Betrothed To Jack Frost Box Set

by Alex Gedgaudas

  “Let’s go get a fire stone,” said Apollo, trying to help her stand up. “It can absorb your current energy to take away the pain.”

  “I c-can’t leave,” said Elle, her body trembling. “Can you please get it?”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come with?”

  “I’ve never been more certain in my entire life,” Elle admitted, feeling strongly if she moved even a muscle, she would explode. Every part of her was slowly aching and gnawing at her body and mind. The more she thought about how angry she was, the worse her pain became. She had to focus on calming herself, and being around her previous best friend who lied to her their entire friendship would not calm her down. She was growing only more annoyed the longer she had to watch Apollo’s handsome face.

  Apollo, meanwhile, nodded his blond head before disappearing into the night.

  Elle took a couple deep breaths of the cold air, thankful no one else was out on the balcony. She next tried to focus on something happy. Seeing a type of bird fly by helped her focus. Owls. They were cute, fluffy birds. They were cute, fluffy birds that could also fly. That didn’t help. Flying caused Elle to strangely think of gods. Gods reminded her of where she was. All the bad things came back to her, and then Jack’s impromptu proposal came flying back to memory as well…

  “Where’s a yoga instructor when you need one?” Elle mumbled, her fingers clenching onto her knees through her dress to keep herself together.

  “Ohh…is Apollo not pleasing enough that you need yet another man, mortal?” Voluptas asked in a lovely French accent. She strutted out onto the long balcony, looking as glamorous as a runway model even while dressed in black Greek funeral attire.

  Elle was too much in pain to even roll her eyes at the rude comment. What were the odds that out of all the gods and goddesses in the world, it was Voluptas to find her? Elle continued holding her knees, thinking maybe if she kept very quiet, the goddess would go away without further antagonizing. “So, I came across Jack,” Voluptas purred. “He was quietly in discussion that you turned down a marriage proposal. Did you finally realize you don’t have the stamina to keep up with him?”

  Elle closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Unfortunately, as she opened her brown eyes, the snotty goddess had come just a little bit closer. “Please leave me alone,” Elle said, automatically knowing she spoke the wrong words as a smile quirked at Voluptas’s lips. She shouldn’t have said please in such a weak voice. Now, she just let Voluptas realize she was the perfect target to bully.

  “Did you know Jack and I have been together romantically for so many years, it probably outnumbered how many years you have even been alive?” the goddess purred, seemingly satisfied by Elle’s pain.

  Elle tingled from her body’s aches, unsure of why the goddess came to find her in order to start a fight about Jack. Was she jealous upon hearing he tried proposing?

  “Twenty-one,” said Elle, trying to keep calm as she thought of sarcasm. “I thought you were the goddess of sensual pleasure; twenty-one really isn’t impressive. What is that, one time a year?” She laughed, her humor not fully inside her insult given how much pain she was in. At this point, she didn’t even care if her response made sense. It flustered Voluptas, and that was what counted.

  “You laugh, little mortal. How many times have you pleasured a man?” said Voluptas sweetly. “I am certain Apollo has made sure your chastity remained intact throughout the years. Did you not realize that is why you were given a god and not a goddess as a guard? Someone had to keep away any males sniffing your direction…”

  “Are you trying to make a point?” Elle muttered, inwardly realizing that explained quite a number of times Apollo seemed to scare off any males who had wanted to date her. “Because your rant telling me you’ve slept with Jack is getting pretty old. He’s already told me he’s been trash,” she said quietly, mentally noting the goddess was suddenly glowering at her. Apollo needed to be quicker.

  Voluptas quickly recovered from her death glare. “I am leading to my point. I feel you should hurry up and marry Jack to grant him the title of king.”

  Elle laughed as her pain continued to rake throughout her body. This conversation had taken a very odd turn. “Is that where you were going with this? You wanna play matchmaker?”

  Voluptas chuckled softly, a slick smile coating her beautiful lips. “I’m making a point that Jack and I have been meant to be for a very long time. You, little girl, just happen to unfortunately have a part in a prophecy,” she said, sounding bitter. “The sooner you marry him and pop out your spawn, the sooner we can resume our affair,” she said, a small smile slipping onto her full lips.

