Tightly Bound 9/10
Title: Tightly Bound 9/10
Pairing: Changmin/Jaejoong
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Only in my mind can they be bound together with magic spells.
Summary: Jaejoong is Changmin's biggest rival. When the elf reveals that Changmin is his only option to curb the pain from an ancient curse, Changmin must decide what to do. And he must decide if his sudden feelings for Jaejoong are real, or a result of magic he does not understand.
Part 9: The Binding Agreement
Minho woke them up in the morning, lips jerking like he was trying to keep from laughing. Changmin grumbled at him, but conceded to his humor. They were naked, covered in come and hickys, and Jaejoong was so tightly wound around him that Changmin was unable to smack his butler when he asked cheekily, “Shall I return your reading room to you, sir?”
But then Jaejoong moaned and shifted his leg under the blankets, thigh pressing against Changmin’s morning erection and Changmin gasped and Minho laughed and reminded them that they had to be at the queen’s dining room in two hours before leaving the room.
“Plenty of time,” Jaejoong whispered and slid under the blankets to get his mouth on Changmin’s cock. It didn’t take long for Jaejoong to have Changmin desperate, his mouth and hands working up and down the shaft for Changmin to want to come all over Jaejoong’s pretty face. He flung the blankets away to watch the way his cock slid into his mouth, between Jaejoong’s red, shiny lips. He curled a hand into Jaejoong’s hair and helped, just a little, pushing down while lifting his hips off the bed.
Jaejoong shifted around his body, between his legs and pushed at his knees, all without taking his mouth away. Changmin let his body be manipulated, let Jaejoong hook his knees over his shoulder and only protested a little when Jaejoong’s mouth moved down to his balls. His hand kept stroking his cock. His other hand went to his ass, and Changmin moaned and curled his hips a little more. Jaejoong pulled away from him for a moment, finger into his mouth, and then that finger pressed against Changmin’s entrance and Jaejoong was sucking him deep again.
Changmin moaned at the small stretch and his hands went above his head. “Jaejoong, wow. Just ...”
Jaejoong hummed and sped up, both his mouth and finger. The pleasure weaved and abated, surging back strong. Changmin’s legs twitched, and when Jaejoong pressed in a second finger, he gripped behind his own knees to spread himself open farther.
When Jaejoong pulled away from his cock, Changmin protested, fingers yanking his hair, pushing him back toward it.
Jaejoong chuckled and whispered something that Changmin did not quite understand, but a second later, the two fingers inside him were three, his body was slick with ... something ... and Jaejoong was back on his cock with his mouth.
“Fuck, magic, so good, so good.”
Jaejoong wiggled his fingers, and Changmin moaned and then his other hand was on his balls, tugging and squeezing, and with fingers and his mouth and hands and just ... Jaejoong ... everything was Jaejoong, Jaejoong, Jaejoong. In his body, in his heart, and sounds and cries that fell from his mouth.
Changmin vision went dark and spotty and his body shuddered through a series of teasing pulses, almost coming and then not, over and over, right on the edge with Jaejoong’s mouth pulling him over it, his hand stroking him through it, his fingers pumping more slowly as Changmin clamped down on them. He came almost harder than he had the night before, filling Jaejoong’s mouth with his release.
Jaejoong swallowed and continued to suck on him through the pleasure. His fingers fell from Changmin’s body and then his mouth was on his skin, kissing up his chest. Come dripped on his chin, and he licked at Changmin’s nipples and then his neck and pressed their lips together. Through his daze, Changmin realized that Jaejoong was frotting against him, his cock sliding on Changmin’s stomach. He moaned and gripped Jaejoong’s ass and was halfway through telling Jaejoong to wait before Jaejoong was shaking through his own orgasm and pulsing a sticky mess of come between their bodies.
Jaejoong cried out and collapsed against him, body still moving slowly, and Changmin ran his hands over his back and ass.
“Good,” Jaejoong whimpered. “So good.”
Changmin hummed in agreement.
