“I’m glad you’re here. You guys weren’t busy, right?” he inquired, walking deeper into the chamber to stretch out on the couch before the crackling fire.
“Actually . . .” I paused, looking at the rigidness of Ristan’s spine and raised shoulders.
“I was about to make my wife—” I swatted Ryder’s arm. He paused, noting the way I’d gone silent at reading Ristan’s body language. Gently swaying my head, I quietly prompted him to behave. “Can’t this wait until my wife has properly welcomed me home—”
“Great, because this foolishness can’t wait and since you’re both here, that saves me time getting you both up to speed on what’s transpiring in the Summer Court,” Ristan issued, cutting Ryder off unexpectedly.
“Not busy at all.” I snorted, but Ryder made a strangled noise in his throat as if he were restraining the urge to scream in frustration.
He breathed slowly before threading his fingers through mine and pulled me with him as he stalked to the lounge chair facing the one Ristan had settled into. I settled on Ryder’s lap, relaxing into the heat of his body while he placed his large palm over my belly.
“You seem upset,” I offered, stating the obvious point to start the conversation. “I wasn’t expecting you to travel to the Summer Court yet. We only just spoke of this hours ago.”
“You sent him to the Summer Court?” Ryder asked against my earlobe, sending a tremor rushing to my apex, forcing my legs to press tightly together. I took a moment to fill Ryder in on the tithe situation before turning back to Ristan. “What happened at the Summer Court? Did you take a unit with you? You should have woken me up, Demon!” I felt fear, and then anger that he’d gone without telling me. I’d been very careful of reinforcing vehemently that anybody exiting the kingdom had to take an armed guard out with them. Leaving without them wasn’t on the agenda, and I doubted he’d actually taken one with him.
“It turns out Leo isn’t king anymore.” Ristan’s tone sharpened like a knife, and he grunted aloud, jerking forward to prop his elbows on his knees. “His spoiled bitch of a daughter overthrew him months ago and executed him.”
“The king?” I countered, confused about who he spoke of at the moment, not following his rapid words. “Wait, the king is dead?”
He snapped his fingers, and a bottle of dark amber-colored whiskey tipped, pouring into the glass that he held. Ryder had barely managed to secure the second glass as it materialized before the bottle tipped to fill it as well. “When I arrived in their courtyard, the bitch shot at me. It was utterly unprovoked as well as unwarranted, and the moment I’d finished explaining who I was and why I’d come, she fucking shot at me again, repeatedly. Can you believe the balls on that bitch? Afterward, I smashed her fucking weapon, and she demanded I get the fuck out of her territory. That isn’t how shit works anymore. She can’t just murder her own father and crown herself ruler of the Summer Court because the bitch feels like it, right? Right! Fuck that, and fuck her too,” he roared, slapping the glass down on the table.
“She executed the king?” I asked gently, not knowing how to deal with Ristan being so angry at the woman. Of course, he had every right to be if she’d shot at him. He was an emissary, which could be taken as an act of war by doing it while knowing my decree had sent Ristan to her court.
“Exactly, and that’s not how shit works anymore. Now it’s up to the lords and ladies within the court to appoint a monarch, and they haven’t voted. That fucking traitorous bitch told me they weren’t presenting us with shit or willingly recognizing the newly crowned motherfuckers of Faery. According to her, we can all get fucked in the same fashion as the twisted bastards that created the world. She went so far as to state she’d offered us all we would get from her court, and if we expected more, we’d have war. War! Who the fuck does she assume she is? She-Ra? The bitch doesn’t have the tits to be She-Ra.”
Ryder sat quietly behind me, but his hand had stopped its slow circles over my stomach. He leaned against the arm of the couch, watching as Ristan downed his drink, which replenished itself as quickly as he drained it.
“Do you know what else she fucking said to me? She reported they’d paid enough for our bloodthirsty war and wouldn’t be producing anything else for the orphans who no longer have parents because we craved more power. It wasn’t about power or gaining more. We fought to prevent Danu and her sadistic prick monger of a husband from destroying the fucking world. How dare she assume otherwise or claim they paid enough blood for our war. They fucking paid nothing! Nothing!”
Ristan’s hands were flying in the air with his frustration, and fervent tone was filled with . . . excitement? My focus narrowed and I watched his body tensing. He either liked this girl, or he was intending to unleash some serious hate-fucking sessions out on her. It was a tossup to which he’d do first. Fuck her, or murder her for thinking she was better than him.
“We fucking bled for them and to protect the realm from being decimated by those assholes that used us for their sadistic needs. I buried Olivia because she died to protect this world and the assholes within it. The Summer Court? They paid nothing, sacrificed nothing. Fuck her, and fuck them. You know what? I’m traveling back there, and I’m going to take what we’re owed and show that little pampered bitch what suffering is until she knows it intimately. I plan to march right into her palace and dethrone her ass in front of her full court.”
He leaned back, letting out a furious growl as his eyes flickered and a bitter smile danced on his lips.
“I don’t assume that’s what . . .” I hesitated when Ristan’s body language morphed from scary to sexy before my eyes. A frown flittered over my lips, and worry creased my brow.
“I’m going to teach her why we’re the fucking assholes who go to war, and that she’s nothing more than a sunbathing, bronzed bitch who wouldn’t be able to identify a real man if he was drilling his cock between her cherry-red lips. All those sunbathing bastards inside that court? They’re nothing more than little bitch boys wearing speedos and flouting frilly fucking girl drinks while sitting poolside. Yeah, she wouldn’t know how to handle an alpha who would enjoy her pain-filled screams.”
“That escalated rather rapidly, I fear,” I said, pulling Ristan from his ruminations. He opened his mouth, but I held up my hand to continue. “I don’t think feeding her dick is how we should get the tithe. I mean, it just seems like there’s better ways to ask for it, right? Plus, it may not look so good for you to shove your dick between her lips and then get paid,” I rambled, frowning at Ryder, who was chuckling softly. “Especially when it is for us.” His golden eyes sparkled with mirth, but he turned to where Ristan sat, unhappy with my deduction.
“You’re confident she’s of the Summer Court royal bloodline?” Ryder countered, which had Ristan on his feet.
“Eden, remember? That spoiled little bitch who used to insult me when we were young? It was her, and she knew exactly who she was talking to. How many other fucking demons in this realm change color when provoked? That fucking brat disrespected me and the two of you! My plan is to call on the barracks in a few days and take a squad back to that court with me. I’ll string her up by her feet and remind her of what happens when you poke the demon and he comes out to play.”