The Queen's Consorts Box Set: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Trilogy

by Elena Lawson

  Alaric’s famished stare climbed my body from my neck, all the way down to my navel and then lower still, his eyes leaving a trail of gooseflesh in their wake as though the touch were physical.

  I hadn’t known how badly I needed this. How badly we all needed this. This one last escape before…

  Alaric grabbed me by the ankles, his lust radiating through the soles of my feet and up through every nerve ending in my body. I cried out. He split my legs. Licked his lips, leaving them glistening in the light from the hearth.

  He knelt between my legs, lowering his body to the ground. He all but disappeared beneath the mounds of my breasts. His hand lazily stroking the smooth skin of my inner thigh.

  I sucked in a breath. Tiernan rearranged his hands to hold both of mine in one of his. He grasped my chin, jerking my head back roughly, but not painfully, to meet his haughty stare. “Look at me,” he said, and his jade eyes glinted with fire.

  Alaric’s fingers entered me, and my eyes closed, my body shuddering at the release. Tiernan’s grip on my chin tightened, and my eyes flew back open. His mouth claimed mine at the same time Alaric’s mouth closed over my clit. Ravenously. Tongues swirling, flicking. Tiernan’s hand slithered down my neck to rub my breasts. Palm my hardened, aching nipples. Tug and twist them. Meanwhile Alaric was working magic with his tongue and fingers.

  I writhed and tugged at my arms, trying unsuccessfully to pull my hands free so I could touch them. But Tiernan wasn’t having it, and I found that the tightening of his grip brought another sort of pleasure. It rippled through me, the sense of being not in control in the most beautiful way.

  The heat grew in my core, but I tempered it, kept it bearable. Alaric circled my opening with his tongue, easing his fingers out and then sharply back in. Again, and again until I was left weakened and moaning. Finding my end at the same time Tiernan bit down on the sensitive skin just below my ear.

  Pieces of me I’d thought were dead, numb, reignited into life.

  The orgasm rocked me, and I was dizzy from the force of it. When my head stopped spinning, I realized we had moved. My hands were free, and I was lying on my side, facing the still burning flames of the hearth. Tiernan laid in front of me, his trousers had vanished, and his length pressed against my navel.

  I sucked in a breath at the sight of him, a bead of moisture dripping down the head of his cock. I shivered as Alaric trailed a hand down the curve of my back, resting it in the dip above my hip bone. He grasped me, pressing his naked length against my back. I went wild with desire, my hips moving, alternatingly backing up into Alaric, and pushing against Tiernan. This. This is what I wanted. What I needed. Both of them.

  My males. My guardians. My warriors.

  Tiernan moved down, nudging his cock at the opening of my sex, our combined wetness arousing me to the point of mania. I could hardly breathe. Didn’t know if I wanted to. I wanted him—them inside me. I pressed against Tiernan, the only invitation he needed.

  He slammed his length into me, grasping my waist. I curled my leg over him to give him a better opening. Gasped as he filled me.

  Reaching back, I found Alaric’s pulsing solid length, beading with his own unsated desire and stroked the length of it. Opening my Grace to feel both of them, physically and mentally. Alaric moaned at my touch, and I moaned at the slow, teasing thrusts of Tiernan, who blew hot breath against my nipples with each movement.

  The combined lust, love, passion, and desire of all of us rose to a blinding, deafening roar inside me. And I knew I needed the joining of us all. Discerning my need, Alaric whispered huskily at my ear, his breath hot and tingling the small hairs on my neck, “Are you sure?”

  I moaned, nodding, gasping, “Yes.”

  I release him, and he gently probed my other opening, pressing in just slightly, before pulling back again. I sucked in a breath at the double sensation, at the slight prick of pain. But he eased himself inside slowly, little by little, until the both of them were fully inside me. I growled hungrily, my nails digging hard into the flesh of Tiernan’s back at the fullness. It was almost too much.

