Page 6 of What Fury Brings (Wrath and Fury #1)

There were many reasons why Andrastus. “He’s said to be a timid and loyal thing, which makes him the perfect candidate for housebreaking.

He’s the second-born prince, so I’m less likely to start a war by taking him.

” Though she knew to expect some repercussions from Atalius once he found out. “He’s also rumored to be very pretty.”

“King Atalius may still come for his son. He is a proud man. Stupid, but proud,” the queen observed.

“We will be wed as soon as he’s on Amarran soil. The marriage will be consummated immediately so he will be soiled goods. No other woman of noble birth will have him, and he can be of no further use to his father.”

“No noblewoman in Amarra would want him after that, but you forget that other kingdoms’ ways are not our own.”

Ah yes. Other kingdoms and their backward ideals.

In Amarra, a differre man was only as valuable as the seed he could give a woman.

Once that seed had resulted in a child, it could be of no further value to a separate woman.

Mothers with children born of the same father?

Ludicrous. It wasn’t done. Sure, men could be shared for the purposes of pleasure.

They were bought by the dozens from the common classes to fill harems. But when it came to marriage, fidelity was demanded of men.

But Olerra had heard tales of kingdoms that encouraged men to put their seed in as many women as possible. It was a sign of prowess, even. As if a man should be proud of what his cock could do. Losing his spend wasn’t difficult. Pleasing a woman in bed was. Which should he be prouder of?

Olerra knew her aunt wasn’t truly arguing with her. She was simply poking holes in Olerra’s plan to see if she was strong enough to handle the onslaught.

Olerra said, “It is important that Atalius suffers the consequences for coming after our land. He hates Amarrans and would rather die than see one of his sons wedded to one. We have the might to withstand him should he make hasty advances, and he won’t know for some time that it’s me who has taken his son, despite the threats I made when I spoke with him.

Why come back and kidnap a son when I could have traded the king for one?

And once we’re married, there’s hardly anything Atalius can do about it. ”

Lemya nodded. “Very well. You have my blessing in this. If it’s what you truly want.”

“It is.”

“Who will you take with you on your prince heist?”

“Just Ydra.”

“Are you certain? Even the lowliest of noblewomen are permitted a retinue of three guards.”

“The fewer the better. I will prove myself.”

Lemya pulled Olerra into her warm embrace before kissing the top of her head. “You have nothing to prove to me, niece. I love you no matter what. You know that, right?”

“I do.”

“You must do this only if you wish to rule. If you don’t—”

“I do wish it.”

“Very well.” Lemya was silent for a moment. “You needn’t marry the Brute right away. The five hundredth anniversary of the Goddess’s Gift is approaching. What better way to celebrate than with a royal wedding?”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

“That’ll give you three months to break him once he’s on our soil.”

“Child’s play,” Olerra said.

“Let me know what resources you need and they’re yours. Otherwise, happy hunting.”

Olerra cracked her knuckles as she left the queen’s quarters. It was the only thing she could do to get her attention off the sensation of her sinking stomach.

There was a reason she’d put off courting men for so long. A reason why she was still a virgin.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want a man. She’d felt a yearning for a man for the first time when she was thirteen. That yearning only grew stronger the older she became, but she’d resisted her impulses because it was the only way to keep her secret.

All women in Amarra could use the magic of the goddess to keep men in line.

All of them except Olerra.

As eager as Olerra was to see Ydra again, she needed to visit her cousin first. Politics weren’t as natural to her as they were to Glenaerys, but Olerra knew when a good brag was in order.

Olerra made the trek to Glen’s wing of the palace. Glen had many estates throughout Amarra, but she spent most of her time here, working and gaining the support of the courtiers.

When Olerra arrived, she walked into a private auction, happening right in the middle of the main greeting chamber.

There were two ways in which noble Amarrans found their men: They stole them from neighboring kingdoms or bought them from the common classes of their own people. While Olerra was determined to do the former like her mother before her, Glen employed the latter tactic.

While kidnapping men was a centuries-long tradition that many families participated in, it had become more common in the past ten years.

A decade ago, the noblemen of Amarra, led by the queen’s brother (Glenaerys’s father), staged a coup against the matriarchy and lost. As punishment, they forfeited their lives and those of their eldest sons.

Now the only males of noble birth were children.

Which meant that noblewomen had to steal noble husbands from other kingdoms. Men could be bought for harems, but the royals, like Olerra, needed to be able to claim their daughters had noble blood for succession.

Her cousin, Glenaerys, older by three months, didn’t have a husband despite also being differre.

