by Sophie Oak
“It’s only right, son,” his father was saying as he put an arm around Dante’s shoulder. “She’s your consort. I can’t wait to welcome her into our family. The housekeeper said something was wrong with her.”
“She lost a lot of blood.”
“She’s hurt? What happened to her?”
“I did,” Dante replied. There was on odd mixture of guilt and pride that came with the memory, as though the two pieces of Dante’s soul were at odds over the incident. “I was the one who was injured. Kaja healed me.”
His father’s arm dropped. “Why? What the hell happened? Did you get in a fight? Was it a tourney?”
Dante held his hands up. If he didn’t stop his father, there would be doctors all over the place. “I’m fine. Kaja’s fine. We got attacked in the marketplace, that’s all. Torin is finally making his move. I guess the asshole realized Beck and Ci aren’t going to conveniently die.”
His father had turned a little pale. “Torin attacked the marketplace?”
“He sent mercenaries to attack the Refugee plane, as far as I can tell. Some asshole impoverished royals have formed their own little army, and they are all about letting trade flow.”
There was a tight set to his father’s eyes that told Dante he didn’t like this subject. “They want consorts. It’s all the government can talk about these days. There are so few to be had. There’s an entire generation of royals who can’t find consorts. They’re aging, and they don’t like it. You have to understand, Dante. A royal is brought up to believe that finding a consort is his or her right. We live longer with a consort. Without a consort, we might as well be peasants.”
It was a hard truth to swallow, but Dante knew his father was only laying it on the line. “Now that Beck and Cian have come into their powers, maybe things can change.”
The look in his father’s eyes was grim. “I don’t know. I think it might be too late for that.”
Dante turned and looked his father straight in the eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that when your cousins come to visit next week, I’m going to try to convince them to leave.”
“What are you talking about? Where the hell would they go? Torin decimated their village.” Dante had wanted to cry. Beck and Cian had built the village up over the years, and it had taken a single afternoon and some well-placed sonic charges to bring it all down. He’d mourned with his cousins the loss of their home.
“I think it’s time they went to the Earth plane, son.”
The words hit Dante like a grenade threatening to explode. “Why the hell would they go to some backwater plane that isn’t connected to anywhere else?”
There were a few doors to the Earth plane scattered around, but they were very difficult to access, and few braved them. The Earth plane was almost entirely cut off. In Dante’s mind, if his cousins fled to the Earth plane, it was an admission of defeat.
“Because the tide is turning, son. If our government decides to recognize Torin’s claim to the throne, they have to acknowledge that Beckett and Cian are renegades. Those mercenaries who are after them now, they’ll be joined by every soldier on every plane who hears the news.”
Dante’s stomach turned. How was this happening? “Beck and Ci won’t go.”
They would stay and fight. They wouldn’t leave their people behind.
His father simply shook his head and sat down behind his desk. “Let’s talk about something more pleasant. We’ll deal with your cousins’ situation when the time comes. Now, I know you need your bonding time, but the sunscreen project is at a critical state. I want you to get to work. The chemists have the formula down, and we’ll be ready for testing very soon.”
He knew he should be excited. This was the very reason he had gotten married. He’d changed his entire life to stay on this one project. Now all he could think of was how to keep his cousins alive.
“Dante?” His father leaned forward. “Are you all right?”
No. He wasn’t all right. He was changed, and he wasn’t sure he liked it. This was his home, and somehow he felt out of place. It would be all right. He’d just been through a lot. He needed time and space to forget what had happened in the woods. It was just a little post-traumatic stress disorder.
He would be fine. He would get back to normal.
He wanted to see Kaja.
“I’m good,” Dante said, forcing a smile on his face. “Just a little tired.”
Yeah, almost dying would do that.
His father got back up and walked around the desk. He enveloped Dante in a bear hug. Love for his father rushed over him. Dante hugged him back. Despite their differences, he loved the old man.
