Royal Pride

by Zelda Knight

  “Masters? Bijoux seeks an audience with you,” voice dripping in sarcasm, Sarah bowed before the ten-foot solid gold doors separating her from the throne room. Engraved on them was a large fox goddess, her ten tails also a contradiction with the name of their palace.

  After a drawn-out silence, the doors began to open at a snail’s pace, thick clouds of ominous white smoke rolling across the glass walkway. Sarah rolled her eyes and forced her way through the crack. She didn’t have time to waste on frivolous formalities or theatrics.

  Inside the throne room set her roadblocks, the shifter princes seated in order of their rank, with the eldest in the middle, and two youngest flanking him. As foxes in the Divine Realm, they were much taller and more imposing than they had ever been in the Mortal Realm. Their red fur and white chests and chins seemed fuller and brighter, too. And most jarring were the elaborate outfits and crowns of jewels hanging from their narrow heads.

  If she was on one of her usual missions, they’d be in bed by then, and by morning, she’d have melted down their crowns to something more manageable to transport in between dimensions. But her mission at that moment wasn’t like any other Sarah had taken on before.

  “I am a gem that never tarnishes but dulls when desire dies. I increase in true value with each passing hour, and contain the trials and tribulations of your heart? What am I?” Just saying the last riddle out loud gave Sarah a splitting headache. She was getting tired of childish games, which was really making her second guess her taste in men—shifter or otherwise.

  The trio nodded, Bo Chang’s smile stretching so wide it was almost creepy, distorting his foxy face. His ears flexed, hopping down from his throne, spinning mid-air, landing in the skin of a human. He dressed the most traditional out of all three shifters, long black hair ankle-length and gorgeous. Sarah loved to run her fingers through his silky tresses when they used to make love under the moonlight, out in the open in the park near her luxury apartment. She shook that thought away as soon as it came, eyes trained on Toshiyuki, who appeared next to the eldest.

  Toshi, for short, was the youngest and most modern, opting for a pair of black jeans, high-top black boots, and an eclectic white high fashion asymmetrical shirt. His hair was the shortest, shaved down the sides with a curly pompadour down the middle, and many piercings dangling from his pointed ears. He fancied himself a model, an idol even, and Sarah couldn’t help but reminisce over the taste of his ivory skin when they used to “get-to-know-each-other” in the dazzling nightclubs of Tokyo.

  Which left Min-joon, the middle prince, to make his presence known. And it wasn’t long before he appeared where she expected him to be—right beside her.

  “Sarah,” he whispered, his smooth hand cupping her cheek.

  She shuddered despite her internal plea to stand firm. Min-joon wore a three-piece blood-red suit, much more outrageous than his reserved personality, and oddly complementary to her own dress. His hair was styled differently too compared to his usual lax outward appearance, gelled and swooped to the side, braided in the back just past his shoulder blades.

  “Enough, Min-joon. Now’s not the time.” She tried to brush him off, but his hand just drifted lower, joined by another, until he was cupping her around her waist and one of her breasts.

  Sarah moaned. Despite how she tried to pretend otherwise, she missed the feel of his lips pressed against hers, and lower still, and the way he worked her into a frenzy to the point she feared she’d been placed under his spell. They went back further than Bo and Toshi, meeting under a bright full moon on her very first mission nearly a decade ago.

  He was also the first one to propose, she thought ruefully, detangling herself from Min-joon who didn’t protest that go around.

  “So, Bijoux, what is your answer?” Bo Chang asked, crossing his long emerald sleeves in front of him, white highlights in his hair fanning out as he released a burst of magical energy. His fox flame burned out too, extinguished in the lantern hanging in the center of the vast imperial throne room.

  “It’s…” Sarah drifted off, glaring at Toshi’s playful expression, his ears, and tail still visible to her eyes. Red highlights streaked his blonde hair, arms crossed behind his head as he waited and watched the jewel thief’s fate like it was all a game.

  Because it is a game to them, remember that! Even if they saved your life! Taking a deep breath, Sarah blurted out her answer.

