A Single Kiss
Title: A Single Kiss
Author:
hunters_retreat
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Warning: Incest of the Royalty kind.
Summary: Jensen closed his eyes and wondered, not for the first time, how his life had become so monumentally convoluted that he actually enjoyed the feel of the Northerner behind him but he was smart enough to take what comfort he could in the never-ending war that his life had become. “Good night, Jared.”
Author's Note: Written to fill the space of rights of passage/coming of age on my trope bingo card.
He was almost there. Two blocks over, Jensen had seen the way out of the convoluted city and he'd run with everything he had left. The steel fence was a small hindrance considering the other obstacles he'd faced - namely his cousins - and Jensen threw himself at the barrier.
He jumped and saw too late the way the fence began to stretch and reform until it became a single, solid surface. He turned in midair so it was his shoulder that took the brunt of the hit and Jensen landed heavily at the foot of what was now a ten foot steel wall.
"Makers be damned!" Jensen cursed but turned quickly at the sound of feet on the pavement behind him.
"You!"
Jensen was surprised to find himself staring at Jared Padalecki, first born of the Northern Star.
Though their houses were of equal stature, Jensen would normally bow slightly to a natural born of the house. Today he had no option. Today was a battle he had no choice but to fight.
"I would have thought you exempt from this battle," Jared said cautiously as he eyed Jensen up and down.
"Though my step mother hates me, she pressed my father’s love upon the King until he admitted I was the rightful first son of the Southern Seas. Though I was adopted, there was a strong bond between my father and I.”
"And she is ambitious enough to use you to become the mother of the King-Clan."
Jensen nodded. "I have no wish to be king and no desire to hurt you, Jared. You were never cruel to me."
Jared eyed Jensen before he nodded. "Nor do I wish to hurt you. I would offer a truce."
"A truce?"
"An alliance, if you would. I wanted no part of this."
"Yet you have always jockeyed to be the King’s heir."
"I believe I can change the cruel legacy our grandfather would leave us with. He set his grandchildren into a death match to determine his heir and I do not doubt that his hand lay behind the deaths of his sons. His hatred has divided our planet and his ambition caused us to lose our place among the Star Guard. I could restore our people and our place in the galaxy."
"It is a pretty speech, cousin, but how do I know I will not receive a knife in the back for my trust?"
Jared raised the blade that he'd chosen upon entry to the moving city. It was a long blade much like the one Jensen had tucked into a sheath on his thigh.
“I’ve seen you fight,” Jared said as he flipped the blade and caught it, holding it hilt first towards Jensen. “You are a true SwordsMaster. I believe we would stand a better chance getting out of this accursed city alive if we work together.”
“Grandfather will only let one of us leave this place alive. What game do you play, Jared?”
“Only the ones I have to. You can go your separate way and I will not follow, but until such a time as we have no other enemy to fight, I would consider you a friend.”
The concrete beneath their feet began to rumble and he looked at the other man. “This sector is changing again soon.”
“We should head south,” Jared answered. “Fred reprogrammed the citybots to look for cousins in the north and Mark is holding court with a group of younger cousins in the east.”
“Mark will massacre them,” Jensen said as he took the knife from Jared. He wasn’t sure about his cousin yet but he felt more secure with both weapons in hand. Jared didn’t know about the knife sheath and throwing daggers under Jensen’s jacket sleeve and he wasn’t sure Jared hadn’t picked up anything else from fallen cousins along the way but he was willing to give the other man some leeway.
“At least it’s fewer we have to fight off,” Jared said as he turned to walk down the alley towards the street. “I saw you coming from the west. Who holds it?”
Jensen walked beside Jared and shook his head. “No one. The whole west section is moving so fast you can’t get out once you get in. I was two blocks past the main gateway and I barely made it out alive. I saw three of our cousins get smashed between walls when the city moved around them. There was no way to survive that.”
“So three down, four with Mark, and Fred is accounted for. Just one cousin whose whereabouts are unknown.”
Jensen nodded as they walked. “Now, if we can only find another exit before the city changes it against us again.”
**
The sky turned quickly from bright light to rose, then to dark purples and blues. It was an artificial sunset that came upon them far too fast and with it came the chill of the northern countries.
Jensen shivered as he rubbed at his arms to increase the circulation. Jared looked around them in alarm as the wind howled through the maze of city streets.
"We need to get inside. Now."
Jensen didn't question Jared's words. Jared’s home was in the far north and if the King had been able to engineer moving cities, a northern storm wasn't beyond him. Nor was letting his grandchildren freeze to death if they failed to take care of themselves.
The temperature dropped drastically and rain began to fall. The sleek metal of the city streets grew slippery and Jared and Jensen both began to reach out to the other when they lost their footing. Rain became snow that turned to slush under their feet.
Jared grabbed Jensen's arm and pulled him forward. He must have seen something but all Jensen had been able to see were metal walls all around them. He let Jared lead the way but his free hand still held the knife that Jared had given him.
The day's run through the maze had given Jensen enough faith that Jared didn't intend to kill him, not until he had to anyway. Jensen still wasn't sure what would happen at the end. Jensen didn't want to be a part of this and he had no intention of killing anyone for the King’s throne. He would defend himself though and he wasn't stupid enough to leave his cousins alive if they came after him. He just hoped Jared was made of the same mettle.
Snow came down hard enough to obscure his vision but Jared kept a tight hold on him. Jensen shivered against the cold. None of them had been dressed for a blizzard and none had known their grandfather's intent when he'd called together the heirs of each household.
Jared pushed Jensen up against the wall suddenly and Jensen was about to bring his knife into play but Jared just held him there for a second. The wind made it impossible to hear his words but Jensen was pretty sure Jared wanted him to stay there. He nodded and then Jared stepped away. A second later, Jared threw himself into the metal five feet away from where Jensen stood. Jared tumbled forward as a door gave way and Jensen scrambled towards it.
Jensen didn't know how Jared had seen the doorway but he helped his cousin to his feet before they pushed the door closed behind them. There was an old fashioned bar locking mechanism and Jensen helped Jared seal them in for the night.
A large skylight let in the moon but it wasn't enough to see well.
"We need some light," Jared said quietly in the echoing space. "We need to see if there is anything here to get a fire going."
"You think he means to freeze us out?" Jensen asked. He knew his own thoughts but he wanted to see where Jared’s thinking was.
"I think Grandfather means to kill anyone that isn't smart enough to survive in all the extremes of the twelve kingdoms."
"Great," Jensen said as he began to look around the room. "So we have floods, earthquakes, and unbearable heat to look forward to."
"At least it will give us a leg up on Mark and Fred," Jared reminded him as he moved on the other side of the room. "They won't even visit the colder climates. They certainly wouldn't be carrying supplies against it."
"What do you have?"
"A small personal tarp and lighting materials. If we can find something to burn we'll be fine."
Jensen smiled as he found something they could use. "Newspapers and a wooden crate good enough?"
"I would kiss you if my lips weren't frozen right now," Jared said with a smile.
Jensen handed him the materials he'd found as he'd been wandering. He stepped back and started looking for anything else while Jared pulled a belt pouch from under his shirt and started to look for a place to build a fire.
He told himself that he stepped away to look for more kindling but he knew the lie. His father used to say the northerners used the cold as an excuse to bed whenever they wanted with whoever they wanted. His step mother said they were whores without the slightest understanding of decorum.
Jensen had always found his northern cousins to be more open minded and affectionate than the others. He prefers them to the sharks of the west or the heavy handed brawlers they neighbored. That didn't mean Jensen was about to let his cousin take advantage of the situation though. It didn't mean Jared was less of a temptation either.
