Chapter 18
Harper
I wake up to light streaming through the closed doors of my balcony.
Blinking into the sunlight, I realize that I’m a bit sore, and tired.
Glancing around, I freeze as I realize there’s an arm thrown over me…
and that arm belongs to a very naked Lucien in my bed.
All the events from the night before come flashing through my mind, and my stomach flips.
Lucien and I had sex.
Shit. That was a really bad idea.
This morning after breakfast, I’m expected to deliver our peace agreement to the Hollowborn. I should’ve slept well last night and been in my best form for whatever I might come to face. The last thing I should’ve done was have sex with Lucien.
The guy’s a jerk. He’s a womanizer. He doesn’t actually know anything about me.
Yes, he had all kinds of sweet words last night, but if I were to take a bet, those sweet words will vanish in the light of day.
I can see him using this against me. I can see this being the new thing the guys can torture me over.
Slipping out from under his arm, I dress and ready myself in a hurry. When I see my reflection in the mirror, my hair has been properly secured back, and I look perfectly normal. Not at all like I spent the night fucking a prince, other than the small bruises on my neck.
Damn it.
I hurry out of the room and escape quietly, determined not to face him just yet. Determined to not have some awkward morning interaction where he catches me at a vulnerable moment and uses that to truly hurt me.
As I’m hurrying down the hall, trying to decide what to do, I hear the morning bell ring, signaling the start of breakfast. Switching my direction, I go towards the dining hall, realizing that filling my belly is exactly what I need to do to start feeling like myself again.
I select a spot alone on the end of a table and release a slow breath. Just eat. Just act normal, and you’ll feel normal soon. You can pretend like last night never happened.
Tensing, I wonder about that. Am I really going to pretend like last night never happened? The idea doesn’t sit well with me for reasons I don’t understand.
As I wait for my breakfast to be delivered, two men slip into the spots across from me and beside me. I look up and stiffen, seeing both Prince Alaric and Prince Gareth. Both men look exhausted.
We don’t speak until our breakfast is delivered and we’ve gotten to shovel some food into our mouths, but things are tense, for reasons I don’t understand. Do they know what happened last night? If they do, what do they think about it? I imagine they won’t be happy for a number of reasons.
“What happened to your neck?” Prince Alaric asks, looking concerned.
Prince Gareth’s sharp eyes lock onto the injury, probably not just the cuts but the marks from Lucien’s sucking, and I try not to react.
“Something stupid. I’ll tell you later,” I say, really not wanting to get into it just yet.
Neither looks happy that I’m not talking, but they continue eating, eyeing my neck every so often in a way that has me a little tense.
“Did you feel it too last night?” Prince Alaric asks me, ruffling his short brown hair in a way that makes him look younger and more carefree.
“Last night?” I ask, confused.
“Yeah, Prince Gareth and I felt it all night long. We couldn’t even sleep, that’s how bad it was. Did you feel it too?”
“I–uh.”
“It’s the damn dragons,” Prince Gareth growls, his blue eyes flashing with annoyance.
“The dragons?” I’m really confused.
Prince Alaric gives me a funny look. “We think the dragons finally… consummated things. We could feel them… enjoying themselves all night long.”
“Oh,” I say, cheeks heating. Those were not dragons they were sensing. I’m sure of that. “Right, I felt their… pleasure too.”
Prince Gareth rubs his face, making a small groan. “I hope this isn’t the way it’ll be from now on. I don’t want to spend my nights… like that.”
I’m so embarrassed I don’t even want to look at them. They felt us all night long. Surely the second they talk to their dragons they’ll realize it wasn’t them, and then they’ll put the pieces together. But until then, I’m not going to say a damn thing.
“Unless it wasn’t the dragons,” Prince Gareth says quietly, eyeing me.
I’m sure I turn an even brighter shade of red, but I try to hide it behind my food, stuffing a big bite of eggs into my mouth, then chewing far more than I need to. Today is already stressful enough. I don’t need the other princes to find out what we’d done.
“Where was Arthur last night?” Prince Gareth asks, his voice deadly even.
I stiffen and give him a look. “I’m sure Arthur was in his room.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“I’m sure he wasn’t in my room.”
“He better not have been. I’d hate to have to kill him.”
The air in my lungs leaves in a rush. “Prince Gareth…”
Looking at his face, I know without a doubt that he means what he’s saying. If Arthur was in my room last night, he’d kill him. I just have to wonder what he’ll do if he finds out it was actually his brother in my bed. His brother still in my bed.
“We heard there was some kind of commotion with the guards last night,” Prince Alaric tells me, probably trying to distract Prince Gareth from his razor-focus on me.
“Oh, right, I had a bit of an issue with Tesson is all.”
“You were with Tesson?” Prince Gareth’s question is as sharp as glass.
I shake my head. “Not exactly.” Then I hesitate. I know how these guys are. They won’t like the story I need to tell.
“What happened?” Prince Alaric asks, and there’s anger in the question.
“I don’t want to tell the two of you– not because I did anything with him– but because you’re going to get angry.”
