Page 31 of Night’s Fall (The Four Realms #1)

Spoiled

“S ire.”

I jerked awake because the mountain of muscled flesh I was sprawled on also jerked awake.

Aleksei’s arms circled me before he performed a heroic ab crunch, taking me with him, and we both stared at Allain who was loitering at the door.

For my part, I was bleary-eyed and confused.

Aleksei was feeling something different.

“I know I’m not seeing you standing in my doorway while I’m in bed with my female,” Aleksei growled.

“My apologies, your highness.” Allain bowed his head, looking and sounding wildly uncomfortable. “ But you set all tech to mute and there are some…situations brewing.”

“Fucking hell,” Aleksei muttered. “ And those would be?”

“Your parents are here. Your brothers are here. Mistress Laura’s friends are all here.

The constables have had to cordon off the street due to the number of press and well-wishers outside.

So , that is to say, the Palace issued their statement and, well…

the good news is, the realm is rejoicing that you’ve found your mate. ”

It was striking me that Allain might be master of the understatement, because that wasn’t what I’d describe as “situations brewing.”

More like all the proper ingredients for a coming Armageddon .

“Fuck me,” Aleksei grumbled, clearly feeling the same as me.

I was beginning to be less bleary-eyed and confused.

And a lot more freaked out.

“Oh, and the orange and white cat keeps making a racket,” Allain added. “ I think there’s something wrong with it.”

Naturally, Comet would throw in his lot with potential Armageddon .

“Have you fed him?” Aleksei asked.

Allain’s chin went into his neck in open affront. “ Fed … the cat ?”

“Don’t worry, Allain ,” I said, pulling from Aleksei’s hold and reaching to throw back the covers, doing this wondering if Aleksei had Madam Garwah’s sequence so I could comm and ask her the royal etiquette around feeding your cat in front of a king and queen. “ I’ll do it.”

I got nowhere because Aleksei hooked an arm around my stomach to keep me where I was.

“We’ll be down in a minute,” he told Allain .

Not hiding his relief, Allain escaped.

Right.

The last thing I remembered, post- IV therapy, was sitting on a couch in the living area, and my head was nodding because we’d gone through a stiff-backed report delivered directly from the Chief of District Three , a more concise one from the Deputy Head Minister of the RMI , security briefs from the Chief of District Ten and a Lieutenant of the RS .

And finally Set and Antheme (his fae partner) were the only ones left, and they were giving Aleksei and me (and Allain , Muriel had gone) the real skinny, during which, clearly I conked out.

On the couch.

In the living room.

I turned to my mate.

“So we’ve jumped from taking time to get to know each other in a chill way to surviving assassination attempts to your staff and bots stealing all my clothes, shoes, bags, accessories and toiletries and kidnapping my cats to us sleeping together ?”

He grinned, slightly sleepy, still a little grouchy, totally sexy, and all of a sudden, I was sprawled on a mountain of muscle again.

Regardless of how great this felt (and make no mistake, it felt great ), I pushed up.

He rolled, and I was trapped under a mountain of muscle.

Wow.

That didn’t feel great.

It felt spectacular .

However…

“Aleksei!” I snapped.

“While Set and Antheme were briefing me last night, you crashed on the couch,” he reminded me about what I’d just reminded myself about.

New discoveries (and all I let filter into my exhaustion before passing out): Set was the commander of Aleksei’s personal detail. Antheme was his second.

“Yes, I did,” I confirmed.

“The future Queen of Night’s Fall doesn’t sleep on a couch.”

“I was perfectly comfortable.” Or , at least, comfortable enough to pass out.

“We could ask Madam Garwah , but I’m relatively certain it isn’t the done thing, darling,” he teased.

I was not seeing good things for my future, learning how he could whip out the sweet and cute to muddle my brain and get his way.

“Stop being cute when I’m taking you to task for taking liberties. Did you carry me here?”

“Guilty,” he said like he didn’t feel any vestige of that word at all.

“How many bedrooms are in this penthouse?”

“Five.”

“Including this one?”

“Yes.”

“So you had four other rooms you could take me to?”

“Why would I do something as bloody stupid as that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because we’ve known each other less than a week .”

“I can’t be certain, but it feels like surviving an assassination attempt together is akin to about two months of courting.”

Honestly?

I couldn’t really argue that.

Even so, I slapped his bare shoulder, and although I didn’t do it hard, the way my hand bounced off his muscle was sobering.

“Laura, bissi .” His gentle tone pulled my attention from his sinewy shoulder to his face. “ After last night, you can’t ask me to be apart from you. It just…won’t work.”

What was this?

“Seriously?”

“We can hope this overwhelming… drive to see you safe settles down, but for now…” He shook his head.

“ For now, Laura , it’s on the edge of my consciousness every waking second, you standing with your arms thrown wide between me, an enemy and a weapon.

My beast is riled. He can’t settle either.

The only moments of peace he and I have had since it happened was when I stretched out beside you, felt your body against mine, healthy and alive, but unconscious, and I fell asleep. ”

That was awful.

