Ileus: The Dark Prince

"It doesn't matter," Tyler said sternly. "You will be riding with me and then with Connor." The two brothers were too adamant and wouldn't budge from their decision. She protested a little, but her protests were overlooked. So, when they started, Tyler grabbed her by her waist, picked her up and placed her on the saddle. He mounted the horse behind her and held the reins. How could Paige complain? She got to rest on her mate's chest while he was responsible to ride. In fact, she cherished it a lot.

While in the first half of the day, Tyler rode with her, in the second half, she was with Connor.

They started in the morning and reached Silver Vales by evening, resting three times on their way to claim her. They should have reached by afternoon, but then who was bothered?

---

"Don't tell me that you fucking went there, Ileus!" Kaizan said.

"I did. With Ana," he replied, this time with great poise and calm. "Do you want to hear the details?" They were sitting in the main hall of Kaizan's mansion.

Kaizan pressed his hands over his ears. "Shut up!" he couldn't imagine that Ileus would do such a thing. "Please don't tell it to Paige," he requested, his cheeks heating up. "And certainly, don't tell me the details!"

Ileus shrugged. "Why would I?" he replied and sipped his wine. He already knew that Paige knew about his presence. It wasn't his fault that whenever he came inside Anastasia, the experience left him excited and mad and— He sighed. He had always fantasized about three mates, but he had never seen anyone in the Lore like that. It's not that he hadn't heard or seen multiple people having sex, but this was a different level. And when he came to know that this happened with Kaizan's sister, he had to jump at the opportunity.

Olivia was coming with a tray of fruits and cheese. She looked at Ileus and said, "I would love to hear the details? Did you get to see them up close?"

"Of course, I did!" Ileus said smugly.

"You are a fucking pervert!" Kaizan almost shouted. "You stay away from my sister and her mates, perv!"

Ileus raised an eyebrow and said, "If I remember, you were a more depraved soul before you got married to Olivia!"

"What?" Olivia snapped her head to Kaizan whose eyes were wide like saucers.

"Are you insane?" Kaizan became angry and fisted his hands tightly. "Before marriage I could do anything. I didn't know I had a mate. For all that matters, I would have married anyone because mates are "rare" commodities!"

Ileus smirked as Olivia straightened, akimbo. "Really? Kaizan?" she said and Kaizan realized the slip of tongue. He slapped his mouth close.

Ileus chuckled seeing his predicament. He loved how he trapped Kaizan. With a lopsided smile he added, "At least I never got with any other female other than Anastasia. She was the only one for me from the start."

"I am going to kill you!" said Kaizan and was about to lunge at Ileus for drawing useless comparisons and making Olivia jealous for nothing when the door of the main hall opened and a chirpy Paige entered with her two mates on their heels. She looked boisterous.

"Oliviaaaa!" she rushed to her sister-in-law and hugged her tightly.

"Paige!" Olivia was stunned to see her. When she pulled out of her embrace she said, "We were expecting you in a day or two. How come you took a week?" She knew the answer, but that's what her mind conjured up that instant.

Paige bit her lip and looked at her mates shyly. Then she lowered her shirt's collar and slid it off the shoulders a little to display her marks.

"Oh my god!" Olivia exclaimed. "They've marked you! This calls for a celebration!"

Ileus jumped up from his place and dashed to see both her marks with wide eyes. "Gods above!" he said with wonder in his voice. "You are alive after two marks!" One mark was enough to inject so much venom of the werewolf in his mate that it acted like a strong aphrodisiac. If injected in a human, it could kill them. And that's why he always wondered how Kaizan's mother handled it so well.

And Paige had two marks. He brought his hand to touch those marks, when he heard a fierce growl from the back. Those were her mates. Ileus respected the fact that her mates were being protective about her and despite knowing that he was the crown prince, they were ready to fight and die for her. He stepped back. He turned to them and said, "My congratulations to both of you!"

"Why were you there in the forest?" Paige asked Ileus, as she passed by Olivia and gave a quick hug to her brother who was totally flustered.

On a back foot, Ileus did his best to answer her question with a poker face. "I had gone to verify information that a herd of winged demons was seen there."

"Winged demons?" Connor said, his voice tight with tension. "How come we never came across?"

Tyler who was standing next to him also tensed.

Kaizan internally smacked Ileus through their mental link. 'You louche. Stop lying!'

Ileus retaliated with a snarl, 'If you say a word, I will tell Olivia about your various girlfriends.'

'Wait till I rip you, limb by limb.'

"You didn't see because I had chased them all away," Ileus replied glibly.

"Chased them?" Paige sat down on the couch beside her as her eyes narrowed. "Why would you chase them when all you had to do was kill them? And then you also knew that we were there. you should have called us."

Kaizan loved what Paige was doing to him. Through their mental link, he said, 'Do you mean that Anastasia is a winged demon?' Suddenly he cracked up. 'Oh, I am so going to tell this to Ana!"

Other than Ileus everyone in the room stared at him with astonishment.

'If you tell one word to Ana, you will be banned from the library for a year,' Ileus grunted.

"Why don't you two sit down?" Olivia offered, ignoring the two friends. "You must be tired. I will ask the servants to send tea for you."

Tyler and Connor sat down on the couch and Tyler tugged Paige to sit in between them. As if unable to stop touching her, each of them intertwined their hands with hers. Kaizan and Ileus were surprised when they saw how comfortable Paige was. It was like she was a totally different person. She was so aloof after Ara's incident and now she was beaming with happiness.

Paige turned her face to Ileus and repeated her question.

"I— I didn't know where you were at that time," Ileus replied. "Else I would have called you. Also, when you are with a winged demon, all you can think of is how to deal with her and not where my spies are."

"Her?" Tyler asked, tilting his head.

Ileus grunted. These spies were only doing this to introduce a quibble. "You both have taken a long time off. It's time that you report to the king tomorrow morning!" He turned to Olivia and said, "Call me for the celebrations." After that he was gone.