  “The diamond on a wedding ring. A real one, at least.” Chin raised skyward, defiant as ever, Sarah waited for whatever would come her way. Her fate was in their hands now, anyway.

  She’d poured over the massive tomes in the palace library, racked every gem directory she had stored in her portal pocket, and came up empty. That was until she’d pulled out the ring she’d long since cast into oblivion, a ring gifted to her three times over. It was covered in dust and grime, but when she cleaned it, it shined brighter than before. And with it came a flood of emotions that made her misty-eyed and unsure.

  Immortals dating humans wasn’t strictly prohibited, but marriage was out of the question. She couldn’t survive long in their realm, and they had no place in hers. It was the very definition of star-crossed lovers, multiplied over three very different, but equally alluring shifters full of equal parts charm and malice.

  “Ding ding ding ding ding!” Toshi blurted out as a bell materialized beside him, ringing it obnoxiously. Relief overwhelmed Sarah, and her legs buckled, scooped up by Min-joon before she could fall.

  “Very good. And just in time for our would-be anniversary, Bijoux.” Bo Chang clapped, his ears popping out as if he couldn’t control his delight.

  Sarah simply smiled, looking up into Min-joon’s sweet expression as he carried her behind the throne and into their private quarters. And what a room it was! She hadn’t seen it in what felt like ages. Hot springs emptied out beside a large bed befitting of an emperor of an empire, or two. It was the stuff straight out of dreams, a painful reminder of the very real divide between them.

  “Sarah…” Min-joon whispered once more, placing her onto the satin snow-white sheets three shades lighter than her own skin. Toshi and Bo appeared beside her, with Toshi pulling her hairpin and Bo snapping off her gown with a click of his clawed fingers.

  Utterly exposed, all she could do was stare up at them in confusion. “What’s going on? I won! Now teleport me out of this floating circus and back home this instant!”

  The eldest prince rolled his eyes, hair cascading down his shoulders as he leaned forward, chest bare, as Toshi and Min-joon each took one of her arms and pulled down. “Do you really think we went through all of that to not reconcile, beloved? The full moon hasn’t yet arrived.”

  “Reconcile? What part of, ‘I’ll die if I stay in the Divine Realm for more than a month,’ didn’t make sense last time?” Sarah sounded exacerbated, even as her back arched and dusky pink nipples perked, dragging against the first prince’s porcelain-colored chest lined with muscle and sweat.

  “And what part of, ‘As our bride, you will have nothing to worry about,’ doesn’t ring a bell, hmm?” Bo chided her, nipping at her lip and nearly drawing blood. She sighed, turning her face to the side so he could mark her neck, nip, kiss, and lick, suck and fuck her into oblivion as he always did. Rough and hard, until she fainted.

  On her right and on her left, Toshi and Min-joon fondled her breasts, moving in tandem with Bo so that every inch of her body was humming and ready for more.

  “Now say the magic words, Bijoux, and allow us to steal your heart instead,” Toshi ordered as he grabbed her hand and brought it down to cup his erection.

  “To steal my heart,” she snickered, tugging on Toshi’s shaft as he winced and his comrades chuckled, “You’ll have to fuck me harder than this, you naughty little foxes...”

  “Your answer, Sarah. Be ours, won’t you? Not just for the night or another heist. Ours, for eternity, as our princess, as our queen, and our goddess,” Min-joon murmured into Sarah’s ear, as Bo kneel
ed above her, stroking his rock-hard penis, and Toshi’s fingers found her clit and soaked slit.

  “...Never,” Sarah gritted out, despite every inch of her being demanding she give in.

  The pleasure she would find being lost in their arms, as they descended on her body, devouring her sex as she stroked and sucked on their lengths, plunging into her, exploding with sticky wet come, as she road them, took two and then three at the same time, would be absolutely divine.

  But Sarah wasn’t the giving type. Far from it, she was going to take what she needed from them and flee. Because the last thing she needed was to be locked down by three cunning shifters in a parallel world. Rather than their goddess, she’d be their tyrant if she didn’t get what she truly wanted before the next full moon came and went and trapped her there forever—freedom.

