The Queen's Mark

by Tori Smith

  Arden’s teeth moved over her bottom lip and, leaning down, she whispered something to me, something for me to do—to touch her and my fingers moved away from her skin.

  This had gone too far.

  “Arden,” I said, the attempts to keep the hunger out of my voice weak and she felt that. She had to, because in the next moment, she was easing away from the desk.

  And on top of me.

  “I want to know you,” she said, maneuvering her sensuously curvy body on top of mine. Her hips thick and her breasts full, she pressed them both against me. “I want to know why… I’m feeling the way I do.”

  I stopped her by her wrists, but with just a shift of her hips my cock showed her exactly what I wanted, my dick straining against my fly seeking her.

  The pressure so intense a groan fell from my lips.

  “We can’t,” I told her, but she ignored me, always ignoring me. We were in another century and an entirely different time, and once again I was at her will.

  I was vulnerable to my queen.

  Arden

  He wouldn’t touch me until I touched him, my hands gliding along the rough surface of his jaw and his eyes igniting to an intensely rich blue in response. It actually lit up my skin, all over me as his mark surged bright atop his hand.

  He wants this too.

  The shared need was apparent in the way Wesley drew his hips up and I met him quickly at the thrust, my body shuddering at his cock between my legs.

  “Wesley…”

  My eyes burning, I pressed my mouth to his and the moment I did something happened, something, which caused Wesley’s eyes to flare and my breasts to become incredibly heavy, my nipples painfully hard against his firm chest.

  It was like touches were ten times more… sensitive and even smells surged in potency. Whatever he was giving off I was too and we funneled into each other the instant he eased my lips open, his mouth lush and his tongue an incredible escape.

  “Arden, this can’t happen,” he breathed, but even while he did, he was peeling my tank top down my breasts, his mouth on a journey across my cheek and down my neck. Filling his hand with one of my breasts, he squeezed the sensitive flesh and I swore to the heavens above I nearly came in this man’s lap. I did that and all he did was feel me up through my bra.

  Cursing, I drew my fingers through his hair and his “God, fuck” told me he was just as sensitive as I was right now. I wondered if any of this surrounded the bond and our link to each other the men spoke of before. He hadn’t even touched my mark and we felt like one person.

  “You have to stop me,” he ached, easing out one of my breasts, which were so very heavy. “You don’t understand. We can’t do this.”

  But again, his actions spoke the opposite of what he was doing. My breast free from my bra, he clasped the hardened nipple, the peak diamond hard between his teeth and the tug he made when he nibbled did send heat flowing between my legs.

  “Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.” No, I wouldn’t be stopping him. No, because this felt so good and too right to even think about doing such a thing. Wesley’s hands on me felt like they were supposed to be there. Like this was what we were supposed to be doing, being, and feeling.

  My mouth open, I allowed him to push my top above my belly, then proceed to chase a line down my stomach with his lips, which he took straight between my legs, his hands guiding my hips up and his mouth straight on my mound.

  “God…” His aroused word was the only sound before he sent us both into delirium, his breaths warm and steady through my leggings. He was actually shaking as he kissed me between my legs, his eyes closed like it was the most wonderful thing he’d ever tasted and he didn’t even have direct contact, his hands cupping my bottom as he moved slow kisses below.

  Sighing, I brought one of his hands up, the hand that shined just as bright and full as my own mark currently did. I believed if he touched my mark and I touched his we’d feel even more and be able to connect in a way even stronger than we were. But the moment I made him grab me, the moment his hand clamped down and covered my mark, the sensations I expected to feel dulled behind a wave of something else, something intense and almost… painful. Whatever it was had us both waking up and sent what looked like nothing short of terror washing across Wesley’s features.

  “Put your shirt on,” he rushed, helping me after I got my bra situated. He brought me off his lap with basically a single move and, unusual, he tucked me behind him the moment we both got on our feet. The next thing he was telling me to do was close my eyes.

  I did just as his wall blew out.

  Twelve

  Arden

  “We said we wouldn’t touch her!” roared from behind the clouds of debris and fallen plaster from the framing of the room, a violent blue and violet wave erupting in a whirlwind behind it all. Grandiose, it grew to an exuberant degree, and soon, I was being cradled completely by Wesley.

  He took me down with him to his knees, his hands out and his own electric charges blasting from his fingertips. Raising them, he pushed out a wave of energy that encased us completely, the brunt of which intersected another angry current tossed at us.

  Biting his lip, Wesley almost lost his footing at the impact of the latest and the moment the intensity of it subsided, he was on his feet, taking me with him.

  “Stay behind me,” he said once more, but I didn’t understand as out of the ether of chaos came Lucas with Elia not far away from me. They were yelling at someone, my attention zooming over and finding no one other than Derek, his hands out with two identical orbs of magical energy looming beneath his palms.

  Gripping them with his fingers, he angled his head, his expression nothing short of crazed with the light that blasted behind his onyx eyes.

  He snarled.