“I was wrong to say what I did to you, Dante. You’re my boy, and I would never kick you out,” his father said, emotion choking him. “You’ll always be my boy.”
Now the emotion that flowed over Dante turned bittersweet as he realized he was leaving something behind. He might live in this mansion forever, but he was changed, and his childhood was irrevocably over. He had been Alexander Dellacourt’s boy for thirty years.
But now he was Kaja’s man.
“I love you, too, Dad.”
* * * *
Kaja came awake slowly, her brain opening in layers. She’d slept so deeply that no dreams had jarred her. Just sweet sleep. Each time she had awakened, her eyes would open and she would see Dante’s face hovering over hers, protecting her, and she had known she could sink back into sleep.
This time, however, he was not there. Kaja opened her eyes, and Dante was not holding her or standing watch over her.
She sat up in bed. She felt stronger, but there was still a delicious weakness to her system. She had saved him. Dante was alive because her blood sustained him.
All of her life, she had allowed things to happen to her because she knew no other way. Until she had been kicked out of the pack, she had not known that she could change things. She had saved Dante. She was strong.
She pushed back at the blankets that covered her. They were rich and soft, made of some material she’d never felt before. She touched the gown covering her body. She vaguely remembered Dante slipping it over her head and calling her a princess as he tucked her in.
Where had he gone?
She looked around the room, her memories surfacing. Dante’s room. It seemed larger than her pack’s long house. Dante’s memories of this room were strong. She’d seen it when he fed. She could see it as it was when he was a child. He’d loved hovercars and bikes. He’d followed racing circuits, and he’d been past disappointed when his father wouldn’t let him enter something called the BMX Sky Racers. She found the desk where he’d sat and worked on homework when absolutely forced to. He preferred to play with his tablet. It still sat on the desk.
Kaja touched it and was startled when a woman popped up. She was small, but lifelike. How had she fit inside the thin tablet? Why was she half-naked? If Kaja had learned one thing about Dante’s people, it was that they preferred to be clothed. Not this woman.
“Hello, Master. What can I search for tonight? I’ve found some amateur pornography guaranteed to shock and arouse you.”
Kaja took a step back. “I do not think I wish to be shocked.”
She was already shocked by the small woman who hovered above the tablet wearing what appeared to be strips of leather that did not cover her incredibly large breasts. And the minute Kaja spoke, the woman changed, morphing into a much older woman in a business suit.
“Apologies, ma’am. I’ll go into ‘mom mode.’ Now, would you like a rundown of stock quotes?”
Kaja turned away, a little frightened. She looked around, seeking the doorway out. There were double doors with filmy curtains covering them. Kaja walked over and threw them open and gasped. She was no longer in a building, but outside and so close to the sky. Lights twinkled all around her, like fireflies in odd colors. Yellows, pinks, blues, and purples lit up the sky in the distance.
Kaja held on to the door
frame. There was ground beneath her, but she could tell she was high. Very high.
“Kaja, you’re awake.”
She turned her head, and Dante stood at the edge of the railing. Balcony. This was a balcony.
Dante had turned toward her, his handsome face soft in the moonlight. The moon was so big. It was almost as though she could touch it.
“Come here, sweetheart,” Dante said, holding a hand out. “I want to show you something.”
She bit her bottom lip and forced herself to be brave. She stepped onto the balcony. It felt solid under her feet. She walked toward Dante. He was dressed in a suit, the tie loosened and jacket discarded. His hair was back to perfection, and Kaja missed the messiness of before. He looked unattainable again, like a man who had never fought with claws and fangs. But he was still so beautiful to her.
“Look at it, Kaj.” He pulled her to the railing when she placed her hand in his.
She felt her breath blow out of her body. It was stunning. Dante’s arms wrapped around her waist, anchoring her. “It’s so high. Should we be so high?”
