Page 60 of A Crown Without Mercy

“The two of you have been sleeping all fucking day,” Riordan replied.

“Shut the fucking curtains,” Kieran snarled.

Riordan ripped the blanket off the bed. “Get the fuck up.”

Nicolai placed his arm behind his head. “Don’t you have business with the Guild to attend to?”

Riordan took a seat and swept his hand over the table next to his chair and looked at his palm. “Yes, and the two of you will be in attendance.”

Nicolai looked at Kieran and rolled his eyes. “It’s clean, Riordan.”

“How did last night turn out?” Riordan asked.

“She’s as innocent as a cub sucking a teat,” Nicolai replied.

Riordan adjusted himself and drummed his fingers on the table. “I’m surprised she allowed the two of you to bed her.”

“She was as nervous as a thief standing on the gallows.” Nicolai chuckled.

“She has lived a sheltered life and I’m certain she has little experience with the world outside of her manor,” Kieran added.

“I don’t care what you do with your cocks but keep your canines at bay. If she is an Ascelin, we need to bond with her before taking her blood.”

Kieran sat up and leaned against the headboard. “We are well aware.”

“Milord,” Klyn stated from where he stood in the doorway.

“Did you get Sylvana back in one piece?” Riordan asked.

“Yes, milord,” he replied as he took a seat.

Nicolai sat up on his elbow and placed his head in his hand. “Is there something else?”

“Yes, she made a choice.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Nicolai questioned.

“She sent Skadi back with me.”

The brothers glanced at each other before looking at Klyn again.

“She did what?” Kieran asked.

“She asked me to stop at the edge of the forest and said she was ‘choosing’ to walk the reset of the way, and ‘choosing’ to send Skadi back with me.”

Riordan furrowed his brows. “And you ‘chose’ to go along with it?”

“Milord, there was no stopping her without a fight, but I did not leave until she had entered her manor.”

Riordan then looked at Nicolai and Kieran, who were chuckling.

“I said she was innocent. I did not say she was compliant,” Nicolai replied.

“It seems as if we are going to have to limit her ‘choices’ from here on out,” Riordan stated.

Sylvana snuck through the back door and up the stairs to her chamber. She shut the door and immediately changed into her clothes. She neatly folded the shirt and pants and placed them beneath her clothes in the drawer, and hid the boots in the armoire’s corner.

A knock on the door startled her, and she hastily shut the armoire. “Sylvana?” Calista said.

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