There were a few open crates in the room and Jensen found rations in one. The old man must have set out a small amount of supplies for whoever found shelter. Jensen knew better than to think they were left behind on accident.
He returned after his search carrying another crate with the rations.
"You don't think he'd poison them, do you?" Jensen asked.
He'd never been close to the King to be able to read his intent in this. The King had never forgiven Jensen’s father for staying with his wife in her barren stage and adopting him. Nor had he forgiven him for refusing to produce a child with his new wife. The King had let his son go to his deathbed knowing that he thought Jensen would never make a proper heir.
"No, he wants us to do it ourselves. He won't leave many handouts though so we should ration these in case we're here a while. I don't know about you but the only thing I've seen living in this city are the cousins and the wild dogs and neither seem appetizing."
Jensen opened a packet of rations and let out a deep breath. His homeland was known for the delicacies of cuisine and their passionate arts and this table was far from his usual fare. He was hungry though and while he was used to the finer life that he’d been adopted into, he was a soldier by training and he wasn't above the rations he was given.
Jared smiled as he watched Jensen. "Your step mother would be appalled at you."
Jensen smiled. "She'd starve before she'd lower herself to eat rations."
Jared shook his head. "Your father was a good man. Why did he ever marry her?"
Jensen shrugged. "She was a very good liar. We were convinced she was someone else. She and my mother had been childhood friends and they kept a correspondence all the years between. She had not married for love the first time, but had been married off for political reasons. When Mother died she came to us in her grief. When her husband died a year later, my father returned the support. It wasn't until after they were married that I began to see who she was."
"And her plans for you?"
Jensen smiled. "She wanted me dead of course, so that her son from her first marriage would become the heir to the South."
"Which didn't happen."
"I realized she meant me harm and I began to study with the swordsmasters. Some of the other nobles believed it was beneath our stature but my father believed in knowing the art of war. I had been trained since my childhood but it seemed prudent to expand my studies then."
"And how did you become a master yourself?"
"After father died strange things began to happen around me. Dangerous things. The swordsmasters knew what was happening even if they didn't know who was behind the attempts on my life. They allowed me to continue and my step mother had no right to naysay my wishes. It was safer to sleep in the barracks and learn to fight with the men than it was to go to my own rooms."
"You never seemed like one of the southern lords to me," Jared admitted. "You don't look down your nose at us as often as the others."
Jensen laughed. "I must admit that you are not what I expected either."
"Really? Am I not magnificent?" Jared asked with a smile.
"We're in a dark room, alone, with just the fire to keep us warm and you have yet to make any advances to remove me from my clothes."
Jared laughed. "I could if it would make you feel better. You are certainly enticing enough but I had intended to make it out alive before I took a celebratory lover."
Jensen shouldn’t laugh but he couldn’t help himself. “Is that what I would be? A celebratory trophy on your arm?”
“It would put a scandal on your house, wouldn’t it?” Jared asked. “To be seen on my arm.”
“The Northern and Southern nations have always had an uneasy truce,” Jensen said as he continued to eat his rations. “Even this small alliance we’ve formed here would bring the other houses down on us.”
“You think they would fear the two of us?” Jared cocked his head slightly to the side as he asked. He seemed to care about Jensen’s opinion and Jensen liked him better for it. Too many people thought of the Southern kingdom as a people too coutured and shallow to understand the working of politics. They tended to forget that Jensen’s home was also where the swordsmasters originated.
“I think they would try to tear us apart to keep the South and North from ever aligning. With the wealth and swordsmasters of the South combined with the military might and political prowess of the North, the other kingdoms would have no choice but to follow our lead.”
Jared smiled like Jensen had passed some test. “My father believed there was more to the ruling family of the Southern Sea than they gave on. Before his accident, he wanted to send an emissary to your family.”
Jensen frowned. “It was right before my father died.” His father had said the same thing, not long before his death. During his nightly vigil at his father’s side, he had confessed that the North would be a good ally.
Jared frowned as well and he could see the wheels turning in his head. “My father’s death was an accident but it feels a little too coincidental.”
Jensen nodded. “We told everyone it was an illness that took my father, but we know it was poison in the end. We found the girl who did the work, but we never found the person who set that path.”
“You suspect Grandfather?”
“I suspect my stepmother’s hand in it, and his behind her.”
“And if you survive to become king?”
“I will survive only long enough for her to find a way to kill me and put her son on the throne.”
Jared let out a harsh bark of laughter. “I think we should save our borrowed trouble for when we get out of this accursed city.”
Jensen nodded as he handed off a canteen of water he’d been carrying. Jared took it gratefully and drank before handing it back.
“We should get some sleep,” Jensen said. “The door is bared and anything strong enough to break that would wake us. No need to take watch.”
Jared nodded. “I have a tarp to cover us. It isn’t big so we’ll have to lie close.”
Jensen stared at him for a second with a slight pull at the corner of his lips. “For warmth, Jensen.” Jared said with a smile.
They lay down next to the fire and Jared spread the fabric over them. It wasn’t warm but it was warmer than he had been and he sighed when Jared pulled him snuggly into the curve of his body. “Good night, Jensen.”
Jensen closed his eyes and wondered, not for the first time, how his life had become so monumentally convoluted that he actually enjoyed the feel of the Northerner behind him but he was smart enough to take what comfort he could in the never-ending war that his life had become.
“Good night, Jared.”
**
The blizzard raged for two days and Jared and Jensen explored the city around them as much as they could as the storm let up. They stayed close though, never knowing when the full force of the blizzard would keep them from their sanctuary.
On the third day, the sun shone above them and it had already grown warm. The city was slick with condensation and the previously snow-lined streets ran with water now.
“We need to find higher ground,” Jensen said as he looked at Jared. “When the larger ice packs start to melt the city will be flooded.”
“You think the others survived?” Jared asked as they began to explore again.
“I’d love to say no, but I’m not that optimistic.”
Jared laughed as they walked and Jensen couldn’t help but smile at him. There was something wild and beautiful about the Northern Star heir and Jensen felt a twinge of regret that he would never know if they could have become allies outside of the King’s sick game. One of them would die trying to get out of the city, if not both of them.
At mid-day they ate rations as they walked. Jensen kept them at a steady heading towards the middle of the city. The taller buildings were there and while Jensen feared quakes they needed to get away from the flooding.
Jared looked nervously around them but he didn’t say anything. He followed Jensen’s lead and he was grateful for the show of trust. He knew how hard that was after having followed Jared around in the snow.
He found a building that looked promising but as they grew closer they had to run down a side street and jump up on the roof of a small stand as part of a small glacier broke and the rainy street flooded around them.
“Do you see that?” Jared demanded as he pointed to an object floating in the water.
It wouldn’t take long for the rain to melt the smaller ice chunk and free their cousin from his prison but he would never know the difference.
“Well, we don’t have to worry about Mark anymore. If he didn’t survive, I’d bet his lackeys didn’t either,” Jensen said.
“So just Fred and Katie left.”
Jensen nodded and Jared let out a sigh. “I really hate this game.”
Jensen let out a humorless laugh. “I enjoy a good adventure as much as the next guy, but this is a bit ridiculous.” He looked around as he said it though because he didn’t like being stuck here until the sewers took the excess water and they could use the street again. He didn’t know if it would lower enough and the water was contaminated.
Jared noticed him looking around and he started to check their surroundings as well. “You see the broken window?”
Jared pointed up and it drew Jensen’s attention to the building they were leaning against. Directly above them, three stories up, was a window that had shattered.
“If we had something to throw up there, we could use some rope to climb up.”
Jensen eyed it and realized they were both fit enough to climb the rope that far. “You find rope,” Jensen said as he grabbed two of the daggers he had up his sleeves. Jared’s eyes widened at the extra weapons and Jensen smiled. “I’ll make an anchor.”
