Captive Princess: A Dark Paranormal Romance (Feline Royals Book 2) Read online

  “What about starving me?” I growled.

  “My companions and I treated you as we’d treat any princess,” he said. “We gave you the utmost respect, just as we did Princess Camila. It’s unfortunate that you took that to mean we thought you were a shifter. In the future, remember that shifters can recognize each other by scent. Not a single shifter would ever mistake you for one of us.”

  “Of course not,” I muttered. “I’m a fucking idiot. Of course all that stuff about how I need to know how to serve before I can be a queen was a big fat lie.”

  “I might have a flair for the dramatic,” he said. “But those are good lessons for anyone in power. They might even come in handy for you, Princess.”

  I was too disgusted with myself to argue. Of course shifters could tell I wasn’t a shifter. Of course they never confused me for the heir. How could I have been so stupid? I had no right to feel betrayed. My own stupidity and blind eagerness to protect Camila were the only things that had misled me. It was looking more and more like the best thing I could do was stop protecting her. First she’d begun to resent me for it, and now this. I’d wanted to help her, but I was just hurting her and myself both.

  “What I don’t understand is why, if you knew I was just a human, you’d go to all that trouble to get me to fuck you? Why me? Was it all just part of your sick game?”

  “All of life is a game when you’re royalty,” he said. “Get used to it.”

  “I played your game,” I said. “Now, the deal was, you’d get to see your True Mate if you gave me the amulet and told me where my sister was.”

  “She’s in the room you were in,” he said. “Now, leave me to have my vision.”

  My head was reeling as we walked away so Shadow could open the panther amulet. I could barely breathe, and the stunned feeling wouldn’t leave my brain, my body, my heart. Everything in me was frozen and heavy as lead. I’d foolishly thought it was all for nothing if I couldn’t get the amulet. But that was nothing. I’d have left without the amulet if it meant Camila was safe. I hadn’t sucked Kenosi’s dick for an amulet. I hadn’t joined his orgy for an amulet. I hadn’t begged him to fuck me for an amulet. I’d done it all so he’d leave Camila alone. I’d done it to distract him from the real treasure—my sister.

  Now, I’d done it all for nothing.

  “She’ll be okay,” Lord Balam said quietly as we approached the towering glass and metal building. “When you see your True Mate, your whole life changes.”

  “How do you know?” I asked, turning to him. “Have you seen your True Mate?”

  He paused a second before shaking his head. “No.”

  I wrestled with my temper. I wanted to lash out, and he was there, but I knew I wasn’t angry at him. After a minute, I’d settled myself enough to speak again. “Don’t you wonder about her?”

  “Of course,” he said.

  I regretted asking. He’d said it so matter-of-factly that I knew he assumed I would understand that. That I was temporary. I should have been used to feeling expendable, but this was a new area of my life where I’d never felt this way before.

  “So, you just go through women while you wait for her?” I asked, not quite able to clip all the bitterness from my words.

  “I wouldn’t put it that way. Once, in my impulsive youth, I actually married a woman.”

  I wheeled on him, so surprised I forgot the sting of his earlier words. “You were married?”

  He smiled. “Just because I haven’t found my True Mate doesn’t mean I can’t have meaningful, long-term relationships filled with love and passion. I might never meet my True Mate. I choose not to spend my life celibate and alone.”

  “Hold up,” I said, raising a hand to stop him. “Uh-uh. Go back to the married part. Who did you marry? A jaguar?”

  “Yes,” he said, looking amused. His jaguar tail flicked back and forth behind him. “An advantageous marriage that my parents wholeheartedly endorsed for their upwardly mobile son.”

  “Why is this so funny to you?”

  He grinned. “I enjoy watching your jealousy flare. I admit, it’s turning me on right now.” He took my hand and pulled me closer, sliding it between us and pressing it to the swell in the front of his jeans. I gulped, my heart thumping. God, he was so fucking big.

  “Stop distracting me,” I said, pulling my hand away. “Where is this wife of yours? I take it you’re not still married?”

  “No,” he said, his smile fading. “She found her True Mate.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t know what to say to that. I’d imagined what it would be like to be left by Lord Balam. Not how he’d felt being the one left. “I’m sorry,” I said at last. “Did you… I don’t know. See her again?”

