by Louise Rose
Contents
Description
Quote
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Afterword
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Take My Throne Copyright © 2020 by Louise Rose (Midnight Publishing Limited)
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
The author acknowledges the trademark owners of various products, brands, and/or stores referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Edited by
Cover design by Olivia Pro Design
Title Treatment by Daqri Combs.
Photography by Regina Wamba
Created with Vellum
Description
King Academy has fallen with its elite and I'm going to save them.
All towns have sins, most hide them well, but King Town?
The sins rule here.
And they each have a name.
Archer Knight, Romeo Navarre, and Declan Dauphin rule this little town. And I am theirs.
Together, we have come up with a plan to make sure our throne never ends.
My father has no idea what is coming next.
Some say our story started with a fairytale but it will end in blood and crowns.
Recommend for 18+ readers due to content. This is a full-length book and the first of five books in this series and a reverse harem romance which means the main characters has more than one love interest.
Quote
“REAL IS NOT DREAMS, DREAMS ARE NOT REAL,
UNLESS YOU FIND THE FINE LINE...AND ERASE IT”
― C. ELIZABETH
Chapter One
“G ood morning, wifey.”
I open my eyes to see Lucas smiling down at me, leaning against the side of the bed like he owns the entire world. I feel like throwing up. It’s been a week since Lucas and I had exchanged vows, and I still am not used to being married to him. I didn’t think I ever would be. It wasn’t as though I’d done it because I wanted to. When you’re faced with a choice of get married or see your best friend butchered before your eyes, you say ‘I do,’ even while your heart screams I don’t!
The only good thing so far was that Lucas had behaved like a perfect gentleman since he put a ring on my finger. He hasn’t even kissed me, other than an awkward peck on the lips once the priest declared us man and wife. Sure, we slept in the same bed and my father insisted on calling me Mrs Donatello every time we met, but for all intents and purposes, we might as well have been brother and sister for the lack of passion between us. Every time I see him, I only see them. The three kings who have my heart and nothing my father or Lucas can do will change that fact.
I stretch out, trying to act all nonchalant when the reality is that the thought of walking back into that school a married woman makes me feel like I have heavy rocks at the bottom of my stomach. How am I meant to explain this to Declan? And what about Romy? Poor Romy will be heartbroken. Our engagement might have been one of convenience, but at least the two of us had feelings for each other. It wasn’t all fake.
Archer would know about it by now. My father had kept Milly under lock and key since the wedding. He called it insurance in case I decided I wasn’t going to accept life as a married woman, but now we are going public with the news I’d married Lucas, he let Milly go home last night.
I hope against hope she would be at school today. I am going to need a sympathetic face, but something tells me her family would insist she stay home to recover from her ordeal and I can’t blame them. The Knights had suffered enough thanks to my father.
“It’s going to be okay, you know,” Lucas says. “I’ll be with you. I know you don’t think much of me right now, but I want to make this marriage work. It’s to both of our benefit if it does. It might be too much to ask for you to love me right now, but I think, no, I know that when you get to know me better, you’ll find I’m not a bad person and maybe you’ll change your mind.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” I say, getting up and grabbing some clothes before going to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I lock the door behind me. This is the only privacy I ever get, so I take my sweet time getting ready.
My father confiscated my phone, so I have had no contact with the outside world since my sham of a wedding ceremony. I can only imagine how many text messages Romy has sent me. The poor guy must be going out of his mind.
If I’d been allowed to wear whatever I liked to school, I’d have picked all black clothes, a signal that I was in mourning for the life I should have had. As it is, I go for a Goth look with my makeup, going as over the top as I dared without risking being told to wash it off by Pilkington. I am not going to glam myself up for Lucas. Anyone watching me will know I am angry with the world and my father in particular.
“Wow, Ivy.” Lucas does a double take when he sees me stride out of the bathroom. “I wouldn’t like to get in your way today. You look like someone seriously pissed you off.”
“Someone did.” I give him a look, and he smirks.
“Look, none of this is my fault,” he protests, holding his hands in the air. “I’ve told you that so many times I’m sick of hearing it. I’m as much a victim here as you are.”
“You keep saying that, but I’ve yet to see any evidence of it,” I reply. “You’re still as buddy-buddy with my dad as always. The pair of you are up late talking every night, no doubt plotting your next move to take over this town. Well done on preventing a marriage to Romy Navarre which would have given me independence from my father, but would also have benefited House Archaic. I don’t know what you said to my father that persuaded him that a complete unknown was a better bet, but whatever it was, it must have been good. My father never does anything unless it benefits him. So, what was it, Lucas? What did you promise him? Or did you buy your way into my family?”