“You can do that?”
Jensen nodded. “You’d be amazed at what a Swordsmaster can do, without a sword.”
Jared smirked then and winked. “I am more than willing to find out, when we have more leisure.”
He disappeared before Jensen could say anything but he knew the other heir was looking under their current perch for something to use as rope.
Good thing, because Jensen had no idea what to say to Jared after that.
**
The floods receded in two days and Jensen couldn't help but wonder at the things he'd been taught about his Northern cousins. He knew his Step Mother had never liked the Northern people but he had no idea how much of her teachings had actually infected him. He knew that his father had a stronger understanding of them. In fact Jensen's mother had been Northern. Nothing but a peasant girl, but she'd been beautiful and smart and fierce in what she wanted. While his father had been wooed by princesses and ladies of the realm, she had offered him a single kiss and one question. His father’s answer had sealed their fates.
And probably their deaths as well, though that had been years in the making.
"You're quiet today," Jared said softly at his side.
They were in the city streets and nothing felt right to Jensen. Jared seemed to feel the same. His hands kept going to his belt where his knives were but Jared hadn't actually drawn them.
"In my head," Jensen said with a look around them.
"About?"
"Remembrance,” he said softly. “After my mother’s death no one spoke of her. My father barely held himself together. When my step mother came to help him through it, she forbade talk of her. She said it hurt my father too much."
"You think she was already working to take your mother’s place?" Jared asked. His words were blunt, but his voice held a kindness that Jensen found increasingly endearing.
"Yes, but that's not where my thoughts were. We spoke of her so little that people forgot she was a Northerner."
"What?"
"A peasant girl. While the twelve kingdoms were trying to win a place at my father’s throne, my mother won his heart and kept it with a kiss"
"She didn't," Jared asked delightedly.
Jensen smiled. “She was very strong willed and smart. She adopted the Southern customs, their dress, even their way of speaking. She made herself Southern in their eyes. But she would have approved of our alliance Jared. She would have approved of our friendship."
"Friends?" A female voice sneered from around the corner. "The Northern Star and Southern Sea could never enter any real alliance. No one would allow it."
"So it would seem, Daughter of Chance," Jensen said as he watched their cousin Katie.
She was one of the Gambling West. She hated him with a passion that only past lovers could and Jensen knew all the secrets she wished to keep hidden. Katie was determined to become the King’s heir and she had hoped that playing up her hatred of Jensen would endear the old man to her. She'd have been better off to treat him as Jared always had; quiet disdain. Jared was the favorite and he knew how to keep the old man’s approval. Bringing up the adopted son of his once favorite son-turned disappointment only angered him.
Katie might be great with the odds and a hell of a back room brawler, but she wasn't the brightest of their generation of heirs.
"You managed to keep hold of him, Jared. I'm impressed. You seemed to think he would be more slippery than that," she sneered.
Jensen spun to look at Jared. He didn't believe her words but it was an easy enough scenario to follow. One of them gain Jensen's trust, then the other comes in to help kill him. Jensen was the only Swordsmaster in their generation and he was the greatest threat to the others. Only Jared himself was a warrior to match him.
"I might have lost him but then Grandfather gave us the snow and I am not without charm. A single cold night and I had him writhing for me," Jared said as he reached Katie's side. He wrapped an arm over her shoulder and looked at Jensen. For one heart wrenching moment, Jensen believed he’d been betrayed, but there was something in Jared’s eyes. The words he spoke to Katie were untrue. Why would he make such a boast where Jensen could call him out on it? Jensen hoped he'd read Jared right.
"Jared, you don't mean that. You said... We..."
"Oh, Jensen, did you think I meant what I said?" He laughed lightly as he turned to face Katie. "I did. I didn't mean what I said to you though." His blade was buried in her chest before she could respond to his betrayal.
Jared watched her fall but he didn't turn around as he began to speak. "It was a good plan. She found me as soon as the game started. She knew she didn’t have the skill to kill either of us. I think she planned to stab me in the back once I'd given you the killing blow. I knew she would betray me. She shouldn't have lied about you though. The way she hated you?"
Jared turned to look at Jensen. "She hinted at some very dark reasons for it and once I met you I knew they were lies. She misled me, enticed me to believe things she knew would have me seek you out."
Jensen felt his heart race. Had Katie admitted the real reasons behind her hated of him? Or had she simply told Jared his secrets and passed them off as rumor? He didn’t think Katie would ever admit the things he’d done to her, not to anyone. The look in Jared’s eye wasn't disgust or hate though. It was heat.
“You killed her because she told you I was something I’m not,” Jensen said as he moved closer. He shouldn’t. He should keep his distance and let Jared think what he did, but behind the heat in Jared’s eyes was a need. Jensen was very good at covering his own, but what if there was no reason here? What if he could actually have what he wanted?
“She was going to betray me anyway, but yes.”
“What did she tell you I was?” Jensen asked as he began to circle Jared. The Northerner started to turn to follow his movements but Jensen put a hand between his shoulder blades to stop him. Jared stilled immediately and Jensen fought back a smile.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jared didn’t want to answer and Jensen understood. For a man of Jared’s position, it could be damning. Would be damning if anyone knew. That was where Katie’s real anger came from. When Jensen ended things with her, he could have easily broken her world with a whisper or two. He would never but she had been unable to see that. She had never been able to see him as clearly as he saw her.
“It does to me,” Jensen whispered across the nape of Jared’s neck. The taller man shivered and Jensen forced himself to take a step away. He moved around until he was facing Jared then. The other man still didn’t move and Jensen was surprised at the obedience to his unspoken will.
“Did she tell you how she came to me when she was fostered in my home, seeking my bed and company? Or was there more?”
“More,” Jared said softly, his eyes were on the floor and Jensen allowed himself a small smile.
“Did she tell you about the dark, Jared? About the things I did to her there? The number of times she begged? All the things I did to make her scream?”
Jared’s eyes closed and Jensen took a step closer. He didn’t touch Jared but it was almost painful not to. He let the moment build though before he whispered, “Did she tell you I could do the same to you?”
Jared’s eyes flew open and there were so many emotions warring with one another. “I could, and I would, if we manage to find a way out of this Jared.” He reached out and lightly caressed Jared’s collarbone before he let his fingers stretch around Jared’s neck. He didn’t squeeze or push, just let his hand rest there, but Jared held his breath as he waited. When he met Jared’s eyes again, this time, there was nothing but need.
“You would be so good for me, Jared, I know. And I would be good to you.” He took a step back then, needed the physical distance to remind himself that his pleasures would have to wait until they were someplace safe. Someplace where they weren’t supposed to kill each other for the old man’s amusement.
Jared cleared his throat and Jensen watched as the Northerner pulled himself together again. It was an incredible feat. If Katie hadn’t come upon them as she had, he wasn’t sure he’d have ever seen this side of Jared. He needed more.
Jared turned to the body and began to rifle through what Katie had. There wasn’t much but Jensen understood Jared’s need to do something, to get control again.
Jensen leaned against the building wall and closed his eyes for a moment to push aside his own nature, to try to be the man he needed to be now.
“She was probably the last,” Jared said. When Jensen looked at him, it was still there between them, but it was contained. “She couldn’t have come for you until she was sure our alliance was at an end.”
“So what now?” Jensen asked. He smiled, “Will you come for my head now? Try to win your place on your Grandfather’s throne?”
Jared smiled. “I have been thinking of our problem but nothing came to me until this morning.”
“What? You figured out an escape? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t realize you’d been raised by a Northerner. When you spoke of your mother it reminded me of something. There is only one reason Grandfather would allow an heir to be disqualified from this fight.”