  “You thought you could hide it?” he asked, throwing a magical sphere in the direction of Wesley. Quick, the warlock only crossed his arms and the bright ball of energy tossed at him shattered, which only angered Derek more.

  Derek’s jaw ticked. “Thought you could shield what was going on in here by not letting us in?”

  He came forward after that last question and Wesley moved me to the side, but for some reason, he didn’t continue to move with me once we got clear. He went back to Derek, raising his arms.

  “It wasn’t like that,” he said, blocking another attack. It dissipated around him and after Wesley relaxed his arms, he shook his head. “I promise you, brother. What happened just… happened.”

  Whatever Derek had been looking for it hadn’t been that and before I could even get my thoughts together about what was happening right now, Derek was building another wave between his palms.

  “Brother?” he spat, building his charge. “Try again.”

  Hands flew beneath my arms and I found myself in the midst of Elia and Lucas, the pair rushing me out of what was left of the room. They shielded me when Derek’s blinding light hit Wesley again, and once again, Wesley managed to uphold his position.

  His expression fell. “Derek, please.”

  This only got a “Fuck you,” Derek’s light building again, and though the other guys pushed me into the hallway, no way could any of us get away from what Derek was attempting to do. He wasn’t trying to just hurt Wesley.

  He had to be on the verge of killing him.

  Knowing that, I tugged at the arms that held me but to no avail. Elia and Lucas were too strong and they wouldn’t let me get into the fray.

  Derek and Wesley continued to charge back and forth, Derek attacking and Wesley on the defense. Derek’s frustration loomed at his latest failed attempt and I really thought he would kill Wesley.

  “Fight back,” he yelled, but all Wesley did was keep his arms crossed, resisting wave after wave of Derek’s attacks, and as Derek continued with his light, Wesley’s dulled, his force field weakening. The sheet of light grew more and more translucent with every crash, and the way Derek was headed, he was sure to take advantage of the fact.

 
; Wesley’s gaze crossed over to me during the influx, his expression so sad and I knew, I knew he wasn’t going to defend himself. He was going to let Derek break through and hurt him.

  He was going to because he thought he did something wrong.

  Upon realizing that, a burn hit my fingers I couldn’t control, a surge of energy I had no idea how I was harnessing, my mark a richly golden glow as I drained the air around me.

  Building it, I felt hands fall off me, Elia and Lucas, as they backed away and the room filled with the harshness of my light.

  “Stop it!”

  But I could only hear the words in my head, the exuberant power coursing through my veins to the point of exhaustion.

  Unable to contain it, I let go and all four men in the room flew off their feet. They literally catapulted through the air when I let go, the energy waves forcing them into the few standing walls of the room, and weak, I couldn’t even see if I hurt them.

  I fell to my knees, my vision darkening.

  “Arden!”

  I heard many voices—all of their voices and the awareness of their presence filled me up to the point of completion. They were all so warm with their hands on me, scorching even.

  “My God, she’s so cold.”

  Wesley’s voice I found in my delirium, but I was in Derek’s arms, Derek hugging me close, an anguish on his face I physically felt travel through me.

  My hand shaking, I reached to touch him, somehow remove that aguish, but I seemed to have lost control of my limbs, unable to even move them from my side.

  “Keep her close, Derek,” Wesley said, moving in. He had a similar expression to Derek’s, his just as pained. His swallow was hard in his brother’s direction. “Let her draw off you. Lucas, get her something for the physical affects, a blanket to keep her warm, and Elia, food. It helps.”

  They all went running, everyone but Derek.

  Who only pulled me closer.

  Thirteen

  Lucas

  She was out for over two days, the majority of which we spent trying to restore Her Majesty’s energy reserves. Our queen was very much like a toddler in this era, her power new to her, and therefore, inexperienced. She’d basically depleted herself instead of reaching for the resources around her.

  A deadly combination considering how powerful she already was.

  I think that had surprised us all, how she truly was the most powerful of our people. We’d seen it ourselves, but it had been a lifetime and something we rarely got to see even then unless we were all around her, our bond together making her a force that couldn’t be reckoned with.

  We truly would have to protect her from herself, because until she understood what she was—her capabilities, she wielded a potential danger even worse than what our enemies could do to her.

  We’d all been going around the clock trying to get her strength up, myself next as I headed to her room. I cut around the corner of walls we physically had to rebuild as our quote end quote “battle” with the queen left us all spent after it happened. She’d basically kicked the shit out of us with one unskilled maneuver and Wesley had us all training the last twenty-four hours to get us to where we should be physically. Arden would require a lot of patience in the upcoming days while we trained her and we needed to be ready.

  I came across Derek coming out of Arden’s room on my way in and he cut me off at the pass. I’d gotten just a glance of Arden lying on her bed before he closed the door behind himself.

  “She needs to rest,” he mumbled, starting to move away, and when I reached for the doorknob, I swear to fucking God he actually growled at me.

  “Back off,” I said, my fingers surging with white heat, my eyes burning too as I scowled at him. He’d been this way every time I’d come to relieve him, never seeming to want to leave.

