by Noah Harris
Jaeger nodded. “So long as he could hold me over your head, he could force you to do what he wanted.”
The end result would have been Philip eventually being killed, since the control enchantment placed over his father was nearly complete. Philip reasoned he’d been kept as a backup in case his father’s enchantment fell, and so Jaeger was allowed around to be used against him. Orrin had been slowly shaping Philip to be both dependent on him already, as well as obedient. It would have made for a better slave, and probably made the enslavement an easier process.
Philip could see the life Orrin had forged for him, all while nudging his father into following suit with whatever spell he had over him. Most of his tutors had been soulless, dull men and women, and those that showed any individuality or spirit were quickly replaced for various reasons. Philip was constantly drilled on his duty to his people, with that duty being determined by whatever Orrin laid out. Everything in his life, as far back as Philip could remember, had been shaped by Orrin.
“Why didn’t my father say anything about this?” Philip wondered.
“He probably kept it a secret to protect me. By the time I would have been old enough to handle the secret, or when he was trying to make peace, it might have been too late. Orrin has been working on him for years, and it was probably one of the first things he kept the King from revealing,” Jaeger said, wincing.
Even his relationship with his father had been altered because of Orrin’s machinations. With the strength of the enchantment growing each passing day, his father had begun to retreat into himself. Busy fighting an internal battle that no one else suspected, King Vernal Chrysomon had slowly faded away. No one had been able to help him, and he and Jaeger had been forced to leave him behind as they fled from the kingdom.
Philip could feel his own wolf stirring as his rage grew, fueling the once dull hatred he’d felt for Orrin over the years. He could see the strings from the man’s plots hanging over both their lives, and how far they reached. Neither of them had been prepared before to face down Orrin and stand against him. With everything the man had done to them laid bare before them though, they finally had the motivation to ride alongside the anger.
Philip grinned at Jaeger. “Well, my prince, are you ready to go fight for our kingdom?”
Chapter Twelve
Jaeger
The march back to the southern kingdom proved to be a longer trip than their original escape had been. With an army of well-armed soldiers accompanying them, the march moved slowly. Minerva was careful to keep their pace measured while still making good time.
“I can’t risk exhausting them before the battle, but we can’t be so slow that they are prepared for us either,” Minerva had told them.
“If they were able to sneak into the heart of the forest without anyone but you noticing something was wrong, and that was at the last second, how are we going to possibly catch them unaware?” Jaeger asked.
Minerva winked. “You leave that to me, a lady must have her secrets.”
Jaeger dropped the matter, seeing she was enjoying dangling the secret over his head a little too much. Despite treating the situation with the gravity it deserved, the Princess seemed at ease, even thrilled at what was happening. Jaeger suspected it came from a life of being locked in a gilded cage, and now being freed upon the world to do as she wanted, without having to report to anyone.
“Court must have been particularly dull for you,” he commented after a moment.
She laughed. “Are you saying it was fun for you?”
Jaeger thought of the endless dinner parties, measured feasts, and of the balls, and winced. “Not particularly, but you seem to be having more fun with this than the rest of us.”
Minerva tossed her thick hair over her shoulder, shrugging. “I have spent my life beholden to the whims of a group of people who—and I’m not surprised in the least to say this—did not in fact have my best interest at heart. They’ve done everything they could to keep me separated from the world at large. If they’d had their way, I would be a prim and proper princess who nodded my head when they told me, and mouthed all the right words they’d written down on a piece of paper.”
“And now you’re a general in a rebellion against a usurping force, wearing armor and ready to stick your sword into a few people,” Jaeger pointed out.
She was indeed dressed for battle. The fight itself wasn’t going to happen until after they’d arrived, but Minerva had appeared ready to ride, in full battle regalia. Jaeger hadn’t seen that style of armor before, thinking the Princess had it specially made for herself. He wasn’t sure where she would have found the time or ability to secretly have a full suit of armor prepared for her, but it was certainly striking.
