Claimed by the Elven King: Part Two Read online

  CLAIMED BY THE ELVEN KING

  PART TWO

  CRISTINA RAYNE

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Copyright © 2014 Cristina Rayne

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER ONE

  Confusion was quickly becoming the norm for me upon awakening as I once again found myself with no clue about what was going on for those first couple of minutes after opening my eyes. Then I realized that the unfamiliar room I was in really wasn’t so unfamiliar, and I bolted up in bed, looking around for Sethian but not really surprised when I found myself alone for the second time in a row.

  For a long moment, my memories of before I had fallen asleep were hazy, like I was trying to see something clearly out of the corner of my eye. Then after a while of hard thinking, I was pretty sure that we had made love—if nothing else, the fact that I woke up naked, along with my still-throbbing vagina and sore nipples, confirmed my fragmented memories of riding him. Had I passed out during the act? It had almost happened before, so it was completely possible.

  I grimaced. How embarrassing if that turned out to be true!

  A folded piece of clothing at the foot of the bed the same color of blue as the elven king’s robes caught my eye, and I wasted no time in slipping it on, though dealing with the multitude of ties along the side were somewhat aggravating. Despite all we had already done, the last thing I wanted was for Sethian to suddenly walk into the room and find me naked. Nudity was all good and well while having sex, but I could only imagine how vulnerable I would feel trying to have a normal conversation with him while only he was fully clothed and leering down at me. Not that I’ve ever seen him leer…

  I ended up leaving the bottom three ties undone out of frustration and made my way over to the door Sethian had entered through, wondering with a sick feeling at the pit of my stomach whether or not it was locked. There was another door on the other side of the bed that either led to a closet or bathroom, so keeping me locked in was completely plausible.

  My hand hesitated briefly over the handle before I mentally berated myself for being such a wuss and grabbed it with more force than was necessary. Even so, I almost went weak in the knees with relief when the handle turned easily, and with a soft click, the door opened.

  Feeling almost like a prowler, I stuck my head through the partially opened door and peered into the room beyond, not really sure what I was so nervous about finding. From what I could see, it was a large, high-ceilinged room filled with several cream-colored couches in the center that were bookended by a couple of small tables with a pair of rather ornate and old fashioned-looking lamps resting in the center of each. Several wooden, high-backed chairs were pushed up along one of the walls. A sitting/living room by the looks of it.

  Pushing the door open farther, I cautiously stepped into the room, half-expecting someone to jump out at me like some sort of cheesy horror movie, but not a soul was in the room, the only sounds my shallow breaths and the rapid beating of my heart thrumming in my ears. There was a door across the room directly facing the bedroom door, and two others on the left and right. To the left was also a large picture window that was covered by only a couple of thin, nearly transparent white curtains.

  I made a beeline to the windows and pushed the curtains aside. That the sky was a familiar blue made the huge knot of tension in my chest loosen just a bit. However, a sense of vertigo washed through me when I looked down and was greeted by the sheer drop of a jagged cliff face, the rocks and crashing waves at the bottom so far down that they were barely distinguishable. The drop must have been at least a couple thousand feet. Startled, I immediately jerked away from where I had been leaning against the window, my heart suddenly in my throat.

  Why in the hell would someone build a structure so close to the edge of the cliff? One small earthquake or weathered edge suddenly becoming unstable and someone would earn a one-way ticket to the last terrifying ride of their life. It was completely disconcerting to know that someone could be me if this was where Sethian intended for me to stay from now on.

  I stepped back from the window and looked over to the bedroom door, wondering if I should just go back inside and hide under the blankets until Sethian returned. Then my stomach growled, and I was suddenly reminded that I hadn’t eaten in who knows how long. Was there a kitchen somewhere nearby? I wondered if I was in something like an apartment, or if the king of the elves lived in a castle or palace and this was just one of several of its wings. Maybe the door across the room to the right of the bedroom led to a kitchen, or at the very least, a dining room. I really hoped I wouldn’t have to wait for Sethian to show back up to get something to eat.

  Walking over, I paused only briefly in front of a pair of French-style doors that I hadn’t noticed initially that opened out onto a wide and spacious balcony with tables and seating. Although I wasn’t exactly afraid of heights, there was no way I was going out there alone without first asking Sethian about it. For all I knew of the elven realm, it could be a windy season or something and not safe to step out onto it right now.

  The first thing that greeted me when I opened the next door was a wall of books. A library was all I had time to think before my eyes fell on the long-haired, blonde person seated on one of the many overstuffed chairs in the room, an open book in their lap. A young female elf, I realized with a start as I stood frozen in the threshold and stared while her green eyes blinked over at me in surprise. She was incredibly beautiful, her features much narrower than a human woman’s but delicate and perfectly proportioned as if they had been sculpted by one of the Renaissance masters.

  With something akin to panic, I wondered if this ethereal girl was the queen. She looked a lot younger than I would have thought, but she could’ve been a thousand years old for all I knew about the longevity of elves.

