Princess Ninja Warrior (House of Garner Book 4) Read online

  I shook my head. “I heard the guard dog jokes. They can’t want that.”

  “We believe you are worth protecting and won’t treat us like dogs,” an ancient noble I assumed to be Petre replied. “We were trapped for thousands of years by the Darbandi bloodline.”

  “So don’t you want to be free?” I whispered, not getting this.

  “Would we not be free still if we decide to accept this position?” he challenged. “We are not swearing an oath to you forever, simply a loyalty one in our duty of position, much like the military loyalty ones James and Trisha have spoke of.”

  “So you’re saying you’ll take a three year tour in the Team Inez military and become my…” I glanced at Jaxon for the right term.

  “Secret Service, yes, like that,” he agreed. “They protected the president. Your knights and those with training will protect the coven; we’re speaking of a few select lethal nobles to protect you. They all believe you are worth protecting, and when someone that old says that, it’s kind of hard to ignore. Father and others agree, as there could be others that moved in time.”

  “Everyone thought the Darbandi coven was lost. More could be hiding, as we went right by there to find your artifacts and never felt them,” Kristof reminded me, wincing when I shivered. “I know, I hate this topic too, but it is our reality and it pains me to say, but I am not enough to protect you. Please? Think on it at least, for us.”

  Damnit. I would cave then, because they were worried and he had to know it.

  “Okay, we can try it,” I whispered, feeling trapped and caged. I blew out a harsh breath. “All you guys need to reassess how you view princesses though. You all talk about the power and being the boss, but the boss is just as confining of a role, and with all these rules and expectations. No one has it easy.”

  “You are not wrong, and many times I’ve sat back and reevaluated my thoughts on princesses and how many have turned out as they have,” Kristof accepted. “We can work on the details as we go along, but for now, two will stay with you, Vitor or Petre always with them as the oldest.”

  I glanced at Vitor, swallowing my fear of him. “Are you doing this only to apologize? I don’t want it then.”

  “No, you saved us from a hell you could never fully understand of being trapped for thousands of years. Five years’ service to protect such a wonderful princess is nothing compared what you gave us,” he answered. “But I am truly sorry, Princess. You have no idea how sorry I am. I never, never wanted to hurt you. I wanted to give Kristof a bloody nose for what he said.”

  “What did he say?” I asked, glancing between them. I sighed when Kristof gave the slightest shake of his head. “Fine, have your guy secrets.” I focused back on Vitor. “I need to be able to trust you as my guard and I don’t. So you can be the older, scarier one, but the boss is the one who I know. Deal?”

  “Of course,” he immediately agreed, making me feel a bit better about it.

  “Okay, cool, then I’m showering, because I stink.” I batted my eyelashes at Jaxon, and in a flash we were out of the bed and in the bathroom.

  Yeah, it was that easy. I giggled as he turned on the water, letting him wash me when we were in the shower. I loved his scalp massages and how he treated me. When we were about to get to the fun part of the shower, I dropped to my knees.

  “Inez, no, a princess doesn’t—”

  “I am more than a princess,” I reminded him. “I’m your wife, and yes, I can.” Hurt filled me when he blocked me.

  “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?” He sighed when I flinched. “Cerdic’s been pressing Darius to chill, but it’s not just him, is it? You’ve been keeping it from me too.”

  My heart hurt at the way he said that, feeling guilty I was hiding things from them. “You wouldn’t approve.”

  “Will you still show me?” he asked quietly. “Will you show me what it is they’re giving you that we’ve been left out of?” He sighed when I nodded. “Thank you, my love. I’ll talk to Darius, and we’ll try and get over our issues. Maybe we are young and naïve, because I would never have thought Mother or Father would play the way Cerdic and Kristof overheard comments of.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with playing,” I rasped, hanging my head in shame still. I had hid it from my husbands, and that wasn’t okay either. It was time to get it all out in the open.