  Voluptas did not seem to expect Elle to start gently laughing as she held her knees. Elle’s dark curls Hera had styled bounced with her as she laughed, pain momentarily forgotten. “The neediness that oozes out of you is really sad.”

  “Neediness? Child, this is honesty.” Voluptas smiled gently. “Word has gotten around that your death will soon come. Macaria will be coming for you, supposedly after you give birth to your child…”

  “Depends what prophecy you listen to,” Elle muttered, feeling her bones tighten as her teeth clenched. “I can’t quite tell when I supposedly die anymore.”

  “Obviously it will be after the great prophecy that bestows a child created from the descendants of fire and ice.” Voluptas nodded, almost watching Elle with a pitying expression. “Why else do you think so many individuals care for your survival?” Her perfect lips parted into a mocking frown. “Do you think anyone genuinely cares for you, little demigoddess?”

  Elle said nothing, lacking anything to retort to that. Her silence inspired Voluptas to smile. “Have you yet to realize exactly what you are, child? You are nothing but a royal incubator.”

  Elle’s left eye twitched. “Why are you doing this? Are you the goddess of desperation, that you need to seek a fight with anyone just to feel special?”

  Voluptas smiled cruelly, obviously feeling Elle’s paled face was due to her comments and not to being in horrible pain. “No, foolish mortal,” she said softly, leaning down. “Has anyone informed you? I am the goddess who will be your child’s mother after you die.”

  Elle’s head slowly tilted up to stare at Voluptas, the anger in her bubbling to a newfound high. It was the mention of her hypothetical child being raised by her that had her eyes narrowing into slits. Voluptas watched her with a sly smile. “It has been no secret to me that you will die, young one. Why I have disliked you is quite simple. It has been jealousy that not only will you become queen before me, you provide Jack a child before myself as well.” She said this in a sweet voice. Elle tried to tune her out, but her body was in far too much pain; she couldn’t help but listen to Voluptas if only to forget feeling how her bones felt raw and sore. “Do not worry…” Voluptas continued, lowering herself to reach Elle’s eye level. “Not only will I raise your offspring as my very own, I’ll also take care of the future king of winter to make sure he is fully satisfied in bed every night…”

  Elle did not even think for a moment that this woman was a goddess who possessed probably thousands of years of fighting experience over her. She did not care that Voluptas obviously held strong daddy issues that she felt inclined to bully others for her own sadness and low self-esteem. Elle did not care her body was currently in such extreme undeniable pain and there was a room full of immortals just inside the large winter-themed dining hall who could witness her following actions. Her anger boiled over, causing her to launch herself at Voluptas and tackle her to the rough floor.

  Elle roughly hit her jaw out of anger but, not surprisingly, caused herself more damage than to Voluptas. Next taking a classic girl-move, Elle grabbed a large chunk of Voluptas’s long mane to roughly rip at it. The result was very satisfying. She pulled hard enough that long pieces of hair roughly came undone from Voluptas’s head. Elle stared at the long mangled blonde pieces, mentally noting they were exactly what she thought they were. “H
a! I knew these were extensions!”

  There wasn’t time to be gleeful over this now-proven-true theory. Voluptas threw Elle off of her, causing her to crash into a nearby pillar. Elle went down, completely falling on her back. She started trembling from how much pain she felt from that simple action alone. The good news about the hit was that it made her forget about the pain she had been in before this fight. Now, she simply ached all over. “That all you got?” Elle asked cockily from the ground, inwardly praying Voluptas didn’t have worse to spare. The throw was painful enough.

  Voluptas glowered. “What is wrong? Is someone upset I will be the mother to your child?” she sneered coldly.

  “Joke’s on you, pug face. I don’t have kids or extensions,” Elle shot back, wiggling the hair ripped from Voluptas’s skull in her face as she stood. It was probably wrong to antagonize a goddess plenty stronger than herself. Elle next got roughly shoved three feet back into a pillar, her head rattling violently upon falling and hitting the cement ground. She was losing this fight. Badly. Warm blood trickled down from the top of her head, indicating the hit was rough enough to cause a head wound to bleed. Elle waited until the goddess approached to stage a counterattack. She moved her leg out in a kick as Voluptas approached, landing quite a nice shot to her knee cap. It was a lucky shot, but Elle wasn’t going to complain.

