“Maybe we need more skin to skin time,” I suggested. “Then we can try to eat afterward.”
“She might be right,” Rhys admitted. “We all lost something and it hasn’t really settled into our minds, and souls, that we have it back.”
“Can we do the binding now?” I asked. “Without eating?”
“If we use the extra power that’s in the necklace,” Nico said and pointed at my necklace, the gift I had received from the kings for ending the war.
“Okay, let’s do this,” Rhys said and held his hand out to me. I took it and let him pull me to my feet.
Chapter 9
They said that normally, the queen would take the guards one by one, but since we wanted to conserve magical power and energy, we were going to do it for everyone at once. All four faced me, on one of their knees, and had their heads bowed. I touched each of their heads and then touched the necklace. The necklace glowed, and the magic began to flow into me.
“Will you, Rhys, Nico, Deryn, and Foxfire, become my guards, my protectors, and keep my life safe even if it means giving up your own?” I asked, my voice sounding louder and otherworldly.
“Yes,” they replied in unison.
“Will you protect me above everyone else, even above your king, your mate, and your family?”
“Yes.”
“Will you promise to love me until our last breaths?” I asked. I had added this part in, going off script.
“Yes,” they replied without hesitation.
“I bind you, Rhys, Nico, Deryn, and Foxfire, to me, Jolie, as my guards, as your queen, until our last breaths.”
All four looked up at me. “Yes, my queen,” they replied.
From my chest, four strands grew, like tentacles, and continued to grow until they connected with each one of the princes. The instant the strands attached to them, energy surged into my body and my back arched as I gasped in pleasure.
Their echoing gasps led me to believe they had felt it as well.
“I am your guard. You are my queen. My sword is yours. My fangs and claws are yours. I will protect you until my final breath,” all four said and stood.
“You are my guard. I am your queen,” I replied.
The spell ended and the power disappeared, leaving me weak. I dropped to my knees in front of the princes. They reached out their hands and I flopped onto my side on the ground, so they could all touch my body as I tried to catch my breath.
“The necklace will need to be recharged, my queen,” Nico whispered.
I nodded in understanding, rolling my head to the side so that I could look at them. “Now, you are all stuck with me.”
“Pretty sure it is the other way around, my queen,” Nico chuckled and stroked his hand down my cheek.
“I love you four. More than anything,” I told them.
Their hands tightened on me. “I love you, too, my queen,” they said.
“Is that going to be a common thing now?” I asked.
“Yes, my queen,” Deryn said. “It’s pretty much programmed into us that we are supposed to refer to you by that title.”
“Can’t I order you not to call me it?” I asked. If I was their queen, I should be able to order them to stop doing things.
“No, my queen,” Rhys said and smirked. “Nice try, though.”
“What do I call you?” I asked.
“Guard,” Rhys said. “Though, you can still call us prince if you want to.”
“So, I can yell, ‘Guards, fetch me my crown!’?”
Rhys smirked and said, “Yes.”
“Really? Do I get a crown?” Not that I wanted one.
“We can get you one, if you want,” Deryn offered.
“A really shiny one with lots of diamonds and jewels,” Fox agreed.
“Has to be super expensive,” Rhys added.
“At least half a million dollars,” Nico agreed.
“Whoa,” I ordered them.
“We definitely need to have it enchanted, which will double its price easily,” Rhys said.
“I should really learn how to enchant things,” Nico said and rubbed his chin. “I wonder how long it would take me to learn?”
“I’m honestly surprised you don’t already know how to do that,” I admitted to him.
“I started to learn, but it was boring and I wanted to focus more on combative spells,” Nico told me.
“Maybe I should learn how to do it,” I said. “It could be a second income for me.”
“I really wish you would just let us provide for you,” Rhys muttered and folded his arms across his chest. “We make more than enough money individually to provide for you.”
“I have to make my own money. I have to contribute in some way. I don’t want to freeload off of you guys.”
“You could play video games all day,” Deryn tempted me.
“That is really tempting, but I wouldn’t feel right. I would feel like a gold digger or something.”
“Remember her face when she figured out you were a prince?” Nico asked Rhys.
Rhys nodded. “I was terrified she was going to freak out and never talk to me again.”
“I considered it,” I teased him.
“No, you didn’t,” he said.
“Maybe,” I shrugged.
“She was going to faint at first,” Rhys told the others. “I thought I was going to have to catch her.”
“Whatever,” I said and rolled my eyes at him.
They laughed and I sighed happily as I felt their love and happiness through our bonds. Yes! Once again, I was full and warm. I finally had them inside of me and filling me up. I didn’t believe in fate, but I truly believed they were meant to be part of me. Without them, I had felt too empty.
“Cuddle puddle?” Fox asked.
I nodded. “Yes.”
Everyone changed into pajamas and then we got into the massive bed, Rhys lying above my head, Nico on my right, Deryn on my left, and Fox at my feet. Fox hugged my feet to his chest and said, “If you told me that I would be cuddling a female’s feet, I would have told you that you were insane. Yet, here I am, cuddling your feet and happier than a wolf with a bone.”
“I know what you mean,” Rhys agreed.
