Had Nathaniel stayed her mate the band would have widened over the years, filling in with the names of their children and their children’s children. But by now, as had happened to her grandmother’s, the band would turn black, become a single black band marking her as barren and unmated.
There was another tray, another stone, and another note. Every hour since she’d been
brought in there had been the same thing, note and stone that came through the tray slot. And like all the other times, she ignored them both. Walking to the hanging sink Tess washed her face and then looked in the mirror.
Tess was fae, a warrior fae, and it showed in her features now as it had before. Her eyes, no longer human, looked back at her in the bright green color. There were dots of blues, yellows, and reds throughout. Her face was longer, thinner, and her lips full and lush. As she was the master, her elongated lobes at her ears sparkled and were studded with jewels—emeralds, rubies, and diamonds. Her crown, as a part of her heritage and the last of her kind born to a fae, sat upon her head for all to see.
But it was her wings that she had missed most of all. Spreading them wide, Tess marveled at their beauty. Open fully they each spanned four feet across, wide enough to carry her great distances. Their color was a deep blue with a plethora of other colors showing brightly throughout. Their radiant lighting brightened the room to an amazing brilliance.
“Lady Tess? You have a visitor. Lady Sara is here to see you. May I open the doorway,
please?”
Tess looked at the person standing behind her, using the mirror in front of her to see. She was in the perfect position to see the entire room and her guard Kylard, who had stood outside since she’d been brought here. “Tell her to fuck off and to leave me alone. I no longer serve her.
And I wish my peace.”
“You have never learned any manners. I don’t know why I thought now would be any
different. Take down the door, Kylard. I’m going to have a talk with your stubborn mistress,”
Sara said as she stood to just the right of Tess’s personal guard.
Tess ignored Sara once she had been let in the cell. Tess went about her business of getting dressed. She brushed her teeth and began to braid her hair. She would have had it cut, but that would have to wait now.
“If you don’t speak to me I can’t help you out of this mess you’ve gotten yourself into. And when I send a fairy to speak to you, I expect you to answer it. Come and sit down, Tess,” Sara said.
“I’m not in a mess, Sara. And I’ve no wish to speak to you now or at any other time, thanks.
Say whatever it is that’s burning through you and leave. I have an…an event coming up and I—”
“Event? You call getting lashed two hundred times an event? What on earth would you call giving birth, I wonder.”
Tess put the band in her hair just as the magic dropped from the door again. Her escort had just arrived and was standing outside waiting. She wasn’t sure what they did it for, but she put her hands out to be cuffed. Tess hated Sara in that moment, hated her for what she reminded her of.
“Since that will never happen to me, I will call this whatever the fuck I want, an event.
Goodbye, Sara. I want you to stay away from me.”
“Tess, I’m so sorry. I never meant to—”
Tess turned her back. She didn’t want anyone else to know her pain, and that was when she noticed Jacob. Damn it all to hell. “What are you doing here? I thought I gave you a direct order to stay away from these proceedings.”
“Yes, my lady, you did. But the king overruled you. I’m to escort you to the field where the punishment will be given.” Jacob looked—well, she would say he looked more confident. She would have to tell that to Shamus right after she kicked the shit out of him.
They were nearly to the open field when Tess stopped. The men at her back fell into her and the men to her sides and front were several steps ahead before they realized she had stopped.
Once they surrounded her again, she looked at Kylard who looked very nervous. Before she could speak Shamus, or the new king, was in front of her.
“Lady Tessa. How are you feeling this fine day? Nice weather for a gathering, don’t you think? The woodland fairies said they were to make it rain, but I asked them to wait until the night. I don’t know, I thought it would put a dam—”
“What the fuck is going on here? Why are all these people here? I was told this would be private, only between me, the queen, and the handler.”
Shamus nodded to the men and they stepped aside. When he touched her cuffs at her wrists they, along with the shackles at her ankles, dropped to the ground.
“Someone must have leaked it out. I wonder…oh well. No help for it now. Come along, my friend.”