  I sure as hell wasn’t ready to meet Sethian’s other wife, especially when I was in essence “the other woman.” He had said that the queen didn’t care for him at all, but that didn’t mean that she would be all that happy about him bringing another woman into the household. I’m ashamed to admit that the thought of just backing out of the room and running back to hide in the bedroom crossed my mind before the elf woman smiled—and it was a genuinely friendly smile without a sharp edge to be found.

  “Hello,” she greeted, closing her book and placing it onto the small table beside her before standing up. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you awoke, my lady. You must walk on cat feet as I did not hear you at all! My name is Lariel, of the family Elerdir, and I am a servant of the royal household. My Lord King has assigned me to be your lady-in-waiting.”

  Feeling the tension drain from my shoulders, I flashed her what I hoped was an equally friendly smile and replied, “It’s nice to meet you, Lariel. I’m Emily.”

  I didn’t give her my last name, unsure of what the proper etiquette was for introductions now that I was considered one of the king’s wives. Just thinking the “w” word made me squirm inside. At that moment, I very much felt like a fish out of water. I didn’t need to be from the elven realm to know that it was probably dangerous to commit a social faux pas even
with a servant. I mentally winced. I didn’t like the sound of that word at all and resolved right then and there to never call anyone a servant but to think of them as hotel staff, instead.

  “Are you sure you should be up?” she asked worriedly. “His Majesty expected that you would not wake for several more marks, yet.”

  Her eyes fixed on my stomach for a brief moment, and I had an uncomfortable suspicion that I knew what she was worrying about. The problem was that I couldn’t really say she was wrong, given that I had already slept with the king twice. To make matters worse, I felt my cheeks heat up at the thought of everyone in the whole damned elven realm knowing that I had just spent the last day being screwed into the mattress by their king. I had always been a very private person, but it was beginning to look like complete privacy would no longer be an option.

  “I’m fine,” I assured her quickly. Then hesitantly, “Maybe a little hungry. My—lord husband—” I almost choked on the word. “—hasn’t had a chance to show me around yet. Is there a kitchen, or is there someplace specific I’m supposed to go to eat?”

  Lariel inclined her head gracefully. “I will have a meal prepared and sent up. His Majesty sends his apologies, but he will not be dining with you for the midday meal. Perhaps you would like to visit the royal baths while you wait?”

  Probably a good idea since I likely smelled like sex and sweat. I felt myself blush again as I nodded. Just how good was an elf’s sense of smell, anyway? For all I knew, I probably reeked to high heaven, and Lariel was just too polite to say anything until now.

  To my dismay, the large door I had figured earlier to be the main exit had been locked after all—and from the other side, no less. Lariel had to call out to what I presumed to be guards standing just outside to unlock the door. I decided to pretend that it didn’t bother me at all. The last thing I needed to do was to start the rumor mill before I could even get the lay of the land, so to speak.

  There were two guards waiting on the other side of the door, both looking as narrow-faced as Lariel, yet somehow a thousand times more alien than either her or Sethian even, though they were beautiful in their own right. However, unlike when I looked at Sethian, when I looked at them, something deep inside my psyche shivered in alarm rather than awe. I was rather relieved that after giving me a cursory glance, neither one of the guards looked at me again.

  “Saeria of the family Maelenas and her younger sister, Rinwen, will be joining us sometime past midday,” the elf girl chatted as we, along with one of the door guards, walked down a series of narrow corridors that all looked identical and would probably be as difficult to navigate as a maze on my own—which was probably the idea, now that I thought about it. Extra security and all that. “His Majesty has also assigned them to serve as My Lady’s ladies-in-waiting.”

  Being addressed in such an archaic way was driving home the reality of my situation, and I found my anxiety levels rising again. I was now the wife of a freaking elven king and was expected to bear his heirs. The thought of it was infinitely more terrifying in the light of day without a mind overwhelmed by mind-blowing sex.

  The royal baths was an area straight out of an expensive spa brochure, all marble pools and a low-lighted ambiance made possible by several small oil lamps littered throughout the huge chamber, but I had very little time to absorb the extravagance of the place because I finally noticed that Lariel was staring at something ahead of us—and her whole body had visibly tensed. My eyes followed her gaze, and I saw that someone with white-blonde hair was lounging in one of the smaller side pools while four female elves hovered at the edges nearby.

  Looking closely, I suddenly went positively rigid when I realized that it was the face of a woman I had seen before. I remembered. I remembered with a clarity that was almost as shocking as it was mortifying. How could I have forgotten the incident, even for a moment? It was her—the elf that had been standing in the door of Sethian’s bedroom watching us while Sethian had been doing his best to screw me into oblivion. With a sinking feeling, given where she was now and that she had been able to walk into the king’s bedroom, I realized there was only one person she could be.

  Silently, the probable queen met my gaze, her face just as expressionless as the first time I saw her.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Lariel bowed and said something in a musical language that, just by its tone, must have been an apology, but I didn’t need to understand her words to have my suspicions confirmed. Her bow said it all.