  “Of course,” Lord Balam said. “We belong to the same court, live in the same palace, and have a daughter together.”

  “You have a kid?” I asked, wondering what the hell was going to come out of his mouth next. For all I knew, he’d tell me he was a dragon. I’d made sure we were just fucking, so that’s all we’d done. I knew less about him than I did Sir Kenosi.

  “Yes,” Lord Balam said. “She’s just about your age. She also belongs to the Jaguar Court.”

  “Damn,” I said. “It must have sucked seeing your wife around with her new husband all the time.”

  “It taught me not to make a mistake that big again,” Lord Balam said, pulling me back to him. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t make one this big.” He wrapped an arm around my back and pressed his body to mine, dipping his mouth to my throat. His full lips traced my collarbone, and a curl of desire unraveled inside me. I wrapped my hands around his bulging biceps, closing my eyes and letting myself go to the moment.

  Thirty

  “Want to go somewhere more private?” Lord Balam murmured against my neck. “What I want to do to you might not be fit for the general public.”

  A minute later, he was leading me into the room he and Shadow had been using, which was identical to Camila’s. I didn’t want to think about her right now, though. I wanted to forget.

  I threw my arms around Balam’s neck, reveling in the way he could lift my curvy body like it was as waifish as Camila’s, at the way he could whip me into his arms and crash on the bed on top of me, wanting me as much as Sir Kenosi wanted someone to want him. I didn’t have to make Lord Balam beg. I knew exactly how much he wanted me.

  “I missed you,” I said, wrapping my legs around Lord Balam’s powerful hips.

  “It’s good to have you back,” he murmured, rubbing his nose gently back and forth over mine. He rested his weight on his elbows on either side of my head and searched my face, a small smile playing over his lips.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I’ve missed fucking this tight little cunt,” he said, rolling his hips slowly against mine.

  My sheath fluttered in response, and I could barely speak past the breath catching in my throat. “Is that all you missed?”

  “No,” he said, his deep voice rumbling through his chest and into mine. “But it’s what I missed most. I can talk to other people. You’re the only one who can satisfy me this way.”

  “I am?”

  He gave me a funny look. “You made me promise not to put my cock in anyone else’s mouth, so I figured the rest of her was off limits, too.”

  “Oh,” I said, a flicker of guilt running through me.

  Lord Balam paused, raising his head to search my eyes for a minute. “Ah,” he said. “I guess you weren’t missing me this way.”

  “I was,” I said quickly, locking my feet behind his back. “I just… I told you what happened.”

  “I know,” he said, lifting up to push his jeans down. “I’m not upset that you fucked Sir Kenosi. I don’t even mind if you liked it. I sort of hoped you did.”

  I hadn’t told them how I felt about any of it. I’d told them what I did, what Kenosi made me do. I hadn’t told them that I’d enjoyed it. That he’d made me want him, made me come, crying his name
as I did it.

  Lord Balam’s thick fingers undid my jeans and slid inside, massaging my mound until wetness slickened my skin. I gasped, trying to squirm away, but he kept moving his fingers, smiling down at me. “You did like it, didn’t you?” he asked, sinking a finger into my wet entrance.

  I couldn’t look him in the eye. “It’s just…” I started, then paused. It sounded terrible, but I had to tell him. I couldn’t hurt him like that wife of his, no matter how unfair that was to her. “I’ve never really been with anyone but you in this way,” I said, toying with the fur of his cloak. “Yes, I fucked a couple guys to get the other amulets. But I haven’t been married. I never even had this kind of relationship with Tadeu. I don’t know if I’m ready to choose one man for the rest of my life.”

  “Are you saying you’re done with this?” he asked, driving two fingers deep into me. “If you are, you’d better tell me now because I’m about to be splitting your sweet little cunt in half.”

  “I’m not done,” I said, gripping his shoulders, my nails biting into his skin. “If you’re okay with knowing you’re not the only one I’m with.”

  “I have two conditions.” Lord Balam pushed my jeans down, positioning the head of his cock against my opening. My juices flowed to meet his bare skin, so hot it made me nearly scream with need.