---
Changmin walked into his family’s private dining room, smiling because well, he had Jaejoong’s hand entwined with his, and he had every right to smile after his night, and this morning in bed and in the tub, and then against the wall when Jaejoong walked out of his closet in gray, clingy pants and a knitted blue sweater. Really wasn’t fair, and his mouth still tasted like come, and if he looked carefully, he could see the spot of come that had slipped from his lips and landed on the gray material, staining it before he could lick it up.
But after only two steps in the room, he stopped in shock. A girl sat next to his mother. Well, a woman really, but Changmin had known her for so long that she would be nothing but the young girl that he played around with and got in trouble with. She wore a gorgeous green dress, deep colors wavering over each other. It looked like a summer meadow of grasses blowing in the wind. Her white hair was braided and fell over a shoulder, the tip of it falling almost to her waist. Upon her head sat a matching green scarf that was also twisted down the braid.
“Luna?” Changmin said in surprise.
The girl sitting with his mother turned and smiled. “Hi, Minnie.”
“Luna!” He rushed over to her, and when she stood up, he wrapped her arms around her and lifted her in a circle with another shout of her nickname.
Luna laughed and let Changmin hug her, her own arms going around his middle.
“What are you doing here?” Changmin asked against her hair.
“If you would stop acting like an ill-mannered bastard, I will explain,” his mother said.
Changmin smiled at Luna, and she made a cute little face that he had always adored. But he did set her down, because she was in a fine dress and there were places to twirl around your best friend and act like children, and one of those places was not the royal family dining room.
Her eyes went over Changmin’s shoulder. “Kim Jaejoong. It’s nice to see you again.”
Jaejoong bowed over her hand and kissed her knuckles. “And you, Park Sungyun. I adored the silks your caravan brought last spring. Our entire city is fighting over the last bolt. My father has it stashed away.”
Luna laughed and squeezed Jaejoong’s hands. “I will be sure to tell him to double your order then.”
Jaejoong chuckled. “But of course.”
“Please sit,” his mother said. “We can talk as we eat.”
Changmin sat across from Luna, and Jaejoong sat next to him, across from the queen. The queen wore a simple blue gown that actually matched Jaejoong’s sweater pretty well, with her hair braided and wrapped up on top of her head. The silver day-to-day crown was accented with blue jewels. Jaejoong bowed to her before he sat, and she nodded her head in acknowledgement. As soon as they were seated, servants appeared with coffee, fruit and breads.
“What are you doing here?” Changmin asked, still smiling at Luna. “The last I heard, your caravan was in the north.”
“They are,” Luna replied, “but I was invited.” She nodded at Changmin’s mother.
Changmin looked at his mother, and after a moment, he understood the implications of a girl being invited to breakfast with the queen and the prince, and his eyes went wide, and she smirked at him. “Mother! But this ... you cannot mean ... it is not proper!”
She rolled her eyes in a good impression of Changmin on his poutiest days. “It does not matter. I am the queen, and I may do as I wish.”
“But ... what ... I can’t ... this isn’t ...”
“Dare I ask?” Jaejoong ventured.
Luna grinned at him. “Changmin and I are to be married next summer.”
“But ... I ... Mother!”
“Shut your mouth, son, and open your ears,” she said. “You have disapproved of every noble girl, and none of them have brought light to your eyes or a smile to your face. Not in the way you have been mooning around the castle for the last few weeks with this elf beside you. A mother is not blind. Neither is a queen. This is a good match. You both like each other. You both know each other. And at one time I was worried that the two of you were going to come to me with news of a bastard heir.”
Changmin shut his eyes and buried his face in his hands. “This is not possible.”
“It is. I am the queen. This is what I have decided.”
“But she is not a Lord’s daughter!”
“And I am sitting right across from you, ass,” she snapped and kicked him under the table.
“Ow. Luna!”
Luna stuck her tongue out at him.
“She is not a Lord’s daughter, you are correct. But only because we call her father a merchant. He is a Lord just as anyone else it. The only difference is that his castle moves.”
“Father will not agree to this.”
“Your father does not matter when it comes to things that I have already decided. Are you agreeing to it?”