  Unsure if I was supposed to bow, too, I decided not to do anything. If she was offended, I figured I could probably use the stupid-human-doesn’t-know-anything-yet excuse and apologize later. Might as well milk my ignorance for all it was worth while I still could.

  Even when Lariel had spoken, the queen didn’t take her eyes off me, acting as if she hadn’t even heard the young elf speak. It took everything in me to keep a neutral expression on my face and not to outright scowl at her. She was acting as snooty as I had feared, which definitely didn’t bode well for me. Pissing her off here would only make matters worse.

  The queen suddenly spoke sharply in what I assumed was Elvish, and two of the four elves with her hurried over to an alcove where piles of what looked like towels and other various garments were neatly folded on several rows of shelves. They returned with several of each just as the other two elf women were carefully helping their mistress out of the pool.

  She then posed with her arms slightly out and raised, seemingly unconcerned about displaying her nudity to everyone in the room, while two of the elves dried her as carefully as if she was a delicate figurine that might shatter. Not that she had any reason to be concerned. Every part of her body was a masterpiece.

  Through it all, I stood rooted to my spot, silent and feeling extremely awkward. Lariel also stood silently beside me. It was apparent by her worried eyes that she had no idea what to do in this situation, had probably not even expected the queen to be here, and I immediately felt a kind of kinship with her. From Sethian’s earlier explanation, I figured it had probably been several hundred years, if even more, since a king might have needed to take a human wife. We were both treading unknown waters here.

  And one of the biggest sharks in the ocean is heading right for us, I thought in sudden panic as the queen, dressed in exactly the same robe I was wearing, seemed to almost glide across the marble floor until she stopped only an arm’s length away from me.

  This close, I could see that Sethian was right. She was extremely beautiful, but unlike Lariel’s delicate beauty, the queen’s beauty was utterly alien, bringing to mind power and coldness in the sharp angles of her face. There was nothing soft or delicate about her. She reminded me of a well-honed, well-crafted sword who just happened to have an exquisite jewel-encrusted hilt. It was almost like she had been bred to be a warrior.

  Sethian had said that she was of a different elven race. I wondered if the rest of her people’s women shared the same sharp, warrior-like characteristics.

  I was drawn out of my thoughts when I realized that the queen was examining me as well, her eyes moving critically up and down my body several times. She even tilted her head to look at me from several different angles, giving the impression that she was a judge examining the quality of an animal at a stock show.

  I flashed her a small smile even though I was internally gnashing my teeth at the way she was treating us, and said a short “hello.” Sethian had implied that she held just as much power as he, both elves the ruling representative to their different peoples, so antagonizing the elven queen here would be worse than stupid. Hopefully me talking to her first wasn’t a social misstep or even worse, against the law.

  As soon as I spoke, the neutral expression on the queen’s face melted into something between a sneer and a look of disgust, making her appear even more alien. I couldn’t help the shiver that ran down my spine, and hated myself for being the one who had blinked first.

  “So you are to bear our future king,” she sa
id, her eyes still doing their best to bore twin holes through my face. I wasn’t altogether sure she couldn’t. “I should not be surprised that a mongrel would choose a mongrel, but…”

  I swear I could hear my spine crack, I had grown so stiff with suppressed outrage, but I merely stared back at her neutrally without a word. She was clearly trying to get a rise out of me, and damned if I would give the elf-bitch the satisfaction.

  She sniffed and then uttered a few words in the musical elven language she and Lariel had spoken earlier that made Lariel suddenly twitch as she walked past me without another glance. Her ladies-in-waiting hurried after her, flashing me a few curious looks as they passed, but saying nothing.

  “What did she say?” I asked my new companion once I could no longer hear the faint footsteps of the queen and her entourage.

  A flash of panic showed momentarily in the elf girl’s eyes before she could completely hide it. She tried to cover it up by smiling brightly and urging me towards the largest pool in the chamber with a gentle pat to my back.

  “Don’t worry about it, My Lady,” she said airily. “The queen is still adjusting.”

  Translation: “The queen just called you a dirty whore; but that’s only because she’s jealous, and she really, really doesn’t mean it…”

  I decided not to force the issue and allowed her to lead me to the steps of the main bathing pool. While I removed my robe, she went to fetch me some soap. The pool was pleasantly warm and wasn’t as deep as I had thought along the edges, coming up to just below my shoulders. A natural stone ledge beneath the water had been carved and smoothed out into a bench, allowing me to sit comfortably with my head above the waterline.

  Lariel returned with the soap as I was dunking my head beneath the water in order to thoroughly soak my hair, and she immediately insisted on being allowed to wash my hair. I let her have her way without a fuss, but flat-out refused to allow her to wash anything else, telling her it was a “human” thing to allay any possible hurt feelings. Remembering how I had been washed by all those unknown elves while still blind and clueless about my fate made my skin crawl just thinking about it. I wondered if this was the pool where it had happened.