Her harem was thirty strong already, but they were all commoners.

Pretty commoners, but peasants all the same.

Glen didn’t have Olerra’s brawn, which was why Olerra suspected she had yet to hunt down a husband of her own.

The Goddess’s Gift may have given her an edge, but fighting didn’t come naturally to Glen the way it did to Olerra—not that that stopped her from being too rough with her men.

There were five groups of people standing in the chamber.

The first was a woman and sire standing behind a young man who must have just turned eighteen and didn’t have terribly much going for him.

He was lean, clearly underfed, though maybe that could be helped over time with generous meals. Glen stepped up to him.

“Stick out your tongue,” she instructed.

He did so.

“Is that as far as it goes?” she inquired.

The mother gave her son an encouraging motion with her hands. Go on , it said. The boy extended his tongue farther.

“I assure you no woman has bedded my Armandis,” the mother explained. “I hear you prefer virgins.”

“Hmm” was all Glen said.

She stepped up to the next group. The man in front was more handsome than the first. Glen inspected his hands carefully.

“He keeps his nails well-trimmed,” the mother of this one said. “You won’t find a cleaner man around than Issan.”

“I have servants who prepare my men for pleasure activities,” Glen said haughtily. “He won’t need to worry about his own upkeep. Flex for me now.”

Issan bent his elbow, showing off an impressive bicep.

“Hmm,” Glen said again, and moved on.

The men grew more and more handsome down the line. When she reached the last pairing, a sire and his son, she had to look down rather than up to inspect her potential purchase. The boy couldn’t be older than fourteen.

The sire waited to be addressed before speaking, as was their custom.

“His age?” Glen asked.

“Thirteen, Princess.”

“And he can perform?”

“Of course. I would not be here otherwise, I swear it. Caught him with his own hand just yesterday.”

The boy took a step back under Glen’s assessing gaze. His hair was blond, his skin fair, his face rounded and smooth. He would make a very pretty man someday. “It is not often I see lone sires selling their sons.”

“I lost my wife some years ago. I have no woman to look after me. I’m desperate for the money.”

The boy turned his head and glared at his sire. Had he been bigger, Olerra thought he’d hit him.

“If you drank less, you wouldn’t need the money!” the boy spat.

The sire raised his hand to land a blow, and the boy flinched, as though this were something he’d come to expect on a regular basis.

Glen grabbed the man’s wrist before the blow could land. “I’ll give you five ederos,” she said.

The sire swallowed. “Yes, Princess. That is most generous.”

Glen turned to a servant behind her to gesture for her to pay the man. When she spotted Olerra, she grinned.

Only Glenaerys Corasene could manage to make a smile look like a threat.

The cousins looked nothing alike, despite sharing blood.

Glen’s curls were the color of golden sand, and her eyes were as bright as the cerulean sky.

Glenaerys was small where Olerra was large.

Olerra had the dark hair and hazel eyes of the royal family, while Glenaerys took more after her mother.

Olerra was general over the queen’s armies and oversaw the day-to-day running of the troops while Glenaerys was a strategist who mingled with the spymaster and treasurer.

“Didn’t see you there, cousin,” Glen said. “What do you think of my latest purchase?” She waved her hand in front of the boy.

“He’s a bit younger than your usual go-to,” Olerra said, disgusted by the whole thing.

“I’ve started buying them young so they can be properly trained. On his eighteenth birthday, he’ll be bedded for the first time and properly inducted into the harem.”

Sure he would. Olerra didn’t believe for a second that her cousin would wait until he was older. Glenaerys got off on the power play.

Olerra wished she could steal the boy away and cart him off to Ydra’s estate for safety, but the only way to free that boy was for Olerra to become queen. She needed the power to make new laws. To save them all.

“Why are you here?” Glen asked. “It’s been years since you’ve paid me a social visit.”

“I just wanted to tell you the good news.”

Glen inspected her nails, as though she couldn’t care less about the conversation. “And what news is that?”

“I’ve just received Auntie’s approval. I’m going to kidnap myself a husband.”

Glen went very still. “Fabulous.”

“It is, isn’t it? You’ll no doubt try to sabotage the endeavor in some way, so I thought I’d let you know that I have people watching the roads to Kalundir. And Auntie will be keeping an eye on you.”

“Excellent.”

Olerra rather thought so. She was about to garner so much favor. And she’d just given her cousin a false destination. While Glenaerys was expecting Olerra to head west, she’d in fact be going north.

Glen pursed her lips and turned away. She barked, “Come,” to the young boy and stalked off.

Olerra relished the win all the way to Ydra’s.