Changmin huffed and stared at his childhood friend. They had met when Changmin had only been six years old, Luna a year younger. Her white hair had reminded him of the moon, and the first thing he had said to her was “Luna,” a word he had learned just the week before. It was fate, a match. They met at least twice a year, every time Luna’s father brought the caravan to the castle to deliver tithes and sell other merchandise. When he was fourteen, he had stolen his first kiss from her, and she had slapped him soundly across the cheek. And yes, when they were a bit older, things had happened. But it was those things that stopped him from agreeing.
He sighed. “I cannot marry you, Luna. I can’t. I ... I just ...”
“You must marry someone,” his mother said. “Do you wish to marry one of the others? Yoona, maybe, or Hyolyn?”
Changmin made a face. “No.”
“Then quit your bellyaching and thank me!”
“Thank you, Mother. I know that you like for me to be happy, but ... what about Luna? What about her happiness?”
Luna shook her head. “Minnie, please. I know you better than I know anyone else. Your mother knows you. And both of us can see how much you adore the elf next to you. It won’t be like that with the two of us, and I know that. But you have to understand that I don’t want that.”
“Then ... why?” Changmin tried to find the right question even with the blush on his cheeks. He figured his mother had known about his feelings for Jaejoong, but not anyone else. Though, Luna was correct; they had known each other their entire lives.
“I have a caravan to run,” Luna said. “I do not want to be married and tied down with all of those things. But we compromise. We marry. I have an heir, and you and your elf, and our child, come on the caravan with me. You do not need to be here at the castle all the time, not with your father still the king. Not all the time, mind you. We’ll do both. If you can agree to that compromise, then I can agree to a marriage.”
“But ... but ... the gossip! The people. They will not agree ...”
“The people will agree with whatever we decide,” the queen said. “We will begin on working to change their minds now, while your father and I are still powerful. We will slowly remove the laws pertaining to male couples. It is only our delusions to think that it does not go on behind closed doors. With the laws gone, less people will be hurt and more people will be happy. We hope that once you take over the throne that you may proudly sit with Jaejoong by your side.”
“But ... this ... I didn’t even ... How did you even know?”
The queen rolled his eyes. “Good heavens, son. A mother that doesn’t know about her son’s preferences, whereabouts, and activities is a horrible mother.”
“Sounds like you are out of excuses,” Jaejoong said.
Changmin looked over at him and shook his head. “How come you are okay with this?”
Jaejoong shrugged and looked at the queen. “I still get what I want, what I need?”
“Yes. You have solidified our alliance with the elves, and honestly, the elves now owe us a huge favor because of this binding curse.”
“We are in your debt, your highness.”
“But you do know what it means? Marrying her?” Changmin asked Jaejoong.
Luna kicked him again. “Stop talking about me like I am not here!”
“Of course,” Jaejoong said and did not bother to try to stop himself from leaning into Changmin’s shoulder. “I still get what I need.”
Changmin sighed. “I can’t do that to you, to either of you! Luna. I just ... you should be happy!”
“Being on the caravan makes me happy. Nothing else does. Certainly not the bolstering, pigheaded men that want to marry me.”
“We want stronger ties with the caravan,” the queen said. “Your father and I discussed that just two months ago.”
Changmin reached over and took Luna’s hand. “I cannot love you.”
“You already do, you cad.”
“But not in the way a woman should be loved by a man. I cannot.”
“That is not what I want.” She squeezed his hand and let it go. “The men who clamor to marry me want to tie me down, push me into a home, take away the sky as my roof. I cannot live like that. I --” She glanced at the queen and then over at Changmin. “I have a lover, Changmin, one that I care for and--”
“I will not take you from him!”
She smirked. “Him? So presumptuous.”
Changmin’s mouth opened to retort and then stopped in surprise. “Her?”
“Well done, genius,” she said with a laugh. “This marriage will let me do what I want. I can be with my Jinri without the fear of a man trying to tame me or my father trying to marry me off. I can be with her and you can be with your elf. The caravan will forge stronger ties with the royal family, and we will provide an heir for the kingdom and the caravan.”
