* * *
Destiny, The Palace, Two Hours Later
The look on Nix’s face had been hilarious. I doubted he’d ever had three women shut the door in his face before. Well, not three women, but Trinity. It wasn’t as if he was going to stop her. She was the reigning royal and she was a princess. And, as a member of the queen’s guard, he took commands from her.
So if she wanted to yank me out of his arms, pull me into her bedroom and slam the door in his face, he wasn’t going to say a word.
But his look? Half horror at being separated from me—and half painful desperation. I guessed his cock had been the source of the agonized expression because anyone with eyes could see that it was still hard and straining… for me.
Not that I was eager to be away from him either, but the hard-core craving my body was dealing me was not okay. And neither was the emotional attachment I was feeling to that warrior. Possessive. Needy. Desperate.
Desperate. Had I really just applied that word to myself?
My pussy clenched and my skin ached for his touch.
Yes. I had. And I didn’t like being this needy, dependent, weak-willed freak.
Women ruled the world here. Literally. Maybe this was the universe’s way of laughing at us. Since the society was more matriarchal, perhaps this was the males’ revenge.
Ardor.
A biological necessity to keep the males and females together for breeding.
Breeding. Fucking. Clinging. Screaming. Orgasms.
“Don’t worry, Des. He’ll get over it.” Trinity locked the door and walked to me, putting her arm through mine and pulling me to a sitting area that looked like it belonged on one of those billionaire home showcases. And this was just her bedroom suite?
What did the rest of the palace look like?
Did I care? No. Not really. Other than to get Nix into one of those giant beds, like the one in the next room I couldn’t take my eyes from.
“I know. He’s a big boy. He’ll deal.” But I doubted a woman had ever had the balls to shut him out before. Not a big, brawny guy like him. What woman would want to? He was gorgeous, sexy as hell and wickedly skilled in the sack. What woman in her right mind would ignore him? Well, I had. With frequency.
Faith laughed. “Your mate looked like a puppy that just got kicked to the curb.”
I bit my lip to stifle a smile. She was right. I wanted to open the door and hug him and kiss the top of his head and tell him it was all right. He was just outside the door. I had no doubt of that. He wasn’t going anywhere. Although, he was probably freaking out because he knew about all of the secret passages inside the palace. In fact, that’s how he’d sneaked me in here.
Right at this moment, he was probably ordering guards to stand in them so that there was no chance someone could get inside, or more likely, that I could get away. He had made it very clear that he did not want me gallivanting around and placing myself in danger. Whatever. I can handle myself.
And I do not gallivant.
“I knew he was into you,” Trinity said, tugging me down onto the sofa. Her bedroom suite was enormous. And there was that super-sized bed again. Maybe I should get up and close the door, so I didn’t have to look at it. The bed was against one wall, all beautifully decorated, although in colors not quite her style. It wasn’t as if she’d had time to put her personal stamp on things. Fabric shopping and paint swatches weren’t high on her priority list.
“What about you?” I asked. “The last time I saw you, Leo was definitely in you.”
“Leo is mine.”
“I think he would say the opposite, that you belong to him.”
She rolled her eyes. “Ha ha. Faith’s totally in love with Thor and now you’re totally falling for Nix. Mom is going to be so happy for all of us.”
I held up my hand. “Don’t count your chickens, Trin. I am not falling anywhere,” I countered.
“But he’s your mate.” Faith wrapped her arms around herself and curled up on the couch like a sleepy, pink kitten. So cute, my twin. She got all the fluff and I got all the fire.
“He’s not my anything. Not yet.” We hadn’t had all that much time talking about the whole mating thing. He’d said often enough I was his mate. He’d tossed out the word ‘mine’ frequently, even made me say it a time or two, but his cock had been buried deep inside me at the time. If he’d told me to shout ‘squirrel feathers’ I would have.
“Well, he’s had you, multiple times, unless I miss my guess,” Faith countered. She wore soft pajamas in pale pink. They were cute and comfy and totally her. “Destiny’s first walk-of-shame. Mom will be so proud.” Her soft laughter was so familiar and full of love and sisterhood and everything I’d missed that tears gathered in my eyes. Stupid.
“Oh, shut up.” So what? Yes, Nix and I had woken everyone up after our dawn walk of shame from the fortress. But what else were we supposed to do? The only tunnel he knew how to crawl around in was the one that ended up in this very room. Trinity and Leo’s bedroom. I’d just been thankful they’d been sleeping and not sexing it up when we knocked on the hidden door.
“What the hell are you wearing?” I asked Trin, finally getting to take a moment to eye her.
She glanced down at herself. “Unlike your twin, I don’t have the inclination or time to figure out the S-Gen machine. So this is what I end up with.” She tugged at the gray sweats that looked like they came from a women’s penitentiary.
“I’m surprised Leo’s still with you in a get-up like that,” I countered. It was pretty ugly.
She angled her head, gave me the stink eye. “You think he lets me wear clothes when we’re alone?”
“Good point,” I conceded. I’d known Leo for a few days, tucked away in his quarters after the incident with assassins jumping through windows and fighting with Jax guards. What a cluster fuck that had been.
