Page 124 of Fallen Heirs

I looked out at Xavier and Talon, but they were both waiting eagerly to hear my answer too.

Dammit.

“I shouldn’t have brought it up. Forget it. I thought it would be a good thing. I didn’t think you’d take it negatively like this.”

“Alena,” he pushed.

“You can ask him yourself.”

“I’m asking you.”

Dammit again.

“Besides, he didn’t say shit about it, even when we got onto the topic of his upcoming wedding last night. It would have been the perfect segue. Clearly, he had no intention of telling me.”

“Probably because I told him I needed to think it all over first and then discuss things with the three of you.”

“Again I ask, what things? What else did he say?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “You’re like a dog with a bone, you know that?”

“I’m well aware of how persistent I can be.”

“Persistentisn’t the word I’d use,” Xavier said.

Talon chuckled. “Definitely not.”

Orpheus glared at them, then back at me.

I shoved a hand through my hair. “He suggested we announced ourunionat his wedding, that the three of us exchange the equivalent of promise rings, make our relationship official in the eyes of the DFR, and confirm for the populace that I’m to be their future princess.”

Orpheus stilled and stared at me wide-eyed.

A growl sounded from him a moment later, then he stormed toward the door, muttering to himself, “He’s not pressuring you into this. No fucking way is this happening.”

I flicked my hand at him, wrapping a golden rope around his wrist and using it to tug him back to the bed, back to me.

He hit the mattress on his ass and twisted to face me. His magic sparked with the obvious intention of using it to free himself from my hold, but I jerked on my magical rope and forced him right to me, until he was looming over me, one hand slapped to my pillow to steady himself while the other was being bound by me. “Alena,” he groused.

“Just listen before you fly off the handle. I get that this is a sensitive subject for you—me being controlled by anyone. I know it’s because of what happened with Constantine. And I love you for wanting to guard me against that. But I’m not being controlled here. I promise you, there was no manipulation on your father’s part. It came from a place of acceptance of the fourof us and excitement. There were no demands, no ultimatum, no guilt trips, nothing like that. He’s just happy for us, foryou.”

“That was really all there was to it? You’re not just saying that to calm me down?”

I released my magic, the rope disintegrating, and I reached up and cupped his face. “I swear it to you.”

“You don’t have to do this. The pressures of the kingdom and tradition and all of that don’t fall on you, it’s my issue to deal with. Not yours.”

“Actually, given that you’re an integral part of my life, and vice-versa, it does fall on me now. But I’m fine with it. I don’t mind. In fact, I really like it there in the Dark Fae Realm. I like your father, the palace guards, the people I met on our tour.” I stroked his face. “And I like the idea of us forming thisunionthat he mentioned.”

“Shit, yes!” Talon cried, startling us both. “I’m here for it!”

I grinned out at him.

Then I caught Xavier’s eye and he nodded at me with a big, joyful smile.

“Well?” I asked Orpheus, when he still hadn’t answered.

His lips quirked. “You know me. Any way I can stake a claim on you, I’ll take it.”

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