Jaejoong settled a hand on Changmin’s thigh and squeezed. “Like I said, all out of excuses.”
Changmin shook his head. “You’re right, and you’re right,” he added and kicked Luna under the table. “Brat.”
“So we’re in agreement?” the queen asked.
Changmin sighed. “Yes. We are in agreement.”
“Good. You are beyond the proper age of marriage anyway,” the queen said. “Now I can tell the other noble women to take their daughters and marry them off to the pigs of--”
“Mother!”
She smirked again, and Jaejoong laughed, his ankle wrapping around Changmin’s. He leaned his head on Changmin’s shoulder, and Changmin huffed and reluctantly smiled.
“You’re right,” Luna said. “They are cute together.”
The queen nodded. “Indeed. Jaejoong, if you would be so kind as to attend a meeting with the King and me later on in the evening. I do need to explain some things to him. Having you there to explain and show him the binding curse will help matters conclude quickly.”
“Of course, your highness.”
“There are so many things that can go wrong with this,” Changmin muttered.
Jaejoong pressed a kiss to his cheek. “So pessimistic.”
Changmin met his mother’s eyes. He should have known that she already knew. She was his mother. She was his queen.
“We will all support you, son,” she said. “If you were going into this alone, then it would be different. But you have my support, you have the entire elf kingdom support, you’ll have the Caravan’s support, and more importantly, you’ll have the support of those closest to you. Your elf. Your wife. Your family.”
Changmin nodded. “I know, but I can be worried. It is my kingdom, my future family, my reputation that I worry about.”
“If you walk around with your head down in shame, then that gives people the opportunity to agree with you,” Luna said. “Walk tall, Minnie-ah, you always do. If you believe that there is nothing wrong, then your people will follow.”
“That is probably the smartest thing you have ever said.”
Changmin dutifully took another kick under the table.
Part 10: The Binding Hope
Part 8: The Binding Sex
Part 7: The Binding Spells
Part 6: The Binding Treat
Part 5: The Binding Book
Part 4: The Binding Kiss
Part 3: The Binding Shots
Part 2: The Binding Touch
Part 1: The Binding Curse
.
Pairing: Changmin/Jaejoong
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Only in my mind can they be bound together with magic spells.
Summary: Jaejoong is Changmin's biggest rival. When the elf reveals that Changmin is his only option to curb the pain from an ancient curse, Changmin must decide what to do. And he must decide if his sudden feelings for Jaejoong are real, or a result of magic he does not understand.
Part 9: The Binding Agreement
Minho woke them up in the morning, lips jerking like he was trying to keep from laughing. Changmin grumbled at him, but conceded to his humor. They were naked, covered in come and hickys, and Jaejoong was so tightly wound around him that Changmin was unable to smack his butler when he asked cheekily, “Shall I return your reading room to you, sir?”
But then Jaejoong moaned and shifted his leg under the blankets, thigh pressing against Changmin’s morning erection and Changmin gasped and Minho laughed and reminded them that they had to be at the queen’s dining room in two hours before leaving the room.
“Plenty of time,” Jaejoong whispered and slid under the blankets to get his mouth on Changmin’s cock. It didn’t take long for Jaejoong to have Changmin desperate, his mouth and hands working up and down the shaft for Changmin to want to come all over Jaejoong’s pretty face. He flung the blankets away to watch the way his cock slid into his mouth, between Jaejoong’s red, shiny lips. He curled a hand into Jaejoong’s hair and helped, just a little, pushing down while lifting his hips off the bed.
Jaejoong shifted around his body, between his legs and pushed at his knees, all without taking his mouth away. Changmin let his body be manipulated, let Jaejoong hook his knees over his shoulder and only protested a little when Jaejoong’s mouth moved down to his balls. His hand kept stroking his cock. His other hand went to his ass, and Changmin moaned and curled his hips a little more. Jaejoong pulled away from him for a moment, finger into his mouth, and then that finger pressed against Changmin’s entrance and Jaejoong was sucking him deep again.
Changmin moaned at the small stretch and his hands went above his head. “Jaejoong, wow. Just ...”