Those words in my head made a lot of sense, but seeing them both drop their forks and tense makes me realize I made the absolute wrong choice. I should have simply dodged their questions.
“What happened?” Prince Alaric asks again, this time a little less nicely.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Talk,” Prince Gareth barks out.
My palms feel sweaty as I clench my fork. “You’ll freak out.”
“We won’t,” Prince Alaric says. “We can be calm.”
I jerk my head toward Prince Gareth. “Can you promise he’ll be calm?”
Prince Alaric looks at his brother, brow raised. “We can try.”
I sigh, then decide the hell with it. “Tesson decided that we were going to get married last night, so he was leading me to the chapel… by knife point.”
Prince Gareth stands up in a rush.
I grab his shirt and haul him back down. “It’s already been handled.”
His chest is rising and falling rapidly. “I’m going to kill that guy.”
“Lucien basically already did. He stumbled across us and beat the shit out of him. Tesson is rotting in the prisons right now.”
“Not good enough.”
I look at Prince Alaric, hoping for a voice of reason, but his expression is dark. “When you go to see the Hollowborn, we’ll go to visit Tesson and have a little talk with him.”
“Seriously,” I tell them, thinking that Tesson has more than learned his lesson. “Lucien handled it. I’m fine.”
“Lucien?” Prince Alaric says, suddenly jerking his head to me in surprise.
My cheeks heat. “Prince Lucien. It was a slip of the tongue.”
“You know, you can call all of us by our first name now. We don’t really need the formalities,” he tells me, and it seems like this is important to him.
I shrug my shoulders, then change the subject. “But, really, I think Tesson learned his lesson.”
“We’ll see,” Prince Gareth says darkly.
We eat for another long minute before Prince Alaric gives a thoughtful look. “I am grateful Prince Lucien was there to protect you. I’ll have to thank him for that.”
Prince Gareth nods. “He did a good job.” Then he looks at me. “How are you doing?”
I stiffen. “Me?”
“It must have been scary,” Prince Alaric adds. “Did he hurt you?”
I point to the small cut on my throat. “That’s all the bastard managed to do. Seriously, I’m fine.”
Prince Alaric shifts awkwardly. “And you’re fine… emotionally too?”
It’s hard not to smile. These men aren’t exactly good at talking about their emotions. “I’m fine.”
“And how are you feeling about delivering the message to the Hollowborn today?”
He seems so sincere, I can’t help but answer.
“A little nervous, but I’ve gone through every possible scenario in my mind.
If they really want peace, we need to do what they ask and just have me deliver the message.
And if this is some trick, I’m going to stay close to Ebron and get out of there as fast as I can. I’ll be okay, either way.”
“You’re more confident than most seasoned warriors,” Prince Gareth tells me, and I’m not sure whether or not it’s a compliment.
I shrug. “I might just be stupid, honestly. I’ve always been a little too cocky for my own good.”
Prince Alaric grins. “That’s one thing the three of us have in common. I’m sure, with time, we’ll find even more things we have in common.”
“Maybe,” I tell him, wondering if he wants to find more things in common between us.
“Prince Gareth and I were also talking last night. We decided that it might be a good idea to spend more time together after you return. If we’re going to marry, and we’re going to have a happy marriage, we need to put the work into it.”
“Really?” I’m surprised. “None of you seem like the type to focus on relationships.”
“We’re not, but we want things to be different between us. We don’t want to have relationships like the ones our father has. We want peace and happiness in our marriage.”
Again, I’m surprised. “How long have you been thinking like this?”
Prince Alaric looks at his brother, then picks up his fork again.
“Probably around the time we realized that being married to you wouldn’t be so bad.
I mean, we’re all clearly able to have good conversations.
We have similar interests. We’ll be able to spend time together even when we’re training and with our dragons.
And we, obviously, find you attractive and think you might feel the same way in return.
” The last sentence is said more quietly, with a hint of embarrassment.
It’s cute. They really seem to be trying.
“We’d certainly be able to fuck each other’s brains out,” I say. He chokes a little on the eggs he’d just shoveled into his mouth, so I give him a minute before I continue. “But whether we can put the past behind us and learn to get along is still certainly up in the air.”
“But you’ll give us the chance to try?” Prince Gareth asks quietly.
I hesitate, then nod. I don’t know why, but both men look pleased.
After a minute, Prince Alaric wrinkles his nose. “Shouldn’t Lucien be here by now?”
“You know how he is,” Prince Gareth grumbles, while I try to keep my focus on the plate in front of me, knowing full well that Lucien is still in bed, exhausted from our night spent together.
A bell chimes and the dragon riders rise from the benches. My stomach flips, and my spine stiffens. After breakfast. After breakfast I’ll be delivering the message to the Hollowborn.
“You sure you want to do this?” Prince Alaric asks, watching me closely. “We’ve tried to talk our father out of you delivering the message, but we can try again.”
I force a smile. “Nah, I got this. Don’t worry even a little bit about me. I’ll deliver the message and be back before you even notice I’m gone.”
They don’t look sure, but I try to. Being nervous won’t change what I have to do. It’ll only make me more prone to make a mistake.
And I can’t afford to make a mistake right now.