Chapter 42: A Lesser in Distress

Well, except for one.

I’ll come running.

But it was so early in the morning. What if he was asleep? What if he was at morning hockey practice and couldn’t hear her? She hated the idea of bothering him, but as the wood above her gave another terrifying pop, her survival instinct overrode everything else.

Blair took a shaky breath. Her lips trembled as she whispered into the mist, "Daemus. Please, help me."

The two beastmen below her stopped pacing. They exchanged a bewildered look, their ears twitching.

"Did she just say Daemus?" the taller one asked, genuinely confused.

A second later, they both burst into hysterical, booming laughter. They laughed so hard they had to bend over, forgetting they were naked and furious.

"Daemus? The Wolf Prince?" the clawed beastman wheezed, wiping a tear from his eye. "You think royalty would care about a human pet like you? A wolf wouldn’t look twice at a lesser. They strictly mate within their own kind, you idiot."

Blair’s eyes snapped open. Even hanging upside down with all the blood rushing to her brain, the word pet sparked a hot, furious fire in her chest.

"I’m not a pet! He’s my boyfriend!" Blair blurted out.

That only made them laugh harder.

"Oh, that’s rich," the taller beastman sneered, stepping beneath her. "You’re pathetic. And so delusional. You humans will make up anything to—"

SNAP.

The branch gave way just a fraction more, dropping Blair another two feet. She shrieked, her hands flying out to catch her fall.

She was low enough now. The taller beastman didn’t even have to jump. He reached a hand up, his fingers brushing the fabric of her hoodie.

"You will lose that hand if you touch her."

The voice sliced through the damp morning mist like a blade. It was smooth, calm, and freezing cold.

The taller beastman froze, his hand hovering mere inches from Blair’s arm.

Blair couldn’t turn her head to see through the fog, but she didn’t need to. The temperature in the clearing seemed to plummet to absolute zero. A heavy pressure pushed down on her chest, bringing with it a very familiar, terrifying shiver of dread that crawled straight down her spine.

It was Crown Prince Killian.

The two beastmen crumbled. The color drained from their faces. They dropped to their knees in the damp dirt, desperately trying to use their hands to cover their nakedness as they bowed until their foreheads practically touched the ground.

"Y-Your Majesty," the taller beastman stuttered, his voice trembling so violently he could barely form the words.

Killian stepped into Blair’s field of view. His polished, leather shoes stopped just inches from the kneeling beastmen.

"I will ask only once," Killian said softly. "Why are you harassing this lesser?"

"S-She was spying on us, Your Majesty!" the clawed beastman tattled, keeping his eyes firmly glued to the dirt. "She was hiding in the bushes! Watching us mate! She’s a voyeur!"

Blair gasped indignantly, but the aura of the Snake Prince crushed the protest right out of her throat.

Killian tilted his head. He looked up at Blair’s dangling, upside-down form, his purple, slitted eyes tracking over her flushed face and the desperate grip she had on her skirt. A dark, unreadable emotion flickered behind his gaze.

"I see," Killian hummed, lacing his hands casually behind his back as he looked down at the two trembling beastmen. "I will handle her punishment personally."

Before Killian could take another step, a loud yawn echoed through the clearing.

"Will you now?"

Blair’s eyes widened. She twisted on the rope just enough to see Daemus strolling out of the morning fog.

While Killian looked pristine and perfect in his uniform, Daemus looked like he had literally just rolled out of bed. He was barefoot, his toes sinking into the damp moss. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of loose gray sweatpants that hung low on his hips, and his dark blue hair was a wild, tangled mess of extreme bedhead.

He stopped a few feet away, scratching the center of his broad, muscled chest as his silver eyes locked onto Killian.

A thick silence dropped over the clearing. The two naked beastmen kneeling in the dirt were suddenly sweating bullets, their eyes wide with terror as they realized they were trapped between two Princes.

Killian’s purple eyes slid from Blair over to the Wolf Prince. "She claims to be in a relationship with you."

Daemus let out another lazy yawn, stretching his arms over his head until his joints popped. "Yeah. So what?"

Killian raised a brow. His gaze slowly dragged back up to Blair, taking in her messy hair and the plain white underwear flashing every time she swung on the rope.

"Why her?" Killian asked smoothly.

Daemus went beside Blair’s dangling form and slapped her on the ass.

SMACK.

Blair’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull. Her mouth fell open in a silent, breathless gasp.

Daemus gave her waist a push, sending Blair spinning on the snare rope like a human tetherball.

"What’s not to like?" Daemus grinned, flashing his sharp canines as he watched her twirl.

Blair’s entire body turned the color of a ripe tomato. Her brain was screaming a thousand different furious insults at the Wolf Prince, but she wouldn’t dare voice them. Every time she spun around, she caught sight of Killian’s cold, purple, slitted eyes; his eyes seemed to never leave her. Her hands gripped her skirt for dear life as she spun in dizzying circles.

Killian watched the display with cold apathy. "I see. A pity. I had already voiced my intentions to take her as my pet."

Blair’s spinning slowed, her breath catching sharply in her chest. His pet?!

Daemus wrapped his fingers around the rope. With an effortless tug, he snapped the braided fibers in half.

Blair shrieked as she fell. But she didn’t hit the dirt.

Daemus caught her out of the air, easily flipping her upside down and throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Well, you snooze, you lose," Daemus mocked lightly, resting a hand against the back of her thighs to keep her steady.

Killian remained still. Not a single muscle in his face twitched, but the temperature in the clearing seemed to drop another ten degrees.

"I stated my claim on her first," Killian said, his voice dropping into a quiet hiss.

"And I claimed her first," Daemus countered, staring the Snake Prince dead in the eyes. "Do you have a problem with that, Kill?"