  My body convulsed, and I fed off their twin desires, their own growing need for release. And I moved, rotating my hips, moving up and down. Feeling both of them sliding in and out together in perfect harmony. The pressure of the building release expanded with me, filling every bit of me. Tripping and tumbling through my every nerve as I moved faster and faster.

  Alaric’s grip tightened on my hip, and Tiernan’s mouth opened in ecstasy as he stared directly into my eyes. “Come for us,” he commanded, and. I. Exploded…

  The release coming so swiftly, rocking me so hard, I lost all the breath in my lungs in one thunderous moan. They came with me, calling out their own release. Their bodies coiling around me, tensed, and shaking.

  And I was left quivering between two chests of solid steel, wrapped in the safe, warm arms of my loves. Drifting like a spark of flame carried off in a gentle breeze.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Alaric

  Even with their dwindled numbers, Ricon’s army was still a sight to behold. The trap Kade and Finn had helped Silas put in place—which consisted of using up all the palace’s stores of pitch, and Kade’s Grace of fire—had taken out another hundred. But that still left us outnumbered.

  From the east facing terrace we watched them breaking through the trees in the thin forest to the north like grain through a sieve. Crawling over the land like a black disease, spreading until they formed a line, a thick barrier of men and Fae as close together as teeth in a comb. My heart thudded in my chest, and my teeth were so tightly clenched I thought one might crack.

  Liana stared on in horror, saying nothing. Her breath puffing around her face in gasping clouds while she repeatedly stroked Arrow’s feathers. The falcon crooned, but I wasn’t sure if the petting was to reassure the falcon, or if it were more for Liana to calm herself.

  The others stood quietly, too. Tiernan, with his spine erect and gaze focused. Kade and Finn much the same, their wings twitching with their innate need to be airborne. I had half a mind to tell them to take Liana and run. But she would never allow it, and they wouldn’t get far, anyway.

  As Ricon’s force came to a grating stop a few hundred paces from the palace, awaiting command, I searched through the mass of crowded bodies. Trying and failing to find Ricon.

  Damn.

  Where was he? It was our best chance… perhaps our only chance. To find and kill him—cut the head off the snake, so to speak. It would force them to retreat, and then the pickings would be easy. But where in the gods’ name was he?

  I wrapped an arm around Liana’s shaking shoulders and she melted into my embrace, stealing some of my warmth with her frost-covered skin. After last night, Tiernan and I had held her, laying there lazily by the warmth of the hearth on the carpet. The three of us a tangle of limbs bathed in the orange glow of flame. My cock twitched at the memory of being inside her. Of seeing her give herself over to us completely. Trusting. Us entirely hers. Her entirely ours.

  It was a promise of what life could be and I wanted it more than I ever wanted anything else in my long life.

  I had fought the urge to sleep as long as I could, but eventually I’d found myself woken up by Finn and Kade as they came through the terrace. I’d fumbled for my sword in the shadows, until I’d seen their faces in the glow of the embers still burning in the hearth.

  They weren’t one bit surprised to find us as we were. Finn tucked a blanket over Liana and Tiernan’s sleeping forms and lifted their heads onto a pillow. Kade stoked the fire and added a few logs. And there we’d stayed. The five of us together, waiting for dawn.

  It’s all happened so fast. Too fast. We hadn’t had enough time together. And this would not be our end. I wouldn’t let it.

  By the looks in the eyes of the others, they were thinking the same way. It was time for the real fight, and we wouldn’t stop until it was over. One way or another.

  “We wait
,” I whispered to Liana, feeling her getting anxious, her blood buzzing with the need to go into action. To do something. “We let the archers take as many of them as they can. We hold here, within the walls and launch our attacks.”

  She nodded gravely, her skin warming until it was near burning with her fury and passion. I squeezed her shoulder before I let go.

  We waited, watching with the steady, single-focused gaze of a hawk. Until the sun fell lower in the sky, and I could see the moon at the same time.

  Late afternoon.

  What were they waiting for?

  A moment later, four figures on horseback emerged from the tree line, riding to where the army waited at our doorstep.

