15. Thea
Chapter fifteen
Thea
The Autumn Court
“ E xcuse me, your majesty.” Raelin bobbed a curtsy. “There’s been an altercation that requires your attention.”
I wiped my mouth with the cloth napkin and placed it over my plate.
“Excuse me while I tend to this.”
Melanie waved me off as though she’d hardly heard what I said, or if she did, she didn’t care. The Beast pushed back his chair and stood with me.
I held out my hand. “Sorry, you can’t come yet.”
His head cocked to the side as he regarded me.
I almost expected him to make a scene.
“I shall escort you to your destination at the very least.”
“Very well.” I held out my arm.
He swooped beside me and took my arm in his. The connection of his warm flesh so near to mine sent my heart racing. We fell into step as we made our way from the dining room, out of the main rooms of the castle, and across to the turret where I examined such matters. With how hostile the sirens were, I wouldn’t allow them into my home and take the chance whatever happened to my father would happen to me or my sister.
“You don’t attend these matters in your throne room?” the Beast asked.
“No,” I said simply.
The guards opened the door.
The Beast slid his hand down my arm until his fingers clasped my hand. He bowed over my hand and brushed his lips against my skin. A tiny flutter in my heart happened again.
“This may take all day.” I let out a silent sigh.
The Beast’s ebony eyes flickered over my face.
“Very well. I shall acquaint myself with the layout of the castle and ingratiate myself with the servants.”
“The servants?”
“Yes, they are the eyes and ears of a castle. There is nothing they don’t know about the happenings inside the walls.”
I drew in a breath. “You think you can find what happened to my father?”
“I doubt it, but you never know.”
I smiled, suddenly filled with so much hope and promise with this mating. There was a future between us. A connection of tentative threads weaving their way into our hearts. I inclined my head with the slightest of movements and swept inside the turret.
The guards had shackled two sirens. They kneeled on the cobblestone flooring with two sets of guards on either side of them.
“What is the meaning of this?” I asked as the door closed behind me.
The imprisoned sirens remained silent. I sighed under my breath. As well as beautiful and lethal, sirens were stubborn. I perched on the high-backed chair opposite them and waited. They’d crack under the influence of my voice in the end. I began humming. Their eyes widened, but their lips remained shut. I didn’t relish torturing my people, but if that was the way this needed to go, then so be it. I amped up my humming to singing. The guards popped earmuffs over their ears to negate the effects of my royal voice. Only the siren queen’s voice could affect other sirens.
In time, blood trickled from the shackled sirens’ ears.
“Stop!” they cried in unison.
I ceased singing. The guards plucked off their earmuffs.
“She sang her song to lure the tiger shifter I’d lured to me to her,” the siren with flaming red hair fired off.
“It’s not my fault your singing is pitiful,” the siren with pale blonde spat back.
“Why you?” The red-haired siren lunged at the pale blonde siren except their chains kept them out of reach of each other.
I strode around the room so agitated with this petty grievance I wanted to clip both their winds, maybe their voice boxes too. Now, there was a thought.
“I shall remove your tongues as punishment.” I settled back in my chair.
“What did I do?” the pale blonde squeaked.
“You,” I said, withdrawing a knife from the hidden pocket of my gown. “Dared to lure a creature to you that was obviously stronger than you, otherwise another siren’s song wouldn’t have worked on him.”
She hung her head and mumbled, “But he’s so pretty.”
“Be that as it may,” I said, nodding at a guard. “We can’t have creatures living in the Autumn Court who we don’t control.”
The guard stepped forward and yanked her head back. As much as I longed to slice their tongues off myself, that was what I kept guards for. A queen must delegate tasks. Mother taught me that.
“Now, either stick out your tongue and they’ll cut it clean off, and you’ll heal in a couple of days. Or…”
“Or what?” She gulped.
I nodded at the other siren. A guard stepped forward, wrenched her jaw down until the bone snapped, reached inside, and twisted her tongue out of her mouth.
“That is for showing a siren’s weakness.”
