Beauty [A Faery Story 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (29 page)

“Really? I don’t think I overlooked a thing. When Torin falls, and I will see that bastard fall if it is the last thing I do, Bronwyn will assume the crown and my brothers will be kings. My father will step down and the triumvirate will rule both planes.” Gillian made her announcement with a brutal practicality.

“That will be interesting to see.” Roan crossed his arms over his chest and smirked, his fangs peeking out.

Dante sighed a bit before making his point. “I believe Their Majesties, Beckett, Cian, and Megan Finn will have something to say about that when they reclaim their throne. Or were you planning on Bronwyn going to war with her brothers? I assure you I love my cousin, but I will not allow her to claim her brothers’ rightful throne. Certainly not when she would be an Unseelie puppet. But then your brothers would be puppets, too. You want to be the power behind the throne.”

Shim stared at his sister, Dellacourt’s words sinking in. “Gillian, Lach and I have no intentions of fighting with the Seelies.”

“We’re taking Bronwyn home. We’re going to make sure she’s safe,” Lach said. “Her brothers can have this plane.”

Gillian rounded on them both, her eyes alive with fire and anger. “Where is your bloody ambition, brothers? I don’t care that the Finns bonded or that they think they can waltz in after thirteen long years and reclaim their throne as if they never ran.”

“They had to run,” Dellacourt argued. “And don’t think they haven’t tried to fight.”

“Well, as I’ve been alone and protecting their sister, you’ll have to forgive me for saying that they didn’t try hard enough.” Gillian’s fists were clenched at her sides. “I have fought and protected her. I will not allow them to come in and claim that which I have sacrificed for. I will speak to father. He will see reason. If my brothers don’t want the bloody crown, I’ll take it myself. I’ll take it by right of blood. I’ll bring an Unseelie army back. Father will support me.”

“Your father wants you safe,” Roan said, his eyes hooded.

“My father trusts me, vampire. And you have nothing to do with it.” She dismissed him utterly.

“Your father promised me a boon if I carried this off. Would you like to know what that boon is, princess? Your father has spent too much of his time mourning. He needs someone to come in and train his forces in modern warfare. He would feel so much safer if the general of his army was also his son-in-law.”

“Bloody hell, Roan. Did you have to tell her that now?” Dellacourt asked, cool green eyes rolling.

Shim knew he should be shocked, but he wasn’t. Gillian was a royal. She wouldn’t be marrying the stableboy. She’d planned to offer herself as bondmate to the Seelie twins. She couldn’t be shocked that their father offered her up to the man who would save her.

Except she was. “No. My father wouldn’t do that.”

Roan didn’t move, but there was a certain satisfaction in his stance. “Your father wants you safe, consort. I have done the king and your cousin, Julian, much service and will continue in the future. And you will be my reward.”

Gillian turned to Lach. “Brother?”

Lach reached for her. “Gilly, I’ll talk to father, but you have to see that this plan can’t work. It would mean all-out war between the tribes. I don’t want to war with my wife’s family. Honestly, much of the hatred between us seems very silly now that I’ve walked the plane. They are Fae. We are Fae. We can coexist.”

“This isn’t our war, sister,” Shim said. “We thank you for protecting our mate, but it is our turn to protect her and you. We will go back to our plane, and if the Seelies win the day, we will open relations with them.”

“And you would call yourselves kings.” Gillian shook her head and turned to Roan. “You will never touch me.”

“We’ll see about that, consort.” Roan didn’t move as Gillian strode out of the house.

Lach stared at the vampire. “Find another consort.”

“Your father was explicit, Your Highness.” Roan’s eyes were on the door that Gillian had slammed with vigor. “If I see you all safely back and lead the Seelies to their glory, my lieutenant and I will claim the princess and take over your father’s armies. King Fergus doesn’t want to unite the tribes under one crown. He merely wants good relations with them. He knows what it would cost. It would cost blood and death and pain unimaginable. Your father is a good king. And your sister is far too ambitious. I worry she’s going to cost you your relationship with your bondmate.”