  He knelt in front of me and cupped my cheek. “You’re right, there’s not. I’m sorry we messed up and you couldn’t talk to us. If life was easy and calm and you kept this from us, I would be upset. But it is not and we have storms around us all the time. Pushing something like this back doesn’t make you a bad wife, and you certainly don’t have to justify it to us.”

  I wasn’t sure Darius would agree, or Jaxon would really handle it. The two of them had such set ideas of princesses and court and how everything fit together. I didn’t know if they could handle anymore going off the map than we already did.

  But I hoped they could.

  19

  I gave Kristof an unfriendly look. “This wasn’t nerve wracking enough? You had to invite your friends and the two new guys from another court? One who kidnapped me?”

  “No more secrets,” he murmured, cupping my cheek. “They’ll find out anyways. Time to handle this, and enough with the crap.” He waited until I nodded. “Ready?”

  “Nervous,” I muttered. “It’s not fun if I feel like I have to or it’s like a thing. I told you clearly I didn’t like that.”

  “I like showing you off, and now you know that they won’t run their mouths or look down at you, so enjoy their desire for you.” He kissed me, ignoring the elephant in the room—or with us as we were outside—that Darius and Jaxon were the ones to worry about most. He kept kissing me until he flipped my switch, and then I wanted to play and play some more. “Undress.”

  I shivered but then smirked at him. No, I wasn’t giving in that easy. I knelt instead, like I was going to blow him still dressed.

  “Seriously? Inez, wait—” Darius objected.

  “Mate, we talked about this,” Cerdic cut in.

  “Some slap and tickle and play, yes, but not her blowing Kristof on her knees. And in front of all these nobles no less,” he snapped.

  “This is what she came to me for the first time I touched her,” Kristof told him, his tone warning. I winced at Darius’s quick intake of breath.

  “Since the beginning? You had her first while I was with her?” He cleared his throat when I assumed Kristof nodded. “Inez, can I speak to you in private? Please?”

  “Darius,” Jaxon sighed.

  “I want to speak to my wife,” he barked. “Please?”

  I nodded and stood, going over to him and feeling not his wife, but a child who was going to get yelled at. Everyone could still hear us, as they were so much older and it wasn’t safe for me to be only with Darius away from them.

  And it wasn’t like we could go back to the resort where so many could hear us. So yeah, we needed some sort of ultra private room in that castle he was building.

  “I want to hear it from you,” he whispered. “Have you really been doing that with Kristof?”

  “Yes.” I got even more upset when he let out a shaky breath. “So what? It’s fine. I wanted to try it. Hell, I like doing it when he’s all wound up. I don’t get why you object to it so much, or—”

  “Well apparently you’ll just go to the line of men waiting to give you what I won’t if I do object,” he snapped.

  I turned like he hit me, gasping as tears burned in my eyes. “Is that how you see this?”

  “I shouldn’t have said that,” he whispered, reaching for me, but I backed away from him.

  “That’s not the same as you didn’t mean it,” I rasped, shaking my head when he tried to touch me again. I wasn’t upset I’d hid it anymore, just angry at him. “Do you remember telling me to experience new with him? That you were fine with me playing with him and exploring? Do you remember that conversation?”<
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  “Yes.”

  “Do you remember telling me to fill you in on what we did if I wanted to? That it was my decision and okay to keep private?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “No, no ‘but,’ Darius,” I snipped, tears falling I angrily wiped away. “I enjoy giving head now and again if it’s the right mood and Kristof wants it so much. Oh no, I’m a disgrace. How horrible of me.”

  “You didn’t tell me,” he growled.

  “Do you blame me?” I whispered. “And I tried to. I tried several times, but you always shut it down. You didn’t listen to me.”

  “So you went to him and—”

  “You told me to! Hell, you practically tossed me at him because he was old and could protect us. You even said he could give me what you couldn’t. So that was fine unless it was a blow job and spanking for fun?”

  “He hits you?”

