Just as she’s assuring me that she’s fine and didn’t actually fall, I hear the voices of my idiot brothers. They are just up ahead, in the portrait room, where I’ve no doubt that Vel is boring Lois and Jaya with the various historical figures of my principality.

Sure enough, when we halt at the threshold, I catch the tail-end of Vel regaling the women about the last of this regions princes to possess a very strong and dangerous Bloodline Venom - one with the power to bring instant death.

“Why is father coming to visit the principality?”

All eyes turn to me, but it’s Vel that speaks up when she asks, “what do you mean?”

“Did you tell someone from the capital about my contract with Niska?” I ask, not missing the way Vel’s gaze drops to where I’m still holding my little human’s hand. I do not let go. Instead, I give it a light squeeze.

“What?” she says, looking truly perplexed. Vel is good at putting on a facade. When we were young together, she used to quite easily trick me into playing various childish games with her, claiming that Zann and Az had refused. They hadn’t, of course, and my cousin had managed to run rings around us all in this palace as a small girl.

Something tells me she is not pretending now, though, as she steps forward with concern on her features. “I only told my club, Kiahn, I promise. When will he be here?”

I take in a large breath through my nose and let it out again. “He will arrive any moment now.”

My brothers and Vel know that can’t mean anything good. If my father is arriving with such short notice, it means he’s not giving us sufficient time to prepare to receive him as king, which means this little visit is not an official one, and he doesn’t really want the people to know he’s here. He probably doesn’t even want them to know he’s left the capital.

“Is that bad?” Niska asks from beside me.

The concern in her voice bothers me, so I turn to her, gently cupping her small, human face in my hand. “No. Not for you. You have nothing to worry over - ever.”

Fuck, I wish I could rewind time. I would go back to when I’d had her moaning and panting up on the royal balcony, my hand stuffed down her undergarments, playing with her needy little cunt. I’d return to that moment, and I’d stay there.

Slight movement catches my eye at the periphery of my vision. It’s Zann. He’s trying to sneak away through one of the doors that connects to the servant’s walkways. “Where are you going?” I growl, stepping into the room now. My brother’s shoulders hitch as he freezes on the spot.

Quickly regaining that air of charm and ease he’s perfected over the years, my brother turns, an affable smile already placed on his irritating face. “Just felt like someone should probably go and check that the king’s chambers are ready to receive father-dearest, the kitchens have his favorite foods, etcetera, etcetera.”

I narrow my eyes at him.

“Oh, no need for any of that.”

That voice is behind me, and it makes me somehow stand taller, straighter. Makes my jaw tick. Makes me turn and try to tuck my Niska behind my larger frame.

“Your Majesty,” Vel falls into a perfect curtsy as my father enters the room. His hands are clasped at his back, his intricately embroidered robes trailing along behind him, complete with a trim of glowing black ‘star-feathers’ the people of the capital are always sporting. Two of his security detail melt into the room, following him like shadows. My brothers and I bow our heads like we have done all our lives, and I can’t help but tug Niska a little behind me where I’m still clasping her hand. I’d like to just outright step in front of her to shield her completely, but that would likely attract more notice than anything else.

“Sons,” my father acknowledges my brothers and I with a nod of his head. “It has been a long while since last we met in person.”

It’s true. We avoid going to the capital if we can help it, and it has been almost five years since my father’s last official visit to the Northern Principality. With my jaw tense, I watch as he takes us in, his gaze briefly dusting over Niska at first, only to zoom back over to her, blinking like he cannot grasp what he is seeing. He only seems to notice Lois and Jaya in that moment, too.

His brow furrows. And those furrows deepen when his eyes trace down to where I am still holding Niska’s hand in my own, no doubt wondering why a female would allow such a thing. My father’s bejeweled ear twitches as he seems to be trying to make sense of what he is seeing.

Which makes me think he is not here to oppose my breeding contract with Niska.

“Father,” I say, bowing my head once more as I step forward. “I would like for you to meet our guests, the humans, Lois, Jaya,” I say, indicating to each female with an outstretched palm, “and my bride, Niska.”

Stepping aside to allow my father his first unimpeded view of my female, my gaze can’t help but to gravitate to Niska, too. It is like the act of introducing her prompts me to take her in again, as if it were the first time.

And she is beautiful.

I do not even care that she is so small and has no horns. Her smile is like a shower of shooting stars and twice as stunning.

She is magnificent, and I can’t help but feel great pride in the fact that she has entered a contract with me.

I can hardly believe that she lets me touch her, invites me to ‘cuddles’, and will permit me to breed her precious little cu-

Someone’s words cut through the obsessive fog that had clouded my mind while I stared at my Niska.

Turning away, it is like my head had just resurfaced above water, and I come to realize it wasn’t just ‘someone’ trying to talk to me while I had ignored everyone else in the room except for her.

It was my father.

The king.

Who is now looking at me expectantly like he’d just asked a question.

“Uh…”

Luckily for me, Vel has her wits about her and steps in to supply, “Prince Kiahn and Niska met at Moon’s Rest Station where we had stopped on our way back from our visit to the Queens of Zelixi to discuss trade.” She smiles and clutches her tablet to her chest. My father then does that thing he does so well, which is to say nothing at all, prompting the other person to fill in the silence. “They… they hit it off. Niska and her friends were looking for somewhere new to live, and the prince is now ready for contracts so…”

Niska and her friends start nodding their heads with smiles plastered on their faces, clearly trying to appease my father. He treats them to a patronizing smile of his own - a weak thing that a spring breeze could blow from his face.

The irritating arrogance of the male who sired me has my teeth clenching together.

My father snorts softly from his nose, causing the feather trim by his jaw to move with the gust off his breath. The glowing spots seem to stir too, lighting up in pink, blues and greens. “So this means you will all finally start entertaining contracts with the females I have been suggesting, then?” he asks, looking at me and my brothers, our height meaning that his focus skims right across the heads of the human women like they weren’t even here.

There’s a beat or two of silence, and within that silence, I blanch. I haven’t even gotten Niska her collar yet, and my father is already thinking about lining up the next contract? I open my mouth to protest without really knowing what I was about to say, but Az interrupts with his mumbled; “well, actually… I was kinda thinking…” his hands demurely gesture toward Lois as he talks, but he’s not really looking at her.

“Me?!” Lois yelps, putting a palm to her chest as she looks up at Az like he’d sprouted feathered wings and a tail. “No. That’s not happening. I’m not having anyone’s babies, let alone a huge guy like you, so don’t get any funny ideas,” she says, shaking her head.