Turned out, the good guys had been the bad guys and the bad guys, at least one of them, had been Nix. The male now claiming I was his one and only mate.
Insane.
“Why aren’t you asking about Faith’s sex life? I mean, she’s mated to Thor.”
I glanced at my twin, who blushed hotly.
“Who wants hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows?” Faith asked.
My mouth fell open. “Here? Now? I’d think we all needed some whiskey or something.” With all the danger and chaos and death, fluffy marshmallows weren’t high on my list. But they did sound good.
She hopped up from the couch. “Whatever. We always have cocoa and extra marshmallows when we have slumber parties.”
“This isn’t a slumber party,” Trinity countered, tucking her feet up beneath her, but she didn’t say no to the hot drink.
“I think our slumber party days are over,” Faith agreed. “I mean, they’re fun and all, but I’d rather sleep in Thor’s arms than in a Wonder Woman sleeping bag.”
“I doubt Leo would let me sleep anywhere but with him,” Trinity added.
They looked to me. “What? You think I’d let Nix decide where I sleep?” I laughed. “Please. I’d kick his ass before he bossed me around.”
They stared at me, wide-eyed.
“What?”
“I’d think your ass would be red for thoughts like that.”
I blushed. I couldn’t help it. He’d spanked me in the shower the night before. But we’d also been naked and wet—me from more than just the water raining down—and it had also been hot as hell. The stinging swats had only amped my desire for him. Who knew I had a spanking fetish?
I’d never expected that, but with Nix… oh yeah. I’d come and come hard from his dominance.
Not that I was going to tell him that. Or admit it to my sisters. “You two might be into the alpha male bossiness thing your mates have going on. Not me.”
They continued to stare at me.
“What?” I asked again. I began to feel uncomfortable as they kept doing it. “Is it my hair?” I ran my hand over the black strands, totally m
essy from being wet from the shower and then a wild bout of fucking in my bed, then being tossed out of the fortress without even a comb. “The black washes out after a while. It’ll be purple again before you know it.”
Faith shook her head. “The black looks good. It’s not that. Destiny, seriously woman, I knew Nix before he laid eyes on you and now… god, that man is pussy-whipped.”
Was he? Truly? That would imply that I had some kind of mystical, feminine hold over him. No man had ever wanted me enough to let me so much as comment on his clothes. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought that Nix might be different. Did he really care that much? I might not mind that at all.
“You’re his mate. You’ve got to cut him some slack,” Trinity added.
“Me?” I put my hand to my chest. “He’s the one who came to the fortress and tracked me down. He’s the one who didn’t take the brush off and leave me alone. He’s the one who was found in my bed and got us both kicked out before I could talk to Elder Amandine again. God, that was embarrassing.”
“He was grinning when he came in here behind you,” Trinity said.
I stood, paced. “That’s because he’s got me where he wants me. Back at the palace, safe. His guards are doing the dangerous work while we sit here and talk marshmallows.”
“Speaking of.” Faith hopped up and went over to the S-Gen unit on the wall and began pushing all kinds of buttons.
“It’s been, what? Two days? There’s no way his Awakening can be… resolved in that time. Especially if he’s been separated from you. And you—” Trinity pointed at me, completely ignoring whatever Faith was doing with the S-Gen unit. “You’re flushed and antsy.”
“I’m always antsy,” I countered.
“You’ve got Ardor.”
Faith turned and looked me over.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “So?”
“Sooooo, you should be having a sex marathon right now,” Faith offered.
“Yes. Getting to know each other. Learn that Nix is just as bossy and alpha male as our two men.” Trinity leaned back into the cushions and grinned. “Trust us, it’s not all that bad, having a bossy man in bed.”
God. I knew that. And thinking about bossy, alpha male, spank my ass Nix was making my pussy wetter, not calming me down. I pointed at Trinity. “You’re the one who shut the door in his face. I’m sure he was thinking we’d be having a sex marathon right about now himself.”
Faith came back balancing three mugs of steaming beverages. When she sat them on the large coffee table, I could see the heaping piles of marshmallows melting on the surface.
My mouth watered at the sight.
“None of us should be having sex marathons with Mom missing.” There. I said it. That was the one truth that was holding me back from a no-holds-barred sexual marathon with the sexiest man I’d ever seen. Guilt.
Faith sat back down on the couch, frowned. “Take love where you can get it, twin. Everyone keeps dying.”
I thought of Crayden and his slit throat, and of how very odd it was that my sister’s words so closely mirrored what the elder had said to me just a few hours before. But I arched a brow at her to get her to talk. “Mom is not dead. None of us are going anywhere. You hear me?”
“You heard about Lord and Lady Jax?” she asked.
I shrugged. “Only that they died honorably.”
Faith laughed, although she didn’t sound—or look—amused. “It was like this…”
She filled me in on what had happened with her. How Thor had literally rescued her from the brink of Lord Wyse’s clutches. Not that she—or any of us—knew he was evil at the time. A quick and not-so-dirty recap of her mating with Thor, her dinner at the Jax house and how Lady Jax had tried to kill her. All of it. By the time she was done, I’d drunk half my hot chocolate and all the marshmallows were gone.