“Jared,” Jensen knew what the man was suggesting then. He was shocked at the idea. He wasn’t sure he could wrap his brain around it.
Jared let out a deep breath. “I was about to mention it when Katie showed up. That was before … when I thought …” he cleared his throat and Jensen understood what he didn’t say. It was before he realized Jensen was capable of the darkness that Jared craved.
“Why would you even think about it?”
“You’re handsome and smart. You’re a survivor even in a fight you had no place being in. But you’re also funny and warm. You’re kind and you’re a good ruler to your people. We would be very good together Jensen.”
“If we did this, there would be no turning back. No way to undo this. This choice is forever.”
“I am the Northern Star heir, Jensen. I do know my own ways,” he teased lightly as he moved to Jensen’s side.
“Would Grandfather honor a bond made here in his battle city?”
“Maybe to see if the others ripped us to shreds before he expired on his deathbed, or if we could stand strong enough together,” Jared answered honestly. “I think maybe, for me, he would.”
Jensen had fought to keep out of this fight and he had no illusions that the King had allowed him entrance just to see him dead. If he’d have thought to offer a bond to one of the others before, he might have done it without having to get his hands bloodied. Of course, he would never have seen Jared for who he was and Jensen could never regret what he had learned. The man he had seen.
Jensen was raised with the romanticized story of how his mother had won his father’s heart and there was a certain rush of joy and affection at being able to follow that path. He grabbed Jared by the back of the neck and pulled their lips together.
There was nothing hesitant in their kiss, nothing but the growing affection and passion that had come between them since Jared first offered an alliance. When Jared licked his way into Jensen’s mouth, he moaned as he opened to the other heir. He was nearly breathless when Jared pulled back to rest his temple against Jensen’s.
“Jared,” Jensen forced his voice to be more than a whisper. He knew that somewhere, somehow, the old man could hear them. He wanted to make sure this was loud and clear.
He pushed Jared back just enough that he could look into his eyes. “In the North, it is said that true love’s kiss is the first a couple share. In that one kiss, their fates are entwined and destiny set. You are my soul’s half and my heart’s love. Do you take me as husband?”
Jared smiled as he looked down at Jensen. His hand caressed Jensen’s face lightly before he leaned in for a soft kiss. “I take you as husband, Jensen,” he answered in the same clear voice Jensen had used. When he leaned closer though his words were softer. “You are my true love, the beat of my heart, the light of my world.”
When Jared kissed him again, it was hard to remember where they were, what they were up against. All he wanted to do was wrap his husband up and take him away from this city of blood, to wrap him in the soft silks of his bed in the South, and to keep him safe and happy and far from the harm of the King’s world.
When the kiss ended, Jared stared into Jensen’s eyes for a few moments, the air heavy between them, before he turned to the sky. “I will not fight my husband, Grandfather.”
Before he could say more, Jensen touched his arm. Jared might make an empowered plea to the King, but Jensen knew the politics of the moment better. He had always needed every advantage he could get and his father made certain that he had everything he needed to be a good ruler and to have a happy life.
“I abnegate my claim for the throne of the King. All my rights to such a throne, I give to my husband, Prince Jared of the Northern Star.”
Jared looked at him, wide eyed, but Jensen wasn’t sure if it was his abnegation or if it was the use of the word husband. Jensen was sure he could spend a lifetime trying to figure out the subtle shifts in Jared’s mood and because of today, he’d get that chance.
The ground around them began to shake and Jared reached for Jensen. So long as they got out of the city alive. “What is he doing?”
“I think Grandfather is upset,” Jared said as he looked at the tall buildings around them. “He never unleashed the earthquakes.”
Jensen let out a deep breath. “We need to get underground.”
“What?”
“The tunnels of the city are made to withstand earthquakes. Right? He made this monstrosity to be used over and over again. The tunnels were made to handle the stress but the buildings weren’t. He wants it all to fall down on us.”
The South might be considered superficial to others, but they were the mecca of culture and architecture had always been a love of Jensen’s. He had known better than to show his love, for fear that his step mother would find a way to withhold it from him. He had hidden it well under the guise of battle tactics and knowing how to defeat an opponent’s hold.
They ran, Jared followed Jensen’s lead but they both looked for a tunnel entrance. It wasn’t unheard of for the old man to make his dislike of a victor known at the end of the fight. The last time he’d held an open arena for the star conference’s entertainment, he’d unleashed floods on the last survivor. The man had barely survived but only because the crowd had looked to turn on him. The heirs of the houses had all been in attendance as was expected of them.
“Here!” Jared pulled at Jensen and they ran down a flight of stairs that led into a tunnel under the street. They were dry, which meant they had been sealed for the floods. Jared had found the access tunnels. They went down as far as they could before they stopped. The tunnels weren’t comfortable, but there was nothing trying to kill them either so there was a bonus. They felt the quakes of buildings toppling but after a few moments, they both relaxed. The earthquakes would last a few hours.
Jared continued to search until he found a doorway. They managed to force the door open and there was a small bench and blankets. Likely the laborer’s slept in the tunnels as they built the city and their supervisor slept in the room to keep an eye on them. They weren’t ideal conditions but Jared found more rations and clean blankets, as well as running water.
The bench folded out into a bed and Jared sat against the back of it. Jensen sat at the edge and looked at the man that he had just pledged his life to.
“You think Grandfather’s rage will be done with the earthquakes?”
Jared shook his head. “No, but he will be unable to do anything else about it. If you were the lone survivor, he could. You are not of our blood, but I am. He cannot do anything once this earthquake is over.”
“You believe that?”
Jared smiled. “He can’t openly do anything. I suggest we find a way to take care of your stepmother though, before she tries to move herself into our home, and into our power.”
Jensen sighed. “I agree.”
He hated to think of it, hated even more the part of him that still ached for the woman who had comforted him after his mother’s death. He was quite capable of dispatching her and her children, but a part of him had always hoped she’d come to realize that he’d loved her back then. To realize that she’d loved him too. It was a child’s hope though and it would never happen. She had never loved him or his father.
“Come here,” Jared said, as he grabbed Jensen’s arm and pulled. Jensen let himself be maneuvered until he was straddling Jared’s thighs. He rested his arms on Jared’s shoulders and smiled down at him.
“I wonder what you could want,” he teased.
“I am tired of worrying about my grandfather and the kingdom and everything else. What I want, is to hold my husband. I think he just might be amendable to that,” Jared laughed as he leaned in to kiss Jensen. Jensen pressed into the kiss as he let everything else fall to the side.
Jared was right. They were stuck there for now and they were safe. If the King wanted to contest the marriage bond, there was one sure way to make sure it stuck and Jensen wasn’t at all opposed.
“I am very amendable to that, husband,” he said softly. “Though I would suggest that we might both enjoy this more if we had on less clothing.”
“I guess you are a Northerner’s son,” Jared teased.
Jensen laughed as he began to unbutton Jared’s shirt. “My father always said a Northerner would go to crazy lengths to get someone to bed. I wouldn’t have thought you’d have been the marrying kind.”
Jared covered Jensen’s hands with his own until Jensen looked up at him. “It is not for survival that I married you, Jensen. I would have done anything to keep you safe, but I would not have taken you for husband if I didn’t think we could be happy together.”
“And I would not have kissed you if I hadn’t intended to keep you,” Jensen answered. He could see the sincerity in Jared’s eyes and he smiled softly. He leaned in slowly and kissed Jared. Jared opened beautifully to him and he pulled Jensen closer. As much as Jensen yearned to have Jared under his control, this still wasn’t the time and place. He was quite happy to let his husband have his way with him.
