The Empress' Rapture (15 page)

Kneeling beside her grandmother’s grave, Sierra whispered, “I’ve screwed up big time, Grandmother. My mates aren’t even sharing my bed. This should have been our second night. I don’t know how to make it right. I wish you were here. No one will talk to me, not even Mom. I just don’t know what to do. Amy is grounded, and Chandler won’t let Jean talk to me.” Tears dripped onto the flowers she placed on the grave.

“You know your grandmother would be laughing right now about what you did,” her great-grandfather, the former King of the Fey, whispered next to her.

Sierra looked up as a shadow covered her. Her great-grandfather smiled down at her. “I know, I can feel her with me now. That’s why I came out to be near to her. It seems you two are the only ones willing to talk to me.”

“Your family will come around, pumpkin. Your mates are hurt, but they won’t leave you. They love you. You should’ve seen them pace back and forth last night. They drove all of us crazy. We told them to go to bed, but they refused. They know now they can’t spank you as others do their mates. They think not coming to your bed will help teach you a lesson. However, I don’t think they realized what it would do to them in the process. I think they’ll come up with another way to help you see your wrong doings.” He laughed and pulled her into his arms.

“You do remind me so much of my wife. She would always go off on her own. I don’t know how many times I punished her. Our people see her in you. If you had looked into their faces yesterday, you would have seen their smiles. They know you’re going to be another great Queen, as was my wife.”

He leaned back and gazed into her eyes.

“Thank you. You don’t know how much that means to me. Would you take a walk with me, Grandpa?” Sierra asked and tugged him with her hand.

He laughed as they started through the garden. Sierra felt her grief lift as her grandfather told her of all the problems her grandmother created as Queen.

She couldn’t believe how much she laughed as they made their way back to the dining area of the house an hour later, her guards always at a close distance.

She and her grandfather strolled into the dining room where her mates talked to her father and mother. Her grandfather squeezed her hand for encouragement, and she smiled up at him.

“I still don’t know what to do,” she whispered.

“Go apologize, sweetheart. That’s all you can do.”

Sierra gave her grandfather a hug and walked up to her mates with her head down. “Can I talk to you two for a minute, please?” she whispered, ignoring her family. She peeked up at Roman, then Garth. They nodded their heads and led her outside into the hallway away from everyone’s gazes.

“I wanted to apologize to you both. I didn’t mean what I said yesterday and I am sorry. I can’t promise not to make stupid mistakes but I’ll try hard not to. I’m not selfish—I was scared. I never killed anyone before and I was in pain. I know now it’s not an excuse, but at the time, I couldn’t think. I needed you both, but you punished me instead. You punished me when all I wanted was to be held,” Sierra whispered, tears slipping down her cheeks. She stared down at her shoes, waiting for them to say something. They didn’t say anything, and her heart broke. “I’ll go and eat breakfast now. I’m sorry.”

Sierra turned to walk into the dining room. Before she opened the door, she wiped her face with her hands and entered not looking back. She slowly made her way to the food. Gathering a plate for herself, she took it outside to sit at an empty table. She started to eat as her grandfather placed his plate next to hers and sat next to her. Sierra knew her and her grandfather would become very close now that he had been rescued. She welcomed him with a bright smile.

“So, it didn’t go well?” he asked quietly.

Sierra shrugged her shoulders and shoved her food around on her plate. “No, I apologized and explained what I was thinking at the time, telling them it wasn’t an excuse, but I wanted them to know where I was coming from. And that I was hurt. But they didn’t say anything. Maybe I should have just kept my feelings to myself and just apologized. Yet, I was always told to talk out your problems, not to hold them in. I don’t know anything anymore.” She looked up at her grandfather, trying not to cry.

With her eyes swollen from her tears, she stuffed a piece of fruit into her mouth and sipped her coffee. Her mates strolled out onto the balcony. Her grandfather got up to leave. She grabbed his hand and pleaded, “Don’t leave!”

