Dark Throne, The (29 page)

There was however, a time and a place to these
altercations
. And in the
middle of the day, with advisors toing and froing in his office, he
didn’t want to be dealing with the juvenile arguments that his wife
tended to bring to him.

He couldn’t deny that he’d never seen her like
this
. It perplexed him and
saddened him. Her character possessed a cool control that
ordinarily, made her standoffish. In this situation, she was so out
of her depth that she was clinging to their daughter and trying to
control
her
.

It was a most distressing time, because he knew from
Setta’s
behavior, that they
were going to lose Heather before they even had the chance to have
her.

Behind his desk, he watched as Setta strode in but rather
than complain about the myriad things she had taken to discussing
where Heather was concerned, she took a seat before his desk and
simply sat in silence
.

He made no attempt to talk to her, took the peace for the
blessing it was and began to study the papers a
councilor had handed to him an hour or so ago. It
dealt with a disturbance on the borderlands, some fools had started
a riot with the soldiers on the frontier. What did they expect? To
be patted on the back and allowed to attack?

Shaking his head at the thought and at the waste of the ten
lives that had been lost and the other six who might as well have
died
, Jenderian law was very
firm in such situations. Those half a dozen would be in jail until
their hair was as grey as their arses.

He disliked sentencing people with such high punishments,
but it was the Jenderian way
.
The way of protecting and preventing crime from occurring. He was
proud to say that their jails weren’t full and they only had three
in the entire country. So they were doing something
right.

Time passed and Setta still sat there in
silence
. He was accustomed to
his wife’s presence as he worked and while she possessed the
wherewithal to only disturb him from his studies with light chatter
every now and then, such silence was strange.

“
What has happened now?” His voice was gruff and he knew,
bored
.

They’d lost out on t
heir only child’s life and Henrik could only surmise that
it wasn’t the ill they’d always believed it to be. Setta, quite
clearly, couldn’t handle being a parent. This was something that
came as a shock to him, for whatever task she set herself to, she
usually did it well.

Of course, the situation was a difficult one for everyone
involved, but they did hit mothers the hardest
.

As such, he sought and found patience and chided her,
“Come, Setta
. What is the
matter?”

Her mouth trembled and as she turned to him, his breath
caught in his chest
. She was
as beautiful as the day he’d wed her, even with her eyes puffy and
red and her mouth slightly raw from having bitten and gnawed at her
lips in anxiety.

“
She hates me
. And I
can understand why.
Entirely
. As soon as
the words leave my mouth, I flinch at my own stupidity but I cannot
help myself. I might think one thing, those words might be on the
tip of my tongue but as soon as I speak, I say inflammatory things
that drive her away.” She shook her head, when he opened his arms
to try and bring her closer, a silent encouragement for her to come
and sit on his lap. “I hate myself for talking to her the way I do
and I hate that she’ll bring up something from her past and that
something will die inside of me, because of what she said.” Setta
swallowed the sound thick in her obviously dry throat. “Did you
know she almost died? Did she tell you that?”

Henrik frowned
. “No.
She didn’t. What do you mean?”

“
Apparently, there is something called bullee-mea on
Earth
.” She pronounced the
word carefully and tightened her lips again. “It made her so thin
that she almost died.”

His eyes widened
. “But
she is okay now? This disease won’t return, will it?”

“
No
. I don’t know.
Maybe. Her words seemed to imply that it relies upon her state of
mind. And of course, I just had to say something that would upset
her.” Her chin wobbled. “She shouted at me and I totally deserved
it. I told her to lose some weight, because of her dress.” He
grunted and she winced. “My mother told me the exact same thing,
Henrik.
A bride can never be
too slender
… those were her
words. How was I to know that they’d cause her
suffering?”

“
We are unaware of the details of Heather’s childhood,
Setta
. We must approach her
past with care and diligence. Such a situation as this one is
explosive and undoubtedly, there are more like this.”

“
I fear that you are correct
. The idea of Heather suffering is like a knife to the
stomach. We weren’t there for her and as soon as Fade takes her to
wife, we shall lose her again. A part of me wishes that we had
never bonded them as children, but he makes her so happy that I
feel hideously guilty for even thinking of that.” She sighed, the
sound shaky.

“
It is past, Setta
. We
cannot change what is already set in stone and neither should we
want to. As you have said, Fade makes her incredibly happy and
knowing of his childhood and adulthood, I imagine that she provides
the same succor for him. They will make a good match. Plus without
him, Heather would never have returned to Mearth. You should be
grateful to him.

“
The only danger we have of losing our daughter again,
Setta, is if you fail to hold your tongue
. I understand that you think it is some subconscious
trick, that no matter how you try to keep quiet the words burst
free from you, but you shall have to cease such thinking. It is
time to make amends, wife.

“
There is no reason for them to live in
Haden
. No reason at all.
Indeed, I would imagine that Fade detests the country, after all,
it is the source of his shunning. Here, we are more free, more
open. Even our lowest-born serfs do not cower at the sight of his
wings. I know for a fact that the people of Haden have not been
kind to their Crown Prince. Of course, that no doubt stems from the
blood lost in battles instigated by his father in an effort to bind
himself to a wife who could beget him another male heir.” He shook
his head at the other King’s folly. “You must change your ways, if
you do, then they will spend time at this palace, rather than
living entirely at the seat of the Dark Throne. You want that,
don’t you? To be a part of her life? To see the children that come
from their match?”

