“I like a lot of dick, thank you very much!” I snapped, only to realize I’d done it out loud. “Kill me now.” Everyone who was close enough to hear the comment had frozen in shock. Zyion and Ember’s laughter filled my head, but I refused to acknowledge him.
“What? We love dick. Big dicks. Aria even handles dick in beast form, and she does it well. One time, she and Dicker hate-fucked—”
“Enough!” I snapped at the two of them. “Ember is enough to handle inside my head without you encouraging her, Zyion. And not that it’s any business of yours, but I do love cock. Esme jumped on top of me last night. It wasn’t sexual.”
“They’re totally best lesbians.”
“It’s best friends, Ember! We’re not like that together. It isn’t sexual. I mean, she’s very pretty and all that, but we’re platonic.”
“They cuddle together, and one time, Aria held on to Esme and wouldn’t even let her fall off the cliff. Boring. We could’ve climbed down and eaten her if she’d just let go,” Ember pouted, enjoying having someone to listen to her.
“Is that so, Ember?” Zyion’s timbre was rich, decadent and warm with humor. “I’m certain your mistress had a good reason for keeping Esmeralda alive. Besides, I doubt Aria knows how a woman should be eaten. When I do it, I personally start slow on one thigh before ensuring the other is given the same attention. Once her legs are trembling, I move to her molten center to see if she tastes as sweet as she looks.” I swallowed hard as my stomach twisted and embarrassment flooded my cheeks. “Once I get an in-depth taste of her center, I find the one place inside of her that’s attached to every nerve ending in her body and caress—but only gently at first.” Sweat trickled down my nape as I felt his eyes narrowing on me as my face exposed horror. “When she trembles, I move in for the kill.”
“Do you hate-fuck? Aria likes to be choked, controlled, and she even fights as she fucks. Plus, our jaw seems to impress men,” Ember pondered, which caused me to choke on my tongue.
“Ember, shut the fuck up. He’s stranger danger. Did you learn nothing when we ended up stolen and tossed in the prison of the unwanted beast king? Stranger danger is bad, say it with me. We have a man, and no, I don’t know how to do shit with a woman because I love dick. Knox’s dick, to be clear.”
“He’s not a stranger. Zyion has a dick, which makes him not stranger danger. Even I know his name, Aria. In order to be strangers, you have to not know his name. Duh,” she said, drawing out the ‘h’。
“I really wish I could walk away from this conversation.”
“Aria?” Eva called from behind me, which forced me to spin around toward her. “We’re here.”
We’d actually passed the dais because I’d been oblivious to everything else around me. Zyion had kept walking as if he hadn’t been bothering me at all. Griffon cleared his throat, and I fidgeted as I tried to assess what I was supposed to do here.
“First thing you should do? Calm down, princess. Breathe. Face your father, not me,” Zyion whispered inside my head. Did I trust him enough to lead me through this? “You need to learn to trust me. To the right of your father in the green vest is his brother, Hagen, he’s going to try to murder you. He resents Griffon for the blood he carries and wants you removed before your claim to the throne can be heard. The men, if you can call the pricks that, who are seated beside him are his bastards. They are faithless assholes who blindly follow Hagen around. They also want the crown you were born to wear on that dainty, lovely head of yours.”
“You think I’m lovely?” I whispered as if we’d be overheard inside my mind.
“I’m not here to feed your ego. My job is to keep you alive. Pay attention, Aria. Baldrick is the man on the other side of your father, seated in your throne. You’re going to walk to him, pointedly look at him, which should remind Griffon that a princess’s place is beside her father, the king. Move.”
I started toward Griffon, ignoring the curious looks of the men seated around him. Once I reached them, I turned and aimed a look of expectation at the man in my seat. Silently, I prayed I wasn’t being led astray. Sweat began to bead at the back of my nape as the man glared up with malice burning in his violet stare.
“Baldrick, you’re seated in my daughter’s chair,” Griffon stated, pride shining in his eyes. “Move to the lower row and take your brothers with you. Today, my beautiful daughter is selecting a hero for her people to cheer on.”
“I’m sorry, but I’d rather not,” Baldrick returned.
“He asked you to move your ass. When the king says to do something, you ought to do it, now.” Crossing my arms over my chest, I refused to cower before the man who so openly challenged Griffon. “And you’ll address him with the respect deserved of the throne he holds.”
“And what happens if I choose not to?” Baldrick sneered.
A smile played on my lips as Ember peered out at him, which was hard to miss. “You could fuck around, but then you’d find out what happens. I get that you think that because I have tits and a vagina, I am beneath you, but I promise that I always come out on top.” Unfolding my arms, I made sure he saw my claws lengthening. The guards slowly began shifting closer from where they’d been standing at a distance behind Griffon. My hackles rose as the men on the opposite side of my father rose as well.
“I don’t need to explain what happens when you disrespect the king, gentlemen. Do I?” Zyion’s question sounded from directly behind me. “The Seat of Honor belongs to his wife or a daughter. Do you have reason to refuse the princess her seat?”
Baldrick stood with anger trickling off him. “Vanir blood doesn’t make you royalty, Vicious. My blood is that of our true kings. You think this traitorous whore can save you from your sins? Your time is near. I’ll be there when it happens, and I expect my pound of flesh.”
“I’ll be waiting for you to come try to collect.” Zyion’s body had heat drifting from it in gentle waves. As if, like me, he couldn’t fully control the warmth of his inner core. Zyion remained behind me until the asshole had begun moving down a couple rows. Once I stepped closer to the seat, he rebuked me inside my head. “You don’t sit until your father rises. It’s customary for the men to rise for a woman to sit, princess.”
“And they say chivalry is dead,” I returned with a hint of laughter in my voice. “To be crystal clear? I’m very taken. Happily, so.”
“Says the girl who allowed spiders to nest in our vagina? What’s so happy about that?”
The men around Griffon stood before he, himself, rose. Once everyone had, I nodded at my father with a small smile playing on my lips. Zyion offered his hand as I turned, staring into his gaze as his lips moved before lowering to my trembling fingers.
“He will not harm you, Aria. I will not allow it.” His promise resonated inside my head until my inner thoughts blasted through my head. I wasn’t afraid of the man. But my response to this guy? That worried—no, it terrified me. “That isn’t something either of us can help, I’m afraid. Don’t worry, though. I will do my best not to touch you unless it is required of me.” Zyion turned on his heel and took the stairs to the field two at a time. “I am not interested in you, princess. ‘I love you’ is nothing but a death sentence when it’s whispered from my lips and my job is to keep you alive. Your issues, and that of your creature are on you, not me. If it helps, you’re a natural at this. It’s almost as if you were born to rule this kingdom.”