  “It’s him,” Liana said, leaning far over the edge of the terrace, “It has to be.”

  And it seemed it was. Ricon himself, flanked by three other riders. His personal guard? But they seemed short. Young. They couldn’t be guards.

  “Now is our chance!” Liana exclaimed, frantic as she spun to face us. “We have to kill him. Kade, help me,” she made a grab for his arm, but he recoiled.

  He shook his head, and she scowled at him, hissing, “What are you doing?”

  “You can’t go down there right now, it would be suicide.”

  She steamed with unspent rage but turned back to the swarm of Ricon’s army below. She gasped, “Where did he go?”

  I looked where I’d only just seen him—there, on the outer edge of the last wave of his soldiers. But he wasn’t there. Nor were the three other riders. Only their horses remained, left to go where they pleased. He was somewhere in the thick of it. Blended in to the thousands of faces staring ahead.

  The front line broke apart and a group of soldiers marched out, two lines of ten men. A battering ram between them.

  “Archers!” I heard Silas call out from the lower battlement.

  And then a moment later, “Loose!” Four of the twenty men fell, but they were quickly replaced. Making their way to the front gates.

  “The gates,” Liana exclaimed.

  “I’ll keep them sealed,” Tiernan said through clenched teeth. He kissed Liana swiftly on the back of her hand, his eyes flicking up with the burning promise of his return.

  I nodded to him, giving him permission to do what he could. There were few as skilled as he was in their Grace of earth. The garden was only just inside the main gates, he could use its trees and plants to strengthen it.

  Arrow cawed after his master, the sound shrill. Liana hushed the creature, resuming her stroking, “It’ll be alright,” she said to him, “He’ll come back. He always comes back.”

  But her hands shook where they stroked the feathers and the air between was filled with her panicked worry, and the foreboding sense of dread.

  The sound of unified voice drifted up to us, and I looked down to see the Alchemists as they reached the gate. The archers loosed arrow after arrow, but they struck some sort of barrier, raining to the ground around their feet. The sound… they were chanting. One Alchemist stood near them but did not hold the battering ram. He led the chant, drawing sigils in front of him as though his fingers were dipped in glowing ink and he could use the very air as a canvas.

  He was protecting them.

  “There!” I shouted down to Silas, pointing at the one who seemed to control the strange magic, “That one! Take him out!”

  But our archers’ arrows couldn’t penetrate his wards either.

  It would only be a matter of time before they broke through. The first blow hit the gate, and the vibrations reverberated up through my heels.

  Again. The vibrations harder. The poignant, blood-chilling sound of splitting wood echoed like the crack of lightning.

  “They will break through!” Liana screamed.

  What remained of the Horde army waited in the inner courtyard, near a thousand bodies pressed together, waiting for the attack. Silas had instructed them to remain within the walls, which would force Ricon’s army to file through the gate if they managed to break through. We had a better chance that way, but I’d seen what the Alchemists could do.

  It would only delay the inevitable.

  I ground my teeth, clenched my fists. My heart thudded loudly in my head. Kade moved to the edge of the terrace, “We have to stop him,” he growled.

  Liana grabbed him by the arm, “They’ll kill you!”

  “Not before I burn them all to a crisp.”

  I nodded to Kade, and Liana choked out a sob, shoving into my chest, “You can’t let him—” she started, but an ear-slitting screech assaulted our ears. As one we turned, finding Arrow spreading his wings as the falcon dove from the railing.

  Liana lunged after him, “Arrow,” she called, “No, come back!”

  I grabbed Liana, stopping her before she fell over the terrace.

  But the falcon was almost there, it was too late. Arrow tore through the Alchemist’s wards, attacking the man’s face with his razor-sharp talons. Digging out his eyes. The Alchemist raised his hands to shield his face, screaming out at the assault. A glowing light pulsed out from the man’s raised hand, and Arrow went rigid, tumbling from the air to connect with the ground in a plume of dirt and dust.

