The Alpha King (18 page)

Blaze's head spun with the sound of his mate's pleasure and when his control snapped, he pulled out the four fingers and replaced them with the head of his cock, pressing in deeply and quickly, bottoming out inside his mate. Both cried out as if in agony, though anyone who heard the sound throughout the palace would know they were the sounds of lovemaking, and so, no one disturbed them.

"Being inside of you is one of my favorite places to be," Blaze confessed as he began to fuck Tal in earnest.

He loved the feel of Tal's velvet channel squeezing his cock tightly as if to never let him go. Squatting slightly, he thrust deep within his mate and Tal let out a high pitched scream. Blaze had found the other man's prostate and adjusted his thrusts to peg the gland with every stroke. Blaze gave into the grunts and groans that fought to explode from his chest.

The room filled with hisses of pleasure and the sound of flesh slapping flesh as Blaze pounded his thickly engorged cock into his mate's ass.

"Fuck!" he groaned when the muscles of Tal's tight opening squeezed his erection.

"Yes. Yes! YES!" Tal yelled.

His mate's sphincter clutched Blaze's dick in a tight vise when Tal gave into the pleasure overwhelming him. Blaze sped his thrusts up and his own orgasm approached. Tal rode out his orgasm, his ass fluttering around Blaze's shaft, plunging him headlong into his own release. Leaning forward, his canines elongating, Blaze pushed his cock in deeply at the same moment he sank his teeth into Tal's neck, marking him come yet again. The act triggered a tingling at the base of his spine and he withdrew his canines, threw back his head, and howled. A very distinctive, very loud howl of pleasure, one heard throughout the palace. His seed burst forth from his cock deep within his mate, copious amounts of the hot liquid flooding Tal's insides. Not long after, Blaze's mating knot extended and grabbed hold of Tal's prostate, pleasantly pushing each man through another, smaller orgasm.

"Fuucckk," Tal groaned.

Blaze couldn't do anything but grunt in response. After a moment had passed, Blaze's knot released Tal's prostate and, with a shudder, he pulled his now softened cock out, still covered with his seed. Tal hissed when Blaze came free from his body and with a satisfied grin, Blaze got up and walked around the bed, releasing Tal from his restraints. When finished, he sat on the bed and gathered Tal up into his arms tightly, the other man curled up against his chest, his body still shaking slightly.

Their breaths and hearts in sync, Blaze's heartbeat slowed and his body filled with peace. He belonged right here. With Tal.

* * * *

Anglania stood in the shadows of the hallway, her lip curled up in disgust after listening to Blaze and the Vermithian having sex. How disgusting. Two men. What the hell could another man give Blaze that she couldn't? She didn't actually want the Alpha King. He would only be a pawn to what she really wanted. The throne, the crown, the title… the money. She shivered with arousal, thinking of all of the jewels and nice clothes she could have. The life she could, should, be… would be living as the Alpha Queen.

Just as soon as she got rid of the stupid Vermithian.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

"And then you'd turn to speak to the person on your right," Percy stated and demonstrated the proper dining habits of royalty.

Tal sighed. Bored, hungry, tired, cranky and he felt… well, he felt fucking pregnant. He didn't really care about dinner etiquette. He wanted to eat the food sitting in front of him but Percy wouldn't let him.

Stupid Tumaron law dictated you had to have ten minutes of conversation before eating… with each person on either side of you. That equaled twenty minutes of waiting to eat when the food right in front of him. How stupid?

"Fucking puppy shifters," he grouched.

"Hey now, we're wolf shifters. I've told you that before,"
Blaze responded, the amusement clearly evident in his tone.

Tal's heart pounded with excitement. He loved talking to his mate through their link. It made him feel so much closer to Blaze. It also gave him a chance to gossip about people without them knowing.

"I know, I know. But Percy is making me talk when all I want to do is eat,"
he sent Blaze an image of the food in front of him followed by one of him pouting.

Blaze's answering chuckle had Tal grinning widely and he ignored Percy who droned on about some particular member of the Tumaron military and how he liked to spit when he talked.