Rather than a body full of plate, it was made of interlocking rings of metal, filled with some sort of material he hadn’t seen before. It flowed gracefully down her body in loose folds like a skirt, with the sleeves of the suit kept short. There were gauntlets which stretched up to her elbows, each piece having sharpened points at the tips of each finger and near her elbow. The gorget around her neck connected with the pauldrons on her shoulders. Each piece looked carefully crafted, inlaid with beautiful metal and gemstones he couldn’t immediately identify.
Minerva laughed. “This? I had it forged for me in secret a couple of years ago. If it weren’t for my sword practice, I probably wouldn’t have been able to fit into it. My dear regents have been forcing balls and feasts aplenty on me lately, one might think they were trying to make me fat and slow.”
“I can’t imagine they were thrilled with the idea of you learning the blade,” Jaeger said.
Minerva shook her head. “They absolutely hated it, but learning how to fight has been a tradition for the royal family, especially the heir. If they could have found a precedent to use in order to keep me from learning how to fight, they would have done so in a heartbeat.”
“Or make up a new one,” Jaeger pointed out.
“Oh, they certainly tried. Anytime I wanted something which didn’t fall into their carefully crafted plan, they did their absolute best to try and thwart me. I learned at a young age, if I wanted to get anything, I had to fight for it, even if that fighting took the form of scheming,” Minerva said.
Jaeger grunted. “It’s a shame you had to go through it on your own.”
Minerva looked at her handmaidens fondly. “I wasn’t alone.”
He glanced at her silent companions. “What’s the point of friends if you keep them quiet for life?”
Minerva frowned at him. “You think I did that to them?”
“Didn’t you?” Jaeger asked.
Minerva shook her head. “We have a great deal to learn about one another. I did not do it, they made the decision…and without my say in the matter, I might add. A few years ago, the regents had been taking…increased measures in an attempt to keep me in line. They began rifling through my things more openly, checking on and approving or disapproving my friends. When people began to disappear, never to be seen again after having helped me, Selene and Catrin decided. They, more than anyone else, knew everything there was to know about me, having been my faithful friends from the beginning. One night, they had their tongues removed, so that even if they were taken, they would never be able to speak my secrets.”
Jaeger looked at them. “They still have hands.”
Minerva snorted. “Which is precisely what I screamed at them when they showed me what they had done.”
Selene and Catrin eyed him without a flicker of remorse or regret in their eyes. Theirs was the gaze of two people who’d been so committed to their mistress, they willingly gave a part of themselves away for life. A shiver ran down Jaeger’s body, wondering if he would have had the courage to do something similar if it had come to it.
“It was very brave of them,” Jaeger said.
“Brave, and foolhardy, but then again, that’s the exact same combination that has won wars and changed the world. If they were willing
to go so far to keep me safe, how could I be angry with them? I miss our lovely conversations over tea on the terrace above our gardens, but I know they are faithfully by my side in everything. They are still my friends, and I will have them with me always, even in this battle,” Minerva told him.
A pang of regret shot through him as he looked at the three riding close to one another. In becoming part of the royal family’s personal guard, he had sworn an oath to protect them all with his life. He might be willing to eventually forgive himself for having not saved the King from the spells of Orrin, but he wouldn’t be able to do so if he continued to let it happen.
“Something on your mind?” Minerva asked.
Jaeger frowned. “I was thinking about how I told Philip I would be riding into battle with him.”
Minerva raised a brow. “Has something changed?”
“I also made a solemn vow years ago to protect the royal family, not just Philip. We left the King behind because it was necessary, and we could do nothing to save him. But, as we’re marching back to the castle with an army of Northmen and werewolves, I realize I can help the King this time,” Jaeger told her.
As if summoned, Philip appeared beside him. “You’re bailing on me, aren’t you?”
