Beauty (A Faery Story 3)

The unscarred one shrugged. Shim. She’d named him Shim. “I don’t know. Only Gillian believed us. Perhaps she had no one to believe her, no one to help figure out what was happening.”

Bron drew her knees to her chest. “Gillian’s here?”

“She’s downstairs,” the one she’d named Lach replied.

There was something about Gillian she needed to remember, but she couldn’t quite catch it, and she kept getting distracted by man parts. They were everywhere, and neither man seemed willing to do a thing about it. “Shouldn’t you cover those things up?”

Those things had given her such pleasure, sinking deep inside her. It was all a dream, of course. Except she was really sore. Really sore. Her body had a pleasant ache.

Shim smiled and gave her a little wink she found all too sexy. “I don’t want to cover it up. I’d really rather use it on you, love.”

Something heated up inside. Mingled in with the nightmare images were other softer, sweeter memories. Lach working over her, sharing his pleasure with her. Shim kissing her neck, lavishing affection before he sank his fangs deep.

Fuck it all, he’d bitten her. She shot off the bed practically jumping toward the mirror. She stared at herself. There it was. Her neck was smooth and unblemished with the exception of two perfectly delicate holes. She’d been fed upon, and if she remembered correctly, she’d liked it.

What in all the damn planes was happening to her?

“You’re vampires.” It was the only explanation. They were royal vampires. There was only one problem with the scenario. She turned to them, still trying to pull the sheet around her. “Why did you bite me? I’m not a consort.”

“Like hell you’re not. You’re a consort. You’re our consort.” Lach threw his brother a furious stare. “How can she not know this? Are you trying to tell me that we’ve been pining for her, looking for her for damn near thirteen years, and she thought we were some masturbatory dream?”

Shim seemed the more reasonable of the two. “You know how hard it was to talk in those dreams. I would go in thinking I would explain everything to her and it would all drift away and we would simply be there.” He turned to Bron. She was pretty sure now the enormous, bobbing cock that jutte

d from his center was simply in its natural form since it never wavered. How did he walk around like that? “Your parents never told you that you could bond? Your vampire cousins would have been able to see your glow.”

Her father had never mentioned it, but she did remember Dante teasing her about glowing. She hadn’t understood. She’d been kept so ignorant. “My parents didn’t tell me, but then they didn’t tell me much. They probably believed me to be far too young.”

Lach frowned. “You weren’t too young to know the truth. Didn’t you understand that Gillian came to your plane with the express purpose of securing your engagement to us?”

Gillian. Gillian, her mentor. Her savior. What had Gillian said as the fires had died down? As Shim had carried her?

When the time is right and we unite the tribes, you will be the true Kings of the Fae. I honor you, brothers, and the woman who brings the Unseelie into true power.

It was like a punch to the gut.

Impregnate her if you can.

Gillian, the woman who had rescued her, had given her over to two men she didn’t know. She’d offered Bronwyn’s body and womb and, more importantly, her royal blood. Gillian had come to the palace that day so long ago to secure Bronwyn’s hand for her brothers. Her brothers—the Unseelie princes.

She had to hand it to Gillian. She was tenacious. She’d guarded Bron’s innocence. Bron had believed she guarded her from rape because Gillian had loved her, but now she knew it was because she’d been protecting her brothers’ property.

“I’m not a virgin anymore.” She’d hated the state, wanted to rid herself of it night after night in her dreams. She’d wanted her Dark Ones. They’d been her safe place, her haven.

Reality was brutal, and they had always been a lie.

Lach walked up to her. “No, you’re not. And neither am I.”

She snorted. They were gorgeous. They were princes of a plane known for its hedonism. Her own brothers had worked their way through every pretty sidhe female in their village by the time they were sixteen and likely half the Vampire plane. “Yes, well, I’m sure you lost that a long time before.”

He caught her shoulders and forced her to look into his eyes. “No. I waited. No sex. No blood. Just years of longing and waiting and hoping to find you. I don’t know what you believe, but you better believe this, you were my first woman. You will be my last woman. There is no one in all the planes for me except you, Bronwyn McIver.”

In his mind, they were already married. McIver. The name of the Unseelie royal family. She closed her eyes. Could it be true? She’d never thought she could bond, never been tested. She reached out with her mind and sure enough, there it was, the bond between them. Had it always been there and she’d been too stupid to realize it?

“I am still a virgin since you passed out after Lach fucked you. Could we perhaps do something about that? It’s a terrible state and this thing won’t go down and gods, your breasts are so lovely, Bron.” Shim smiled, his eyes fixed on her chest.

Damn it. She’d lost hold of her sheet.

Before she could bend over to grab it, Lach had it in his hands. He tossed it away.