Stephanie “listened” as well as “watched” in amazement as the memories of her husbands scrolled through her mind. It was all she could do not to cringe away from actually living with the cruelty Sara had inflicted on the men over the years. That the two men had held onto any love for Sara this long was a miracle.
Imagine! A mother turning on her own offspring. The woman who should have cherished and nurtured them, fostered their dreams, insured both men got a chance at happiness, even if she couldn’t. Instead, hurting them both physically and mentally, trying to ruin their future—the concept was beyond Stephanie.
On the other hand, Stephanie’s parents had done nothing but! In everything, both her mom and dad had encouraged, supported, and praised their children. Stephanie couldn’t imagine a life in which her parents ruled her before loving her.
My hearts.
Stephanie reached out with her mind to soothe and comfort her husbands, even as she wrapped her arms around them both, turning her face back and forth, showering physical and mental love on them equally.
Both men clung for a brief moment before each asked simultaneously. “Why?”
Stephanie’s heart broke as the two most important people in her life bled from their souls.
Slowly easing their grasps on their wife, both men’s faces remained stoic as they turned toward their cousins.
“If what you say is true, then there is much to be done.” Mitch and Kristain stood, turning in opposite directions to walk around and stand in back of the sofa where Stephanie still sat. Each stood slightly to the side of her, both resting a hand on each of her shoulders.
Kristain spoke, “You know you’ll have to go back. Stephanie is the True Queen of Aranak, but until the Bell of Coronation is rung, she is cut off from hearing Moth…Sara’s thoughts.” He didn’t want to think of the woman,who was Queen, as any relation to himself at this moment.
If what Shan Lin and Vincent said was true, Mitch and Kristain’s mother had indeed tried to murder her own children and the mother of her future grandchildren.
“You will learn all you can and report back here. No one else must know, and you will make damn sure Dorian doesn’t breathe a word of this to anyone!” Mitch, never one to remain passive when a call to arms should be sounded, clenched his teeth, seething as the import of just what the
Bitch
had set into motion meant.
Their mother was planning to eradicate the royal family.
To have suspected a family member of past betrayal was one thing. To now know it was the truth was beyond devastating.
“
Damn the woman!
” The roar sounded through the spacious house in a terrifying echo as Mitch turned and slammed a fist through the wall behind him. Plaster, wood, and fibers rained down from the sizable hole in the wall as he growled his fury out and pounded his other fist against the wall.
Stephanie cringed at the fury she felt coming from her husbands, all directed toward their mother. Kristain also stood with his back toward her, Shan Lin, and Vincent. She knew there was little she could do right now to ease the hurt and anger they felt toward their mother, but she had to try.
Even feeling both Kristain’s and Mitch’s anger, Stephanie didn’t hesitate as she got up, going around the sofa and walking directly to both men who stood closely together. Kristain had refrained from the physical outburst Mitch had reveled in, but it was a close thing. Stephanie could feel the struggle he had to keep himself from reacting just as his twin had.
Knowing neither of her husbands would ever think to harm her, and in fact had done nothing since she met them but shower her with love, Stephanie put herself in front of them both, her back to the wall.
Gently, she extracted Mitch’s fist from the wall brushing away the bits and pieces covering his fist. He had cut the skin and blood trickled slowly onto the floor as Stephanie brought his hand to her lips, kissing the hurt. Reaching out blindly, she waited for Kristain to take her hand, and when he did, she grasped them both once again to her.
When their emotions had leveled a bit, Stephanie remembered their audience.
“Shan Lin. Vincent.” Looking at them both, she opened her mind and found both men hurting for their cousins. Finding out the cruelty Queen Sara had heaped on her sons was a long-standing contention with the people of Aranak, reassured her in some way. It would only be one of the many things she would be held accountable for.
Maintaining her composure as best she could, Stephanie let out a tiny breath, then gave her first official order.
“While you have enough proof with the tale of Dorian’s escape to convince my husbands, I doubt you have enough proof to convince the people of Aranak. Or more importantly, its equivalent of a court of law. At this point, it’s still our word against Sara’s. Queen Sara is to be brought down at all cost. Watch, listen, and wait. I don’t care how long it takes. The people of Aranak have suffered enough. It doesn’t matter how I got this position, it only matters the position is now mine.” Taking a deep breath, feeling pride threaded through the anger coming from her husbands, Stephanie continued.
“From what I understand, what I’m about to ask of you can only be asked by a Queen’s successor?” Stephanie made it a question.
Shan Lin nodded.
“Then let it be known I, Queen Stephanie, successor to Queen Sara, am demanding it of you.”
“Yes, my Queen. Ask and it shall be done.” Shan Lin knew in that moment he would do all in his power to accomplish what his new Queen asked of him. He also knew that if he touched her again he would see a determination to protect her mates at all cost.
From the love and affection the Queen had shown her mates, Shan Lin knew he was finally seeing how a true ruler should act. Even if his visions hadn’t foretold the coming of the True Queen, he would have known who she was the moment he had glimpsed her. As it was, her touch had been the catalyst for the vision, which had brought him to a halt upon first seeing her. In his mind, he had seen her coronation, had seen both Mitch and Kristain in all their regal finery, resplendent in the colors of their Queendom,at her side.
Shan Lin and Vincent had watched for no more then a few moments as the Queen and Princes enveloped one another in comfort and grief before he and his brother had left the room to give them privacy.
The “servant” who had answered the door approached them as soon as they exited the room.
“Is there something I can do for either of you, Warrior Vincent? Warrior Shan Lin?”
The brothers exchanged knowing looks.
“What’s your name?” Vincent asked gently as the man took a step back at Shan Lin’s expression.