  Chapter One

  SARAH

  “If you think I’m giving up the heist of the century to become a glorified babysitter for your daughter, Brother Lieu, you must have lost your mind on your way back to the Mortal Realm!” Sarah’s face twisted into a nasty scowl as the man in question took a long drag of his cigarette, blowing a ring of smoke to his left.

  It was nighttime on the edge of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Well, the edge of a version of its Chinatown, anyway. The dingy gambling hall they sat in was at the cusp of both worlds, frequented by many criminals and vagabonds looking for a quick buck, be it in mortal currency or paranormal jewels. They watched over the gamblers from a skybox above the machines and tables. All the money being generated down below belongs to all of their clan members, but Sarah knew very well her brother thought it all should belong to him.

  Sarah was used to straddling the border between worlds, just as much as she was used to forging her own path in a world dominated by men, be they mortals, gods, or spirits. And the man that most frequently got in her way was her older brother.

  That same night, Sarah was supposed to be on the other side of the world preparing for a mega-heist that might very well be her ticket to retirement, if successful. And yet, just because she was a woman, Brother Lieu thought it was her duty to watch over her bratty niece since rumors swirled of an impending attack from a rival clan. As if he were bringing in the money that made their clan feared by their rivals and worshiped by their pawns?

  Without Sarah’s expertise, Brother Lieu wouldn’t be able to pay for bodyguards for his little mafia princess in the first place. Without her leading this heist, the Eternal Lunar Pearl would fall into the hands of their mortal enemies.

  “Look,” Brother Lieu began, unusual gray eyes swiveling upward as if he were sending up a prayer, “The Eternal Lunar Pearl isn’t some ordinary heist! Macau may be a gambler’s paradise, but it’ll be your grave if you fuck it up.”

  “Well,” she purred, taking a sip of the strange, gurgling purple drink in front of her, not daring to question what was inside of it, “I won’t fuck it up.”

  He scoffed, snubbing out his cig on the wooden table like some brute. “You will fuck it up because nobody has gotten past Ju-long. Nobody, Bijoux. No god or mortal, not even his closest associates. Hell, I think he exorcised a ghost on the spot who tried to snatch it last. And you wouldn’t be any different. Those Pearl River Delta gangsters aren’t your run-of-the-mill minor demi-gods. They have connections that’ll get our entire clan killed. And you and I both know this is about your personal vendetta more than anything else.”

  To that, Sarah had no comeback. She glanced upwards, above the slot machines, at the large sign that read Tàiyáng Tù Zú in Mandarin; Solar Rabbit Clan in English. Their clan went back over a millennium, with the blood of powerful magicians and shamans freely flowing through their veins, as well as centuries of connections. They were large, global, with pockets throughout all branches of the Asian diasporas. But they were still merely human, bound to die sooner rather than later.

  Gods were not infallible beings, but the natural order made it such that one would run out of luck if they tested their will too many times. As Bijoux, Sarah felt invincible. As Bijoux, she could test the limits of her fate. But as a daughter of the Solar Rabbit Clan, she could not throw caution to the wind so easily.

  At least, that’s what Brother Lieu wanted her to think. In reality, Sarah knew the truth. He coveted the pearl for himself and was jealous of her exploits. She was now more favored than him, and in line to inherit their entire underground operations. As he used to say when she was young, living was boring, but living among humans was hell. He wanted the glory of living on the edge among immortals, and not some desk job or restaurant managerial role at one of their legitimate establishments above ground, where most of the clan operated in the light of day.

  “Brother, you know just as well as I do that the Yuè Tù Zú covets the pearl and has made an offer on it that even Ju-long can’t resist. They’re planning to hand over that wayward moon god, Yuèguāng, in exchange for it in Macau tomorrow. We don’t have time to worry about imaginary consequences when we know very well what will happen when the Lunar Rabbit Clan gets a hold of that pearl!” She slammed her fist against the table for added emphasis.