“Your mates need to talk to you. Listen to them. All will be well,” he said as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

Sierra watched him leave. Her husbands sat next to her, one on each side. They both placed their cups of coffee on the table. Her body shook and her mind swirled with thoughts of what they were going to do. She kept her head down and took a drink of her coffee, burning her tongue.

“Shit!” Putting her cup down, she grabbed the juice her grandfather had forgotten. Sierra pushed her plate away, her stomach in knots. Once more the elephant was playing volleyball in it.

“You’re not going to finish your breakfast?” Roman asked and took one of her hands, holding it tightly. Garth took her other, doing the same. She shook her head and waited.

“Will you come with us to our room? We would like to talk to you in private,” Garth asked in her ear as he kissed her neck lightly.

Sierra sighed and nodded still not trusting her mouth or her emotions yet. All three of them appeared inside their room. Wandering onto the balcony she waited for their next move knowing her mates were tired. She felt their presences before they encircled her body with their arms.

“We both owe you apologies.” Roman gazed into her eyes as he held her chin with his fingers. “I should’ve let you talk before delivering your punishment. It won’t happen again. This last night has been hell. We love you, Sierra. You scared the shit out of us earlier when we couldn’t reach you or help you. I never felt so useless. We took our anger out on you and that was wrong.”

“You were wrong, too, but we know now that you have learned a great lesson,” Garth whispered into her neck. “We’re tired. Will you come to bed with us and let us hold you while we sleep? I know you aren’t tired, but we need to be with you.” He kissed her slowly and stripped her clothes off.

Her husbands’ clothes disappeared as strolled back into their room.

Roman crawled in and held out his arms and she moved into them. Garth sank in beside her wrapping his arms around her. They wrapped their bodies around her and held on tightly.

She laid her head on Roman’s chest. “I missed you two so much last night. I thought I lost you. I’m so sorry. Please don’t do that to me again. I would rather have bruises than not have your arms around me,” she cried and squeezed him tightly, allowing all her emotion to pour out of her body.

“Hush, we won’t leave you. We’ll think of another way to persuade you from error, we promise,” Garth whispered and tugged on her nipples from behind her. Roman wiped her face and placed kisses all around it. They surrounded her with love not letting go of her as they fell fast asleep.

Sierra smiled as both of her men started to snore loudly. She relaxed in their arms, enjoying the peace that had settled between them. The fragrance of lavender filled the air, and she knew her grandmother smiled down on her. She was leaving, telling her it was time for her to move on to the next world.

She fell asleep with a smile on her face, knowing she would follow in her grandmother’s footsteps good and bad. A shiver skirted her spine as a pair of red eyes flashed before her in the darkened room. Jack and the unknown man glared at her from a distance, but still there in the room at the same time.

 
Chapter Nineteen

The vision disappeared as Garth and Roman’s arms tightened around her. She glanced at her men, both of them sound asleep. Regardless, they had still known that she needed them.

Sierra gazed up at the ceiling knowing what she was going to do was risky, but with her mates right next to her protecting her body it was worth the risk.
Okay, spirit guide, let’s see if we can find out where they are?

Closing her eyes she concentrated opening her powers up and lifted out of her body.
Are you there? Can I track Jack this way?

“
It will be hard and you must keep the block from him. The other one also has a path to him and he is much stronger than we last believed to make all those trolls and shifters disappear as they did. So don’t even go near him if you sense his presence. Concentrate on that link Jack created, but keep it locked down from him. You can do this, but it will take much of your powers.”

“
Then let’s do this. I also wanted to let you know your daughter has found her mate.”

“
I know. Thank you for taking her into your family that is the only thing I regretted was leaving her. Her father will comfort her soon. Now let’s go if we are going to do this.”

Sierra found the track Jack used to connect to her and blocked his entrance to her mind while at the same tracking his whereabouts. Slowly she moved through the thick forest of the other world scanning as she went. Animals were just stirring in the morning sun, the wind was gentle and the smell of a river was close by.

