Royally Hacked Belle & Flame (Royal Harlots MC #1)

Chapter 1

ALIX

“Ouch!” I wince and recoil away from the sharp pain stabbing into my side.

The elderly seamstress circling me like a vulture sniffs and throws me a dark look. “Apologies, my lady…but if you would just stop moving…”

I let out a long breath and swallow the retort I’m longing to blurt out. I’m not moving—at least not by human standards. And if I am, it’s only because she keeps stabbing me with her damn pins.

“If it helps, you look amazing,” Odessa says from where she’s leaning against the end of my bed. “You’re almost done. Just hold your breath.”

I wrinkle my nose, but take her advice and hold my breath as the seamstress adds another row of pins to the waist of my gown.

We’re only two days away from my wedding, and I’m standing on a low platform in the middle of my bedroom, while Dessa supervises the stab-happy Fae seamstress putting the final touches on my wedding gown.

Odessa just arrived in Vernallis this morning, having spent the last several months out at sea with her soul-bond, Kastian, and their new crew.

I’d been getting a little nervous that they wouldn’t come back in time for the wedding, but I should have known better. Dessa would never want to miss this.

“How are the wishes coming along?” Odessa asks, clearly aiming to distract me.

“We’re nearly done. I—”

“Don’t talk!” the seamstress hisses, cutting me off as she stabs another pin into my stomach.

I flinch violently again, and my eyes water. “Okay, that’s it. I need a break.”

The seamstress sniffs with disapproval. “Don’t sit down! You’ll wrinkle it.”

“I won’t,” I promise. “I just need a five-minute break.”

“Fine!” she snaps, throwing her hands up and stepping back. “I’ll be back soon.”

She wafts out of the room as I step down from the small raised platform and let out a long breath.

Odessa catches my eye and grins. “Nerine is the best seamstress in Ellender, you know…even if she is a little, um, aggressive.”

“Oh, I know,” I sigh. “Beatrix called in a favor to get her here. Apparently, even a royal wedding wasn’t enough of a draw to make her come out of retirement on its own. There was an unfulfilled bargain involved too.”

“This is your last fitting; you can do it,” she says bracingly. “You know what they say: beauty is pain.”

I grimace. “I’m not sure that’s supposed to be so literal. Do you really like the dress though?” I twirl in a circle, the skirt fanning out around me.

Fae wedding dresses are gold, not white like human ones, and mine catches the light like a living flame.

The short sleeves sweep off my shoulders, and the tight, corseted bodice is embroidered with hundreds of tiny silk flowers, glittering beads, and intricate lace that could be etched from genuine gold.

The enormous skirt cascades around me in layers of gossamer fabric so fine that when I move, even slightly, the whole gown shimmers.

“Absolutely,” Dessa gushes. “It’s perfect. Isn’t it, Aurelia?”

We both turn toward where Aurelia is sitting on the window seat across the room. Her knees are pulled up to her chest beneath her long skirt, and she’s peering out through a little patch she’s rubbed on the frosted glass. She’s been so quiet, it was almost as if she wasn’t there.

At the sound of her name, Aurelia startles. “Sorry, what did you ask?”

“Just fishing for compliments,” I grin. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing!” she says too quickly, pulling her gaze from the window. “Sorry. Catch me up. What were we talking about?”

“I was asking Alix how the wishes are coming along,” Dessa says.

She’s wearing black leather pants, tighter than anything I’ve ever seen her wear before, and her red hair has bleached gold from the sun. She looks like a pirate princess as she sits back down on my bed and crosses her legs.

“Good.” I sigh. “Thank God we’re almost done, though. If I’d realized how many weird traditions Fae have around weddings, I would have insisted Daemon and I elope.”

“Don’t let Beatrix hear you say that,” Aurelia comments.

“Oh, she’s heard it. I threaten to elope at least twice a day lately. I want to get married, but the actual wedding part is turning into a headache.”

Neither of them comments on that, probably because they know I’m one hundred percent serious. I was married once before, and I remember that being incredibly stressful, yet a regular human wedding has nothing on the complexity of a royal Fae wedding.

There have been hundreds of things to do, even with an entire staff of servants to help.

Every court in Ellender is invited, and the political maneuvering of having so many royals in one place has been a nightmare.

Then, there’s simple things like decorations and food, which somehow turned into a production fit for, well, a queen.

To complicate things further, there’s a Fae tradition that says that when royals get married, we have to grant a thousand wishes to anyone who asks in the week leading up to the wedding. Daemon and I are at 998 wishes and both so exhausted we can barely see straight.