  To that Brother Lieu growled, eyes narrowing, lips pulling down into a savage scowl. If there was one thing he hated more than his adored sister was their rival clan. Sarah smiled, taking another sip of her tea as blindfolded servants lowered plates of food on their rotating table dolly, hands shaking ever so gently. Probably debt-riddled individuals now paying off said debt by working for them. Sarah hated eating anything she didn’t grow and cook herself, but not doing so would cause great offense, so she nibbled and waited for him to respond.

  Tension visibly rolled from Brother Lieu's shoulders as sparkling black magical residue. He finally gritted out, “Impossible. They wouldn’t hand over an ancestral god for the pearl.”

  “They wouldn’t?” She scoffed. “The depth of their treachery is well known. There’s a reason our clan split into two, after all.”

  “Besides, Yuèguāng ceased serving them when they wouldn’t offer up a proper portion of their treasures in tribute to him. It’s a two-way street, remember? We offer the ancestral gods tribute in exchange for power, and they gain power from sharing it with us in exchange for treasure. Now that their bond is broken, why not sell him off for a pearl that would make them nearly invincible in the Mortal Realm?” With that, Sarah clapped her hands twice, summoning forth a satin pouch with an embroidered black rabbit and crescent moon against a milky white background.

  She turned it over and what looked like marbles rolled onto the table, in between the plates of food. But the little spheres held swirling white and black magic inside, the latter of which sparkled the same as Brother Lieu’s magic that continued to leak from his pores.

  “Look here. Four have turned white in the time it took us to finish our meal. We’re losing ground faster than we can recognize what has slipped from our hands. If the Lunar Rabbit Clan grabs a hold of the pearl, you and I might as well pack it up and disappear in the Realm of the Gods. We’ll be hunted to the ends of the Earth, and I doubt that daughter of yours can be protected then.” Sarah allowed the threat to linger in the air.

  As if he suddenly realized the enormity of the problem they faced, Brother Lieu dropped all pretense of being a wise clan elder, and now he looked every part the petulant older brother used to getting what he wanted. “So, you’re threatening me now? What, you’ll blame territorial loses on me if I don’t let you go on a suicide mission?”

  “Oh please! Stop pretending that you care about our honor or my life. All you want is personal glory! But I’m sorry to say, that pearl will be mine, as well as the seat of power. I’ve been loyal, and I’ve risked it all for our clan. I’m not giving up the heist of the century because you’re afraid your little princess is going to get whacked, probably because your back door scheming to stop Bijoux fell apart at the last moment.” Tired of putting up a show, Sarah finally let go and unleashed her fury, blue magic swirling around her in t
he shape of a foxtail, a remnant of a past life.

  She was livid. With the pearl basically in their hands, the Lunar Rabbit Clan wouldn’t put out a hit on one of their leaders, not when they could crush them and avoid a war altogether in a matter of days. No, it made more sense that Brother Lieu was the same backstabbing traitor and coward he’d always been. He probably tipped someone off in exchange for a seat at the table, asked too much, and got triple crossed like the idiot that he was.

  Now he wanted the pearl and wanted to protect his daughter, all while throwing Sarah under the bus. She was loyal, but only to a point, seeing as she wasn’t a fool. How many times had she discussed her plans in front of so-called trusted company, only for a spy or bounty hunter to meet her at the scene? Was that how "family" was supposed to treat each other?

  To be honest, Sarah couldn’t remember who was really related to her anymore. There was too much animosity and bad blood between herself and her adoptive family. The Solar Rabbit Clan expected an orphan like Sarah to be grateful and work hard. The only reason she stayed loyal was because of the lucrative connections the Solar Rabbit Clan brought with them. She had built her legend on scoring the rarest of treasures, and Sarah knew deep down the only reason she got to them first was because the clan knew about them first. If they lost their position, what would happen to her? Nothing good. It was for their mutual benefit she got to the pearl first.

  “...Fine. But at least allow Lillian to stay inside your home,” he relented, reaching for his chopsticks.

  “Why should I do that?” Sarah asked, adjusting the bow on her white blouse as she got ready to leave.