bump in the night

Dante Milburn

“A phase, Strauss. That’s all this is. I just need to fuck the woman out of my system and I’ll be back to normal in no time,” I’d barked at the wiry doctor nights ago when the woman was still in the throes of the trial effects.

“Remember you must only use these herbs once in three nights, Your Highness, otherwise—” he’d confided, squeezing a long thin vial into my palms and trailing off when I cut in.

“Got it. Three nights, no more insomnia.” I gritted, giving him an air salute at the door before disappearing back out and trying to scrub his worried expression out of my mind.

There was nothing wrong with me. I’d just had a lot of shit on my mind lately.

Couldn't a man find something to help him get a bit of rest?

Forbidden opiums like the Blackfoot herb were powerful tonics gotten from the corrupted plants in The Darkness.

In small doses, it was an anesthetic…anymore, and it was anybody’s guess what the consequences were.

Doctor Edward Finch never would have stood for it.

Doctor Edward Finch was still missing.

“Focus…Alpha, where’s my big, strong wolf gone off to again?” the wench purred, flicking my face back to hers with her fingers and flashing me a smile full of brilliant white teeth and dark gums.

She was beautiful...breathtakingly so. With thick black lashes and full red lips shaped into a bow.

But Mara was more beautiful.

Her red hair and the image of the way her hips flared from her small waist had burned into my frontal lobes.

Why the hell couldn't I stop thinking about her?

Only Ronan had met with her after she’d woken up…heck, I didn't want to admit to myself why it was I was still keeping my distance.

I’d hoped for a little more time to get to know her. Time to see if she would strengthen or weaken Infinity Fortress if I took her as my mate.

But the meeting today had proved it. There was no time. 

I had to decide, now.

“I’m here, baby…all yours,” I lied through my teeth, grinning back up at the woman straddling me before she pushed her long black hair over bony shoulders, thrusting her breasts in my face.

“Company?” She tutted, her tongue moving in my ear in a way that made my eyes cross over.

“Its nothing. Ignore it.” I growled just when a knock came again, this time rattling the door in its frame and making my wolf sneer warningly.

“Y-Your Highness? I have word…it’s urgent,” A maid rasped through the wood, and I ground my teeth, turning my face away from the princess when she tried to reach down for a kiss.

I didn't kiss whores. 

I didn't kiss courtesans. I didn't kiss anyone, period.

Those were the conditions.

She knew that, and yet, her face crumpled like I had just spit on her before her lips wove into a shaky smile and she lowered her head to nibble on my ear.

Her loud gasps and moans made a faint buzz of pleasure build in my groin until the rap of knuckles on the door distracted me again.

“Who the fuck is that? I’m busy.” I barked loudly, making the princess chuckle in delight.

I let her think I was being possessive when all there was to my aggression was a deeply-seated irritation.

“It’s about Miss Mara Eldwood, M’lord, I’m afraid it can't wait. She’s missing—” She shouted, her tone frantic enough to make me stop my humping.

The princess’ eyes darkened with understanding and her lips tightened as she doubled her efforts to seduce me.

As if I would forget all about my pack and focus on her.

Was Mara a part of my pack now? Was that what this obsession was? Overreaching Alpha duties? Or was there something more?

The mate bond shouldn't have been this impossible to ignore. Not when I hadn't even come close to claiming her.

“This better be worth it, maid, or I’ll have the guards twist off your tongue—” I hissed, letting a deep, guttural groan fall from my lips when the princess sank her ass on my cock.

The cream of her sex coated my throbbing cock with its sheen and my hands bunched around the small of her waist instinctively.

Her sharp jaw jutted when she threw her head back, face scrunched up in ecstasy.

“Yes…yes, Your Highness, unghhh, you're so big— just like that —” She moaned, pretty green eyes rolling back into her head before she clasped one finger over the hard nipple she arched only inches from my lips.

I ran my cheek languidly over the hardened flesh, meeting the brief flash of surprise and desire in the blond maid’s eyes before she lowered her head.

“Speak.”

“Apologies…Its Miss Eldwood, Highness. I was bringing over her dinner for the night when I saw her leaving from her quarters,” 

The servant’s desperation was tinged with a breathless note that must have come from the delightful perversion of seeing two people fuck.

I glared at her, ignoring the way my heart started to beat faster in my chest.

“And?”

“Well…I wanted to make sure she was safe so I followed her over to Sir Winters’ quarters—” she stammered like I didn't know how nosy all the servants of the fortress were.

She followed her for protection, not so she would have news to spread to her servant friends…got it.

Why the hell was Mara seeking out Winters anyway? 

The woman in my lap whimpered and I relaxed my home instinctively, realizing I’d been pressing down hard enough that a deep purple bruise had formed on her hips.