“If you had told me that I would be in love with four males at once, especially four Other princes, I would have laughed in your face,” I told them.
“I still can’t believe you turned your ex-boyfriends on us,” Deryn grumbled.
“I knew they would do what I asked,” I said. “Plus, they’re probably the only ones, aside from your father’s, who are capable of holding you back for at least a few moments.”
“I can’t believe Ezio withdrew from the Tournament,” Deryn whispered. “He was so set on winning you for a mate and proving himself.”
“He could tell that I love you,” I said. “He doesn’t want to take me as a mate if I won’t love him.”
“You do care for him, though,” Deryn said.
“I’ll always care about him, but we aren’t meant to be together. I tried to explain that to him when I left, but he was as obstinate as you four are. He was adamant that what happened wasn’t that bad and—”
“What did happen?” Deryn asked.
Crap. I’d opened the door for that question.
“We were out on a date,” I told them. “He was taking me to dinner at a nice restaurant, but on the way there, an ogre attacked us. He killed the ogre pretty quickly, but it turned out to be a herd of ogres rampaging through the city. When they heard their companion’s death yell, they rushed us. Ezio would have been fine, but he was trying to keep me safe. One of the ogres got close to me and he had to try to help, which left him open and the damn ogre drew a dagger and nearly cut his hand off. There was so much blood and his hand was barely hanging on by a thread. Ezio acted like it was a fucking flesh wound and continued fighting, putting his arm into his jacket to keep his hand from completely falling off. I threw up all over and was a mess when he finally defeated them
all.”
“How many were there?” Rhys asked.
“A dozen at least,” I whispered. “I remember counting eleven severed heads as we walked away from the bodies. He had killed a few more without decapitating them though, so I’m not positive how many there were.”
“Dan said you got really angry when you saw Rhys hurt in the Tournament,” Fox commented.
I nodded. “I was about to shift into a dragon and beat some sense into Ezio. Emrys forced me to calm down, but it wasn’t easy.”
Rhys slipped his fingers through my hair and said, “I appreciate your concern, but that really was just a flesh wound.”
“Maybe you guys just bleed way too much,” I commented.
“There was a lot of blood at the place Justina tortured you,” Nico whispered.
“You went there?” I asked in disbelief. Why would he go there?
“Yes,” he nodded. “I wanted to see what had almost traumatized Martin.
“What do you mean?”
“He kept saying that he didn’t know how you could survive when you had lost so much blood.”
“Thor gave me some of his blood,” I told them. “The healer hooked him up to me somehow, my eyes were closed so I couldn’t see, but he let me take some of Thor’s blood to keep me from dying.”
“I hope we find her soon,” Rhys growled. “I’m going to show her the true meaning of torture.”
“You say the sweetest things,” I whispered with a chuckle and reached up to link our fingers together. “I don’t want you guys going anywhere near her.”
“Too bad,” Rhys growled.
“I order you not to seek her out,” I snapped. Something sharp and cold zipped down our bonds and the guys hissed. “Uh, what happened?”
“You gave us a direct order,” Rhys said.
“Now, we can’t disobey or it will physically hurt us,” Nico told me.
“I’m sorry!” I yelled and sat up. “I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to. I mean, I did, but not like that. Can I take it back? What can I do—”
“It’s alright,” Fox assured me, grabbing my hand in his. “You meant the order, or it wouldn’t have been issued like that. We will abide by your order and not seek her out. However, if we see her, or if someone else finds her, we will still get our revenge.”
“Don’t forget,” Nico said, “she hurt us too. You weren’t the only one affected by her severing the bonds.”
“We want our pound of salt too,” Rhys said adamantly.
I collapsed back down on the bed. “Are there any other important things I should know about being your queen now?”
“Even if you order us to, we cannot hurt you,” Fox told me.
“Like, even spankings?”
That got all four of them laughing again.
“As long as we aren’t actually hurting you, we can enjoy whatever rough sexual fun you want. But, if it hurts you, we won’t be able to do it,” Rhys explained.
“What about choking?” I asked.
Nico let out a bark of laughter and shook his head. “Since when do you want that?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t say I did, but I like having options. Choking might be fun every once in a while.”
“Oh, boy,” Fox exhaled. “I feel like she just became an even bigger handful. How is that even possible?”
“We should all know by now not to underestimate Jolie,” Rhys teased.
“Ha. Ha,” I muttered.
“Go to sleep, my queen. Tomorrow will be a busy day,” Nico said and scooted closer to me, resting his head on my shoulder.
“Can’t we just run away?” I whined. “We could elope! You know, run off without telling anyone to become mates! It’s super romantic and I’m sure the kings would forgive us.”
“No,” they all said at the same time.
“So, unromantic,” I sighed. “For princes, you aren’t very fairytale like. You’re supposed to be super sweet and romantic. You’re supposed to sweep me off my feet.”
“We do that on a daily basis,” Rhys rumbled, his voice heavy with sleep.
I always envied how quickly he fell asleep.
“We can sweep you off your feet tomorrow,” Fox said around a yawn.
“Fine,” I agreed, feeling my eyes growing heavier as well.
