Page 26 of Protected

Yet here I sat basking in her magic, if not her presence, avoiding following the directive of my queen, because I was jacking off.

Even knowing I was sabotaging myself, my army, and my queen, I still wrapped that slip of silk around my cock and fucked my own hand, imaging it was her mouth, her cunt, her ass. When the second wave of her magic, so much stronger than the first hit me, I grunted, not ready to orgasm just yet.

She demanded that I come for her.

Her soft and gentle spirit grabbed mine by the throat and commanded that I taste her magic, drink her in. I felt the spirits of Leb, Zucker, Tau, and even chaste Nuss dancing and joining with hers, fulfilling their destinies. Leb's bond would be consummated and his bond with her forever unbreakable.

I couldn't resist her claim on my soul and shot my seed into the snow, just for a brief moment letting her magic wash over me as I climaxed with the rest of them.

But for me there would be no after sex snuggles, sweet nothings whispered to each other, or promises made for a long life of love.

Because my destiny was fucked the day the Mouse Queen found our kingdom's crown. My life was no longer my own, my friends gone, my dreams dashed by one heart-breaking spell. I belonged to the Queen now and even the Princess of Spirit and Magic couldn't save my forsaken soul.

But perhaps I could save hers.

This battle to usurp the Queen was lost before it was even fought. The Nutcracker guard and the rebels simply didn't know it. If I could stop the Princess from finding the other crowns, I could get her to give up on this quest and send her packing back to the human realm before this civil unrest destroyed everything.

She would be miserable, but she would be alive.

I'd made a mistake in allowing her to slip through my hands before. I wouldn't make it again. Her bond with Leb would make my job more difficult and my intentions harder to hide.

Tomorrow, they would start their hunt for one of the four remaining crowns. Probably one of the Fae Kingdom's if I had to guess. Only ClaraMarie would have the ability and latent knowledge to find it.

I couldn't let that happen. I either had to steal the crown out from under her, or her from the rest of the guard. A bond with one Christmas Prince, I could keep from the Queen, but not two. She would make my life and that of my people hell, if she even suspected the princess was gaining power.

The scratchings and squeaks of a mouse coming through the rocks and snow pulled me from my thoughts. I tucked myself back into my pants and slipped the red silk into my belt. The animal climbed up on the nearest rock, bearing a note tied around his belly.

I slid the paper from the string and stuck him into the warm pocket of my shirt, under my jacket. The wax seal on the outside bore the crest of the queen. I flicked the seal into the snow and unrolled the paper.

Our new friend, Friedrich, would like to be commissioned as Lieutenant in my army, and the receivethe benefits of the position.

As I believe you've lost one of yours, he would be a good replacement.

~ Your Queen

While the compulsion of her spell over me was on the paper, she knew as well as I did that without a direct command, I didn't have to obey. Nothing in the note actually charged me with any obligation. She was placating this stupid, greedy boy.

Born under the Christmas star, he and Clara Marie could have ruled the winter realm as a brother-sister king and queen. But I knew his type. He wanted all or nothing. Nothing for anyone else, anyway. He would let the kingdom fall to ruin before sharing the power of the throne.

That, more than the machinations of the Mouse Queen, was dangerous. At least the queen had taken power in an angry act of rebellion against oppression. She just didn't see past the end of her own nose. She could have freed everyone, and instead fell prey to the same lust and abuse of power as the snowflakes.

Instead of using her influence to make life better in the realm, she made it harder for everyone but her. Her new pet human would do even worse.

I pounded my fist into the snow. Enough was enough. I had only eleven more days of Christmas and every plan I'd had thinking I could somehow get the princess on my side was squashed in the snow like the guts of slain mice.

If I couldn't win her over, I would steal her away and make her see. It was the right thing to do even if it turned my stomach. I knew it back in the battle at the Christmas Tree Forest. Instead, I let her fear and beauty sway me into hoping there was another way.

There wasn't.

She would be mine even if I had to kill each and every one of the Nutcracker guards to make it so. It wasn't like my heart could break more than it already was. Murdering the men I'd pledge my loyalty to, and then died inside when they broke that honor into dirty little pieces, would be the final blow I needed to give up any hope I was anything other than an instrument of the Queen's.

I hunkered down and waited until the morning's light when the princess and her guards rose from their love-drunk stupor of the night. Mother Gingerbread was a master strategist and had everything they needed prepared for their journey, including three sets of decoy groups to throw my army off the scent.

Each had two lithe warriors to look like the Fae, a burly Viking, and a leader dressed in the Nutcracker uniform. Where they'd gotten red silk for each of the women in the shill groups was a mystery, until I saw the princess walk out of the longhouse in a cut-down version of her dress.

She fucking glowed like the Christmas star.

Leb wrapped a great fur coat around her, hiding every scrap of her bright dress, and her luscious skin. Their ruse might work on my lieutenants who lay in wait at the base of the mountain, but they could never again hide ClaraMarie from me.

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