And one must pause to consider if this was behind him being such a jerk last night.

Being the one who needed to pause, with a monarch in my midst, I’d have to consider that later.

“But you’re awake and it’s back?” I asked.

“It isn’t as fundamental, pervasive, but it’s still definitely there.”

It seemed like the males definitely got the short end of the stick with this mate business.

“Well, we’ll just have to…play that by ear,” I mumbled.

His big hands moved on me.

Oo.

Nice.

“Would you like to take this time to explore other avenues of getting to know each other?” he suggested throatily, moving to run his nose along my jaw.

Lovely.

I could totally take this time to explore other avenues. His hands felt nice, his weight arguably better, his playful mood was hot, even his seriousness.

In other words, the answer to that was a resounding yes .

But…

Was he mad?

“The king and queen are out there.”

He lifted his head. “ Doesn’t count. They’re in my house. They’re only parents in my house.”

I puffed out a breath as his hands kept moving…and feeling much too good doing it.

I squirmed underneath him.

His gaze went hooded…and wicked.

Oh my .

His head started descending.

My body was melting.

But annoyingly, rational thought spiked into my brain.

“People I love are out there too. They all took truth serum last night… for me . And now I have to face the music for that,” I whispered.

I had him there, lamentably.

He sighed so heavily, it felt like my body depressed three more inches into his amazing mattress and the entire hover bed swayed full feet.

But then he dipped in and kissed the hinge of my jaw, rolled off me and out of bed.

The moment he did, I was rethinking ignoring royalty, familial sacrifice and assassination plots, and instead diving deep into exploring getting to know each other better.

And seeing as I was in a much clearer state of mind to process how much I enjoyed the view of the muscles of his back moving as he did, even if he was wearing sleep pants on the bottom, which hid his perfectly formed behind (kind of, the material was deliciously clingy)…

And I was very much enjoying this view…

This made me totally rethink my earlier decision.

Then he said, “ I’ll feed the cats.”

I sat straight up and called, “ Aleksei , wait.”

He turned to me.

Oh yeah.

The front was better.

“They have custom daily food parcels. They’re in the Chill - Cabinet ,” I informed him.

“I don’t have Chill - Cabinet , Laura . It’s called a refrigerator.”

He was so totally old school.

And it was so totally mega.

“Okay, in the refrigerator,” I amended. “ Their names are on them. Jupiter gets his on the counter or Comet will bully him out of the way and eat it. Nova can defend her own meal, but I still feed them as far away from each other as possible. I know it doesn’t make sense, but the food is designed for all their specific tastes, so he’ll make a play for the others, but he’s willing to wait for his, and as such, Jupiter goes first, then Nova , so they can get a head start, and Comet last. That said, he’ll follow you through the whole process and complain about it. ”

He stared at me.

I stared at him.

He stared at me.

I heaved a sigh.

He spoke. “ Custom -made cat food?”

“Yes.”

“To their taste?”

“I had them profiled.”

“You had your cats profiled?”

“Yes.”

“To ascertain their favorite flavors so you can have food created specifically to satisfy their individual palates.”

“I’m not certain why you need this deep of an explanation on this subject.”

“Because you’re to be the mother of our children.”

Oh.

Right.

Erm.

“Are you as fond of children as you are of cats?” he asked.

I stretched out my lips and lifted my shoulders to my ears but decided against a verbal answer.

Even so, he didn’t miss my answer.

“While we continue, in a far faster, deeper and more intense way, to get to know each other, I’ll share about how I feel about spoiled children.”

This sounded vaguely like a threat.

It wasn’t fair, but we were here, and I had to stick with him here, because he also sounded really serious.

“And I’ll share mine about how a child feels when their mother snaps her wrist.”

His eyes grew dark as night, his jaw bulged, veins in his arms, neck, and rising up his flat stomach from his groin came out in stark relief.

Okay then.

As insanely sexy as all that was, perhaps I should have tempered what I’d said.

“That was dirty, darling,” he warned low.

“We’ll find a compromise, Aleksei ,” I promised.

He sauntered back to me, his powerful hips swaying almost hypnotically, and I’d be hypnotized if the vibe he was giving off wasn’t so concerning.

He dropped to his fists in the bed on either side of my hips so his face was in mine.

“I want to know. I need to know. I also know I’m going to hate knowing. But what I already know, you had it far worse than I did, Laura . That said, shitty parents can come in all forms. Abuse . Neglect . And just being pompous, enabling morons.”

I blinked, because for some reason, his words felt like a punch in the throat, not delivered by him, one I experienced with him.

Sadly, he continued speaking.

“And how a pompous, enabling moron can create two far worse, those who are even more spoiled than he is, and as such, they become unrelenting fuckwits. Not as bad as what befell you, I know it without knowing it all. But it’s still bloody fucked up.”

On that, before I could utter that first word, he pushed up and strode out.

I was sensing I understood there were more reasons than the obvious why he wanted to delay attending our families, seeing as what he just said was about his father and brothers.

And now I wished with my whole heart I’d let him.

“Well…dang,” I said to the empty room.