  I moved again and when he put hands on me, I did zap him.

  He cursed, shaking his hand out. Approaching, he saw fit to challenge me despite me being larger and I think he thought he could do that considering he was older. At least, he had been when we were in the New Realm. Since coming here, we were all the same age as Arden, a level playing field and something I had to remind all of them from time to time—that I wasn’t the kid of the group that took well to being kicked around. They mistook my quiet and my care of Arden as something else sometimes and I had to check them each and every time it seemed.

  Derek’s chest pressed against mine and I pressed right back, Wesley’s voice in the living room keeping us from virtually annihilating each other. Tensions had been high for all of us with the queen down, each of us stressed.

  “Let her rest,” Derek bit after Wesley told us to meet at the couches. He bumped my chest one more time before leaving the hall, always seeming to need the last word. I let it go in the present, deciding to follow along and have Wesley’s meeting but only because I knew this thing Derek had been doing the last couple days had nothing to do with me and all to do with him. He was still feeling guilty for Arden’s condition, something he should feel guilty about but we all knew his rouse of being angry and brooding all the time was just that—a front. He liked to pretend he didn’t give a shit about anything and less about the queen and her presence with us, but we all knew the truth. He cared about her.

  He cared just like we all did.

  That care had made recent events hard for all of us. I couldn’t confirm for the guys, but I still felt the power of what Arden and Wesley had been doing in his room when he’d ultimately let us into it. The whole thing made for tense times trying to get over it, as well as take Wesley’s direction to aid the queen and keep this ship moving. Honestly, if we were all as hotheaded as Derek I think we all would have done the same thing, even me who didn’t dare fight unless I had to.

  On the couch, Wesley and Elia watched Derek and me enter the room, the two of us shoulder-checking each other before I took the armchair and Derek chose a wall to lean against.

  “We have an issue?” Wesley asked us, Elia frowning next to him. “Because I have to say, none of us have time for that shit right now.”

  We both passed our beef off with a shrug, cool with each other if we could be cool with him I guess. Like Derek said, we made a pact in this new time. None of us were to touch the queen in any physical way besides what was either needed or appropriate, neither of which Wesley did. He’d succumb to his desire. He fell into a history.

  I think we all had in varying degrees, but he’d taken it the farthest, my own hands still harnessing the sweet feel of her. I relished too much and too long with the remembrance some days. Especially, when I’d had to hold her to give her energy these past couple nights.

  “Her Majesty’s going to need to be moved,” Wesley said, getting right into it. “It’s become time. The threat is eminent and we need to get ahead of it.”

  It’d been Derek to lift his hand, shaking his head adamantly.

  “Not possible,” he said, proceeding in this new protective “thing” he was doing. He shook his head again. “She’s still too weak.”

  “Well, we don’t have a choice, Derek,” Wesley came back with. “She’s moving and this isn’t a debate.”

  Standing, I actually stopped Derek when he cut across the room toward Wesley, but only because we needed to respect our brother and not challenge his direction. We all knew our roles in this house. Wesley made the decisions and we acted on them.

  “Take it down two steps, brother,” I said to Derek and Elia supported me when he stood and got involved too.

  Derek looked at us both, exchanging a glance before pointing at Wesley.

  “Maybe I’m done taking direction from you,” he said, and even though he had, he did take a step back. He lifted his hands. “I find it hard to be under someone when I can’t trust him.”

  “Oh, bullshit, Derek,” Wesley responded with. He shook his head. “We’re all prone to the bond. Even you yourself said it.”

  “And that justifies it?” he asked, coming back. “That makes it ok
ay that you went behind all of our backs and—”

  He wouldn’t say it. None of us would, which I think made it easier to take direction from Wesley than become upset with him. To point fingers at him would be to put a spotlight on ourselves and everything we’d done with Her Majesty up until this point. It was too sensitive an issue and with far too much history I didn’t think any of us wanted to address. Call me naive, but I believed coming to this time would solve everything. Her Majesty had a mission—a clear one and it didn’t include any of us.

  At least in that way.

  We had to forget certain things, quite literally purge ourselves of feelings or we’d all go mad. We couldn’t think about things that happened before this life or before coming here.

  I know I had to.

  “That’s the point, brother,” Wesley said, coming up to him and we let him, his expression the epitome of grave with his lips turned down. “It’s not okay. None of it’s okay and that goes for any of us. Arden has a mission. She has one and it doesn’t include any of us.”

  My very thoughts voiced across the room, the silence foreboding to us all.

  “She’s not meant for us,” he went one step further with it, and turning, he picked up the remote, clicking on the television.

  Something was already queued up on the screen, the news like he’d been watching and when I saw the headline and the man on the screen only my eyes widened.

  Derek looked on the cusp of throwing the television screen across the room when he sprinted over to it, but chose instead to snatch the remote from Wesley. He braced it, clicking off the TV and removing the image of the man who’d been on it.

  After that, he destroyed the remote with a single wave of energy.

  The brightness caused us all to close our eyes, the dust of the remote’s remains floating to the floor.