Who should happen to be walking down the hall at the precise moment of that wonderfully spectacular kiss? Why, who else but Lord Xavier, Lord Thornfield, and Lord Greenwalt.
Wyatt pulled away slightly at the sound of the footsteps, causing DG to growl low in her throat in the same guttural noise Wyatt remembered from his dream. "Easy there, darlin'," he whispered as she opened her eyes. He cocked his head to the right, where the three lords were approaching them. "Don't want to give 'em a show, do you?"
DG blushed prettily at the insinuation, burying her face in Wyatt's neck so that the other men would not see her embarrassment. Her hiding spot, however, didn't stop her from hearing Lord Greenwalt chuckle at the predicament the princess was discovered in.
He was a young man, only an annual or so older than DG herself, and looked at her more as a friend or a sister than he did as a possible bride. The knowledge that she had chosen someone else did not sting his pride as much as it bruised Lord Xavier's ego.
"Does the king know that you've taken to kissing strange men in the corridors, Princess?" Lord Xavier sneered at the girl.
Wyatt felt DG stiffen as he turned a stone cold glare, that he had used many times in his days as a Tin Man, on Lord Xavier. He was starting to see why she tossed him into an oubliette.
DG raised an eyebrow as she removed her head from Wyatt enough to look at the man who spoke. "I don't believe you've been properly introduced, Lord Xavier," she said with a voice full of cool regality. "Lord Xavier of the Rush Plains, my I introduce my fiance, Colonel Wyatt Cain, Duke of Hellington."
Lord Xavier was unsure what to say after such an introduction. Hellington was a very misguiding name to give the lush forested acres that made up the dukedom - it had the finest horses in the O.Z. He bowed his head slightly, "Your grace. I was unaware the king had chosen a consort for his niece."
Wyatt raised his eyebrow lightly, "What makes you think that King Jareth had any say in the matter?" He nodded at the other three men before pulling DG along with him, "If you'll excuse us, my lords, we have a meeting to attend."
Lord Greenwalt could barely contain his mirth at the discomfort of the older lord. Lord Thornfield didn't try to contain his at all.
--
She had survived getting a house dropped on her, losing her favorite pair of shoes, being bound to a bloody lake for five centuries, and now an assault from the two newest Gale bitches. Jackson had been correct in that particular nick name.
It had been surprisingly easy to pull that particular glamour over their eyes. In like manner she had tricked numerous witches in the past into believing she was gone for good. Now all she had to do was bide her time and strike down the Gale pestilence once and for all.
This should be fun.
--
Aerenesa looked at the reports in front of her with a heavy heart. The war, at a tentative standstill for the last few months, was going to erupt again. The temporary peace had held while both sides had recuperated after the terribly long, bloody months that had followed DG's attempted kidnapping, and Azkadellia's rescue from the clutches of a man who can only be described as an ogre.
Briefly Nesa wondered if she had read something about his great-grandfather being an ogre, but dismissed the thought as legend. Nothing had ever been proven, after all.
"News from the boarder?" Ahamo asked as he saw his wife's grim face.
She nodded, "It appears that he's leaving us little choice but to cower in fear, or launch a preemptive strike." Her eyes turned to her husband with great sadness, already mourning the men who would lose their lives in such a mindless war, "I'm sending General Lennot my approval to launch an attack."
Ahamo squeezed his wife's shoulder supportively, knowing that there was nothing else he could say.
--
"And this," DG said with a small giggle, pulling Wyatt by his hand through the doorway, "Is my sitting room." Wyatt looked around the room, modestly decorated with light wood tones and paintings of different parts of the Labyrinth, his eyes coming to rest on a door close to the back.
He pulled her with him, "And what's in there?" The question was playful, he knew what was behind that door - he'd seen it in his dreams many times - but he wanted to hear her say the response.
"That," she replied, punctuating her words with kisses that followed his jaw line, "Is my bedroom. And you cannot go in there."
"And why not?" He tried to pretend that her kisses didn't affect him, but DG could feel what she was doing to him through the two layers of clothing separating them. It was poking her right in the middle of her stomach, and it made her grin with anticipation.
Pulling back DG looked at him with innocence and timidity, "I'm not supposed to have strange men in my bedroom, Mr. Cain."
Wyatt took a step forward, a predatory gleam in his eye that sent a shiver of excitement through DG. "What if I promised to behave?"
DG took a step back, straight into the door. She knew that Wyatt wouldn't hurt her, but this was all still very new for her and she didn't like being cornered. "Then I'm positive that you can't go in there," she replied with a huff as he blocked her only route for escape with his body.
One of his arms slid around her waist, pulling her flush with his rock hard body, while the other one found her hair, tangling the dark curls around his strong fingers he tilted her face toward his.
Her heart beat wildly as she took in the look in his dilated eyes. He wanted her. She tilted her face up, following the not-so-gentle tugging in her hair. His lips came crashing down on hers in something that felt nothing like anything either had experienced. It could only be called a kiss in the broadest of terms - it was more like a primal marking of property.
And it felt wonderful.
When he pulled back for air, she growled low in her throat, causing him to chuckle. "Easy there, darlin'," he whispered huskily, "We've got all night to play."