Jaejoong hummed and sped up, both his mouth and finger. The pleasure weaved and abated, surging back strong. Changmin’s legs twitched, and when Jaejoong pressed in a second finger, he gripped behind his own knees to spread himself open farther.
When Jaejoong pulled away from his cock, Changmin protested, fingers yanking his hair, pushing him back toward it.
Jaejoong chuckled and whispered something that Changmin did not quite understand, but a second later, the two fingers inside him were three, his body was slick with ... something ... and Jaejoong was back on his cock with his mouth.
“Fuck, magic, so good, so good.”
Jaejoong wiggled his fingers, and Changmin moaned and then his other hand was on his balls, tugging and squeezing, and with fingers and his mouth and hands and just ... Jaejoong ... everything was Jaejoong, Jaejoong, Jaejoong. In his body, in his heart, and sounds and cries that fell from his mouth.
Changmin vision went dark and spotty and his body shuddered through a series of teasing pulses, almost coming and then not, over and over, right on the edge with Jaejoong’s mouth pulling him over it, his hand stroking him through it, his fingers pumping more slowly as Changmin clamped down on them. He came almost harder than he had the night before, filling Jaejoong’s mouth with his release.
Jaejoong swallowed and continued to suck on him through the pleasure. His fingers fell from Changmin’s body and then his mouth was on his skin, kissing up his chest. Come dripped on his chin, and he licked at Changmin’s nipples and then his neck and pressed their lips together. Through his daze, Changmin realized that Jaejoong was frotting against him, his cock sliding on Changmin’s stomach. He moaned and gripped Jaejoong’s ass and was halfway through telling Jaejoong to wait before Jaejoong was shaking through his own orgasm and pulsing a sticky mess of come between their bodies.
Jaejoong cried out and collapsed against him, body still moving slowly, and Changmin ran his hands over his back and ass.
“Good,” Jaejoong whimpered. “So good.”
Changmin hummed in agreement.
---
Changmin walked into his family’s private dining room, smiling because well, he had Jaejoong’s hand entwined with his, and he had every right to smile after his night, and this morning in bed and in the tub, and then against the wall when Jaejoong walked out of his closet in gray, clingy pants and a knitted blue sweater. Really wasn’t fair, and his mouth still tasted like come, and if he looked carefully, he could see the spot of come that had slipped from his lips and landed on the gray material, staining it before he could lick it up.
But after only two steps in the room, he stopped in shock. A girl sat next to his mother. Well, a woman really, but Changmin had known her for so long that she would be nothing but the young girl that he played around with and got in trouble with. She wore a gorgeous green dress, deep colors wavering over each other. It looked like a summer meadow of grasses blowing in the wind. Her white hair was braided and fell over a shoulder, the tip of it falling almost to her waist. Upon her head sat a matching green scarf that was also twisted down the braid.
“Luna?” Changmin said in surprise.
The girl sitting with his mother turned and smiled. “Hi, Minnie.”
“Luna!” He rushed over to her, and when she stood up, he wrapped her arms around her and lifted her in a circle with another shout of her nickname.
Luna laughed and let Changmin hug her, her own arms going around his middle.
“What are you doing here?” Changmin asked against her hair.
“If you would stop acting like an ill-mannered bastard, I will explain,” his mother said.
Changmin smiled at Luna, and she made a cute little face that he had always adored. But he did set her down, because she was in a fine dress and there were places to twirl around your best friend and act like children, and one of those places was not the royal family dining room.
Her eyes went over Changmin’s shoulder. “Kim Jaejoong. It’s nice to see you again.”
Jaejoong bowed over her hand and kissed her knuckles. “And you, Park Sungyun. I adored the silks your caravan brought last spring. Our entire city is fighting over the last bolt. My father has it stashed away.”
Luna laughed and squeezed Jaejoong’s hands. “I will be sure to tell him to double your order then.”
Jaejoong chuckled. “But of course.”
“Please sit,” his mother said. “We can talk as we eat.”