“She’s pissing me off, that’s for sure,” Dellacourt said. “You can’t believe for a second that Bron will turn on her brothers.”

“I don’t want her to.” Shim ran a hand through his hair. He hated politics. Politics always seemed to get in the way of doing what was right and just. “Give Gilly a little time, but know this, I care not what my father promised you, if Gilly doesn’t want you, I’ll fight to make sure she’s happy.”

“I’ll make her want me,” Roan said with perfect arrogance. “I’m not a stupid man. I can handle your sister.”

“I don’t know about that. A smart man wouldn’t have laid out his plan,” Dellacourt said.

“This gives her time to get used to the idea. If I sprang it on her before the wedding, she just might pull my fangs out. I rather like my fangs.” He sighed and turned to Shim. “Though I would keep my mouth closed about your plans around your bondmate. After everything I heard, I doubt she will be happy fleeing the plane. She cares about these Fae. She was in jail because she tried to defend a brownie. The villagers truly care about her.”

She hadn’t seemed happy about the idea. And they hadn’t even told her about her brothers. Guilt ate at him. He’d been far too busy fucking her to see to her welfare.

“We should have talked to her.” Lach seemed to easily pick up on his thoughts.

Though the full, deep bond hadn’t been performed yet, Shim was finding it so much easier to know what his brother was thinking now that Bronwyn was near.

“We will. Let’s feed her and let her clean up and then we’ll talk to her about our plans. And no dictating. Your ‘I’m the dominant one and you will obey me’ bit is going to get both of us in trouble. Let me handle her.”

Lach frowned. “It should be easier than this.”

“Women are never easy.” Dellacourt smiled. “They have all these feelings and shit. Of course they also have boobs. Gods, I love boobs. Kaj has the most sensitive breasts. Really, I can get her to orgasm just by tweaking her nipples the right way. Where did my consort go? Damn it, she’s shielding again.”

Shim sent out his own little plea, a pulse of comfort for Bron. There was a little flare of panic from her, and then it was like a wall came between them.

“What was that?” Lach asked.

“I think our wife just learned how to put up shields of her own.”

Roan started folding up his maps and locking down his tablet. “Well, deal with her. We’re going to have to take another route back to Aoibhneas. We ran into some of Torin’s men. They were tipped off to some odd behavior in the forest. Two men and a phooka.”

Shim wasn’t going to be made to feel guilty about that. It had saved Bron. “Tell us when and we’ll be ready to go. Just know that Bron is our main responsibility.”

“And your sister is mine.”

There was an odd comfort to the fact that the vampire would protect his sister. Shim was just worried about who would protect Roan from Gillian.

Shim hurried his preparations. He and Lach found some cheese and soft bread and fruit. The owner of the house was more than happy to provide for them. She spoke about how kind Isolde had been to her and all the villagers. And how they would all follow her now that her true identity was revealed.

Shim was grateful, but the woman’s words also frightened him. He didn’t want Bronwyn caught up in the fight. He wanted her safe.

“The sooner we get her out of here, the better,” Lach said under his breath as they mounted the stairs.

“Her brothers can handle this fight.” It was their crown, Shim assured himself. Bron’s crown waited on another plane.

Duffy’s eyes were barely open when they reached the door. Lach laughed a little and poked at their adopted brother.

“I weren’t sleeping. I was just resting.” Duffy’s eyes came open. “I need me rest. I think I might have a vampire to kill.”

Shim sighed. Fuck all. Duffy couldn’t be pleased about the engagement. “Brother, you knew you couldn’t marry her.”

He shrugged and closed his eyes once more. “Always knew. Don’t mean I won’t protect her.”

“Well, rest up. We move out tonight.” Shim opened the door and realized that Bron hadn’t waited.

Bron was gone.