“
Of course, I do
.”
Setta’s words quivered with longing.

In her gown of teal and silver
milen
, a smooth
and silken fabric that clung to her still-shapely form, she was as
tense as rabbit in the hunter’s sights. Her hands were clutching a
sodden handkerchief that had obviously mopped many a
blau
tear. Colored tears were unique to a Mearthen mother,
Setta’s obvious distress upset him greatly.

With the advent of t
heir daughter’s nuptials, with her presence after living so
long without her, any tears Setta shed should have been a
bright
yellen
for happiness. Not the
cerulean
blau
of sadness.

“
Then you must find a way to control your
tongue
. Surely that cannot be
so hard. You have reigned as Queen for a handful of decades. You
were taught diplomacy at your mother’s teat.” She flushed at his
crass words, but it was the truth and he felt no shame for using
such a term. “You must use your head, because I will be sorely
angry if we lose our only daughter for good.”

He hadn’t meant to be churlish with her
, he truly understood the difficulties she was
having in adjusting to their daughter’s presence in their lives.
When they’d last seen her, Heather had been a toddler, edging out
of that phase of her life and into her fifth year. And now, here
she was, fully grown and ready to live. Yet again, without their
full presence in her life.

While he did understand, he could not diminish the fact
that she would be at fault for driving Heather
away
.

“
I shall try
, that is
all I can do, Henrik. I’m sorry.”

“
Don’t be a fool, Setta
. You can do more than try. This is our daughter, for the
sake of Mother Mearth. If it means not opening your bloody mouth,
then do it. I’m old,
too
old for this
squabbling. I want peace and tranquility. Not all of these
fights.”

She bowed her head, but twitched it in a faint
nod
.

He sucked in a breath and settled back in his
chair
. The pair of them sat
there in silence until another advisor came with another set of
papers requiring Henrik’s attention.

Heather moaned as Fade’s cock pierced her pussy with its
thick, almost bulbous head
. It
filled her to capacity and that should have frightened her, or at
least terrified her vagina. But instead of any hesitation, it
welcomed his dick with warm, sticky juices.

Her back arched, neck tilting backwards so that the crown
of her head was resting on her pillow as he pumped
deeper
. Branding every swollen
inch of her pussy with his hardness. When he was fully seated, she
inhaled sharply and released the breath slowly. He was so wide and
long that there was a faint discomfort, but it was well worth
it.

Any pang of unease at being so entirely penetrated so much
so that she felt sure he was nudging her throat, dissipated as soon
as he wafted his wings
.

He did it sometimes, not often, but she thought it was a
way of seeking control
. He
tensed the muscles in his spine, which urged those of his wings
into action.

Of course, her reaction was to cream instantly and for her
senses to spike with tingling heat
.

Christ, the scent of him, his essence did more for her than
orgasms had in the past
.

As her body
reveled in
it, she closed her eyes and shuddered as now blinded, her other
sensory organs came into play.

Her nose could pick up that faint tang of Fade as though it
were a pungent smell
. Her ears
could hear the bristle of his feathers as his wings moved. Her skin
was slick and almost glued to his. Their mouths had broken apart at
his penetration, but the taste of him was heady on her
tongue.

She was lost in a quagmire of sensation and she groaned,
when he broke it
. Only that
groan shifted into a high-pitched mewl, when he dragged his hips
backwards and then shoved them forwards. He did this for endless
moments, his cock pulsing against weeping, aching tissue. When he
pulled out, his cock head actually breaching her entrance- only in
the wrong direction- she grunted and tried to force him back by
digging her heels into his butt. He was stronger than her, damn his
hide, and so managed to inveigle his way out of her
hold.

Heather was on the brink of shouting at him, frustration
riding her hard, but when his head sank down the length of her
torso and disappeared between her thighs… well, Heather thought her
nerves were about to pop, so tense were they with
expectancy
.

That first brush of his tongue had her
panting
. The slight suckle of
his mouth about her clit had a keening cry bursting from her lungs.
She thought she was about to explode but her body seemed intent on
denying her. Every part of her thrummed with tension, as his tongue
began to fuck her. The tensile muscle branding her as efficiently
as his dick had but with a delicacy that had her blood throbbing
through her veins. So intense was the sensation that she felt
faint.

She gasped when he came to a halt with a final suckle on
her clit
. She was a few
seconds away from a climax. She both dreaded and longed for the
thrust of his cock. When it finally came, when his thickness
pummeled into her, she gave a silent scream. Her breath escaped her
as the orgasm burst upon her. It attacked her with its ferocity.
Searing nerve endings that had never before been
touched.

Every part of her tensed, as the sensations built up to
tidal wave proportions
. With
one more thrust the implosion commenced, the water, or in this case
juices, gushed. Her entire body remained locked in a pose that had
all the sinews and tendons in her musculature screaming. It didn’t
take long for the delicious burst of Fade’s cum to splash against
the quivering walls of her sex and rather than ignite another
climax, his release calmed her, unlocked those clenched muscles and
enabled her to breathe again.

Claimed
.