Page 85 of Bred

“Did you think I would be able to cast you aside?” he whispered.

“I—”

“I will fuck you until the last day of my life,” he growled. “Our children will fill the citadel and put my brothers to shame with their beauty.”

His cock twitched inside me as the king’s hand fell upon my hip and held me tight. He thrust up into me, building a gentle rhythm.

“I want no one else to bear my children. Only you.”

I moaned and pushed back against him, encouraging him to drive his cock into me harder and faster until I was panting and moaning with the exquisite pleasure of it.

“You belong to me, Liana,” he growled, and he bit down on my shoulder. The sudden flash of pain made me cry out, and my nails dug into his forearm as my climax crested and broke over me.

Venali groaned as my body tightened around his cock, and I moaned with him as his hard length pulsed inside me, filling me with his seed again.

“Do you believe me?” he asked, his voice heavy with desire.

“I do,” I replied.

And I did. I believed him.

I felt like a fool for believing that I would be harmed or cast out of the kingdom once my duty was done… And that feeling only grew when the king took me to the royal harem. Venali’s mother, another royal surrogate, lived in luxury and refinement, a position promised to every woman who bore a fae king.

“You will be well cared for,” he assured me as we walked together in the citadel’s quiet corridors. The gardens outside were in full bloom, and the trees were heavy with blossoms and nesting birds. Spring had always brought nothing but dread to my life—wet feet, moldy blankets, and an impossible amount of work. But now that I was at the citadel? Spring had become my favorite time of year.

“How could you have believed otherwise?” he asked.

“I— I do not know. No one told me what it would be like…”

“And you guessed that the worst would happen?”

I shrugged. “I have known nothing else.”

The king’s arm snaked around my thickened waist, and he hugged me to his side. “You shall never know anything but kindness here,” he said. “I promise it.”

The glow of his promise stayed with me, even in the darkest parts of the night, and I refused to think about the lies that Tannyl and Artin had told me.

But the child’s birth was imminent, and my appointments and examinations had increased, which meant I was forced to be in the goblin’s company far more often than I liked. His examinations were always rough and painful, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen every time he arrived at the citadel.

“Your child is growing quickly now,” the goblin said. “The birth pains will be upon you in a few days’ time.”

“So soon?”

My fear of what lay ahead of me had been replaced by my fear of the pain and blood that would bring this child into the world. What if I didn’t survive? Women died in childbed all the time. My own mother had not survived my birth… I had barely survived it.

“We have not spoken of our agreement in some time,” Tannyl said.

“Agreement—”

The goblin’s eyes glittered in the candlelight. “You could not be here without my help.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” I whispered.

“Don’t you?”

My mouth was dry and my throat was tight. I did owe him… without his help, I would never have been brought into the Monarch. I would never have been presented to Venali. He never would have chosen me.

“What do you want?” I pulled a jeweled comb from my hair and held it out to him. “Gold? Jewels? I can get you whatever you want.”