Page 4 of Treasured By the Fae Royal

I must reach Sorsston. I must find a healer and save my mother.

This can’t be happening. It simply can’t.

“Get in the cage willingly, little lady, and we won’t rough you up,” the largest man says as he steps forward. He’s also the cleanest and most well-dressed of the bunch, and I surmise he’s the leader.

“You don’t want to take me. Trust me, you don’t.” With my free hand, I withdraw the resealed envelope from my pocket. “I have a letter from the Warden of Trevos that guarantees my safe passage on the road.” Maybe dropping the warden’s name will be enough to scare these humans off. I can only hope.

The leader scoffs. “The Warden of Trevos? We heard what happened in Trevos, and we don’t answer to the fae. Get in the cage. Now.” He nods at the horse-drawn wagon as the driver pulls it to a stop. “There’s an auction right outside Sorsston tomorrow at noon, and a pretty young thing like you will make a fine addition.”

An auction? Dread coils in my gut.

After putting the letter away, I readjust my grip on the knife.

I think of my ailing mother.

I won’t go down without a fight.

CHAPTER2

LUCAS

As I flytoward the Summer Court army, I can’t vanquish thoughts of Yvette, the beautiful dark-haired human female I just encountered on the road. Her sweet scent beckoned me, and her trembling excited me in ways that are still making my pants tight.

Longing. When I looked at her, I’d feltlonging. The first carnal desires I’ve experienced for a female in ages.

Why didn’t I take her?

I growl as my frustration builds. I wanted her. I wanted her very much, and I could’ve taken her without consequence. Warden Valloc might’ve written her a letter of protection, but the warden answers to me. I’m a Summer Court prince, and though I’m a few centuries younger than him, I outrank him. He also happens to be a distant cousin of mine, and it was I who appointed him as Warden of Trevos. I gave him thatpower. I can rescind any of his orders or cancel any ridiculous letters of protection at any time. That half-fae, half-human female he mated with probably convinced him to draft the letter anyway. It’s no secret he’s treated the humans with a bit more softness since entering that mating union.

Jealousy surges within me, hot and pulsing. I try to tamp it down, but it continues spreading, until I feel ready to commit a thousand brutal murders.

Fucking fires, I’m jealous of my cousin. Jealous because he found his fated mate. Jealous because hehasa fated mate, and I never will.

Long ago, before I was even born, a human mage cursed my family’s bloodline. The mage proclaimed that all my father’s offspring would never know a true fated mate, a damning sentence of loneliness that might very well affect the future of the Summer Court.

And so, my two older brothers haven’t taken mates yet, and neither have I, nor have we produced any children. Claiming a random fae female, or even arranging to claim a specific one, won’t work well and my father knows it. Unlike humans and orcs, our people don’t enter arranged marriages. It’s completely unheard of.

Arranged marriages would never work well for the simple fact that we all have fated mates. Or at least, we’re all supposed to. But not my brothers, and not me. We’re doomed.

Cursed to a life of loneliness.

Even if one of us produced an illegitimate child outside the bounds of a true mating union, it would cause a great upheaval in the Summer Court. Most of my people would refuse to follow a bastard-born ruler.

I think of the recent missive my father sent and shake my head. I still can’t believe the order he’d given me. An order that he also apparently gave my two older brothers.

He’d commanded all of us to mate with humans.

Not just mate but also hold human marriage ceremonies to add some extra legitimacy to the unions.

It’s his hope that perhaps our people will be convinced to follow a half-fae, half-human ruler one day. In all likelihood, it would be my oldest brother’s firstborn. Considering that fae typically live for thousands of years, my father believes the eldest half-fae, half-human grandchild will have adequate time to win over all the Summer Court lords.

It's a scenario that’s thousands of years in the future, and yet we must plan for it. I don’t envy my father the burden of this curse, nor do I envy my mother the guilt I know she still feels because of it. The mage who cursed her offspring was once in love with her, and in his fury over discovering she’d met her fated mate, he’d traveled to the Summer Court to place his curse, even knowing my father would hunt him down and kill him.

I peer across the mountainous landscape, my wings beating steadily in the cold winter breeze as I continue hovering in the sky. I summon a wave of summer to keep out the chill while I consider my next move.

Dare I take Yvette for mine?

My father’s order wasn’t specific. According to the letter, any human female would do. I would imagine my brothers are trying to find human females from royal families, but I’m not so vain.

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