It seemed like seconds had passed by, but when I awoke screaming and crying, the clock showed it had been five hours.
“What?” Deryn asked, growling and throwing his arms around me.
“Sorry,” I sobbed and leaned into his touch. “Nightmare.”
He pulled my head to his chest and rubbed my back. Nico rubbed my lower back, where Deryn couldn’t reach. Fox ran his hand up and down one of my legs and Rhys pet my hair.
“What happened?” Nico asked.
“Memory, not nightmare,” I whispered.
“Losing us?” Deryn guessed.
I nodded. All four moved closer to me, projecting their feelings of love down our bond, and soon, my body relaxed and I fell asleep again.
Martin waited in the hallway when we came out and walked next to me to go get breakfast. “How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Pretty well,” I admitted and looked at my arms. “I feel stronger today than I did yesterday.”
“Good,” he said with a sigh. “I was really worried about you.”
I hugged him and pecked him on his cheek. “Thank you.”
We entered the dining hall to chaos. Hundreds of reporters swarmed around the front half of the dining hall, bombarding Amos with questions so fast, he couldn’t even answer them.
“There she is now,” Amos declared, a predatory smirk on his face. “You are free to ask her questions.”
“Asshole,” I muttered.
The princes stepped in front of me, but that didn’t deter the media.
“Jolie! Is it true that you bound the four princes to you?”
“Why?”
“What are you after?”
“I’m after some food!” I growled.
“Come,” Ezio said behind me. I turned and he linked our fingers together, pulling me away from my guards, and towards a table where my other exes sat.
“Hey,” I said and waved at them.
Declan stood to pull my chair out for me and then pushed it in for me as well. He kissed my cheek and returned to his seat. Ezio sat next to me after kissing my other cheek.
“Thank you, for holding the princes back the other day,” I said. I opened my napkin and put it on my lap, knowing I was likely to spill on myself since I was wearing a light blue dress that would easily stain.
“Orange juice?” Kylan asked.
“Yes, please,” I replied and pushed my glass towards him.
“You are welcome,” Ezio said and then leaned closer to me. “But, if you ever order us to do something that results in your near death again, I will steal you away and lock you up in a tower where no one will find us.”
He wasn’t joking. Ezio’s eyes were dead serious.
I swallowed and then nodded, unsure if my voice would work properly if I tried to use it.
“Yeah,” Yukio said, “that was really awful. We felt responsible for your pain.”
“Is it true that they’re your guards?” Zelphar asked.
I nodded. “Yes, they are.”
“I heard your kidnapper cut your bonds though,” Thor whispered.
“She did, but those were bonds that added me to their warrior’s bond. They accepted me as their queen last night,” I explained. It was nice to get to tell people the truth. I really preferred this to keeping secrets.
“Are you going to take them as mates?” Ezio asked, a strange fire in his eyes that I couldn’t place. Was it jealousy? Anger?
“I don’t know,” I lied.
“Liar,” he accused.
“I haven’t taken them as mates,” I said.
“Thor said you were cursed,” Ezio commented.
I nodded. “I was.”
“So, you weren’t
wrong when you told me you needed to leave because you were cursed,” he said softly.
“I didn’t know I had it then. I just assumed I did because of all of the bad shit that kept happening to me,” I admitted to him.
“Still,” he whispered, “to know that you actually were cursed back then. I feel like an ass.”
“You were a bit of an ass,” I teased, “but, you also nearly lost your hand to keep me alive.”
“I’d lose my head if I needed to,” he told me.
“She’s got enough guards,” Deryn growled.
“The offer is open still,” Ezio said with a smirk and winked at me.
“I am not rising to your bait this time,” Deryn said, setting his hands on my shoulders.
Everyone at the table zeroed in on his hands.
“Guys,” I growled.
Their eyes moved to my face. “He’s one of my guards, remember? He’s allowed to touch me. Plus, I’m not with any of you any longer. We broke up years ago.”
“It still bothers us,” Ezio said. “We all love you, haven’t stopped loving you, and you’ve been through a lot. We are all worried about you.”
“You don’t need to worry about her any longer,” Rhys said, coming to stand on my left side. “We’ll protect her.”
“You’d better,” Ezio snarled. “If she gets hurt, or killed, I’m coming after all four of your asses. Princes or not, I don’t give a shit. You protect her or I’ll kill you myself.”
“We’ll die before we let her die,” Fox promised.
“Good,” Ezio said and returned to eating.
I sipped on my orange juice and sighed. Males were so territorial and aggressive.
“What would you like to eat?” Nico asked, squatting down on my right side.
“Waffles, eggs, and bacon!” I ordered, suddenly feeling ravenous.
“Scrambled eggs?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yes, please.”
“Anything else?” he asked.
“A kiss?” I whispered.
He smiled and brushed his lips across mine. They barely touched before he was gone, off to order my food.
“What happened with the media?” I asked.
“We gave them what they wanted. We admitted that you are our queen. We told them that we were the ones who asked you, since that is true. We told them that we in no way regret this decision and plan to try to earn your love to become your mates, but that we may not be worthy of being your mates,” Rhys said.
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