A Price for a Princess (11 page)

"Well, it's not abnormal here.  For some creatures, they are the last of their kind, so if there is a female, the males will often share her so that they all have a chance to breed children.  Or if there are no more females, like some of the ancient bears such as your protectors, they will take a human to mate."

"Take a human?"

"Sometimes they will abduct from your realm, but even those that are abducted are treated as treasured brides and not mistreated in any way."

I opened my mouth to protest that kidnapping wasn't the way to start a family, but I shut it instead.  I really needed to learn more about this realm and stop being so judgmental. 

"Why human?  Why not shifters or other supernatural creatures?"

"Humans can mate with another supernatural species and have children that share both traits.  With some types of supernatural creatures that won't happen.  When you're the last of your kind, having a half-child is better than no children at all."

I peeked up at him, "Would you have abducted me even though I'm a shifter?"

"Oh yeah."  He purred with a smile, "In a heartbeat."

He sighed contentedly, his hand running smooth and soothing lines up and down my back.  "Good night, honey kitten."

"Good night, Ekho."

Chapter 10

The only sounds around us on the road from Netic Springs to Lorence were the ones we made ourselves.  As we left the edge of the still-dark city, the forests on either side of the wide dirt road were entirely quiet.  The movements of the cat-men and Dire Wolves around us,  the gentle clip-clop of Perseus', Odin's and Finn's hooves, and the tapping of Ekho's walking stick.  And also the grumbling, quiet argument between Rysk and Tyrant quite a ways behind us.

The fifteen hour journey had begun just after dawn.  I was positively exhausted after Ekho had turned out to be quite a horny mate, waking me three times to make love.  I wasn't complaining, except now I was monstrously tired and more than a little sore.

Leaning my cheek against Perseus' back, I yawned softly and opened my eyes, watching as Ekho looked over his shoulder at Rysk and Tyrant.

Odin sighed to my right, "What the hell is their problem?"

Ekho grinned at me when he saw me watching him.  "They're pretty unhappy."

"Maybe they were holding out hope that if you made it to the prince before you met Ekho that you would feel the mate-call to him as well."  Perseus offered.

"I don't think the prince is meant to be my mate.  I only ever dreamed about you two.  I would think he'd have been in the dreams if I was meant to have three husbands."

"I'd think so, too."  Perseus chuckled.

Ekho said, "Aedan is rumored to be the last short-nosed bear in existence.  They aren't able to shift until they find their truemate.  Maybe they think that because you are so important to the wizard that you're special enough to be his truemate, too."

I shifted on Perseus, drawing my arms tighter around him.  "If that were true, why would I have also felt the mate-call to you two?"

Perseus' hands rested on top of mine, his long fingers playing lightly over my skin.  "I don't know," he said finally, "but you belong to us and Aedan won't take you away from us."

"I wasn't planning to go anywhere."  I yawned again, exhaustion plucking at the edges of my mind.

"We weren't planning to let you go anyway, honey kitten," Ekho chuckled, running his palm across my leg.

I dozed, uncomfortably, on Perseus' back, as we moved along the road and the sun began to come up.

I felt hands on me, pulling me gently from my perch on Perseus, and I groaned at the fresh aches in my body as Ekho tucked me into his furry chest.  "Wake up, honey kitten," he purred softly, carrying me in his arms.  "We're stopping to clean up and eat."

I drug my eyes open, long enough to see we were in a hut with a thatched roof.  He put me down on a bed but pulled me up to a sitting position and I groaned and stretched, squeaking at the crick in my neck.  "I'm not so comfortable for long treks, am I?"  Perseus said sheepishly, his hooves stamping just outside the open door front door.

I smiled at him, "It's not you, it's me.  I don't think I was made for treks."

What I didn't say was that lots of sex plus riding a horse for hours on end wasn't the best of ideas.  But I couldn't regret anything that had happened between us.  With Ekho, I felt like a part of myself that had been missing was suddenly found and with the two of them, I was complete.

Ekho tugged on the bottom hem of my dress, "I want to see the marks."

I peered around him and found a small family of what looked like humans sitting at a table in the corner.  "Really?"

He looked behind him, his tail swishing, and shrugged.  "Where can we bathe?  I need to tend the princess' wounds."

"Oh hell, Ekho, would you please not announce me to everyone?"  I groused.

He chuckled, "You are who you are, princess."

I tweaked his side as I slipped from the bed to follow the human man outside.  "I prefer to be honey kitten, thanks all the same."

Perseus fell into step with us.  "Do you know what a honey kitten is?"

Ekho stifled a chuckle and I looked at him first and then Perseus.  "No."

"A woman whose pussy juice is sweet like honey, but just for her mate."

All the blood in my body rushed to my face in a hot blush as Ekho tried to stop from laughing.  Ekho finally got his laughter under control enough to say, "Mates.  Sweet like honey for her mates."  Perseus murmured his agreement with a chuckle.

I gave Ekho a shove on the shoulder and he started to laugh again.  "So every time you say honey kitten, anyone that knows about Leonemen knows that I'm, uh, sweet for you?"  Even talking about it in abstract made me blush harder.  I felt faint.

"Pretty much."  He flashed me a wide grin.  "Don't worry, it's a compliment.

Oh sure.  Only a man would think that telling the world a woman's pussy was sweet would be a compliment.