“Brock, Sirs.” The man stood his ground finally.
“My name is Vincent, and he’s Shan Lin. There’s no need for formal address to either of us, unless you plan on doing something you’ll need to be arrested for.” Vincent smiled as he spoke.
The man gave a tentative smile in return and seemed to relax some.
“Warri…Vincent. I have no desire to do anything that will mar the reputation of Queen Stephanie. She is…” A soft smile and a far-away look came over the man’s face as he continued to speak.
“…wonderful. I haven’t known so much contentment in…” The smile remained even as the distant look left, “…well too many years to count.”
“So she treats her servants well?” Shan Lin asked.
Brock turned to Shan Lin, a look of confusion now on his face.
“Servants?” He made it a question, then shook his head in the negative.
“Queen Stephanie has no servants…Shan Lin.”
“What?!?” the brothers nearly roared in unison.
Both speaking at once, their questions stumbling over one another’s words, they grilled Brock.
“What do you…” Vincent shouted.
“Why the Hellios…” Shan Lin interrupted.
“…mean the Queen hasn’t any…”
“…isn’t there a shit load…”
“…servants to attend her! Good
Riad
! Why it’s an…”
“…of retainers here to wait on that…”
“…outrage! This is Queen Sara’s doing, isn’t it! She’s so damn wrapped up in…”
“…goddess of a woman in there? Queen Sara had them damn well…”
“…ruining Aranak she can’t even greet her successor properly. Damn the…”
“…tripping over each other to see to her needs.
Riad
be da…”
Brock had begun to back away at the anger coming off the two Warriors and understood in that moment why the men had earned their nicknames. He continued to back further away as quietly as possible until he finally began to realize the two men had misunderstood him.
Brock tried to set them straight by breaking into the tirade of inventive suggestions both were now hurling at Queen Sara.
“Wait! Listen to me!” It took a minute to get the two men to stop, but when they did, it was all Brock could do to look the two in the eyes because of the expressions they now wore.
“You m-mis…misunderstood me.” He swallowed unobtrusively, or tried to, but watched as both men noticed the action.
“Queen Stephanie has all the servants she could want. Queen Sara, via couriers, offered her as many as she could handle, but Queen Stephanie refused. She told Queen Sara she was fine and didn’t have any need for servants. To which Queen Sara smiled wickedly and all but purred at Queen Stephanie, ‘A true ruler always needs servants, and what was the problem?’”
Taking a breath, Brock spoke once again, a note of pride in his voice.
“I am proud to say, the Princes had summoned me as soon as they found their Queen, but I was delayed in getting to them. I wasn’t here for the very beginning, but I was the first to arrive from Aranak behind the Princes.”
When he didn’t speak again immediately, Vincent took a step toward him with the intention of shaking the rest of the story from the man, but was held back by Shan Lin when the man’s eyes widened alarmingly.
Easy, brother mine. Give him his moment.
Shan Lin looked at the man expectantly.
After another quick look toward Vincent to reassure himself of his safety, Brock resumed his explanation.
“Yes… Well. At any rate, Queen Stephanie told Queen Sara, anyone who wished to join their Princes was welcome, but there would be no servants in her home. They would be paid for their time, and given a place to stay if they wanted to work here. No one was to be coerced to serve. After all, Queen Stephanie lived in what would be to them a foreign land, and no person should ever be ordered from their homes on the whim of another. So if Queen Sara knew of anyone who wouldn’t mind, Queen Stephanie would welcome them, but they weren’t to be forced.”
A smile once more graced Brock’s face, “It was a sight, Sirs. I can’t tell you how much of a privilege it was for me to be at this exchange. It did my old heart good to see…”
Vincent cut the man off.
“Okay. Tell me this then. If Queen Stephanie doesn’t have servants, why are you here? Is she doing everything in this place by herself?”
Shan Lin looked around him noticing the cleanliness and order of the home, then remembered the sheer size of the place from the view outside.
“She mentioned when we arrived others have… She said there had been others who visited. Where are they, and what are they doing to justify being here?”
There was still a note of anger in Shan Lin’s voice as he asked. Were the visitors freeloading from the new Queen and taking advantage of her?
“They all have been assigned duties if that’s what you’re asking.” Brock said, a note of censure in his voice.
“We did not accept the invitation offered by our Queen without giving our loyalty to her whether she wanted it or not.” There was also a note of possessiveness toward the Queen, which told both brothers immediately Brock was the best choice Mitch and Kristain could have made for their wife. Vincent was just going to make sure their choice was the best.
“And which Queen would that be?” Vincent questioned as his eyes narrowed.
“I give my loyalty to only one Queen. The
True Queen
, Queen Stephanie. Every person who comes through her door gives Her Majesty their loyalty, or they are denied entrance.”
Brock’s reply, given immediately, held a bite of steel.
Satisfied, Vincent nodded his approval, and clapped the stiff man on the back, then spoke.
“Well, that’s all settled. Where’s the grub?”
Shaking his head at his brother’s shift in attitude, Shan Lin knew Brock would soon become part of their very small, and equally new, family.
* * * * *
In the time they waited to be summoned once more by their Queen, the brothers had explored the house and had even come across a few people from Aranak they knew.
After questioning the household staff, the brothers were assured the people, who resided there, would indeed stand beside Queen Stephanie, defending her life and right to rule Aranak. It was more than they had hoped for, and less than they wanted for a woman, who they prayed, would be able to seize Queen Sara’s hold on their beloved home.
It was Stephanie herself who found them in the kitchen about an hour later. Both Shan Lin and Vincent had put a sizable dent in the stock of Aranak delicacies Lairn, the chef, had cooked for the brothers.