When Jared pulled Jensen’s shirt over his head, Jensen returned the favor and removed Jared’s shirt. The playfulness disappeared as they began to undress one another and tension filled the space between them.
Their clothes were on a pile on the floor when Jared pushed Jensen down onto the converted bed. Jared’s body covered his own and Jensen thrilled at the feel of Jared blanketing him.
“How will you have me, Husband?” Jensen asked. He was breathless with the desire than ran between them.
“Every way I can,” Jared said as he kissed his way across Jensen’s neck. He kept going, but stopped as he reached Jensen’s ear. “And when we get home, safe and in a place that is our own?”
Jensen smiled then because he understood what had changed between them. As much as Jensen knew they would live well together, would love well together, Jared was not as experienced in the darker pleasures that he craved from Jensen. “When we get home and we are safe, then it will be my turn to have you every way I can.”
Jensen pulled him close again and he could feel Jared relax over him. He smiled into the kiss and he felt Jared respond to that as well.
Jared was a responsive lover, an inquisitive one, and Jensen was more turned on than he’d been in years. When Jared abruptly left him alone on the bed, Jensen sat up on his elbows to demand attention when he saw Jared find the belt pouch he’d been able to store his winter gear in. He smiled at Jensen when he held up a small bottle.
“You actually came prepared for this?” Jensen asked incredulously.
“Not all the rumors about Northerners are true. Not all are false either,” he said as he leaned over Jensen and began to kiss him again. When his hand reached between them, his fingers were slicked with warming oil.
He didn’t press in quickly the way Jensen thought he would, but his fingers trailed lightly over Jensen’s body, leaving him overly sensitive. “Jared,” he moaned.
“Yes, love?”
“Now.”
Jared laughed against Jensen’s neck but he began to open Jensen up. Once he began, he worked quickly. As Jensen began to push back into his hands, Jared worked him open until Jensen begged for him.
When Jared pulled his fingers clear of Jensen’s body, he pressed himself down onto Jensen before he pulled away completely. Jensen watched Jared sit up against the back of the bed then and he quickly followed to straddle Jared’s legs. He rested his arms on Jared’s shoulders as his husband lined them up. Jensen lowered himself slowly, enjoyed the burn of each moment as he watched Jared’s reaction.
Jared’s eyes never left his and Jensen was taken aback by the passion there. He’d never expected to see the heat in Jared’s eyes, never thought he could be friends with the Northern Star, let alone find himself married to him. He kissed Jared, his tongue slipping between Jared’s lips as he settled against his lover’s thighs.
He felt Jared’s fingers grip him tighter and Jensen lifted himself slightly to feel the movement inside him. Jared moaned and it was everything Jensen had wanted to hear. He didn’t think either of them would last long tonight. It had been hard days and sleepless nights for most of the week and as much as Jensen wanted so many things, they had needed this first time, here, in the battle city, before the King could question their commitment to one another.
Jensen knew he was right when he felt Jared’s hand on his cock, stroking sure and fast. Jensen began to move and Jared thrust into him and they found a rhythm that worked for them both.
“Jensen,” Jared breathed his name like a benediction and that was all he needed. Jensen’s orgasm crashed over him and he spilled onto Jared’s stomach. Jared gripped Jensen’s hips and tipped him back until he was lying on the bed. Jared thrust hard into him then. When Jensen’s hands went over his head, Jared twined their fingers together as he worked himself harder. Jensen pulled his legs tighter around Jared’s waist and pulled him in tighter. When Jared came, he dropped his head to Jensen’s shoulder and bit hard enough to draw blood. Jensen swore but Jared continued to bite and suck until his body finally stilled.
Jensen closed his eyes and didn’t move until Jared began to pull away. His husband cleaned them both up and then curled into Jensen’s side on the bed. Neither spoke as they fell into deep sleep.
**
It wasn’t easy to find the exit but in the end, they were all that was left and their grandfather’s rules were rigid. Not even he could force them to battle against one another once the bond had been struck.
The old man was on his death bed and Jensen and Jared were led to him. The room was silent for a moment before Jared asked everyone else to leave. The King’s attendants whispered among themselves but Jared stared them down until they walked away.
“Does he know?” The old man wheezed as he looked up from his propped up position on the bed.
“No. I wasn’t sure you did either,” Jensen answered.
“Jensen?” Jared asked.
“I never told anyone,” he explained to Jared. “It was a secret my mother asked me to keep on her death bed and one I would not have betrayed. I was no strange child adopted to become the Southern Sea heir.”
Jared didn’t look surprised and when Jensen gave him a questioning look Jared sighed.
“My father was not an idiot. There was much about the Southern Sea that intrigued him. He was never close with your father, but he had always said there was something not right with his marriage, or his bride.”
“And why was that?” Jensen asked.
“Because no one ever saw her. As much as she was loved by the people, she never came to court. She was always sick or visiting elsewhere when rulers came to visit. It led to much speculation. My father believed that his brother’s eye would never stray to a woman, that he had taken a wife who was barren so no one would question his love of men. He produced an adopted heir and no one questioned him over it.”
“His brothers would have seen it as a weakness, his love of men, though he never did,” Jensen said.
“He raised you with the same abominable tastes,” the King stated.
Jared shook his head. “Is it so wrong to love my husband?”
“Answer me when you know who he really is, Heir.”
Jared looked to Jensen and he knew it was time. Nothing could undo the vows they’d taken, not even the truth. It would be up to Jared to see if he could love him knowingly though.
“I am not a cousin. My mother was the Queen’s handmaiden. The King fancied her and took her bed. She ran when she found she was pregnant, afraid the Queen would have her killed, and me with her. She went back to her family and I was born there. She met my adopted father in the village she grew up while he was visiting the North country. He recognized her and she told him of her plight. He took her to wife that very night and they sent for me once they felt it was safe. I am not an adopted cousin of other blood, but the direct blood of the king; his only living child.”
“And I have tried to remove you from my line since your birth. Your brother, as he raised you, became aware that I knew who you were but he hid you well among the SwordsMasters.”
“I would never have vied for your throne. I wanted no part of that. It was the woman you sent to kill me who set me on this path.”
“And yet, you will now rule beside my favored grandson, your nephew, as Companion-King.”
“Jared will make this world a place of peace again, a world of greatness that you have destroyed with your pettiness and warmongering. I will help him in that, yes.”
“Then you have both failed me. Jared, are you not strong enough to see what has been done?”
Jared looked between his grandfather and Jensen. Jensen wasn’t sure what he saw in Jared’s eyes. It was common enough to marry between families, for cousins to marry one another to keep the bloodline, but this was something else entirely. The one redeeming factor in all of it was that no one would know the truth. Jensen had no intention of sharing his unknown parentage for the world. He would rather be known as the unblood Southern Heir, to be known as Jared’s Companion, than to be known as the King’s last blood.
“I made a vow, Grandfather, one that you have sworn time and time again is beyond question. I cannot unmake it. Nor would I,” he said as he faced Jensen. “We were thrown into the city like a pack of dogs to thrash each other over a scrap of meat. There was only one decent person in the entire group of us, and he didn’t win your throne, he married it. Even I lied and betrayed my way to the end of the game, but Jensen survived with the honor of the SwordMasters and I am grateful that he cannot undo the vows he made to me. Knowing who he is doesn’t change anything, except that I wish I could speak with his father one more time, to thank him for taking his half-brother into his home and raising him as he did. I would like to think, if my father had known, that he would have welcomed Jensen as well.”
The old man scoffed. “He probably would have. As the youngest he was always the most soft hearted. He was physically hard, as the North must be, but his heart was too light, too much time spent chasing skirts. I thought you were different.”