She flung her tongue against the wall. The flesh landed with a wet splat and slithered down the stone walls to land on the floor at my feet. Incoherent sobs came from the red-haired siren’s broken face. I turned to the other siren. Her eyes were wide with fear, but she lifted her chin and stuck out her tongue. Etched across her features was the acceptance of her gruesome fate. Her tongue would grow back, and it’d hurt, but the pain of not being able to sing would hurt her more.
Perhaps one day this siren would become more.
But today she’d pay the price for showing our weaknesses.
After the gruesome time in the turret, I returned to my bedchambers. My handmaiden drew me a bath without a word and washed the splattered blood from my face. She changed the pink water, added flower petals and oils, then massaged my neck and shoulders.
“What would I do without you, Raelin?”
“I suspect your Beast would be more than delighted to take my place.”
“My Beast?” I raised my head.
She shifted beside me and kneeled at the side of the large clawfoot bathtub.
“He is yours. The Beast watches you like a demon possessed with ownership.”
“He may think he owns me, but it’s the other way around.”
She gave me a small smile.
“What?” I asked.
“You can own each other, yes?” She placed her hands on the lip of the tub and rested her chin on it. “I remember your mother and father mating. They were content and happy. So in love. I wish the same for you.”
“Perhaps…”
“Little queen.” The Beast’s voice boomed through my bedchambers.
Raelin stood in a rush. “Speak of the demon and he comes.”
I smirked. “Not yet.”
Raelin blushed as the Beast appeared in the doorway.
“You’re bathing without me?” He cocked an eyebrow and unbuttoned his shirt.
Raelin’s blush deepened. “I’ll leave you to the…” She fluttered her hand at the water and then scurried from the room.
I rested my head back on the side of the bathtub. “Why do you have to rattle her so?”
The Beast dropped his pants and strode to the side of the bath. His enormous erection jutted out from his body.
“She’s like a blushing virgin.” He scowled.
“Perhaps she is.” I ran my fingers over my breast, teasing the nipple into a hard peak.
“A virgin siren? Never heard of one.” He leaned over, placed his hand over mine, and drove them under the water, down my stomach to my aching core.
“Me either.” I gasped as he thrust both our fingers inside me.
The stretch was intense in a good way. He took control and pumped our joined fingers inside me as though he’d sealed our digits together as one limb. My hips rocked with the sensation and splashed the water out of the bath and onto the stone floor. As my orgasm teetered on the edge, he wrenched our fingers out, leaving me feeling empty.
“Beast,” I moaned.
“Beg me, little queen,” he teased.
“Take me,” I begged.
He hauled me out of the tub with his brawny arms and marched us over to the wall, pinning me against it. He dropped to his knees and buried his face between my legs. His long tongue swirled inside me, so deep he was almost coaxing an orgasm from me in two licks. As though sensing my impending release, he drew back his tongue and smoothed kisses to my trembling inner thigh.
Even that small touch sent my blood pounding with the need for release.
“You taste like demon heaven.” His warm breath gusted over my damp moisture before he dove back in for another taste.
He swiped his tongue from my slit to clit, teasing me into a quivering bundle of need. So close to release I didn’t know a thing apart from the Beast’s tongue on my sensitive flesh. Then it was gone. He replaced his tongue with his hard cock in a long, hard slide to the hilt where he stopped and held my shaking body to his.
“Please,” I begged.
“My perfect little mate,” he rumbled in pleasure.
He slid out to the tip as leisurely as he’d started. He kept the pace slow and torturous. If I died this way, at least I’d die happy.
“You’re killing me,” I whispered, trembling in his arms.
“Never.” He touched his lips to the top of my forehead in a gentle caress that sent flutters to my heart.
He picked up his pace, making me shatter in an instant. I clung to him as my toes curled. Sparkles of heaven danced in my vision and blood roared in my ears. My blood. His blood. I would soon mix our blood in my claiming ceremony, and I couldn’t wait if this was how we’d be together as mates.