Claimed by the Elven King: Part Two
Read Claimed by the Elven King: Part Two Online
Authors: Cristina Rayne
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.
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.
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.