I could come right now. She’s so fucking perfect, and her every submission to me is a fucking gift. Eventually, I manage to pull away from her soft lips. “A chroí, you know I love you, right?” I search her big grey eyes as I ask this.
She smiles. “Yes of course, Bryn....”
“Good. Because I’m about to fuck you like I don’t.” And with that, I throw her soft, naked body on the bed. “Lay on your back and show memypussy.”
She does as commanded while I strip. “I want you to understand something, sweetheart,” I purr as I crawl onto the bed, naked and rock hard. “I’m going to let you come freely. But I won’t be going out of my way to make you come. Do you understand?”
She’s propped up on her elbows, and she raises a sassy eyebrow in response to my words. I can’t decide if I want to spank her or kiss her.
“So I’m your fuck toy?” she asks quietly, legs still spread, and I can see the glisten of her need on that incredible cunt.
“I don’t know this term, but I’d say exactly right, a chroí,” I murmur as I climb on top of her, grabbing one of her gorgeous legs and putting it on my shoulder, then tugging her body all the way against mine where I kneel. Her eyes are half closed, and she whimpers as her hips rock against me, begging for my cock silently.
“What is our red word?” I ask her.
“Sunflower.”