Jared moved closer to Jensen and he brought one hand up to caress Jensen’s cheek. “So, Uncle,” he said with a smile. “Cousin. It doesn’t matter to me. The only title that does is Husband. Are you still content then, to be Companion-King?”
Jensen laid one hand over Jared’s. “I am content to be your husband. That is all I want to be.”
Jared leaned forward and kissed him and Jensen couldn’t help but smile into the kiss. He’d thought to take the secret to his grave. He hadn’t believed the old man would have told anyone but he had forgotten how vitreous he could be. Even on his deathbed he couldn’t stand the thought of one of his children being happy. He had killed 12. Only Jared himself had ever seemed to gain the man’s approval. He didn’t want to know why. Didn’t want to look too closely at what the man saw in his husband, about what his hatred for Jensen and the man who’d raised him could stem from.
“Are you ready to leave, Jensen?” Jared asked as he pulled back to look at Jensen.
“Where will we live now? To the North?” It was Jared’s decision as the new King. The King’s Clan would move with him, wherever he chose to set up his new throne.
“Grandfather kept his throne there to be inhospitable. The North is not a welcoming place except to those who know its ways. I think we could find a grander place to make a new start for our world. I think we should hold a feast and invite the Star Conference back to us once more. We would need someplace far more hospitable, someplace where we could display the best of our people and not hide it away. Would you know of such a place?”
He could hear the old man sputtering in the background. Jensen wrapped an arm around Jared’s offered forearm and they began to walk out. He wasn’t sure if it was indignation or if death had come, but Jensen had no desire to stay for either.
“I just might,” Jensen said with a smile. “Let me show you.”
**
The night was warm as vining flowers scented the air. The Southern Sea had always been a place of culture and beauty but it had been many years since the other kingdoms had sent their people to gather in numbers.
A great fair had been opened to showcase the wares of the planet and music spilled into the evening. From time to time the scent of the open aired fires drifted past, bringing with it exotic foods, from their kingdoms and from other planets as well.
What held Jensen’s attention wasn’t any of that though. While he heard the laughter of his people, it was all secondary. Jensen sat up from the bed and let the sheet spill away from his body as he went out the doorway to the balcony where his husband stood watch.
Jared was dressed in loose sleep pants but that was as far as he’d dressed. He was a Northerner, quick to lose his clothes but quick to put them back on again too. Jared said it was a lifetime of being cold, but Jensen thought for all his boasting, Jared hadn’t quite come to terms with the way the Southern people dressed for the heat.
Jensen leaned against Jared’s back and felt his husband’s sigh against his chest. “Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.
Jared turned his head to look at Jensen. “Not quite ready yet.”
“I could probably help with that,” Jensen said as he moved around Jared to stand before him. He leaned back on the stone bench that encircled their balcony. Flowers surrounded the entire balcony so they were mostly covered from others, but Jared’s eyes widened as he realized Jensen had come out with no clothes on.
“Jensen,” his voice was hushed and dark. “The others.”
Jensen wasn’t sure if it was shame or need that colored Jared’s voice. It had been six months since he’d stolen Jared’s kiss and he was just as enamored of his moods as he had been the day he’d met the Northerner.
“Do you want them to see me, Jared?” he asked. Jared shivered and it was everything Jensen wanted to see from his husband. “Do you want them to see you take me? Right here on the balcony? You could, you know.” He pulled Jared close and he could feel his body responding to Jensen’s words. He leaned up to whisper into Jared’s ear. “I’m still so open from earlier, you could slide right in, right now, and I’d let you.”
He leaned back on the bench and spread his legs as he pulled Jared’s sleep pants down just enough to free his cock. Jared’s eyes widened but he didn’t say anything as Jensen wrapped his legs around Jared’s waist.
Jared didn’t move for a moment, but then he wrapped an arm around Jensen and pulled him up closer. Jensen reached between them and found just the right spot and he was sliding down Jared’s cock. He moaned and Jared lifted him completely off the edge of the balcony.
“They’ll see you,” Jensen whispered in his ear. “They’ll all see you fucking me, Jared,” his was already breathless from the little thrusts and grinds Jared was doing but he knew it was nothing to what he was about to get.
“They want to see me with my husband?” Jared asked. “They want to see their King make love to his Companion? I want them to. By the Makers, Jensen, the things you make me want.”
Jared pushed him back against the wall of the Southern Palace and he was held there between Jared’s hard body and the flowering vines that crawled up the wall. “Let them hear it Jensen,” Jared said darkly. “I want them to hear everything I do to you.”
He fucked hard into Jensen then and he didn’t try to muffle his voice then. He moaned loudly, called out his husband’s name as Jared spread his legs even further and fucked deeper into him. Jared did this to him, made him incoherent with need and want and he had no control whatsoever when Jared fucked him like this.
Jensen scratched down Jared’s back and Jared rewarded him with a bruising kiss. For all Jared wanted to hear him moan, he took great pleasure in making Jensen wordless with kisses. Jared didn’t need to touch his cock, his thrust was perfectly placed and Jensen came quickly between them. Jared didn’t last much longer but Jensen clung to him through it all. Instead of setting Jensen down, Jared carried him back to the bench and sat with his husband still in his lap.
“You’re giving them an eyeful, My King,” Jensen teased as he pressed a kiss to Jared’s neck.
“I did promise to show the Star Conference all the best we had to offer,” he teased.
Jensen laughed as Jared pulled him away to look at him. “You know, you are the best thing I have to offer this world. Your father might not have understood, but you were always the best of them. You are the best of us. I am ever so grateful that I found you in that city, that you agreed to be mine.”
In Jensen’s darker hours, he had dreamed of finding a way to the crown, of tearing down the people who had betrayed him and hurt him, but those had been dark hours of his youth. He had never sought any such thing and had tried at every turn to be a faithful son to the man who had raised him, an honorable student to the SwordMasters who had taught him and a good leader to the people whom his father entrusted him with. To hear Jared speak of him with such high regard was something he felt he scarcely deserved, but he smiled at the praise.
“I should have listened to the warnings about those Northerners. My father always said it wasn’t the way they strip you of your clothes that we of the South have always feared. It is that they strip us of our defenses and we are left with nothing but an open heart and a desire to have them take that from us too.”
“And have I done that, Jensen? Have I taken your heart?”
Jensen laughed as he pressed a kiss to his husband’s lips. “Yes. With a single kiss.”
Author:
hunters_retreat
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Warning: Incest of the Royalty kind.
Summary: Jensen closed his eyes and wondered, not for the first time, how his life had become so monumentally convoluted that he actually enjoyed the feel of the Northerner behind him but he was smart enough to take what comfort he could in the never-ending war that his life had become. “Good night, Jared.”
Author's Note: Written to fill the space of rights of passage/coming of age on my trope bingo card.
He was almost there. Two blocks over, Jensen had seen the way out of the convoluted city and he'd run with everything he had left. The steel fence was a small hindrance considering the other obstacles he'd faced - namely his cousins - and Jensen threw himself at the barrier.
He jumped and saw too late the way the fence began to stretch and reform until it became a single, solid surface. He turned in midair so it was his shoulder that took the brunt of the hit and Jensen landed heavily at the foot of what was now a ten foot steel wall.
"Makers be damned!" Jensen cursed but turned quickly at the sound of feet on the pavement behind him.
"You!"
Jensen was surprised to find himself staring at Jared Padalecki, first born of the Northern Star.
Though their houses were of equal stature, Jensen would normally bow slightly to a natural born of the house. Today he had no option. Today was a battle he had no choice but to fight.
"I would have thought you exempt from this battle," Jared said cautiously as he eyed Jensen up and down.
"Though my step mother hates me, she pressed my father’s love upon the King until he admitted I was the rightful first son of the Southern Seas. Though I was adopted, there was a strong bond between my father and I.”