Jaeger looked at him in surprise, and then over his shoulder. “Weren’t you supposed to be way back there, talking to Makepeace and Verity?”
“And we were talking, and we talked about a great many things. They have a lot of wisdom to share, and I can learn a lot from them. However, I saw the conversation between the two of you getting serious and I thought I might need to be up here,” Philip explained.
Jaeger rolled his eyes toward Minerva. “Meaning he thought he was being left out of a potentially juicy conversation and couldn’t help but butt in.”
Minerva chuckled. “He missed all the good parts anyway, so his loss for not acting sooner.”
Philip reached between them, laying his hand on Jaeger’s leg as best he could while they rode. “Jaeger, if you’re wanting to lead the party that will search for my father, I’m not going to hold it against you.”
Jaeger knew Philip had to stick with the main bulk of the attack force. The leaders of the army were Minerva, Philip, and Makepeace. They were the representatives of the kingdoms and generals of the campaign. They had to make an appearance in the battle and lead the charge. If Philip could have been the one to break into the castle in order to find his father, he would have done so in a heartbeat.
“It’s not just about wanting to. I swore an oath to protect you all, and I couldn’t do it before. But if I stick with you, while you’re well protected and able to take care of yourself, then I’d be failing in my duty,” Jaeger explained.
“I don’t think royalty is expected to keep the vows common folk and nobility make,” Minerva added.
Jaeger eyed her. “I’m not royalty yet, it’s not proven. Just because you believe so, and you told the soldiers I am, doesn’t make me so. Plus, even if I am, what good is a future ruler if I can’t even keep my promises?”
“And here I thought Philip was supposed to be the stubborn one,” Minerva chuckled.
“Coming from the woman who just talked at length about how she’s thrown rebellion in the face of the regents, I wouldn’t be too quick to call a kettle black,” Jaeger shot back.
It was Philip’s turn to laugh. “Jaeger’s stubborn, he’s just quieter about it than I am. But I get what he’s saying. I want him by my side like we talked about, but I know how much his vow means to him. I’m not going to ask him to ignore his vow just because I would like him there.”
Jaeger winced. “You make it sound so…”
Philip shook his head, rubbing Jaeger’s knee. “No, it’s not a bad thing. We’ve always accepted each other for our own ways of doing things, except for the times when we don’t, but this isn’t one of those moments. I know what it means to you, and honestly, I can’t be there in person to help my father, so if I had to send anyone, it would be you.”
Minerva hummed happily, causing Jaeger to look at her. “What?”
“Nothing. I just can’t help but think how wonderful your marriage will be, I hope when I find a mate one day, they’ll be as good with me as you two are with one another,” Minerva answered.
Philip jerked hard enough he almost fell from his horse. “How did you know we were getting married?”
Minerva laughed. “Who the hell did you think you were fooling? The two of you have been throwing heart eyes at one another from the first time I saw you. Once we were away from the eyes of the court, you were all over one another. You really think I didn’t notice when you two disappeared during the celebration back in the forest? It was only a matter of time before you got it into your heads to charge forward with the relationship you’ve been denying each other. Plus, once I told you about Jaeger’s parentage, I figured you’d be confident in your decision.”
Jaeger laughed at Philip’s expression. “I think you might want to consider this battle lost Philip. She’s got the information, the ammunition, and the willingness to use it.”
Philip stared at them, shaking his head as he pulled on the reins of his horse. “I’m just going to leave the two of you alone, because I’m sensing I’m about to get ganged up on.”
“A judicious retreat, there’s hope for him as a general,” Minerva mused.
The army they’d brought with them were nearly as restless as Jaeger himself as he stared at the twilight sky. It had taken a few days of travel before they reached the edge of the castle grounds. He wasn’t sure how they hadn’t been discovered, but Minerva insisted he shouldn’t worry about it. Since no alarm had gone up when they’d arrived the night before, and no attack on their encampment, Jaeger was forced to assume the Princess knew what she was doing.
