Fates Entwined: Halven Rising

Reese leaned back, still wrapped in Keen’s arms, and looked up. “I thought the angels weren’t ever coming back.”

“They weren’t. Their arrival after millennia of absence was most strange, to say the least.”

She stared off in the distance, remembering. “On the emotions scale, Portia was off-the-chart evil when I compare her to everyone else. Do you think that had anything to do with it?”

“Possibly.” He brushed his thumb along her jaw.

“You were willing to give your life for me.” She took a shaky breath. “I couldn’t sense your emotions—I still can’t—but I’m willing to bet they were the complete opposite of Portia’s. The angel might have saved you because your heart was pure and hers wasn’t.”

“The angel didn’t simply save me—he saved you and called you his descendant. If your theory is true, he believed you pure, half-blood or not. And he made a point of letting everyone present know you are special to him, which makes our prejudice toward Halven all the more disconcerting.”

He shifted her to his side and looked around at the stunned faces of his countrymen. “Elena Rosales, daughter of Theodora Joelle Rainer Rosales, rules this land now. You will bow to your queen.”

Elena and Derek’s soldiers did so at once, and slowly the Newlander guards did as well.

Just like that, New Kingdom had switched hands. Fae didn’t mess around. When one ruler left, another moved in.

And then Keen did the strangest thing of all.

He grabbed her hand. “Where is the officiant? He will marry us.”

Keen was dragging her toward the front of the room where Portia had stood upon the dais, and Reese’s footsteps froze. “You married Illa, remember?”

He looked down at her, his expression soft. “I did not. I…delayed the ceremony, realizing I’d rather betray my kind than betray you.”

“You’re not married?”

He didn’t answer the question, merely twisted his mouth and continued talking. “Though living with you will be problematic, as you seem to defy all of my commands—”

“Because your commands suck,” she said, tears of happiness filling her eyes.

“But I cannot live without you, and it seems no other will do. We will marry. Besides, you could be carrying my child.”

Reese blinked. “Okay, first of all, I’m not pregnant. I’m on the Pill.”

“The pill?”

“Birth control. So I can’t get pregnant.”

A dark cloud formed behind Keen’s emerald eyes, turning them nearly black. “Absolutely not. You will stop taking this pill. Once we marry—”

“Hold up there, buddy. Who says we’re getting married? I don’t remember you asking.”

He sighed and dropped to one knee.

He was serious? And Fae proposed on one knee like humans?

Keen grabbed her hand and kissed the tips of her fingers with such tenderness—and blatant sexuality—that the backs of her knees tingled. “Reese Fisher of the Radnors, will you marry me?”

Her eyes grew wide. This handsome, powerful Fae—with a nasty attitude when he didn’t get his way—was asking her to marry him?

He could marry a princess. If Derek’s father hadn’t murdered Keen’s family and taken over Old Kingdom all those years ago, Keen would be a prince or a king. He was beautiful, passionate, stubborn—and he was hers. He wasn’t taking her for granted, or underestimating her. He was proposing marriage.

“Do you love me?”

His gaze didn’t waver. “I love you. I will treat you as my queen and protect you and our children.”

Children.

He was serious about this kid thing. The guy who at one point didn’t want to touch her for fear she’d get pregnant from the brush of his arm and create one more Halven in the world?

“I love you, you stubborn Fae, but I can’t marry you right now.” This time his face colored in frustration. “I’m eighteen. I have school to finish. You’ve never even met my parents.”

“I already know your father, and I asked his permission to marry you.”

“My…? You mean, Hakon? When did you have time to ask him?”

He stood and grabbed both of her hands. “When I risked my life for yours and hauled you to my side. I exchanged a look with Hakon. He nodded his agreement, and expressed it mentally.”

She glanced over at Hakon, who seemed to be discussing something important with Derek. “How did he know what you wanted?”

Keen raised a brow. “It was obvious.”

“That’s how men in your land ask permission to marry someone’s daughter?”

Keen shrugged. “More or less. Traditionally, we would have performed a mock sword fight, in which he would have backed down and acceded, but there wasn’t time for that.”

“That’s some…tradition you have there.” She glanced around, trying to take it all in. People were clearing out the wounded and attempting to put the room back to rights, Elena and Derek shouting commands.

Keen’s shoulders tensed. “You said you cannot marry me now, but I have your father’s permission. When shall we marry?”

Now he was persistent? So much pushback and now he couldn’t have her soon enough? Well, he’d have to wait. “In a few years.”