  “Is this really when you want to discuss this?” I asked, my voice choked with desire.

  “Itzie, I don’t own you,” Lord Balam said. “And I’m not a jealous man. As long as you make time for me when I need you, I don’t give a fuck who else you want to be with.”

  “Okay,” I said through gasping breaths. “Now fuck me.”

  I tried to spread my knees, but they were bound by my jeans. I grinded my pussy against his cock, panting for more.

  Lord Balam chuckled and stroked my hair back with both hands, watching my face with amusement as I squirmed on his cock. “One more thing.”

  “What?”

  “When I’m inside you, you’re mine,” he growled. “I won’t be a substitute for your dead lover anymore. If I’m fucking you, I’m fucking you.”

  “Yes,” I gasped, arching up for him. His hips flexed, forcing his cock past my straining opening with a quick thrust. A squeak of pain left me as he drew back and drove into me again. Each thrust took him deeper until I thought I’d be torn in two. When he’d buried himself to the hilt in me, he began to move faster, each quick thrust both a punishment and unbearable relief. I’d almost forgotten the particular torment of being Lord Balam’s lover.

  My head fell back, my eyes slipping closed, but I was yanked out of the grip of pleasure when a rasping voice interrupted my bliss. My eyes flew open to see Shadow standing beside the bed wearing nothing but a pair of low-slung sweatpants. “Can I join?” he hissed.

  Lord Balam lifted his head and looked down at me. “Your call, Princess,” he said. “You said you didn’t want to limit yourself.”

  He was right. I had said that. This was my chance to do anything I wanted, to be free of the Ocelot Court’s watchful eye and my father’s disapproving gaze. I’d never fantasized about two men inside me at once, but I found the idea suddenly irresistible.

  I reached out and tugged down Shadow’s pants. His cock was long and hard, just as I remembered it. A shiver of fear mingled with my pleasure, and I took his shaft in my hand, bending it to my mouth. After a few sucks, Lord Balam began to move again.

  “Let me roll you over,” he purred into my neck. “He can hit you from the back.”

  The idea sent a jolt of erotic sensation straight to my clit, and I released Shadow. Balam rolled us over, scooting onto the narrow mattress and pulling me astride his hips while he lay on his back, smiling up at me. Shadow pulled my jeans off my feet and peeled my shirt over my head, sucking in a breath at the sight of my curvy, naked body astride Lord Balam’s, all bulging muscles and tattooed skin.

  “This might hurt a little,” Lord Balam said, running his hands over my curves and palming my heavy breasts. “But I promise we’ll make you come.”

  “I can take it,” I said, biting back a smile. I glanced over my shoulder at Shadow, arching my back and giving him an inviting smile.

  He moved forward without hesitation, climbing onto the bed and positioning his cock against my knotted entrance. A thrill of pleasure at doing something naughty went through me as Lord Balam lifted me off his cock. Wetness dripped down my thighs.

  “Oh, yeah,” Lord Balam said, dragging a finger through my folds and popping it into his mouth, sucking greedily. “Your cunt smells so fucking sweet.”

  I bent over him, brushing a kiss over his lips and resting my hands on the bed as Shadow slid the head of his cock into me, wetting it with my juices. He groaned low in his throat, sliding deeper, gripping my soft hips as he pumped into my pussy where Balam’s cock had just been. Lord Balam’s thick tongue thrust into my mouth in rhythm with Shadow’s movements. After a minute, Shadow withdrew, and Balam reached back to grab my ass, spreading my cheeks wide.

  A soft breath escaped my lips, and I twisted around to smile up at Shadow. “Put it in my ass.”

  His cock throbbed, and I felt a drop of his own juices wetting my second entrance as he pushed the head of his cock against the tight knot. I bore down on him, feeling the strain of my tight flesh. He held a hand on my shoulder, guiding me down. The head of his cock forced past the knotted tension, and he let out a sharp, animal growl that shot a current of pleasure straight to my core.

  As he sank deeper into me, the strange sensation sliced along the edge between pleasure and pain, and I couldn’t help the little gasps escaping my lips. When he was all the way in, his hips pressed tight to my ass, his skin hot against mine, Lord Balam reached for his massive cock.