Changmin sat across from Luna, and Jaejoong sat next to him, across from the queen. The queen wore a simple blue gown that actually matched Jaejoong’s sweater pretty well, with her hair braided and wrapped up on top of her head. The silver day-to-day crown was accented with blue jewels. Jaejoong bowed to her before he sat, and she nodded her head in acknowledgement. As soon as they were seated, servants appeared with coffee, fruit and breads.
“What are you doing here?” Changmin asked, still smiling at Luna. “The last I heard, your caravan was in the north.”
“They are,” Luna replied, “but I was invited.” She nodded at Changmin’s mother.
Changmin looked at his mother, and after a moment, he understood the implications of a girl being invited to breakfast with the queen and the prince, and his eyes went wide, and she smirked at him. “Mother! But this ... you cannot mean ... it is not proper!”
She rolled her eyes in a good impression of Changmin on his poutiest days. “It does not matter. I am the queen, and I may do as I wish.”
“But ... what ... I can’t ... this isn’t ...”
“Dare I ask?” Jaejoong ventured.
Luna grinned at him. “Changmin and I are to be married next summer.”
“But ... I ... Mother!”
“Shut your mouth, son, and open your ears,” she said. “You have disapproved of every noble girl, and none of them have brought light to your eyes or a smile to your face. Not in the way you have been mooning around the castle for the last few weeks with this elf beside you. A mother is not blind. Neither is a queen. This is a good match. You both like each other. You both know each other. And at one time I was worried that the two of you were going to come to me with news of a bastard heir.”
Changmin shut his eyes and buried his face in his hands. “This is not possible.”
“It is. I am the queen. This is what I have decided.”
“But she is not a Lord’s daughter!”
“And I am sitting right across from you, ass,” she snapped and kicked him under the table.
“Ow. Luna!”
Luna stuck her tongue out at him.
“She is not a Lord’s daughter, you are correct. But only because we call her father a merchant. He is a Lord just as anyone else it. The only difference is that his castle moves.”
“Father will not agree to this.”
“Your father does not matter when it comes to things that I have already decided. Are you agreeing to it?”
Changmin huffed and stared at his childhood friend. They had met when Changmin had only been six years old, Luna a year younger. Her white hair had reminded him of the moon, and the first thing he had said to her was “Luna,” a word he had learned just the week before. It was fate, a match. They met at least twice a year, every time Luna’s father brought the caravan to the castle to deliver tithes and sell other merchandise. When he was fourteen, he had stolen his first kiss from her, and she had slapped him soundly across the cheek. And yes, when they were a bit older, things had happened. But it was those things that stopped him from agreeing.
He sighed. “I cannot marry you, Luna. I can’t. I ... I just ...”
“You must marry someone,” his mother said. “Do you wish to marry one of the others? Yoona, maybe, or Hyolyn?”
Changmin made a face. “No.”
“Then quit your bellyaching and thank me!”
“Thank you, Mother. I know that you like for me to be happy, but ... what about Luna? What about her happiness?”
Luna shook her head. “Minnie, please. I know you better than I know anyone else. Your mother knows you. And both of us can see how much you adore the elf next to you. It won’t be like that with the two of us, and I know that. But you have to understand that I don’t want that.”
“Then ... why?” Changmin tried to find the right question even with the blush on his cheeks. He figured his mother had known about his feelings for Jaejoong, but not anyone else. Though, Luna was correct; they had known each other their entire lives.
“I have a caravan to run,” Luna said. “I do not want to be married and tied down with all of those things. But we compromise. We marry. I have an heir, and you and your elf, and our child, come on the caravan with me. You do not need to be here at the castle all the time, not with your father still the king. Not all the time, mind you. We’ll do both. If you can agree to that compromise, then I can agree to a marriage.”
“But ... but ... the gossip! The people. They will not agree ...”
“The people will agree with whatever we decide,” the queen said. “We will begin on working to change their minds now, while your father and I are still powerful. We will slowly remove the laws pertaining to male couples. It is only our delusions to think that it does not go on behind closed doors. With the laws gone, less people will be hurt and more people will be happy. We hope that once you take over the throne that you may proudly sit with Jaejoong by your side.”
“But ... this ... I didn’t even ... How did you even know?”