  It was the aftermath of that kick that caused Voluptas to lunge for Elle’s throat. A tug of war started to take place, a small battle where Voluptas either wanted to strangle Elle or reach her hair to pull in retaliation. Immortals started running out onto the balcony as they heard the loud, snarled growls coming from both Elle and Voluptas as they fought.

  “Is it Jack you are feeling so defensive over?” Voluptas spat, lifting an eyebrow right before delivering a powerful slap to Elle’s face. “Should I explain the numerous ways I’ve pleasured him? Should I name all the times he’s seen me naked?”

  Something very scary ignited in Elle, seemingly the final straw on an ultimately bad day. If she had to listen to Voluptas brag about being with Jack one more moment, she was going to scream. Worse, she was going to retaliate. Grabbing a hold of Voluptas’s wrists, Elle seemed to already know what was about to happen as her palms radiated so much heat that they started to flame. Soon, they began to scald the goddess’ wrists as if she had just placed them in boiling water.

  Elle had never before been in so much control of the flames. She seemed to know how to do this action based off of instinct alone. Voluptas screamed from the burns, desperately trying to detach herself. Elle watched the flesh bubble and then disintegrate as her hands held Voluptas still. The goddess was looking as though she were burning horribly where she stood. The tables had turned in Elle’s favor. She was able to get out from under Voluptas, all thanks to her fiery death grip. The goddess managed to shove Elle roughly away. It caused Elle to knock her head against the wall yet again before sinking to the rough ground. People were watching this exchange, but it was no one that Elle recognized. She felt certain none of the deities or castle keepers here really wanted to break up this fight. The majority of people did not seem to care if Elle was hurt.

  Elle’s head pounded as she struggled to stand. The second time she had been thrown against a stone pillar seemed to cause her to smash her wrist awkwardly and painfully against it. Elle didn’t understand what everyone was looking at as they watched her intently, until she saw the bright orange glow. Soft burning embers radiated from her body, giving off the impression her entire body was catching on fire. Elle collapsed to her knees, finding the soft flames dancing across her skin weren’t at all painful, only very bizarre. She couldn’t feel the fire even though it looked as though she were being burned alive. Elle found herself surprised her dress wasn’t burning off.

  “Too bad the flames are not killing you!” Voluptas sneered vehemently. The spectators were elves, all castle keepers or individuals from Winter’s Kingdom. All watched almost gleefully; Elle felt certain they weren’t breaking up this fight because these people worked exclusively for Queen Oritya. They wanted Elle to suffer.

  Voluptas slowly approached, armed with a weapon that looked suspiciously like a crossbow. A harsh glare was etched on her face, but Elle had no time to respond before Voluptas was roughly shoved against an opposing wall, her feet dangling off the ground. A very pale hand roughly clasped around her throat. Jack Frost had arrived. Strangled gasps overtook Voluptas as she roughly struggled to take in air.

  “Right now, I desire to rip out your intestines and force you to eat them raw,” said Jack in a very calm voice, somehow sounding more frightening than Elle had ever heard him. His velvety voice held absolute sincerity along with a sheer calmness that crackled with authority. “Can you give me one good reason why I shouldn’t do such a thing?”

  It seemed asking Voluptas a question was intentionally done, given she could not speak as air was being cut off from her windpipe. It was impressive and yet extremely frightening how Jack could hold her up and strangle her with just one hand alone. Voluptas squirmed violently beneath him, her face turning blue. “You shall have to speak up, Voluptas. I cannot hear you,” said Jack calmly, his voice mocking. His grip tightened as the goddess’ kaleidoscope-colored eyes began to bulge.

  “What are you all looking at?” snarled Jack, momentarily glancing at the castle keepers. They all shuffled awkwardly before hurrying away by going back to the ball room or disappearing by teleporting. Elle shakily stood from her spot. It felt so wrong watching Voluptas pathetically attempt to move Jack’s pale hand from her throat. She couldn’t.