Tess didn’t say another word. She was stunned at the amount of people there. She could even see that a pair of chairs had been set up near the tree, presumably for the king and queen themselves. Tess could see her grandmother talking with Sara as well. She dropped her head until Shamus had her standing next to the tree.
~~~
Nathaniel saw her the moment the men separated from around her. Her beauty took his
breath away. The physical change alone was amazing, but it was more than that. It was her added confidence in herself.
Sara had already told him what had happened in the cell. He’d tried to tell her that Tess wouldn’t go for it, but Sara said she had to try. Sara’s other role in the plan for him was to distract Tess enough so that she wouldn’t feel the magic shifting around her when beings showed up for her. And from the look on Tess’s face, it had worked. She was surprised by them as much as he had been. He chuckled; they were here for Tess’s event. Sara was pissed when Nathaniel laughed.
“It would serve you right if she used that whip on you. I’ve never seen a more suited couple than you two. I hope you know she only gets worse with age.”
Nathaniel hoped so. He was looking forward to many years, many centuries, trying to make her happy. He started across the field to her.
Nathaniel had been very busy since Jacob had found him. He’d had a great deal to think about. The least of which was to take what he could have from her. He’d been an arrogant fool and hoped that she would let him try again. He had spent a considerable amount of time with the new king too.
Shamus had claimed his own mate and had been equally claimed by her. It seemed as if
neither of them cared what the shift from one being to the other had entailed, their love transcended through that. Shamus was now a true immortal.
“So long as Mellie is queen I will be at her side. And if need be, behind her or in front of her. And when she is ready, I will continue to be with her even in the Fade,” Shamus had said with a sappy grin on his face.
“Fade? You mean death? Vampires do that. If something happens to their mates, they die as well.”
“No. We will never die, Nathaniel. The Fade is just what it sounds like. We can fade from this realm into one of our own making. And if we are ever called upon again we can return. We are true immortals. So are you and Tess, well, until you actually leave her.”
Nathaniel had been shocked by that. That and so many other things he’d been told and
shown. James, Mel’s father, brought him a large book, much like the one he’d been shown before when he’d been trying to figure out what she was. The book contained their triumphs and the lineage he now descended from. Well, he thought, he would be a descended from as soon as he accepted everything from Tess, He just hoped he hadn’t screwed it up too much and she told him to fuck off—which she probably would anyway. Aaron met him about halfway across the field.
“You ready for this? You know she’s going to be more than pissed about this? And she’ll flay you alive for interfering.”
Nathaniel grinned. “Yeah, but the make up sex will be great.”
They continued on several more feet before Nathaniel spoke again. “I love her. I love her more than I ever thought possible. And the thought of her being whipped…” He was unable to continue that thought.
“She won’t. What you’ve done is brilliant. If you pull this off, I’m telling everyone this was my idea. If it’s a failure, then it’s all you.”
Before Nathaniel could answer, they were standing before Tess. Christ, but she was pissed.
Anger boiled off her. Her wings, tight against her back, quivered. Nathaniel could feel his own begin to do the same. His need to cover her in them and protect her was profound.
“Tess, you look lovely to—”
“Fuck off! What the hell are you doing here? You were to be taken back to him.” Tess
nearly impaled Aaron with her finger when she pointed at him. “And what the hell are you…no, you didn’t. You idiot! You didn’t accept him back, did you?”
Aaron only grinned in answer.
Nathaniel had been told that he needed to be accepted back as a vampire and human so that Mel could complete his moving back among the humans. The issue had never come up because Nathaniel had never answered the queen’s summons to be changed. Aaron had never been asked because Nathaniel had decided not to change. He would tell her later, much later.
Before anything else could be said Mel called the punishment to order. Tess was led to the tree, to be brought before the queen to have her crime read to the masses then sentencing carried out.
“Tessa May Knight, warrior fae, Master At Arms, Brianal Guard, you are brought here to be punished for the act of treason against the queen. How do you plead?”
Nathaniel stood. “My queen, I am mate to the Lady Knight, master as her equal. I am…I
am…shit! I am warrior fae, Master at Arms, Brianal Guard. I wish to speak on behalf of my men.”