  “You’re not listening to me,” I choked out, shaking my head. “Fine, whatever, I won’t give head, my husband. So much for a princess being able to do whatever she wants, right? I’m the boss.” I gave him a hurt look, seeing the pain in his own gaze. “Funny how that was fine when it meant I wouldn’t hurt nobles like other princesses, but you’ll judge me when it’s this.”

  “Wait, I…”

  “Let me know when you can finish that sentence,” I rasped, still shaking my head again. “Fine, go ahead.”

  “Go ahead and what?” he asked quietly after a few moments.

  “Go ahead and be with whomever. That’s what this is about, right? I turned to someone else and that’s not fair? Fine, go get what you need from whomever.”

  “Inez, wait, that sounds like you’re ending us,” he practically whimpered.

  “We can’t end. You swore to be mine forever, right? Guess we should have listened to me that it was too fast and crazy. It’s fine, I have a line waiting for me.”

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—” He let out a choked sob when I turned and walked away. “Inez, wait!”

  I shook my head and kept walking and away from the others. This was… Stupid. Yes, I hadn’t told them, but it was just nothing.

  And I was super honest with them on everything from my fun with Branko and checking with them on anything. I kept this for Kristof and I.

  So what? I had other stuff with Darius and Jaxon that was ours. Just because it was sexual, it was such a big deal.

  “You’re being an asshole!” Jaxon bellowed from behind me. “She treats us like kings when she is princess and you shame her? What—I don’t even know you.”

  And he wasn’t the only one who had strong opinions for Darius. My heart hurt still for my husband, as he… We were all he had and they were siding with me. That wasn’t fair. I didn’t ask for that.

  “Enough!” I shouted, practically screeched so they heard me. Everyone slowly fell quiet. “Enough. We have more to do and no one should be ganged up on like that.”

  “Still, you defend him when he made you cry,” Branko muttered. “You’re too pure and kind to us, Inez.”

  “Apparently I’m not,” I rasped.

  “I didn’t say that,” Darius argued. “Please, let’s talk and—”

  “No, thanks, I think I’ve been shamed enough for one day, and not because I wanted to give a blow job to my fiancé,” I whispered, knowing they would hear me. “Can we just go? Enough. This is so fucking stupid. I was abducted. I almost died. We have so many problems and somehow this is a huge thing. Un-fucking-real.”

  I shook my head, realizing how dismissive that was, and that wasn’t okay either.

  “Feel how you want. You’re entitled to it just as I am. I’m not saying—”

  “We get what you were saying and most of us agree, love,” Cerdic muttered. “None of us have ever seen a princess behave this way, so we get the shock, but enough. We weren’t part of courts so for all we know, this happens all the time.”

  Several people snorted.

  “My point is, I don’t care how others act or standards people hold princesses to. This was private. What’s private is private.”

  “No, not you,” Darius snapped. I turned in time to see him grab Kristof’s arm like he’d been coming for me.

  I gave him a hurt look. “No jealousy, huh? I could give enough love for twenty or a hundred and you’d still love me.”

  “I do love you,” he choked out. “I just need—I can’t—not him right now, okay?”

  “Whatever you say, my husband,” I whispered and continued walking away. It was silly when I needed one of them to bring me back, but it got the point across and Jaxon came for me. He didn’t bring us to Salt Lake though and I was glad it wasn’t to the coven either. I couldn’t look upon the construction and castle Darius was building as a testament to his love for me.

  Hopefully the castle was stronger than his love, and one shock or issue wouldn’t bring it down.

  “Don’t gang up on him,” I murmured when he set me on my feet. I shook my head. “No, no bullying or ganging up. That was why it was hard for me to tell you as both objected. I don’t want him to not be able to talk to me next time. We should be able to talk!”

  “You’re right, love,” Cerdic agreed from behind me. “We’ll tell the others. It’s not wrong he knows we’re on your side, but we can do it better, like a family. A good one, not messed up ones like we’re all from.”

  Jaxon sounded like he might argue, but then didn’t. Any court was a messed up dynamic of family. That was pretty fair.