He pulled her flush against his body and lifted her into his arms until they were nose to nose. “I do not wish to wait a few years to be…intimate with you.”

She arched her brow, a smile tugging at her lips. “You didn’t wait the other night.”

His mouth drew into a hard line. “Exactly. I can’t wait when you are near. It is impossible. You could conceive and we wouldn’t be married.”

She looked at him as though he were dense. “That is what the Pill is for, you Neanderthal. Don’t you trust me to only be with you?”

“Of course. I would kill anyone who went near you.”

Was he serious? Probably. “Exactly, not that you’d need to. I’m a faithful person. But in any case, we’ll wait to get married until we’re ready, and in the meantime we could practice coupling, as you like to refer to the act.”

“Practice?”

She gave him a naughty grin. “Yes, practice.”

Keen’s nostrils flared and he squeezed her tight, but not tight enough to hurt her. “I like this plan. We will begin now.” He walked out of the room, passing soldiers who looked somewhat confused and scattered, and past Elena and Derek.

Elena looked up and saw them. She grinned at Reese and gave her a thumbs-up.

Just outside the door, Illa stood with Ulric. His mouth was on hers, his arms banded around her small waist, and their embrace was…passionate.

Keen turned down a separate corridor and continued walking.

“Does that bother you?” Reese asked. “Seeing Illa with someone else?”

He glanced at her, but continued his determined pace. “Of course not. Ulric has wanted Illa. And she is your sister.” He looked at her. “And I love you. Only you.” His hand slipped down and squeezed her ass.

“Okay,” she said a little breathlessly. “That works.”

Keen took a set of stairs three at a time and walked several feet down a wide hallway. He opened one of the doors with the arm that wasn’t holding her up, and slammed it closed with the heel of his boot.

This room was huge—a suite more than a room. And very luxurious. “Where are we?”

“Beortric’s old room.” He brought her into a separate bedroom with a four-poster bed and tossed her on it, swiftly following her down.

“Who’s Beortric?”

“Theda’s brother. Elena’s uncle, but he died in the first wave of the disease.” Keen’s eyes grew shadowed. “He was a good man.”

Reese cradled Keen’s face with her hand, still unable to believe they were together. “What happened tonight? Because it seemed like I was close to never seeing you again.” The memory of Keen writhing on the floor flooded her mind, tears springing to her eyes.

How had he done this to her? She was the commitmentphobe. And now she was in love and thinking about marriage?

She couldn’t stand the idea of what she’d almost lost tonight. Keen would have died if… “Why did the angel come back? Has that ever happened before? An angel returning to help?”

“No. Never.”

“What does it mean?”

“I don’t know. But then, Portia used humans and Halven to attack our people. That’s never been done before, and the angel said Portia had broken a rule. We’ve fought one another for millennia, but never have we involved the humans or your kind.”

“Your rules are intense. Would you truly have died because you broke your oath to Portia?”

He kissed her lips gently, and traced a finger over the small dimple in her chin. “Yes. And I would do it again. I will always protect you with my life.”

Keen had never betrayed her. Had always put her first. It allowed her to love, and to trust.

“Damn you.” Tears welled up once more, and she couldn’t stop them this time. “I don’t ever want to come close to losing you again, Keen Albrecht.”

He grinned and kissed her chin. “I will do my utmost not to get killed while attempting to protect you.” His mouth trailed from her chin down to her neck and her chest, where he’d loosened her top—by tearing it down the middle.

“See that you do,” she said dazedly as he kissed her breasts, seemed to get frustrated with the scraps of cloth still covering her chest, and removed it altogether, along with her bra.

The next items to go were her boots, pants, and underwear.

He grinned, pleased with his work. “You will remain like this when we are alone.”

She leaned on her elbows as she watched him reach back and pull his fancy wedding shirt over his head and down his arms. “Is that so?”

But as soon as he removed his boots and pants, she really couldn’t dish out any more sass. She decided she liked his plan and would insist it worked both ways.

Keen climbed back over her, hovering, his arms braced and supporting most of his weight.

Reese reached down and grabbed the part of him that was standing tall and reaching for her. “Have I mentioned how much I love your body?”

“You called it too big,” he said distractedly, as he thumbed her nipples and pressed his length into her hand.

Her eyes rolled into the back of her head. “I said it might not fit, but it does, so there’s nothing to discuss.” She squeezed the base of him and ran her hand up and circled the top with her thumb.

He let out a slow breath, as though attempting to remain in control. “And the rest?”

“The rest is very pretty too. When no words are coming out of your mouth.”

“You love my mouth.” And he demonstrated how much she loved his mouth on her breast.