* * * *

Bronwyn promised herself that when she made it to her tower, she would change into good old peasant clothes. Her second-best dress was hardly making it easy to run through the fields. It seemed to catch on everything as though invisible hands were trying to reach out and grasp her and pull her back.

She felt the tug of Lach and Shim. By now they had to know she was gone. The phooka had stayed behind to create a little chaos, but before he’d left her, he’d taught her how to throw up some mental shields. According to the phooka, she was wide open to the men she’d dreamed about most of her life.

She pulled her skirt free of a branch. It tore. Just like everything else in her life right now.

And she hadn’t even known it was real. They had spent their whole lives understanding that she was a real, actual living creature, but Bronwyn Finn had walked around thinking she was insane. And everyone else had thought she was crazy, too. And now they thought they could just walk in and take her virginity and her blood and cart her off to goddess only knew where.

And that damn dog wouldn’t stop following her.

“I don’t have anything to feed you.” She stared back at the animal. It was a pretty thing. She. For some reason Bron was pretty sure the dog was female. There was something delicate about its features. The dog, who might also be a wolf, sat back on her haunches as Bron found herself snarled in a bramble bush. “You don’t want to go where I’m going. So shoo. Shoo, dog.”

The dog snorted, her muzzle lifting in a fashion that made Bron think she was laughing. And it didn’t move until Bron did, then the dog simply trotted along behind her.

“Fine, but you’ll see. I’m going on a long journey.” She rounded the final curve and her tower was close. It was tall and dominated the countryside. It had been her home for almost four years.

It had been her prison.

“She didn’t care about me. Not really. I think that’s what hurts worst of all.” Bron watched for a moment trying to figure out if anyone was in the tower. She thought not. The phooka had claimed the others were all still in the village waiting for the best time to flee back to the Unseelie plane.

The wolf sat beside her and gently nuzzled her hand as though asking her to continue.

“You’re a weird wolf or dog or whatever you are.” She stood up and started to move. She only needed one thing really, but she would change her clothes, too. She needed the knife. She couldn’t leave without it.

The wolf barked, an impatient sound. Well, maybe the phooka wasn’t the only strange creature she would meet today.

“I’ve spent almost half my life with Gillian, and I just found out she never cared about me at all. Not the real me. She just saved me because she wanted me to marry her brothers. She told them to impregnate me so their claim would be indisputable.”

The wolf growled low in her throat.

Bron stopped and looked around for the threat. The courtyard was completely empty. Then she realized why the wolf had growled.

“You didn’t like the sound of that. Did you? They used me. Gillian pretended to care about me and protected me from men only because she wanted me to be a virgin for when her brothers took me.”

There it was again. The deep growl.

Bron got to one knee. She wasn’t sure how, but this wolf understood what she was saying and seemed to deeply empathize. She was pretty sure no one else would. Everyone else would say that was what royals did. They traded their daughters and sons in exchange for treaties and alliances and land. Her own brothers’ engagement had been made in an attempt to bring Maris’s family’s great wealth of resources into the Finn family line.

“I know I should have understood that any marriage I make will not be one of love, but I’ve lived as a peasant for far too long. I’ve watched the way they live and how many choose mates based on love and affection.” She reached out and stroked the wolf. Maybe it wasn’t so bad to have a companion, even one who couldn’t talk back. “The real problem is that I’ve loved those men all my life, and I didn’t even know they were real. I loved them. Never wanted anyone else. And all they want from me is an alliance.”

The wolf seemed to shake her head, but then she growled and got to all fours, the hair along her spine standing straight up.

Bronwyn stood to face whatever was coming her way.

Niall. He walked out of the tower, placing something in his pack. The guard had changed into what looked like travelling clothes, divesting himself of his armor and cape. He wore suede pants and a tunic, with boots covering his feet.

He was quite the master of disguise. He looked like a peasant now and not a particularly dangerous one. He could likely make his way on the roads and survive by smiling and looking helpful and proclaiming, “long live King Torin.”