  Even if his was a nice one.

  “You know, I really don’t get his huge fucking damage with this,” I said abruptly, getting all wound up again. “He’s played naughty with me. He’s gotten aggressive and gone off his own line. We’ve done stuff that’s submissive too. Why is it this that he has to take such issue with? It’s not just this, is it? This is something more going on he hasn’t been telling me, right?”

  “You’re spiraling,” Jaxon muttered.

  “Do you blame me?” I snapped, clearing my throat and apologizing. “Sorry, it’s just we started this together, and he was the one who talked me all into this crazy, and now the first thing I do he doesn’t agree with, and I’m a whore who just has a line of men.”

  “That’s not what I said,” Darius bellowed from behind us.

  “Close enough,” I rasped, not turning and looking at him. “Let’s just go. Please? Don’t we have work to do?”

  “Yeah, we do, but I think you need something else,” Cerdic muttered. “Time for something beautiful.”

  That sounded perfect to me. I hugged him, letting him whisk us off. I wasn’t sure where we were when he stopped, but I heard a lot of noises behind us. Animal noises.

  No, cows. Once I found my footing and got myself together, I realized it was cows.

  “Prince George?” I asked.

  “No, Edmonton,” he answered, smiling brightly at me and nodding when I gave him a shocked look. “Come see the progress.” He extended his hand to me and I took it, glad for the distraction and hopefully something good.

  Yeah, good it was alright.

  “Princess, we didn’t expect you today,” Scott Curtis greeted, dipping his head to me. He was head of the Curtis clan and my knight now, a grizzly bear with over four hundred in his clan that had survived by living off the grid and mostly in their animal form. They were thrilled at the idea of getting back to being people and a chance at having lives.

  “She’s been a bit behind on all of everything with so much going on,” Cerdic explained.

  “And after what you went through,” Scott said gently. “We’re glad you’re okay and recovering.”

  “Thanks.” I wasn’t sure what else to say, as I wasn’t sure if he meant the abduction or near-death experience. Both?

  But I still didn’t understand what I was doing here.

  “A group fixed the fences and expanded the farm that was here,” Cerdic explained when I gave him a confused look. “You fixed the place but it’s bloome
d since then as people herded cows back and got them to where they should be. The Curtis clan were dairy farmers and knew dairy processing already. Some of Sebastian’s people were going to help Thomas—”

  “But we already had people who knew,” I cut in, nodding. Right, Someone had said that.

  “We do,” Scott confirmed. “And thank you for the huge delivery of turkeys, jerky, fish, and dumplings. My mate can’t stop talking about the dumplings. They were really delicious.”

  “They were. I’m glad everyone’s making it a priority to share and get things out.” I sighed. “We’ll get it better. I know we need roads to fix and—”

  He reached out and moved his hand to my shoulder. “Princess, it’s amazing, thank you. My clan is so very grateful. We know everyone’s doing their best, and so are we.”

  That was the smile I needed, the warming of my heart to hear that even. So many people were being demanding, and it was hard to handle it all. Hell, it was why I liked the shifters a lot more than vampires overall. They were normal and nice and… Cared? No, other vampires cared, but maybe I was the champion of shifters?

  “You put together more farm machines for here, and they tilled a huge area of land for wheat and more,” Cerdic told me as we toured the fixed up and expanded farm. “They’ve got irrigation back online and we’re ready for the next phase, after a large team from the coven you disbanded worked the past few days to get acres and acres of solar panels installed.”

  “What’s the next phase?” I asked excitedly. “I had no idea this much was going on here.”

  “I know, because you end up being the pinball in the machine a bit too much,” Cerdic comforted. “Luckily people have taken to heart what you said, and many were truly touched you weren’t out for Vitor’s blood after the accident. Safie would never have been so kind or forgiving.”

  I nodded, not sure what to say and still sensitive about the topic. Literally. My neck and head were still a bit sensitive from healing where he’d crushed in my skull.