The man from the hut stopped in front of a stream where the cat-men, Odin, and Finn were cleaning up further down.  "This is where we bathe.  The water is warm this time of year, fed by a hot spring.  It's deep in the middle, but no dangerous creatures dwell there."

Good to know.  The man moved away quickly, stopping only to speak to Rysk and Tyrant who looked over at me unhappily.  I left Ekho and Perseus at the bank of the stream for a moment and walked over to them.  They dismissed the man and he scurried back to the hut.

"Why are you guys so angry with me?  I found my mates; you should be happy for me."

Rysk shook his head, "We are happy that you found your mates, princess, but the prince was so certain you were meant for him.  You were supposed to bring peace to our kingdom."

"I thought I was just supposed to be kept safe while you guys figure out what to do about Urijah."  Every time they opened their mouths, something I thought I knew was proven a lie and something new was added.

Tryant sighed, "When the prince learned that you were in danger and he could protect you, he sent us out immediately to get you.  He wants you for his own, princess, because he believes you're fated to be together."

I reached for their hands, squeezing them.  "I only ever dreamed about Perseus and Ekho, I never dreamed about a third husband.  I won't accept losing Perseus and Ekho.  They're mine and I'm theirs.  You call me Madala,
Destiny
, and I found my destiny here in this realm with my mates."

They pulled their hands from me, regret on their faces.  "You must make your own path, princess," Tyrant said.

I turned to walk away and then stopped, turning back.  "Why do you call me princess?"

"Because Aedan ordered it."  Rysk said.

I nodded, telling them that I was going to bathe with my husbands.  They left the Dire Wolves to guard us and returned to the hut.

By the time I got back to the small river, we were alone except for the wolves.  Perseus had shifted into his fully human form and Ekho had stripped himself of his trousers and boots while they waited.  It took only seconds for them to divest me of my clothes and tug me into the stream.  As the man had said, the water was warm, and when we moved into the center of the stream, it was deep enough to reach the bottom of my breasts.  Ekho removed the bandage over my shoulder where four ragged claw marks were still angry red, stretching from just over my right breast to my shoulder.  After prodding it gently, he declared it was healing fine now and would eventually fade to a lighter shade than my skin tone and I didn't need to bandage it anymore.  Ekho lathered a bar of soap as Perseus and I dunked under, and between the three of us, eventually we got clean.

Ekho laid out a blanket on the soft grass on the side of the bank and we stretched out to air dry, the warm breeze like a caress across our skin as I laid between them and looked up at the cloud dotted sky.  "You won't, if that's what you're wondering."  Perseus said quietly, taking my hand in his.

"Won't what?"  I asked, wondering if he was psychic.

"You won't be a princess in this realm when Aedan realizes you aren't his mate."  Damn it, he really was psychic.

"And I won't have his protection, either, I suppose," worry skating through me not for the first time.

"You will.  Urijah is after you, and if he were to succeed in his quest for power, this realm would be hit the worst.  There would be loss on an epic scale.  Whether you are his fated mate or not is irrelevant in some ways, because he would do anything to keep the kingdom safe."  Perseus said.

"What is a fated mate?"

"Two that are born to be together.  Fated mates are things of legend.  There haven't been any for centuries."  Perseus said.

"And fated mates are only one for one, there is no sharing no matter the species."  Ekho said.

"Do they dream share?"

"No idea."  Ekho answered.  I reached for their hands that were both resting on my stomach.

Perseus tipped my chin so that I was looking at him.  "The connection between the three of us is complete.  None of us ever dreamed about four, just us three.  It doesn't matter what he believes about you.  You can't fake being a truemate; either you are or you aren't." 

Ekho kissed my shoulder.  "And you can't be his fated one-and-only, because you already have two very possessive husbands."

Sufficiently dry and wanting to escape the heavy conversation on something I had no control over, I suggested we head inside and get something to eat before heading out again.  Perseus stayed in his human form so he could eat with us at the table, and the man and his family, who didn't introduce themselves to us, served us a meal of a thick, meaty stew and flat bread.  Jandor told us that in a few hours we would approach the area where camps would line the dirt road like tiny tent cities.  Some of the camps would be friendly, but we wouldn't be taking any chances.

After the meal was ended, Perseus shifted to his horse form and Ekho added a thick folded blanket for me to sit on, which helped a great deal.

As we approached the first of the tent cities, the Dire Wolves made a large circle around us, all of them in their large wolf shifted form.  Tyrant walked in front and Rysk behind, and the cat-men tightened around us.  Ekho rode on Finn's back to my left so we could stay tighter together, and Odin was to my right.  My bear prowled in my mind, worry forming a tight ball in my gut.

The first tent city had a dozen hide tents arranged like lean-tos.  Campfires glowed brightly and there were women and children among the men, who were dark skinned with silver hair.

"Those are night elves."  Odin said.  "They draw magic from the full moon."

"Why are they out here instead of in a city like Netic Springs?"  I asked, watching a young boy whose silver hair reached his knees play with a small furry white creature.

"A lot of those that choose to live along this stretch of road don't trust outsiders.  Even a place like Netic Springs requires a certain amount of interaction with other creatures."  Finn answered.  "Night Elves are like the gypsies of your realm.  They only want to be with their own kind."