Mel sat back down as she spoke with a huge smile on her face. “Go ahead, Master Knight, but you may want to practice your title a bit more. I’m pretty sure ‘shit’ isn’t a part of it.”
Nathaniel flushed. “Yes, my lady. I am mate to the Lady Knight and as such, willingly take her first lash.”
“You idiot! You can’t do…Queen, you can’t let him do that. This is…he was supposed to be gone. That’s what he wanted.”
“Well, I think he’s changed his mind. Though I can’t understand why he’d want to stay with one such as you, he seems to want to be with you. I grant your request, Master Knight. Proceed.”
“Hold, my queen.” The room seemed to turn as one as the man now standing made his way
to the couple. “I am Master Vampire Aaron Xavier MacManus and as my right as one who owes Lady Knight the life of my unborn child, I willingly take her second lash.”
“Thank you, Master MacManus, your request is also granted. Is there anyone else who feels inclined to take a lash for Lady Knight?” Mel asked the people there waiting.
As a whole, the field of people stood—seven thousand beings—to take one for Tess, their love and respect for the fae evident in their faces.
“I see. Please be seated everyone.” Nathaniel held his breath as Mel came across the short distance with Shamus at her side. “You have a great deal of loyalty it seems.”
“I didn’t ask them to do this. They shouldn’t even be here. You know that as well as I do,”
Tess whispered.
“No, you did not. They gave it to you willingly. That is what makes it all the more special, don’t you think, Lady Tess? I accept the request of all these beings to take your—”
“Don’t do that. This is about—” Tess started, only to be stopped by the queen’s hand.
“You’d do well to behave and not interrupt me again, Tessa. As I was saying, I accept the request of all these present to take your lash. I have more than lashes you are required to receive.
You will choose who takes them for you.”
Nathaniel stood behind Tess, wrapped his arms around her waist, and brought her body to his. He could feel her pain and thought it was his own. And her pride at the people here today and what they had given her. He pulled her tighter still.
“Please don’t do this. I’ll do anything else. I beg of you.” No one save the people in their small circle could hear Tess’s whispered request.
Shamus cleared his throat and continued. “You choose who takes them, Tess, or give
Nathaniel his part of you. Take him as your mate and we’ll go home and celebrate.”
“You will blackmail me, Shamus? Me? You know that I—”
“It isn’t blackmail if everyone is willing. I assure you it will be no hardship on him. He knows what you give him and what he gives you. He wants this, wants it as badly as you.”
Nathaniel turned her in his arms. “Let me try to say this part without screwing this up. I practiced this one more.”
“Don’t do this, Nathaniel. It’s not necessary,” Tess said as he dropped to the ground before her.
“Hush. You’ll mess me up. Let me see…oh yeah. Tessa May Knight, Master Warrior Fae,
my mate, my love. I accept all that you are, all that you have, and all that you give to me. I accept your heritage as my own, your lineage, your everything in my keeping. I willingly take unto me all that you have been and will be. I willingly become your half, your equal, your mate.
As your mate, I become fae, your fae, your mate, your love.”
Tess was crying as he finished and he reached up with his thumb and brushed away her
tears. “Are you sure? There is no turning back if I answer you,” she whispered.
“Love, I have never been surer of anything in my entire life.”
“Then I accept you.” He was surprised by the simplicity of her answer and was startled when those next to them took a step away. Suddenly, magic that she poured into him hit him hard. His last conscious thought was, mother fuck!
~Chapter 23~
Tess was just waking up when she felt Nathaniel beside her stir. It had been less than two hours since they’d left the field and she had been scared to death. When his hand ran from her thigh to her ass Tess felt the first stirrings of desire start to rise.
“I want you, Tess. My cock is hard and aching to be deep inside of you. Please tell me no one can feel us while we’re in here.”
Tess rolled over to face him and reached up to trace the markings on his face. Then the one over his heart. “We are in one of the rooms at the castle. No one will feel our need unless we open the door. The queen gave us this part of the castle for that reason.”