“We ought to go to the dining room,” Lucas replies, sidestepping the question. “Your father wants us to have breakfast with him before we go to school.”
“Probably wants to check I’m not wearing gloves to cover up my wedding ring,” I snipe, but I follow Lucas out of our suite and down to the dining room where we’ve been having meals with my father three times a day since the wedding. Most couples would have been on honeymoon this past week, but not us. My father said he was going to pay for us to go away on our first anniversary. Until then, he wants to ‘keep an eye on us’, presumably to make sure that I am behaving the way he wants. Lucas has the father-in-law from hell, but what my father doesn’t know is that I can be as stubborn as him and I am more than happy to wait for the perfect opportunity to get my revenge.
He won’t know what hit him by the time I’m was done with him.
“Ah, the happy couple.�
� My father beams at us as we walk into the dining room together. “So good to see you ready to announce your marriage to the world.”
I scowl but say nothing as I cross over to my regular seat to the left of my father, Lucas coming to sit next to me. I bite down on my cheek as hard as I can to stop myself from screaming. The taste of my own blood settles me.
“Let me see your hand, I want to make sure everyone can see your commitment to Lucas,” my father orders. Obediently, I hold out my left hand and he takes it, inspecting my engagement ring and wedding band. Even though Lucas and I hadn’t had time for an engagement, my father had insisted on supplying me with a ridiculously over the top diamond solitaire and matching platinum wedding ring which had been engraved with Lucas and my names.
“Good.” My father nods, satisfied. “Be sure to show that to everyone you meet, particularly Archer Knight and Romeo Navarre. Let no one say that your new husband doesn’t know how to treat a lady. And while you’re at it, be sure to mention how in love the two of you are. By the end of the day, no one at the Academy should be in any doubt that you are serious about this marriage and being with Lucas. I do not want to hear any rumours about you and Romeo rekindling your affections behind Lucas’s back-–nor do I want to be told that Archer is using you to get to me. Are we clear?”
“Clear,” I mutter.
A maid comes and places a plate with a selection of Danish pastries in front of me as well as a large bowl of fresh fruit salad with a dollop of plain yogurt on the top, exactly how I like it. I have no appetite-–hadn’t wanted to eat since the wedding-–but I know my father would be displeased if I didn’t finish everything in front of me, so I force it down, every bite turning to ashes in my mouth.
“Now then,” my father comments. “I want you both to come straight home after school today. Ivy, I’m sure you’ll have a lot of catching up to do with all the classes you missed. Your work has never been exemplary other than for music. Need I remind you that I allowed you to take that class on the condition you maintained a certain standard in your other subjects? I know you were able to scrape by the assessments on your return to the Academy, but you and I both know that if you do not remain diligent in your work, you’ll soon slip behind your peers, which will not do. You’ve missed enough school this year without having to lose another week.”
And whose fault is that?
I know better than to openly criticise my father, so I say nothing.
“Lucas,” my father continues, “I want you to come see me as soon as you return home. We have a few matters to discuss after you’ve assessed the situation at the Academy. Of course, I know there’s no need to worry about your grades. There’s no doubt who has the brains in your relationship.”
I narrow my eyes and bite harder on my cheek. If I’d been allowed to take the subjects I’d chosen, I’d be acing them. It isn’t my fault I was being forced into doing something which didn’t suit my skills and interests.
I force down the last of my fruit while Lucas finishes his bacon. He starts every day with a full English. He must have hollow legs to eat all that food and still be as skinny as he is, but I take a small satisfaction from thinking about the damage it is doing to his arteries in the long term. If I can’t figure a way out of my sham of a marriage, maybe I’d get lucky and he’d keel over from a heart attack in his forties.
“I guess it’s time for us to head off to the Academy.” Lucas takes my hand and squeezes it, smiling at me. “Excited?”
“Yeah. I can’t wait to show everyone my new bling.” I fight hard to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
“Have fun, you two!” My father waves as Lucas and I leave the dining room and go out to the car, our school bags already packed, sitting on the back seat ready for us.
Perfect for a trip to hell. Or in other words, King Academy.
LUCAS and I stood at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the Academy. He reached out and took my hand, and for once I didn’t pull away.
“It’s going to be all right, you know,” he tells me. “Once the excitement over our wedding dies down, nobody will care about us. Today’s news is tomorrow’s chip wrappings, as they say. I know you’re nervous, but it’s going to be all right. Romy will understand. He knows how the politics of this place works. Love doesn’t enter into the equation when you’re heir to a House. He’ll be happy for you. You wait and see.”
I smile weakly, wishing I could share his optimism. I knew what things had been like between Romy and me. He isn’t going to take this lying down.