Tal rolled his eyes.
"Can't you send Buck this way to distract Percy?"
he pleaded with his mate.

"Buck is already on his way to you, baby, something about taking you around the kingdom. I would do it, but Elder Mailon and I have an important meeting,"
Blaze reassured him.

Tal tried to tamp down his disappointment. He'd wished Blaze would be the one to show him around the kingdom, but over the past few weeks, Tal had seen very little of his Alpha mate. While they'd settled the dispute over Tal wanting to be a part of the meetings Blaze found himself engaging in, heated debates cloaked as discussions, Tal would gladly sit in on one if only to spend time with his mate. He failed dismally to hide his letdown when Blaze sighed through the link.

"I would much rather it be me as well, love, but this meeting is very, very important. Trust me,"
he said.

Tal echoed Blaze's sigh. Blaze had as much frustration as Tal. Unfortunately, that did little to ease Tal's mind.

"I know you would rather it be you as well, baby. I trust you,"
he reassured his mate and returned his attention to Percy, just when Buck walked through the door.

Had Tal not known who should be coming, he still wouldn't have missed all the little signs Percy made and would have been aware of who had arrived. The flaring of the younger man's nostrils, the tenseness seeping into his frame, the darkening of his eyes, and the way he tried very hard to not turn around.

Percy had it bad for Buck. Tal turned to look at Buck with a smile, noticing how the Beta Prince watched Percy with unconcealed longing and hunger. Ugh! It drove Tal crazy. He wanted to know why the two men weren't mated already. He wanted to know right then at that moment. Because the only two people who were more made for each other than him and Blaze would have to be Buck and Percy, and mates should be together. Regardless of anything else.

"Why, Buck! I hear you are taking me on a tour of the kingdom? That sounds delightful! Shall we be away then?" he asked, trying for the snobbish accent of the Doralians and the air of one of the Tumaron elite.

Buck blinked in confusion and struggled not to laugh. "Why the hell are you talking to me like that?" Buck asked warily.

Unable to help himself, Tal giggled. "I am trying to be the epitome of the perfect Alpha Queen, did that not come off?" he asked with a smirk, grinning widely when Buck threw back his head and laughed.

"Not at all, Tal. I mean, Alpha Queen. I'm afraid you missed the mark there," the Beta Prince responded with a grin.

Percy stood up from his chair quickly and with a hastily worded excuse, muttered under his breath, he turned and hurried from the room. Buck watched Percy race from his presence.

Sighing, Tal stood up from his chair and walked over to join Buck where he'd stopped just inside of the doorway. "You know it would just be easier if you would just mate with him," he stated.

Buck shook his head and returned Tal's look of exasperation with one of his own.

"Don't look at me like that, Beta Prince," he said acerbically, "I am not the reason you are standing here miserable and your mate is brokenhearted… you are."

With the best 'queen' move he could imitate, he turned with a flip of his hair, a swish of his robe, tilted his nose into the air, and walked out of the room. When Buck didn't immediately follow, Tal turned back around and crossed his arms over his chest in vexation. Seconds later, Buck wandered out of the room, trying to mask the despair on his face.

Saddened and confused, Tal whispered, "Buck, what's going on? Seriously. Why are you making yourself and Percy miserable by not claiming and mating with him? Why are you being so stubborn about this?"

Buck's eyes slid closed slowly, his shoulders drooped as if the weight of the world had just been placed upon them, and he shook his head. Tal didn't know if Buck would finally tell him the problem, but the man's reaction had Tal thinking it would be a doozy whenever he did finally spill.
Before Buck could answer, however, his eyes widened and then darkened with anger, fear, and finally, resignation before he sighed and shook his head again.

"I can't tell you, Tal. I can't tell anyone. This is my burden. My issue. Just know that… I love Percy. More than I ever thought I'd love anyone. I love him enough to make him miserable and not have him, and would never put him danger for my own selfish reasons," Buck's face switched from one that oozed heartbreak to one that radiated determination. "Now, no more talk about my life, my mate, or my decisions. It's time for me to introduce you to your subjects… Alpha Queen," Buck said with a teasing glint in his eye.