Philip slipped up behind him, wrapping his arm around Jaeger’s waist and kissing the back of his neck. “Feeling antsy?”
Jaeger leaned back into the warmth of Philip’s body. “We’re going to battle in a few hours. I can’t help but think about everything that’s at stake. I’m running drills through my head, and wondering where I need to be and when. That and I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the idea that I’m a Prince.”
“But not heir,” Philip said against his neck.
“If you’re trying to make me feel special, I have to say, your technique could use some finesse,” Jaeger said with a chuckle.
Philip nuzzled Jaeger. “You’re always going to be special. Only someone incredible and unique could turn out the way you have, and still be able to keep me in line without even trying.”
“Keep you in line,” Jaeger repeated with a chuckle.
Philip’s hand slipped beneath Jaeger’s shirt, rubbing against his stomach. “Look, we’re going into the battle of our lives in a few hours. We’re hidden away in the tunnel we used as kids, and we’ve got it all to ourselves while we hide and wait.”
The thought gave Jaeger another laugh as he gazed up at the root covered dirt ceiling above. With everyone preparing for battle, the two of them had slipped away to have a little time with one another. No one had said anything, save to inquire where they would be when they were needed. Minerva had been distracted by the battle plans, discussing them at length with Makepeace and Verity, as well as a werewolf they’d designated as their own representative general. The man, Merit, was a lumbering beast of a warrior, who seemed more apt to scowl than smile, but he listened to the Princess attentively and offered his own advice. Jaeger and Philip had been willing to leave them to their own devices while they burned time away in their own way.
Jaeger had been the one to suggest the old tunnel they’d used when they were boys, a place to hide away from Orrin and any other nosy person who might interrupt their play. It had been years since Jaeger had seen the place, but it brought a sense of peace, being in the familiar safe place of his childhood.
“It’s odd being back here, I swear it was bigger,” Jaeger said.
“The tunnel hasn’t gotten smaller, we’ve just become bigger,” Philip told him.
Jaeger smirked as he felt Philip’s cock pressing against his ass through their clothing. “Well, something’s gotten bigger anyway.”
Philip chuckled, the sound low in his throat. “That’s got to be the worst pick up line I’ve ever heard.”
Jaeger turned around, slowly dropping to his knees before Philip. “Maybe I should try something else.”
Philip’s eyes widened, unconsciously licking his lips. “You have something in mind?”
Jaeger pushed the tips of his fingers beneath the band of Philip’s pants. “I might.”
Pulling the pants down, Jaeger grabbed hold of Philip’s thick cock to pull it free. It had been mostly hard just at Jaeger’s suggestion, but quickly hardened once it was free. Jaeger ran his fingers over the thick shaft, shivering as he remembered how it had felt inside him. It had been a couple of days since they’d had any real private time with one another, and Jaeger was going to take full advantage of it.
Jaeger took the glistening tip of Philip’s cock into his mouth, moaning as he felt it fill his mouth. The taste of Philip washed over his tongue, and he slid more of the man into his mouth. He was by no means an expert, but Jaeger worked to ease more of his mate’s thick cock down into his throat. His muscles, unaccustomed to an intrusion of such size, worked and fought against the girth of Philip’s cock. Jaeger took his time, letting at least half of Philip’s cock into his throat before he was forced to retreat.
Philip groaned. “You don’t have to prove anything.”
“Prove something? I don’t know what you’re talking about, because this is fun,” Jaeger told him, his lips brushing the head of Philip’s cock as he spoke.
Taking another breath, Jaeger pulled the thick length into his throat again. His throat widened as he worked his head back and forth. Philip’s fingers curled against his hair, tightening into a firm grip as Jaeger took him deeper. He had a mission in mind, and he carefully worked a little more of Philip’s cock deeper with each motion forward. There were only a few moments when he went too far, and his muscles spasmed as he tried to take Philip too deep.