“Come on.” Lucas nods in the direction of the school. “The bell for first period is going to go in a minute. We might as well go up and hit the common room first. That way we can make sure as many people know as possible. After that, the rumour mill will spread the word way faster than we’ll be able to.”
“Okay.”
I keep holding Lucas’s hand as we walk up the stairs and into the entrance hall of the Academy.
“There they are.”
I look over to the stairs leading up to the first floor. Romy, Archer, and Declan are standing by the bottom step, waiting for us. The three kings of the academy and each one of them look ready to kill.
And for some reason, it makes my heart pound that much more.
“Ivy!” Romy walks to me, but Lucas moves in front, stopping him from getting closer.
“Stay away from my wife if you know what’s good for you,” Lucas coldly warns.
“So it’s true?” Romy looks at me, his face twisted with hurt and pain but mostly anger. So much anger. And it hurts me to see any of it. I never wanted to hurt him, I just pushed him away because I thought it was the best thing to do, but the truth of it is, I am in love with him. So in love with him. I just wish this wasn’t the moment I realised my heart belongs to the kings of the academy.
I can’t speak. I can’t say a word as I move to Lucas’ side and Lucas grabs my hand, showing off my ring.
Archer swears, his gaze flickering between me and Lucas. “I don’t know how you managed it, but I know you don’t love him.”
Archer moves right into Lucas’ face, basically spitting his words out. “How can you sleep at night?”
“Very well, thanks, with my beautiful wife to keep me warm.” Lucas puts his arm around my waist and pulls me to him. I stand there limply, not knowing what to say, and I hate that this has made me so weak.
How can I fight my dad? How can I have the men I love in my life?
Either way, this all ends in heartbreak and I can’t have my heart broken anymore.
“Can’t you see she’s not happy?” Declan asks, his hands shaking with anger.
“Who, Ivy?” Lucas kisses me on the top of the hand he is still tightly holding. “She’s head over heels in love, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” I bite out.
“All right. That’s enough,” Archer says. “Ivy, you need to apply for an annulment. There’s no way this sham of a marriage can be allowed to continue. Milly will sign an affidavit to say you got married under duress and this can be undone in no time. I’ll give you the money for court fees. You’ll be free to marry whoever you want. Romy. Me… it doesn’t matter. You’re our girl.”
My heart feels like it is shattering into a million pieces at the intense look in his eyes. I’d love nothing more than to take him up on his offer, but I know my father would never let me get away with something like that. He’d threatened to kill Milly, and I hadn’t doubted he would have carried through with it if I hadn’t done what he wanted. I don’t like to think what he’d do if I divorced Lucas to go off with someone else. Probably burn the whole town down.
“Back off. Ivy’s married to me, so you’re going to have to get used to it, because we’re in it for life.” Lucas pushes Archer in the middle of his chest to emphasise his point. Big mistake.
Archer doesn’t budge an inch, so Lucas shoves him again with both hands this time. Archer doesn’t even stumble as he pulls back his fist and punches Lucas
in the face. I fall to the side as they start fighting and I crawl to my feet.
“Lucas! Archer! No!” I try to pull Lucas away, but he easily shakes me off.
“Leave them to it.” Declan takes me to one side, safely away from the fight. “You’ve got to understand that we’re all really upset about what’s happened.”
“But we’ve got to do something!” I desperately want to go over and separate the boys, but Declan’s calming hand on my arm is enough to keep me away.
“Believe me, you don’t want to get between those two,” Declan advises. “I don’t think Archer’s ever going to forgive Lucas for endangering Milly and that’s without him putting a ring on your finger. He’s been practically climbing the walls this last week, wanting to know what’s happened to his sister. There were all sorts of rumours flying around about where she was. The Knights were this close to putting together an army and going door to door in this town to find her. Then when she came home with the news that she’d been forced to witness your wedding to Lucas Donatello, well… This is exactly what he said he’d do.”
I watch in horror as Archer lashes out at Lucas, raining down blows. Lucas is a good fighter but he has nothing on Archer. Archer is known for being a tough guy. Nobody messes with him. Not only does he spend hours in the gym, his father has made sure he’s been trained in multiple martial arts, so he knows how to take care of himself. But if he thought this was going to be an easy fight, he’s as surprised as the rest of us at Lucas’ ferocity. The man fights like someone possessed. He takes everything Archer throws at him and gives it back tenfold.
“Somebody do something!” I cry out, unsure as to what exactly I wanted to see happen. I only know that someone has to stop this. As much as a small part of me is happy to see Lucas getting beaten on, I don’t like Archer being hurt.
I meet Romy’s eyes over the fight, seeing him leaning against the lockers and I beg him to help without saying a word.