Her green eyes were stormy when I met them, mouthing a ‘sorry,’ to her and watching her shake her head defensively.

“Tis nothing, Your Highness…I love pleasing you,” She wheezed, and I wondered if her people had pawned her off to us so she could enchant me enough that I would make her my queen.

It was how a lot of courtesans got mated after The Darknesses. 

Through sex with royals under the cover of night, making men swear allegiances and promises when they were on the cusp of their orgasms and then holding them to it in the mornings.

I was not enchanted, but there was no use hurting the girl’s feelings any more than necessary.

Besides…there was no telling if she would grow on me too the way Mara had. 

I needed to keep my options open because there was no way the Moon Goddess could have given me a second mate after how brutally I’d ended the first one.

If the redhead ever found out what I had done…

“And?” I griped at the maid who had trailed off, unable to hide the jealous inflection in my voice as the noise of the princess smacking at my neck echoed obscenely.

The blond maid’s face had turned to a beetroot red as she turned slightly to the side, struggling to look everywhere but at us.

Her small, muscular chest was heaving with ragged breaths, and the faint scent of sex wafted from her clenched thighs.

Every time I saw the maiden it was against my will…and every time I learned something more about her. Something I didn't like.

Who was she again?

I’d never heard of my father’s favorite soldier, nor seen any asides the wolf who ended up betraying him.

I would have to get Ronan to find out more about her and how exactly she came to be recruited into this fortress.

“Well, it’s just that I’d seen the old Beta earlier, Your Highness…and he uh…he didn't look so good,” Amenie stammered, the uneasiness in her tone striking right at my chest like a bell.

My hands moved slower across the courtesan’s thick thighs and the gold bands trapping the flesh. 

The kind all courting princesses wore like a slut stamp.

I tried to ignore the pit opening up in the base of my gut when the maid shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.

“What the fuck do you mean by that?” 

There was venom in my tone now, because if there was anything Caius couldn't do, it was not look good.

The little shit was as vain as a peacock.

Even more obsessed with his dashing good looks than the hundred dozen maidens in the fortress fawning over him daily.

Amenie’s closely set eyes snapped to my face, and if I didn't know any better, I would have sworn there was a flicker of hardness in her eyes.

She didn't like me…that was a first.

My feelings would have been hurt if I were Caius. 

If I actually gave a flying, farting, squelching fuck what people thought about me.

The surprise of her despise made a corner of my lip twitch before I bit down on the smile.

Was she jealous then? 

Didn't want her mistress and her crush getting too close?

Something told me it was more than that when she wrung her hands in the glossy black apron she tied over the white servant uniform.

“He looked wrong, Alpha Milburn, all stiff and limping…like he’d been infected by The Darkness.”  

The finality in her whisper made the hairs on my arms and back form large goosebumps before my hands stilled on the woman’s ebony flesh.

“Get out. Both of you.” 

The princess looked surprised that I was sending her away, but she knew better than to question my orders, bowing and shuffling out of my chambers alongside the maid who paused at the doorway.

“Please…Your Highness, don’t let anything happen to my mistress,” She begged, but I gave her an order of my own.

Her throaty pleading was scarcely above a whisper but I felt it stab into my temples like a lobotomy scalpel.

“You keep your mouth shut, maid. If I hear even a breath of this outside these walls, I will hold you responsible.” 

The blond woman’s shoulders straightened and her jaw trembled before she bowed low, nodding her acquiescence and saying nothing more.

I kept my body deceptively calm, only staring back glumly at her before the huge double doors clipped shut and I was on my feet in a flash.

Accessing a royal of being infected was almost criminal…but for such accusations to be true…no… I couldn't think about that now.

“Every Joe, Dick, and Harry thinks they're seeing things these days, its a wonder they haven't all run mad,” I growled, pausing in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling mirror that lit up my body in sickening detail.

Harsh blue eyes stared at me from a chiseled face as I dragged on my clothes. Black as usual, the cuffs of my shirts sleeve stretching down to my fingertips.

Time was of the essence now… I had to hurry!

“Sword—” I barked instinctively before the weight of realization crashed down on me.

If I always used my sword when I came across any infected wolf…but Caius, hell, for all his sins, he was no fiend…was he?

Did I leave it? Take it? 

Caius’ life swung in the balance before I managed to swallow down the bitter lump in my throat, realizing I couldn't feel anything from out connection.

When had it severed? Was there some truth to the maid’s words after all?

“Damn you, Winters,” I cursed, hating the pang of indecision that seemed to paralyze my body as I stood before the full-length glass dresser, the glint of my royal coat and crown throwing an iridescent halo on the dome-shaped ceiling.

My hands paused on my gold execution sword for what felt like several impossible minutes before I made my choice.