Tal barely managed to restrain himself from growling in frustration, not only from Buck's refusal to talk about Percy and their situation, but also from the insufferable title. He gave the other man a regal nod and followed him out towards the waiting royal hover-carriage. Tal snorted and grinned when Buck raised an eyebrow in his direction. Really, could the Tumarons be anymore pretentious? He thought for sure hover-carriages were last season, but apparently, the Tumaron monarchy thought they were still relevant. Tal would have much rather ridden in one of the sleek Zeels hover-convertibles, whose edges were smooth and slick, they glided through the air and even on the streets with no sound and no hassle. He'd have to ask Blaze about getting a ZHC X-class, the newest model… maybe in aquamarine blue?

So focused on what color he wanted his ZHC to be, Tal walked right into the broad and firmly muscled back of his brother-in-law who had stopped directly in front of him.

"Oof," he said and bounced back slightly from the impact. "Sorry, Buck, I mean… Beta Prince," Tal said.

He had to correct himself, forgetting for a moment they were in the presence of other palace staff and Tumaro subjects and he had to address everyone by their formal title, if they had one, or by their last name if they didn't. He thought it all pretty stuffy and obnoxious, and knew for damn sure he found it completely irksome to constantly be referred to as a fucking Queen, but he didn't want to do anything to offend his mate or his mate's people so he smiled shyly at Buck, struggling not to laugh at the expression of shock that crossed the other man's face at Tal's use of his title, and allowed himself to be escorted up the stairs into the hover-carriage.

Settling down into the surprisingly soft, green and brown cushions, Tal sighed in pleasure and relaxed—the first real chance he'd gotten to do so all damn day. Turning, he watched his guards assemble themselves in their positions. Two climbed into the carriage with him and Buck, four climbed on top of hover-cycles in order to ride alongside them, while still two more would follow them wherever they were going. The gates opened and Tal pasted a smile on his face when a voice bellowed loudly from outside of the palace gate.

"Make way for the Alpha Queen. Here ye! Hear ye! Make way for Alpha Queen Talon Versuthion-Roughshire. Tumarons, all hail the Queen!" the man declared with a toothy grin.

Grinning widely at those who waited outside the gates of the palace, either to get inside the palace walls, on the off chance they may have an audience with him, and others who waited outside because they had nowhere else to go or nothing to do. And still some were waiting to catch a glimpse of the Vermithian who had mated their Alpha King. Before Tal could worry he perhaps didn't present the best image of a mate for the Alpha King, his mouth dropped open at his first real and true sight of Tumaro.

"It sort of takes your breath away, doesn't it?" Buck chuckled.

Tal could only nod stupidly, no words forthcoming as he got his first glimpse of paradise. All around him were homes of families… pack homes. Surrounded by trees and land, abodes far enough away from their neighbors so as to maintain a modicum of privacy and also to allow each family the opportunity to have steam pools, playgrounds for the children, and enough space for each individual's wolf to run around freely, they were still close enough so the families were able to get to know each other better.

There were stores scattered throughout the streets. Vid stores, food stores, clothing stores… pet stores? Tal turned to look at Buck in confusion.

"Pet stores? What the hell kind of pets do Tumarons have? From what I understand or was taught, the GPA had not rescued any type of human pets. So why the hell am I counting… three pet stores?" he asked and watched as Buck's lips twitched.

"Would you like to see what they sell?" Buck asked, not waiting for a response before signaling the driver to stop the carriage and to land them safely in the street.

Tal waited as his guards and then Buck stepped down before him and then, rolling his eyes at Buck's impudence, allowed the other man to take his hand, help him down off the carriage, and lead him inside the store. He ignored the stares and gasps of the people he passed, many of whom had only seen images of him on the Tumaron Daily Vid News or in the Tumaro Daily Paper, distributed to every district on the planet, and walked towards the display wall and let excitement fill him.