  A lancing pain seared into my chest as the skin on skin contact between Liana and I heaved her grief and anger and anguish into me.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Liana

  I couldn’t see him. Arrow had fallen, disappeared into a cloud of dirt at the Alchemists feet. My chest ached. Tiernan wasn’t even here. He was down there, at the gates. He didn’t know his companion of the last twenty years had fallen.

  This time, Arrow wouldn’t be nursed back to health. A hot tear dropped down my face, and the grief rapidly turned to fury in my blood.

  The archers used the window of opportunity to shoot down the men still battering the gate, but more came, and the blinded Alchemist began the chant once more, his eyes ringed in dripping crimson.

  Stupid. Stupid bird! Why?

  Why did the loss of the creature open a jagged fissure in my heart?

  The battle hadn’t even truly begun, and I’d already had enough. I’d kill them. I’d wipe them all from the face of my land. The weight of the black amulet in my pocket reassured me. I searched through the crowd for his face again, for a glimpse of his shining silver hair.

  Once I found him, I’d be the one to end him. It was a promise I’d made myself, and one I fully intended to keep. I wasn’t sure how I’d do it yet, but when the time came, I’d figure it out.

  Each blow to the gate reverberated through the palace. The stone itself shuddering against the assault of the metal tipped wooden beam. Another crack split the air, and if I leaned over, I could see they were almost through. My stomach dropped.

  It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. So quickly. The full force of Ricon’s army began a slow march toward the gate, their shields raised from the onslaught of arrows. Silas called volley after volley, finally giving the order to fire at will in a fierce roar.

  “Tiernan,” I said, “He has to get out of there. They’ll be through the gate any minute!”

  Alaric shook his head, his expression grim, “And Tiernan is a valuable soldier who will be needed on the front lines. He knew this would be the outcome when he went down there to brace the gate.”

  No.

  I scrambled to find the tether between us, yanked on it hard, Tiernan, I said down the bond, Tiernan you have to come back. They’re about to break through.

  A beat of silence.

  Then I felt his answering tug in my chest.

  I can’t come back… It’s time to fight.

  Get back here! That’s an order, Tiernan!

  My chest swelled, and my throat burned.

  He didn’t answer.

  My breathing came in ragged gasps, and my skin burned. Flames licked up and down my arms, and I was close to the breaking point.

  Maybe they were right. I wasn’t ready for war. To sacrifice what needed sacrificing t
o save my lands and the denizens of my court. Because if it meant losing them, how could I ever come to terms with that?

  Tiernan was right.

  It is time to fight.

  If Tiernan fought, I’d fight alongside him. We’d fight together. All of us.

  “Take me to the gates,” I said, my voice strong and steady. Commanding. I wouldn’t be kept up on this terrace like some wallflower, forced to watch my court fall from the safety of the palace walls. No. It was time for Liana, Queen of the Night Court to show her worth.

  Alaric’s adams apple bobbled in his throat. His light eyes darkened.

  “Take me to—”

  The sound of the horn blaring out over the palace preceded the final crack that cleaved the gate in two. But it wasn’t the swarm of Alchemists flooding into my inner courtyard, or the clang of steel on steel, or the cries of Fae and man as they were met with killing blows that drew my attention.

  To the south, at the crest of the hill, a woman with hair as black as coal sat atop a brilliant white mare. She blew through the curved horn again, and Ricon’s army turned toward the sound. The Draconians taking wing to get a better look. Suriel raised her sword high above her head. And the cries of a thousand voices became one unified roar as the Day Court army followed their queen to battle.

  Sitting astride his own steed, Edris rode up alongside her. Armored and looking more like a king than I ever thought him. He’d done it. My father had done it!

  The sight shocked tears from my eyes. Made my blood sing.

  Alaric, Kade, and Finn stared agape.

  And as one, Ricon’s army trembled. Reforming a second line to face their new threat.

  Suriel caught sight of me on the terrace, and I jumped to stand atop the balcony. Raising my clenched fist in the air before bringing it down to pound hard against my chest. Knocking the tears from my face and the wind from my lungs.