DG's eyes grew wide and full of lust and yearning, "Promise?" she whispered back, leaning in to find out if the skin covering the tendon that connected his neck to his shoulder tasted as good as it looked.
Now it was Wyatt's turn to groan, "Promise," he replied.
When Wyatt pulled away again, DG groaned in frustration. "We have to stop," he said, breathing heavily from the emotions running through him.
DG's eyes went wide, a bit of fear taking root in her heart, "Why? Did I do something wrong?"
Wyatt backed up further, taking a seat on the settee that was closest to him. He shook his head, his eyes smoldering with want and need, "No, darlin' you didn't do anything wrong."
"Then, why?" DG asked, taking deep, calming breaths as she went to sit on the other side of the settee her bond-mate had chosen.
Wyatt smiled sadly, cupping her face in one of his hands. She leaned in to the touch instinctively as he said, "Because if we kept on doin' that, then we'd wind up in a place that neither of us are ready to be right now, darlin'. No matter how much I want to throw you down right now and have my wicked way with you."
DG blushed at the insinuation, part of her incredibly frustrated that he was going to make her wait, but another part was pleased that he was willing to wait as they got to know each other a bit more.
--
Az could feel the water filling her lungs as she gasped for air. Damn the witch and her watery prison. Always surrounded, but never touching. The Wicked Witch of the East hadn't even been given the freedom of movement during her captivity. Her punishment for surviving having a house fall on her, and being more powerful than her sisters ever were.
Even Glinda hadn't been able to kill her.
By the time that bitch Dorothy had given birth to a female child from her consort, East had already been locked in her watery cell. Damn them.
Az took another breath, trying to catch some oxygen in with the water.
"Azkadellia!" Aerenesa cried as she helped her daughter sit up, coughing up whatever had been choking her breathing. The water spilled forth from the young sorceress's lungs as if she was a fountain.
Anger: pure, unadulterated rage filled Nesa's heart as she watched her eldest daughter try to clear her lungs from the aftermath of whatever spell it was that East had cast. She tightened her grip on Az's shivering body, unwilling to lose her other child to forces outside her control.
As Az got her breathing under control, her mother pulled her into a hug, knowing that no words could properly relay the fear both had felt.
--
Wyatt found Jeb easily after he had left DG's company. It seemed that the castle was already responding to him, and took him straight to his son, who was playing with his new toy on a bench in the Queen's garden.
He groaned as he sat down beside his boy, "I'm getting to old for this."
Jeb smiled at his dad, "I don't think DG thinks so, and neither do I."
"Since when did you get so perceptive?"
"Since you started kissing in hallways," Jeb shot back with a grin.
Wyatt rolled his eyes with a smile. "Do you like it here?" he asked carefully.
Jeb nodded, his eyes following the small pieces of the cube as he moved them on the central axis.
"Would you like to stay here?"
"With DG?"
"Yes. With DG."
"Would she be my new mother?"
The simple complexity of the question threw Wyatt for a loop. What would DG be to Jeb? She was barely four annuals older than he was. There was only one way he knew to answer that question without hurting his son or his bond-mate: "Only if you want her to be."
Jeb nodded, glancing up to meet his father's pensive gaze, "I think I'd like that."
"Good," his father let a smile transform his face for the better. He didn't smile enough as far as most were concerned, but DG was trying her best to fix that.
"Now, about you wandering off into the woods without telling anyone ..."
"Aw, Dad, I told you I wouldn't do it again," Jeb whined.
All traces of the easy-going man from moments before were gone, "And I told you that we'd talk about it later. Guess what? Later is now."
Jeb grumbled under his breath as he put down his cube and looked at his father's eyes. He knew the set-up for a lecture when he saw it.
"You could have gotten seriously hurt pulling a stunt like that, Jeb!" Wyatt's eyes held a real fear that sent shame coursing through Jeb's young body. "I don't know what I would have done if you'd ..." he trailed off, unsure he could finish that statement without breaking down.
"You, mister, have just earned yourself a bodyguard." Jeb's eyes widened - someone was going to follow him around all day? His eyes flickered past his father to see a hobgoblin female a little taller than he was, looking menacing with a sword hanging from her waist and he could only guess at what other weapons she had hidden.
"This is Coriander. She managed to keep DG out of a lot of trouble when she was growing up, I'm positive she can keep you in line, as well," Wyatt's voice brokered no argument from his son, who silently watched him get up and leave to get ready for dinner.
Jeb turned back to Coriander and gulped. It would be hard to get past someone who looked so scary.
A/N: It seems that the more papers I have to write, the less time I have to write, and somehow you still get this chapter out ... albeit a day later than I had hoped. Explainations and confrontations coming up next, I promise.
In fact ... (pretend The Days of Our Lives theme song is playing)
Next time on A Different Life:
The witch gave an evil cackle that sent chills down the spines of all who heard it. "You don't even know how to kill me," she taunted the Gale women as they held hands together against her.
Wyatt watched as DG held her head up defiantly, unwilling to appear weak before her uncle's guests that surrounded them in the ballroom. He looked at the tray a frightened hobgoblin servant was holding next to him. Water.