"And she is ambitious enough to use you to become the mother of the King-Clan."
Jensen nodded. "I have no wish to be king and no desire to hurt you, Jared. You were never cruel to me."
Jared eyed Jensen before he nodded. "Nor do I wish to hurt you. I would offer a truce."
"A truce?"
"An alliance, if you would. I wanted no part of this."
"Yet you have always jockeyed to be the King’s heir."
"I believe I can change the cruel legacy our grandfather would leave us with. He set his grandchildren into a death match to determine his heir and I do not doubt that his hand lay behind the deaths of his sons. His hatred has divided our planet and his ambition caused us to lose our place among the Star Guard. I could restore our people and our place in the galaxy."
"It is a pretty speech, cousin, but how do I know I will not receive a knife in the back for my trust?"
Jared raised the blade that he'd chosen upon entry to the moving city. It was a long blade much like the one Jensen had tucked into a sheath on his thigh.
“I’ve seen you fight,” Jared said as he flipped the blade and caught it, holding it hilt first towards Jensen. “You are a true SwordsMaster. I believe we would stand a better chance getting out of this accursed city alive if we work together.”
“Grandfather will only let one of us leave this place alive. What game do you play, Jared?”
“Only the ones I have to. You can go your separate way and I will not follow, but until such a time as we have no other enemy to fight, I would consider you a friend.”
The concrete beneath their feet began to rumble and he looked at the other man. “This sector is changing again soon.”
“We should head south,” Jared answered. “Fred reprogrammed the citybots to look for cousins in the north and Mark is holding court with a group of younger cousins in the east.”
“Mark will massacre them,” Jensen said as he took the knife from Jared. He wasn’t sure about his cousin yet but he felt more secure with both weapons in hand. Jared didn’t know about the knife sheath and throwing daggers under Jensen’s jacket sleeve and he wasn’t sure Jared hadn’t picked up anything else from fallen cousins along the way but he was willing to give the other man some leeway.
“At least it’s fewer we have to fight off,” Jared said as he turned to walk down the alley towards the street. “I saw you coming from the west. Who holds it?”
Jensen walked beside Jared and shook his head. “No one. The whole west section is moving so fast you can’t get out once you get in. I was two blocks past the main gateway and I barely made it out alive. I saw three of our cousins get smashed between walls when the city moved around them. There was no way to survive that.”
“So three down, four with Mark, and Fred is accounted for. Just one cousin whose whereabouts are unknown.”
Jensen nodded as they walked. “Now, if we can only find another exit before the city changes it against us again.”
**
The sky turned quickly from bright light to rose, then to dark purples and blues. It was an artificial sunset that came upon them far too fast and with it came the chill of the northern countries.
Jensen shivered as he rubbed at his arms to increase the circulation. Jared looked around them in alarm as the wind howled through the maze of city streets.
"We need to get inside. Now."
Jensen didn't question Jared's words. Jared’s home was in the far north and if the King had been able to engineer moving cities, a northern storm wasn't beyond him. Nor was letting his grandchildren freeze to death if they failed to take care of themselves.
The temperature dropped drastically and rain began to fall. The sleek metal of the city streets grew slippery and Jared and Jensen both began to reach out to the other when they lost their footing. Rain became snow that turned to slush under their feet.
Jared grabbed Jensen's arm and pulled him forward. He must have seen something but all Jensen had been able to see were metal walls all around them. He let Jared lead the way but his free hand still held the knife that Jared had given him.
The day's run through the maze had given Jensen enough faith that Jared didn't intend to kill him, not until he had to anyway. Jensen still wasn't sure what would happen at the end. Jensen didn't want to be a part of this and he had no intention of killing anyone for the King’s throne. He would defend himself though and he wasn't stupid enough to leave his cousins alive if they came after him. He just hoped Jared was made of the same mettle.
Snow came down hard enough to obscure his vision but Jared kept a tight hold on him. Jensen shivered against the cold. None of them had been dressed for a blizzard and none had known their grandfather's intent when he'd called together the heirs of each household.
Jared pushed Jensen up against the wall suddenly and Jensen was about to bring his knife into play but Jared just held him there for a second. The wind made it impossible to hear his words but Jensen was pretty sure Jared wanted him to stay there. He nodded and then Jared stepped away. A second later, Jared threw himself into the metal five feet away from where Jensen stood. Jared tumbled forward as a door gave way and Jensen scrambled towards it.
Jensen didn't know how Jared had seen the doorway but he helped his cousin to his feet before they pushed the door closed behind them. There was an old fashioned bar locking mechanism and Jensen helped Jared seal them in for the night.
A large skylight let in the moon but it wasn't enough to see well.
"We need some light," Jared said quietly in the echoing space. "We need to see if there is anything here to get a fire going."
"You think he means to freeze us out?" Jensen asked. He knew his own thoughts but he wanted to see where Jared’s thinking was.
"I think Grandfather means to kill anyone that isn't smart enough to survive in all the extremes of the twelve kingdoms."
"Great," Jensen said as he began to look around the room. "So we have floods, earthquakes, and unbearable heat to look forward to."
"At least it will give us a leg up on Mark and Fred," Jared reminded him as he moved on the other side of the room. "They won't even visit the colder climates. They certainly wouldn't be carrying supplies against it."
"What do you have?"
"A small personal tarp and lighting materials. If we can find something to burn we'll be fine."
Jensen smiled as he found something they could use. "Newspapers and a wooden crate good enough?"
"I would kiss you if my lips weren't frozen right now," Jared said with a smile.
Jensen handed him the materials he'd found as he'd been wandering. He stepped back and started looking for anything else while Jared pulled a belt pouch from under his shirt and started to look for a place to build a fire.
He told himself that he stepped away to look for more kindling but he knew the lie. His father used to say the northerners used the cold as an excuse to bed whenever they wanted with whoever they wanted. His step mother said they were whores without the slightest understanding of decorum.
Jensen had always found his northern cousins to be more open minded and affectionate than the others. He prefers them to the sharks of the west or the heavy handed brawlers they neighbored. That didn't mean Jensen was about to let his cousin take advantage of the situation though. It didn't mean Jared was less of a temptation either.
There were a few open crates in the room and Jensen found rations in one. The old man must have set out a small amount of supplies for whoever found shelter. Jensen knew better than to think they were left behind on accident.
He returned after his search carrying another crate with the rations.
"You don't think he'd poison them, do you?" Jensen asked.
He'd never been close to the King to be able to read his intent in this. The King had never forgiven Jensen’s father for staying with his wife in her barren stage and adopting him. Nor had he forgiven him for refusing to produce a child with his new wife. The King had let his son go to his deathbed knowing that he thought Jensen would never make a proper heir.
"No, he wants us to do it ourselves. He won't leave many handouts though so we should ration these in case we're here a while. I don't know about you but the only thing I've seen living in this city are the cousins and the wild dogs and neither seem appetizing."
Jensen opened a packet of rations and let out a deep breath. His homeland was known for the delicacies of cuisine and their passionate arts and this table was far from his usual fare. He was hungry though and while he was used to the finer life that he’d been adopted into, he was a soldier by training and he wasn't above the rations he was given.
Jared smiled as he watched Jensen. "Your step mother would be appalled at you."
Jensen smiled. "She'd starve before she'd lower herself to eat rations."
Jared shook his head. "Your father was a good man. Why did he ever marry her?"
Jensen shrugged. "She was a very good liar. We were convinced she was someone else. She and my mother had been childhood friends and they kept a correspondence all the years between. She had not married for love the first time, but had been married off for political reasons. When Mother died she came to us in her grief. When her husband died a year later, my father returned the support. It wasn't until after they were married that I began to see who she was."