“You’re right,” she said as his lips trailed a path to her belly. “I do love your mouth.”

He looked up mischievously, and then his head dropped lower.

She glanced down, suddenly wondering about something. “How is it that you guys have all these rules about sex for furthering the species, but oral sex, which produces no output, is just fine? You sure some angel isn’t going to catch us? You’re not going to go up in flames for being naughty like this, are you?”

He grinned and licked her, and she moaned. He lifted his mouth briefly, and she glanced down. “No…but you will.”

And he was right.

The next morning Reese was tucked against Keen’s large frame. Large and small, yet somehow they fit together perfectly.

She looked over her shoulder to find him gazing in the direction of the bedroom window, his brows drawn. “Everything okay?”

His eyes swept over her face and he smiled. “Yes. For once.”

Keen had been a soldier, committed to protecting Fae his entire life. Which was not to say that he hadn’t also found time for pleasure, if the magic he’d worked with his tongue last night and his hands this morning were any indication. And she really didn’t want to think about how he’d become an expert on the female body. The point was, he’d never had anything of his own. No family. Military friends, sure. But he’d asked her to be his wife last night. He was the only man in her life who’d given without expecting anything in return—the only man who’d put her first.

She was his and he was hers.

She rolled over and pressed her cheek to his chest. “What do we do now? Will the kingdom really accept Elena as their ruler?”

“Yes, however begrudgingly, or I would have been down there last night with them.”

“You’ve been reading their minds? I always forget you can do that. Maybe because you can’t read mine.” She gave him a saucy grin. Finally, something she had over him.

He ran his hand over her bare hip. “I believe I can read your mind right now.”

Her breathing sped up and her lips parted. Damn him. He could when he did things like that. “Fine, but only under sexual duress.” He moved to lift his hand, and she covered it with her own, forcing him to keep it right where it was.

“So you’ve been keeping track of what’s going on? And everyone’s accepted the change?”

“Absolutely not. They despise Halven.”

She pulled back and covered her breasts with the sheet. He glared down at her hand and attempted to pry the sheet free. “How can they still hate us? We’ve saved their lives. Twice!”

Giving up on the sheet in her death grip, he sighed. “They accept Elena’s actions. They do not accept Elena—”

“But—”

“As Halven. However,” he continued, cutting off what was about to be an epic rant on Fae prejudice, “they are coming around.”

“Really?”

“No. But they have no choice. Elena is a direct descendant of the rightful ruler, and one of the closest links to our angelic forefathers, with or without her human father. It is why her powers are so strong and why a team of Fae followed her before she’d ever come into her powers. No one can argue she belongs in the kingdom. As for being their ruler? That is under debate. You can depend on an attack on her authority. She’ll need to be guarded.”

Reese swung her legs over the side of the bed, taking the sheet with her. “Why didn’t you say so? We need to get down there. We need to help her keep things under control.”

Keen looked at her body, covered by the sheer sheet. “I suppose. Though I prefer to continue practicing.”

She smacked the Frisbee-sized hand that had reached out to grab her. “We can practice later. What happened to the Fae warrior who puts nothing ahead of duty?”

His eyes heavy-lidded, he said, “He fell in love with a tiny human.”

Her stomach did a backflip and her heart worked some acrobatics of its own. He was lethal when he put his mind to seduction. “Fine. A quickie. And then we get our asses down there.”

Reese went to hop back on the bed, but Keen had already wrapped his hands around her waist and was lifting her on top of him.

He kissed her, and she could feel him growing. “Didn’t we take care of that a few minutes ago?” She wasn’t serious. She could make love to him all day if he didn’t have a kingdom to manage…and if she didn’t have school and a life.

“The Fae have unending stamina,” he said, kissing her neck and pulling her up so that he could reach her breasts.

She stared at the top of his head, which she could see from this vantage point. “For real? Always?”

He buried his face in her breasts, and she rolled her eyes. Men. “If we want,” came his muffled reply.

She inched back down and reached for him. Sure enough, his body was primed and ready.

Impressive.

And just to emphasize that point, Keen rolled her beneath him. “The question is whether or not you can keep up.”

That was a challenge if ever she heard one. “Oh, I can keep up.” She tried to push him to the side so she could straddle him, but the man wouldn’t move. Finally, he figured out what she wanted and rolled onto his back.

Reese climbed on top of him, enjoying her power position. He placed his hands on her hips and then slid them up toward her breasts, a lazy smile on his face. “Test me all you like. I will not fail.”

“I’m counting on it.”