Up ahead a dark cloud covered the sky, blocking out the light for a certain part of the forest.
We’ll be entering the dark world so be careful here. Don’t touch anything with your spirit or leave any trace of your magic.
Her spirit guide announced, but backed off when the presence of her mates surrounded her. “
You have ten seconds to get back in your body or we will pull you back,”
Roman demanded.

“
But we can find them, Roman,”
she pleaded but made her way back to their room. She glanced down at her body both mates were sitting up glaring at her body as they waited for her return. Slowly she descended to her body and sighed as she opened her eyes to stare up into Romans glare.

“How could you do this after what we just discussed?” he snapped, getting out of bed and pacing the room. “I didn’t want to do this, but we have no choice.” Roman and Garth said a few words working magic with their hands when she felt it.

The door to her magic slammed shut inside her and a powerful spell was placed on the door to preventing her from using her magic. Her body arched up and she cried out. “No! What if I need it?” She pleaded and glanced at both of them.

They shook their heads. “We’ll be here if you need it, but until then you will be trained on how to use the magic proper and not put yourself at risk again.” Garth shouted. “It looks like we’re not going to get any sleep we might as well go train with the guards. I’m so furious right now I need to vent somewhere.” Garth covered his body in clothes disappearing from the room as Roman followed.

Two single tears slipped down her cheeks as she whispered. “But how do I keep Jack out of mind?” She trembled and rose out of the bed grabbing the dress that lay on the dresser.

Pulling the dress on she stepped onto the balcony and stared out at the gardens the only thing that brought peace to her. She shivered as she remembered Jacks angry glare at her earlier. He would be back and she had no way to protect herself this time. Unless, she reached up and touched the necklace, but it to was cold to the touch. Would it come to rescue if she needed it?

Turning, Sierra made her way back into the room and opened the door to the hallway. Her guards stared at her as she glanced up at them. “I thought I would go to the throne room. I might as well start somewhere with my training.” She smiled up at them as they moved ahead of her and behind her protecting her from all angles.

Turning the corner to a long hallway Chandler stepped out of one of the rooms and frowned at her. “Where are you off too?”

She stopped and glanced at the ground. “I thought I would take a look around Grandma's throne room, you know see what needed to be done. Try and start learning about things around here.” She glanced up at him. “I’m sorry about last night it was stupid and childish. I hope you won’t keep Jean away from me too long.” Sierra turned and continued to walk down the hallway as he stood behind her. She knew he watched her as she entered the room. Turning she glanced once more at him and smiled before entering the room.

The room was huge three large chairs were at the end of the hall, her grandmother had even thought of adding a chair for her extra mate. She smiled and glanced at the door that opened to her offices when she heard the shuffle of tiny feet in the corner of the room.

Her guards once more stepped in front of her, but she placed her hand on one of them and smiled. “It’s a child relax she won’t do any harm.” Sierra slowly made her way to the corner and peaked at the small girl.

Her hair was tangled and dirty, she wore rags and her big blue eyes stared at her with fright.

“Easy there I’m not going to hurt you and I promise my guards won’t.” She kneeled down a few feet from her. “What’s your name? My name is Sierra.” She smiled.

“Elisabeth, you won’t tell head mistress I was here will you?” She glanced around the room and scooted back further into the wall if at all possible.

“Who is this head mistress? And why are you so afraid of her?” Sierra inched a little closer and sat on the ground.

“She’s the one in charge of us orphans here. If she finds me here or that I left my room I’ll be punished again,” she whispered as tears dropped down her face. “I was so hungry and cold I had to chance it for me and my brother. He’s sick and needs food.”

“Tell me something, where is your room at? Is it here in the palace?” Sierra’s insides tightened as she promised herself this woman would suffer.

Elisabeth nodded. “We have rooms in the basement. There is a whole bunch of us there. The Queen was supposed to give us the rooms on the east side of the palace, but Mistress took those rooms and placed us down there. I thought if I could talk to the Queen she would give us kids better rooms. There are rats down there one of them bit my brother,” she whimpered.