“Holy shit, Faith.” What else was I to say?
“Everyone’s dying all around us,” Trinity murmured.
“Mom’s still alive,” I said, with fervor.
Both sisters nodded. “Yes, she is. We’ll find her and catch whoever’s behind all of this,” Faith said.
“One thing I’ve learned, being the reigning royal, is that I can’t do everything myself.” Trinity set her mug down, completely empty, I noticed.
I didn’t like that thought. I liked to do everything myself.
“I’m the ruler until Mom gets back, but I can’t do everything. Not even close. The guards won’t allow it and it’s not as if I can just go to the grocery store and snoop around. Everyone knows who I am. I’m a target.”
“Obviously,” Faith added. “So am I.”
Trinity held my gaze, perhaps trying to make sure her words were sinking in to my thick skull. “We have to let the guards do their jobs. I hate it, Des, but we’re targets. Famous. Everyone knows what we look like.”
“Not me, they don’t.” And no. My skull bones were functioning at optimal levels.
“But you have Ardor. How long can you hold out this time? A day? Two? You need to take care of yourself and let Leo and the other warriors do their jobs. They want to protect us, and find Mom.”
“I don’t want to wait,” I replied. “I can find her. No one knows I’m here. No one but you guys and Cleric Amandine know I’m a princess. And now that I’ve got her on my side, she can help us.”
“Help you what?” Faith asked.
“Break into the Optimus Unit and storm the hallways like a berserker?” Trinity always thought she was so damn funny.
“Not funny.”
Faith touched my hand. “Nix won’t let you go, Des. I saw him. He’s in way too deep with you.”
“Exactly. You think he’s going to let you run off again?” Trinity glanced at a clock on the wall. “I’m surprised he hasn’t burst in here by now to take you away.”
As if Trinity were a prophet, not a princess, the door was kicked open and I jumped to my feet, ready to fight. But it was Faith who, in the blink of an eye, leapt over the back of the couch and crouched, arms raised.
What the hell? When had she turned from a soft, passive kitten into a ninja?
There, in the doorway, was Nix. Cheeks flushed, cock thick and tenting his uniform pants.
“Jesus, Faith. I thought you hated those classes I dragged you to.”
Faith relaxed as Nix stormed over to me. There was no other word for it.
“Sixty minutes, mate. I allowed you your time with your sisters, but that is all I can stand. Your Ardor needs soothing.”
Oh, he just knew how to push my buttons. “My Ardor needs soothing? Don’t you mean your Awakening? That huge cock is practically busting out of your pants.”
He grinned then. Unabashedly. “You noticed that my cock is hard. Just for you, mate. It is proudly weeping pre-cum in eagerness for your pussy.”
I flushed hotly. “Jesus, Nix,” I choked out. Faith and Trinity giggled behind me.
“You need a good hard fuck—and a spanking for your sass—and I’m going to give you both.”
I stared into his eyes, those impenetrable, dark as sin eyes, and knew I wasn’t going to say no. Not now. Maybe not ever. Not to him.
Leo, my inconvenient brother-in-law, chose that moment to knock on the door like a gentleman.
Why did I get the caveman?
“Trinity? We’ve got a message here for Destiny.”
“What is it?” I turned away from the walking sex god in front of me and made my way to the door. I grabbed the envelope and grinned when I saw the unbroken seal on the back. I recognized that stamp.
“Who’s it from?” Trinity asked.
“Elder Cleric Amandine.” I tore open the paper, Nix leaning over my shoulder. I tried to resist, but his heat was too damn close, and my body was too needy. I leaned backward, pressing myself to him as I pulled the handwritten note free and unfolded the crisp linen paper.
Nix wrapped his arm around me, and I sighed in pleasure before I could stop myself.
I
had to get a grip. I was sending all the wrong signals. Weak-willed. Needy. Sex-starved… well, technically, that part was actually true.
“Destiny?” Nix’s deep rumble forced me to focus on the note and not on him.
“She knows where the meeting is going to be.”
“What meeting?” Leo asked.
I looked up and let the fury pour out of my eyes. “The secret meeting of traitors. I’m quite sure they’ll be discussing the fate of our mother.”
“When?” Nix asked.
“Three days.”
He sighed and took the note from my hand. I would have protested, but he handed it to Trinity and she smiled.
Nix leaned down and whispered in my ear. “Three days. Let’s go, mate. That pussy is mine for at least two of them.”
He picked me up and cradled me in his arms, leaving the others gawking. The only sound I heard behind us was laughter.
The Ascension Saga
Thank you for joining me on this exciting journey in the Interstellar Brides® universe. The adventure continues...
TRINITY
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Volume 1 (Books 1-3)
FAITH
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Volume 2 (Books 4-6)
DESTINY
Book 7
Book 8
Book 9
Volume 3 (Books 7-9)
www.AscensionSaga.com
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Ascension Saga, Book 7: Interstellar Brides®: Ascension Saga Page 7