He chuckled, his breath warm against her head. “It’s the only way to avoid the pollution, love. You can’t see it at night, but there’s a cloud of bad air that hangs over the surface. Instead of solving the problem, we just built higher. Don’t worry, you’ll never go to the surface in the city. We have walkways and hovercars to take you from building to building.”
“You never touch the ground?”
She felt him shrug behind her. “On vacation, perhaps. There are places that have been kept clean. The farther you get out of the cities, the more likely you are to be able to comfortably dirt walk. But this is our home. This city is called Dallas.”
Dallas. She tasted it on her tongue. Odd-sounding name. And no forests. The balcony had a few trees, but they were rooted in pots, not the earth. The whole world around her looked foreign and alien. Beautiful, but beautiful things could be deadly.
“I’ll show you everything tomorrow,” Dante murmured. He turned her around so she was facing him. “But for now, I don’t think we need to leave our rooms. Are you feeling better?”
She nodded and buried her face in his chest. She felt better here, surrounded by his scent. She felt safer.
“Excellent.” His hands reached down and hooked beneath her knees as he hauled her against his chest. “I have a few things I’ve wanted to do to you.”
She shivered in his arms. “You’re going to spank me?”
It was what he’d promised. She’d violated direct orders. She wasn’t afraid of Dante’s version of punishment.
He smiled down at her, but she didn’t catch that hint of fangs she loved. “Not tonight, sweetheart. I think I would be a bit of an ass if I spanked you when you’re still tired due to blood loss. No, I’m going to take care of you tonight. But don’t think for an instant I’ve forgotten what happened out there. You will answer for your disobedience. I’m actually having a room renovated for that very occasion.”
“There are more rooms?” This one seemed so large. Far too large for the two of them.
“Yes,” Dante replied as the door on the far end of the room swung open. “Susie and Colin are moving to the east wing. We’re taking over this whole wing of the penthouse. We have ten rooms all to ourselves over three floors. Of course, there are also common rooms.”
Well, of course.
“But I don’t want you to worry about any of it, Kaja.” Dante set her on her feet. She was in a plush room that seemed to be made from smooth stone. She recognized one fixture. A huge bathtub dominated the room, but Dante walked to a glass enclosure. He was unbuttoning his shirt as he stood next to it. “Shower. Thirty-five degrees Celsius.”
A waterfall poured from a fixture in the ceiling. Dante shucked the rest of his clothes. With each piece he tossed aside, he shed the civilized man she didn’t understand. Somehow he became something different without the trappings of his culture on his body. He turned to her, and her heart raced. There they were—the fangs she loved. She loved how savage they made him look, how strong and powerful. She loved the way they felt when he drank from her. Without thought, she allowed her neck to roll back.
He was on her before she could breathe, his hand tugging at her hair. “Don’t you dare, consort. Don’t you tempt me. I can see you want it, but there will be none of that.”
Even as he said the words, his head leaned down, and he ran his nose along her neck.
“I am fine.” Kaja felt strong.
He growled. “No, Kaja. I’m beginning to think I should spank you. I ate two meal pills so I wouldn’t feed from you. They taste like ass now. I only want you. You’re a fucking addiction. You’re also still recovering.”
She pressed her neck to his mouth. If he was addicted, then so was she. She never felt closer to him than she did when they were connected like that. “I am fine.”
He gently shoved her away. “Damn it, Kaja. You are pushing me. I’ve had a rough couple of days. I want to be gentle with you. Fuck that. I want to tear into you, but not tonight. You mind me.”
She softened against him. This wasn’t about her. This was about him. He would feel bad if he was rough with her. She could give him that. She let her arms wind around his waist. His cock was already pressing against her belly. She hoped he didn’t intend to be too gentle with her. She could handle the fact that he wouldn’t bite her, but she needed him to make love to her.
She pressed her mouth to his chest. “All right, Dante. I’ll behave.”