  “Ready for two?” he asked, lifting my hips with one hand and guiding his cock to my entrance with the other.

  “Oh god,” I panted. “I don’t know if it’ll fit.”

  “It will,” he said, lifting his hips and forcing the tip into me. I gasped in pleasure at the tight, stretched sensation. It was like I could feel their cocks sliding together through the thin barrier of my flesh. The image sent another wave of wetness over Lord Balam’s cock, and a shudder went through him. He guided my hips down until he was buried to the hilt inside me.

  Shadow waited, his breaths coming quick and hot against my shoulder. His claws had extended, digging into my skin. Lord Balam’s eyes flashing golden, his tail dancing up my leg and wrapping around Shadow’s thigh. I couldn’t bear the intensity of sensations rolling through me—the pressure and strain of my body wrapped around these two men, the ticklish softness of Lord Balam’s tail, the heat of Shadow, the flash of their cats just below the surface making me shiver with danger.

  “What now,” I gasped.

  “Now we fuck you,” Lord Balam said. His strong hands clamped down on my hips, his fingers biting into the soft flesh as he held me tightly, lifting my weight. Shadow gripped my thigh with one hand and my shoulder with the other, bracing his knees on either side of Lord Balam’s legs.

  “Fuck, your ass is so tight it hurts,” Shadow hissed.

  Lord Balam slammed my body back down, and both of their cocks sank to the hilt inside me. I yelped in surprise and pain, but Lord Balam lifted me and brought me back down, slamming me onto them again and again. My walls tightened in pain, and I bit my lip to keep from begging for mercy. Once I adjusted to their size straining inside me, Balam stretching my pussy while Shadow’s cock pounded into my ass, somehow the pain felt good, pleasure rippling through me with each slippery plunge.

  They continued pumping into me, Lord Balam taking over my movements, impaling me onto their cocks until the pleasure was too much, dizzying and unbearable. “I’m going to come,” I gasped when I couldn’t take it anymore.

  Lord Balam slammed me down hard, sitting up to grind his pelvic bone against my throbbing clit with bruising force. Cum exploded into me, filling me with liquid heat. My pussy clamped around
his shaft, and I cried out my pleasure with each breath, the overwhelming sensation gripping my body and ripping through me like a storm. Shadow cried out with me, his claws sinking into my skin, drawing blood. It tried to twist away, but they held me pinned between them. Hot cum spurted into my clenched pussy and my ass again and again. Shadow thrust his hips in tiny, rhythmic pulses, making my ass bounce against his narrow hips as cum continued to flood into me. At last, he pushed me forward, and Lord Balam lay back, his arms around me, his tattooed chest rock solid against mine.

  Shadow lay forward on my back, his forehead resting between my shoulder blades, his fingers stroking my side.

  “Are you okay?” he asked after a long minute of silence.

  “I’d rather you didn’t maul me every time we had sex, but I guess that’s a hazard of fucking shifters.”

  “Let me clean it,” he said.

  I remembered Gabor’s offer on the plane—the one I’d refused. If I had let him, I might not have ever gotten the infection.

  “Okay,” I said. We pried ourselves apart, all of us rolling onto our sides to squeeze onto the tiny bed.

  Shadow lay facing me, his black hair draped over his shoulder, his green eyes searching mine. “It only takes a minute,” he said. “I did it that night in the swamp. That’s why your wounds healed so quickly.”

  So much had happened since then that I’d forgotten all about all the bites and scratches he’d left on me. They’d been there the next morning, I knew that much. But then I’d been bitten and infected by the other panther when I hadn’t cleaned the wounds. Everything had happened so fast I hadn’t even noticed that all Shadow’s marks had turned to scars already.

  I nodded, and Shadow dipped his head, flicking out his long, cat tongue to my wound.

  “Whoa,” I said as his tongue rasped through the cuts. It hurt, but it also felt good, like a healing salve. More than that, it felt incredibly intimate, incredibly right. Was this what Gabor had been offering? If I’d known this was how shifters healed, I would have said “hell fucking yes.”