  “Jack, stop,” said Elle.

  Jack looked to be struggling with his desire to cause the goddess harm. He did not glance Elle’s way as his hand turned to solid ice as he continued to strangle the goddess. “Jack!” Elle called again, this time louder. It caused him to finally glance at her. The murderous rage that was covering his face was slowly evaporating as he took her in.

  “You’re bleeding,” he said, his eyes going wide.

  Elle barely remembered the bleeding cut on top of her head as she struggled to stand. “I’m f-fine.”

  Without even removing his gaze from her, Jack roughly dropped the hand holding Voluptas’s neck. The goddess tumbled to the floor, spluttering a cough. Elle jumped as the loud crack of a sound echoed throughout the balcony and into the night sky.

  “You let her go,” said Elle dumbly, surprised he listened to her.

  “Yes,” Jack agreed, sounding somewhat bitter. “But if she doesn’t disappear very quickly, I’ll snap her neck without blinking.”

  Voluptas did not need to be threatened twice to get the point. The goddess disappeared without responding a word. Elle stared at Jack with wild eyes. “Snap her neck without blinking?”

  “Yes,” he said, lifting an eyebrow to watch her. “And you scalded her wrists with third degree burns. Are you really placing judgment?”

  Elle winced as he came forward. Jack hugged her body against him while also causing the flames covering her to extinguish automatically. Jack used a pale hand to gently rub Elle’s red cheek as he worriedly looked over her injuries. “I can’t seem to leave you alone without you always managing to find trouble,” he murmured. Jack took a slow step back, watching her with an expression that was the love child of concern and anger.

  It was watching his lovely grey eyes full of worry that caused Elle to experience a sharp pang. She wanted him to care about her and not simply ask her to marry him for the stupid throne. Her bottom lip trembled as she watched him, causing Jack to frown heavily.

  Of course, now was the exact moment that Apollo reappeared. He soon took in the form of the battered, shaking Elle as Jack stood before her. If she wasn’t already in such a strange body-aching pain, Elle would’ve noted how bad the immortal’s timing was. From where he stood, it could easily look as though Jack had hit her.

  “You son of a beast,” Apollo snarled without even waiting for an explanation. Not even saying anyt
hing further, he brandished a fire ball to roughly launch at him. Fearful over the thought of Jack being in harm’s way, Elle didn’t think before she jumped in to block the ball of flame. She couldn’t bear the thought of Jack being in harm’s way. Even as the ball of flame roughly struck Elle as hard as if Apollo had thrown a physical ball at her stomach, this did nothing to harm her physically. Her body strangely seemed to absorb the flames while simultaneously burning a cantaloupe-sized hole in her pretty black tunic dress. The force of the ball hitting her knocked her backwards and into Jack’s arms.

  Jack stared down at her, surprise and fear coating his handsomely pale features.

  Chapter 7

  Jack watched Elle silently before grabbing her hand and disappearing. He said nothing to Apollo and nothing to her.

  The two were suddenly back at the cabin, inside a very large bathroom adjacent to the bedroom Elle had taken. “Do you have mucus for brains?” demanded Jack, gently shaking Elle’s shoulders as he watched her with a semi-crazed expression. Disappearing and then reappearing before her, his eyes shone bright with exasperation. Elle gently shrugged, not knowing what he meant. Jack took a pale hand to rub his jaw, looking at a loss for words. “You jumped in front of a god!” he soon said, shaking his pale hands for emphasis.

  “Yeah, I was there.”

  Jack used a too cool finger to gently poke Elle’s ribs where the large flame ball burned through her dress. There wasn’t a residue burn left over, luckily enough. Then again, Elle had to remind herself she had never burned herself in all her life. Not with a hot bowl or even a sunburn. Fire and heat had never harmed her.

  “You stupidly did yet another unnecessary action to place yourself in harm’s way!”

  “But Apollo was going to hurt you…” said Elle, surprised at how her sentence broke off, indicating the lump in her throat. She didn’t like the idea of Jack hurting physically or mentally.