The queen rolled his eyes. “Good heavens, son. A mother that doesn’t know about her son’s preferences, whereabouts, and activities is a horrible mother.”
“Sounds like you are out of excuses,” Jaejoong said.
Changmin looked over at him and shook his head. “How come you are okay with this?”
Jaejoong shrugged and looked at the queen. “I still get what I want, what I need?”
“Yes. You have solidified our alliance with the elves, and honestly, the elves now owe us a huge favor because of this binding curse.”
“We are in your debt, your highness.”
“But you do know what it means? Marrying her?” Changmin asked Jaejoong.
Luna kicked him again. “Stop talking about me like I am not here!”
“Of course,” Jaejoong said and did not bother to try to stop himself from leaning into Changmin’s shoulder. “I still get what I need.”
Changmin sighed. “I can’t do that to you, to either of you! Luna. I just ... you should be happy!”
“Being on the caravan makes me happy. Nothing else does. Certainly not the bolstering, pigheaded men that want to marry me.”
“We want stronger ties with the caravan,” the queen said. “Your father and I discussed that just two months ago.”
Changmin reached over and took Luna’s hand. “I cannot love you.”
“You already do, you cad.”
“But not in the way a woman should be loved by a man. I cannot.”
“That is not what I want.” She squeezed his hand and let it go. “The men who clamor to marry me want to tie me down, push me into a home, take away the sky as my roof. I cannot live like that. I --” She glanced at the queen and then over at Changmin. “I have a lover, Changmin, one that I care for and--”
“I will not take you from him!”
She smirked. “Him? So presumptuous.”
Changmin’s mouth opened to retort and then stopped in surprise. “Her?”
“Well done, genius,” she said with a laugh. “This marriage will let me do what I want. I can be with my Jinri without the fear of a man trying to tame me or my father trying to marry me off. I can be with her and you can be with your elf. The caravan will forge stronger ties with the royal family, and we will provide an heir for the kingdom and the caravan.”
Jaejoong settled a hand on Changmin’s thigh and squeezed. “Like I said, all out of excuses.”
Changmin shook his head. “You’re right, and you’re right,” he added and kicked Luna under the table. “Brat.”
“So we’re in agreement?” the queen asked.
Changmin sighed. “Yes. We are in agreement.”
“Good. You are beyond the proper age of marriage anyway,” the queen said. “Now I can tell the other noble women to take their daughters and marry them off to the pigs of--”
“Mother!”
She smirked again, and Jaejoong laughed, his ankle wrapping around Changmin’s. He leaned his head on Changmin’s shoulder, and Changmin huffed and reluctantly smiled.
“You’re right,” Luna said. “They are cute together.”
The queen nodded. “Indeed. Jaejoong, if you would be so kind as to attend a meeting with the King and me later on in the evening. I do need to explain some things to him. Having you there to explain and show him the binding curse will help matters conclude quickly.”
“Of course, your highness.”
“There are so many things that can go wrong with this,” Changmin muttered.
Jaejoong pressed a kiss to his cheek. “So pessimistic.”
Changmin met his mother’s eyes. He should have known that she already knew. She was his mother. She was his queen.
“We will all support you, son,” she said. “If you were going into this alone, then it would be different. But you have my support, you have the entire elf kingdom support, you’ll have the Caravan’s support, and more importantly, you’ll have the support of those closest to you. Your elf. Your wife. Your family.”
Changmin nodded. “I know, but I can be worried. It is my kingdom, my future family, my reputation that I worry about.”
“If you walk around with your head down in shame, then that gives people the opportunity to agree with you,” Luna said. “Walk tall, Minnie-ah, you always do. If you believe that there is nothing wrong, then your people will follow.”
“That is probably the smartest thing you have ever said.”
Changmin dutifully took another kick under the table.
Part 10: The Binding Hope
Part 8: The Binding Sex
Part 7: The Binding Spells
Part 6: The Binding Treat
Part 5: The Binding Book
Part 4: The Binding Kiss
Part 3: The Binding Shots
Part 2: The Binding Touch
Part 1: The Binding Curse
.