He lifted her head up. “No, you won’t. But then that’s one of the things I lo—like about you. And you’re not completely off the hook, love. I need to explain the way relationships work here. I’m in charge of us, Kaja, especially in the bedroom. I’m the one with the fangs. I’m the one who could hurt you, so by the gods, you will listen to me.”
She wanted to roll her eyes. He hadn’t hurt her. He hadn’t even come close. Still, she was learning how to handle her husband. When his voice got rough and hard, she softened. “Yes, Dante.”
It wasn’t as if she were giving up the battle, merely pleasing him. And she’d learned that no matter what he said, he was indulgent with her.
“Oh, like I believe that,” he laughed. “But I’ll take it tonight. Now, this isn’t about punishment, Kaja. This is about getting you ready for some of the things I want to do to you. I don’t know what marriages are like on your plane. I know Fae marriages can be all about respect and treating your wife like a lady. That’s crap, love. You’re my wife. I’m going to do all sorts of filthy things to you because you belong to me. You’re my little toy. I’m going to fuck you as often as I can and in as many ways as my filthy mind can come up with. That’s a strong marriage.”
She had no idea what he was talking about beyond the fact that he was going to fuck her. Yes, she wanted that. Dante’s version of mating was an amazing thing.
His eyes went hard, the irises enlarging. He tugged the nightgown off her body and let it pool on the floor. He stared at her for a moment. Her nipples hardened under his gaze, and she could feel her pussy already getting warm and wet. How did he do this to her?
“Turn around, Kaja. Put your hands on the sink and spread your legs. You’re going to mind me or I won’t fuck you. Do you understand me? I’ve gone without before, and I can do it again. I’ll get you crazy for it, and then I’ll tuck you in bed and we’ll cuddle.”
She turned to him, sure there was an outraged look on her face. “I do not wish to cuddle.”
He slapped her ass. “Then do as I tell you.”
There was a little smile on his face that let her know this wasn’t as serious as he made it out to be. He liked his games. She turned back and did as he asked, the surface cool under her fingers. Marble. The word floated into her brain. She stared down at it. It was lovely and totally foreign. So many new things.
Like the mirror. She could see herself in it. She would never get used to it. She wasn’t sure how much she
liked seeing herself, but she loved watching Dante with her. She watched as he opened a drawer and pulled something out of it.
“Do you want to know what I’m about to do?”
She did and she didn’t. The thing he held in his hand looked like a cock. It was big, with a purple head and a thick stalk. “What is it?”
“This is a training plug, sweetheart. It’s set to expert level. I’ll tone it down a bit.” He pressed something and the cock seemed to shrink. “A bit more manageable. I bought this for you. Normally I would have brought you to the shop with me, but you were in bed. I think I described your ass perfectly though. Tight as a virgin.”
“You spoke of my anus to people?”
He shrugged. “Of course. I have no discretion at all, lover. I’ll talk about how fuckable you are to everyone willing to listen. And when I’ve had a bit too much Scotch, I might put on a show. There’s a club I want to take you to once you settle in a bit. You’ll like it. I’ll spank you, and everyone will see what a gorgeous consort I have.”
His hand was caressing her ass. She didn’t mind the thought of nudity. She rather thought vampires wore clothes far too often. Nor did she have a problem with showing her love for her husband in a public way. He was beautiful. She was smart for having him.
“Though, we’ll have to make sure it’s not a night when Susie is there. Gods, I walked into The Club one night and Susie was there with Colin. I swear I went blind for a week. I promptly told the man who owns The Club that he needed to inform me if I was going to run into my sister. Now there’s a scary vampire. I’ll introduce you to Julian someday. He’s fairly terrifying, in a perfectly polite way, of course.”
She wasn’t sure she wanted to meet this Julian person, but she was happy that Dante had settled down. He was talking a mile a minute, which meant he was comfortable. And his hands were doing amazing things. He got down on his knees, his body disappearing from sight.
Kaja gasped as she felt his hands on the cheeks of her ass. What was he going to do? He’d said he was preparing her. Kaja had a suspicion.