“We only have a couple more wishes to grant, which is good because we need to go to the human world to visit my mother tonight.”

Odessa’s eyebrows raise. “Why tonight?”

I sigh, shaking my head. “Because it’s Christmas Eve.”

I have been regretting choosing December 26th as my wedding date since the moment we chose it.

The Fae don’t celebrate Christmas, but they celebrate Yule—a similar holiday which lasts twelve days, and reminds me of dark and witchy holiday aesthetic collages I used to see on Pinterest.

When Daemon and I chose the date of our wedding, we’d hoped that the week of Yule would make it easier for all the visiting courts to attend and perhaps we’d have less work to do and more time to focus on our wedding. In reality, it’s made things a hundred times more chaotic.

“You’re brave to get married this week,” the seamstress says, stepping back into the room. “Some might think it was bad luck.”

I snort. “Why? Is there another ancient tradition that I don’t know about?”

I’m joking…but like, no I’m not. Please, dear God, no more surprise traditions!

The seamstress shakes her head, her mouth tight. “No, my lady. Because of the witch, of course.”

Oh sure, of course, how silly of me to forget the witch.

Aurelia perks up at the window, interest piqued, and tosses her black braid over her shoulder. “What witch?”

Odessa scoffs. “Oh, please. Don’t start, Nerine.”

My eyebrows raise. “Wait, what are you talking about?”

“It’s just an old story to make children behave,” Odessa says soothingly. “Don’t worry about it.”

“It’s not a story,” the seamstress snaps. “The Yuletide witch is as real as you and I. She sleeps all year and rises only during this week during the darkest part of the year. When she wakes up, she’s starving, and she steals children from their beds to eat for her solstice feast.”

I glance sideways at Odessa, raising my eyebrows in question.

Two years ago, before I was kidnapped by my one-night stand and discovered that magic and Fae exist, I would have immediately written that story off as insane.

Now, I’ve learned to assume anything could be real until it’s proven otherwise.

Odessa groans and rubs her forehead. “It’s all nonsense. Folktales to keep children from sneaking out on solstice and getting eaten by wolves.”

Nerine’s eyes bug out of her head. “Believe what you want, but the witch has already been seen this season. My cousin’s neighbor’s friend saw her. Some say she has eyes black as coal and teeth sharp as glass. She can transform into a hideous beast, and some say—”

“—that she can’t cross running water,” a lilting male voice interrupts. “Or that she’s terrified of bells. Or that she only eats bad children. Depends on who’s telling the story.”

I spin around, spotting Daemon in the doorway. He’s leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, staring at me. Instantly, all thoughts of witches and legends disappear from my mind.

Daemon and I have been soul-bonded for more than two years, but I swear to God I will never get tired of seeing him. With his lean muscles, chiseled jaw, and flashing green eyes, he’s always just as impossibly handsome as he was the first time we met.

I automatically smile at him, only then I remember he’s not supposed to see me. I screech and wrap my arms around myself. “Get out!”

Daemon cocks his head, grinning, and his coppery brown hair falls into his eyes. “What’s wrong, Peaches? Are you really sick of me already? We haven’t even gone through with the wedding.”

I double over as if I can hide my dress with my body alone, and Nerine lets out a pained wail and strides out of the room as if she can’t bear to see the gown wrinkled for even a moment. I ignore her, eyes fixed on Daemon. “You can’t see my dress! Go away!”

“Why can’t he see the dress?” Dessa asks.

“It’s bad luck!” I hiss. “Get out, get out!”

“Is that a human thing?” Dessa asks, her brow wrinkling. “And you think we’re the ones who have weird superstitions.”

Completely ignoring my panic, Daemon pushes off the door frame and crosses the room in two strides. He grips my waist and pulls me toward him, kissing me firmly. Instinctively, I reach up, twining my arms around his neck to pull him closer.

“Excuse me,” Odessa says after a long moment. “I should not have to watch my brother maul my best friend. Get a room.”

“This is our fucking room,” Daemons says with half-hearted annoyance. “You get out.”

“Yeah, go maul your own bond.” I grin. “It’s been at least an hour since Kastian got to feel you up. He’s probably in withdrawal.

Dessa sweeps toward the door, grinning wickedly. “You know what, maybe I will.”

“I guess I’ll go too,” Aurelia says, rising from the window seat and moving toward the door.

I glance over at her. Her expression is mild, but something in her tone sounds slightly gloomy. I open my mouth to ask if she’s okay, but before I can, Daemon recaptures my lips, and I hear the door snap shut.