"And her plans for you?"
Jensen smiled. "She wanted me dead of course, so that her son from her first marriage would become the heir to the South."
"Which didn't happen."
"I realized she meant me harm and I began to study with the swordsmasters. Some of the other nobles believed it was beneath our stature but my father believed in knowing the art of war. I had been trained since my childhood but it seemed prudent to expand my studies then."
"And how did you become a master yourself?"
"After father died strange things began to happen around me. Dangerous things. The swordsmasters knew what was happening even if they didn't know who was behind the attempts on my life. They allowed me to continue and my step mother had no right to naysay my wishes. It was safer to sleep in the barracks and learn to fight with the men than it was to go to my own rooms."
"You never seemed like one of the southern lords to me," Jared admitted. "You don't look down your nose at us as often as the others."
Jensen laughed. "I must admit that you are not what I expected either."
"Really? Am I not magnificent?" Jared asked with a smile.
"We're in a dark room, alone, with just the fire to keep us warm and you have yet to make any advances to remove me from my clothes."
Jared laughed. "I could if it would make you feel better. You are certainly enticing enough but I had intended to make it out alive before I took a celebratory lover."
Jensen shouldn’t laugh but he couldn’t help himself. “Is that what I would be? A celebratory trophy on your arm?”
“It would put a scandal on your house, wouldn’t it?” Jared asked. “To be seen on my arm.”
“The Northern and Southern nations have always had an uneasy truce,” Jensen said as he continued to eat his rations. “Even this small alliance we’ve formed here would bring the other houses down on us.”
“You think they would fear the two of us?” Jared cocked his head slightly to the side as he asked. He seemed to care about Jensen’s opinion and Jensen liked him better for it. Too many people thought of the Southern kingdom as a people too coutured and shallow to understand the working of politics. They tended to forget that Jensen’s home was also where the swordsmasters originated.
“I think they would try to tear us apart to keep the South and North from ever aligning. With the wealth and swordsmasters of the South combined with the military might and political prowess of the North, the other kingdoms would have no choice but to follow our lead.”
Jared smiled like Jensen had passed some test. “My father believed there was more to the ruling family of the Southern Sea than they gave on. Before his accident, he wanted to send an emissary to your family.”
Jensen frowned. “It was right before my father died.” His father had said the same thing, not long before his death. During his nightly vigil at his father’s side, he had confessed that the North would be a good ally.
Jared frowned as well and he could see the wheels turning in his head. “My father’s death was an accident but it feels a little too coincidental.”
Jensen nodded. “We told everyone it was an illness that took my father, but we know it was poison in the end. We found the girl who did the work, but we never found the person who set that path.”
“You suspect Grandfather?”
“I suspect my stepmother’s hand in it, and his behind her.”
“And if you survive to become king?”
“I will survive only long enough for her to find a way to kill me and put her son on the throne.”
Jared let out a harsh bark of laughter. “I think we should save our borrowed trouble for when we get out of this accursed city.”
Jensen nodded as he handed off a canteen of water he’d been carrying. Jared took it gratefully and drank before handing it back.
“We should get some sleep,” Jensen said. “The door is bared and anything strong enough to break that would wake us. No need to take watch.”
Jared nodded. “I have a tarp to cover us. It isn’t big so we’ll have to lie close.”
Jensen stared at him for a second with a slight pull at the corner of his lips. “For warmth, Jensen.” Jared said with a smile.
They lay down next to the fire and Jared spread the fabric over them. It wasn’t warm but it was warmer than he had been and he sighed when Jared pulled him snuggly into the curve of his body. “Good night, Jensen.”
Jensen closed his eyes and wondered, not for the first time, how his life had become so monumentally convoluted that he actually enjoyed the feel of the Northerner behind him but he was smart enough to take what comfort he could in the never-ending war that his life had become.
“Good night, Jared.”
**
The blizzard raged for two days and Jared and Jensen explored the city around them as much as they could as the storm let up. They stayed close though, never knowing when the full force of the blizzard would keep them from their sanctuary.
On the third day, the sun shone above them and it had already grown warm. The city was slick with condensation and the previously snow-lined streets ran with water now.
“We need to find higher ground,” Jensen said as he looked at Jared. “When the larger ice packs start to melt the city will be flooded.”
“You think the others survived?” Jared asked as they began to explore again.
“I’d love to say no, but I’m not that optimistic.”
Jared laughed as they walked and Jensen couldn’t help but smile at him. There was something wild and beautiful about the Northern Star heir and Jensen felt a twinge of regret that he would never know if they could have become allies outside of the King’s sick game. One of them would die trying to get out of the city, if not both of them.
At mid-day they ate rations as they walked. Jensen kept them at a steady heading towards the middle of the city. The taller buildings were there and while Jensen feared quakes they needed to get away from the flooding.
Jared looked nervously around them but he didn’t say anything. He followed Jensen’s lead and he was grateful for the show of trust. He knew how hard that was after having followed Jared around in the snow.
He found a building that looked promising but as they grew closer they had to run down a side street and jump up on the roof of a small stand as part of a small glacier broke and the rainy street flooded around them.
“Do you see that?” Jared demanded as he pointed to an object floating in the water.
It wouldn’t take long for the rain to melt the smaller ice chunk and free their cousin from his prison but he would never know the difference.
“Well, we don’t have to worry about Mark anymore. If he didn’t survive, I’d bet his lackeys didn’t either,” Jensen said.
“So just Fred and Katie left.”
Jensen nodded and Jared let out a sigh. “I really hate this game.”
Jensen let out a humorless laugh. “I enjoy a good adventure as much as the next guy, but this is a bit ridiculous.” He looked around as he said it though because he didn’t like being stuck here until the sewers took the excess water and they could use the street again. He didn’t know if it would lower enough and the water was contaminated.
Jared noticed him looking around and he started to check their surroundings as well. “You see the broken window?”
Jared pointed up and it drew Jensen’s attention to the building they were leaning against. Directly above them, three stories up, was a window that had shattered.
“If we had something to throw up there, we could use some rope to climb up.”
Jensen eyed it and realized they were both fit enough to climb the rope that far. “You find rope,” Jensen said as he grabbed two of the daggers he had up his sleeves. Jared’s eyes widened at the extra weapons and Jensen smiled. “I’ll make an anchor.”
“You can do that?”
Jensen nodded. “You’d be amazed at what a Swordsmaster can do, without a sword.”
Jared smirked then and winked. “I am more than willing to find out, when we have more leisure.”
He disappeared before Jensen could say anything but he knew the other heir was looking under their current perch for something to use as rope.
Good thing, because Jensen had no idea what to say to Jared after that.
**
The floods receded in two days and Jensen couldn't help but wonder at the things he'd been taught about his Northern cousins. He knew his Step Mother had never liked the Northern people but he had no idea how much of her teachings had actually infected him. He knew that his father had a stronger understanding of them. In fact Jensen's mother had been Northern. Nothing but a peasant girl, but she'd been beautiful and smart and fierce in what she wanted. While his father had been wooed by princesses and ladies of the realm, she had offered him a single kiss and one question. His father’s answer had sealed their fates.
And probably their deaths as well, though that had been years in the making.
"You're quiet today," Jared said softly at his side.
They were in the city streets and nothing felt right to Jensen. Jared seemed to feel the same. His hands kept going to his belt where his knives were but Jared hadn't actually drawn them.
"In my head," Jensen said with a look around them.
"About?"
"Remembrance,” he said softly. “After my mother’s death no one spoke of her. My father barely held himself together. When my step mother came to help him through it, she forbade talk of her. She said it hurt my father too much."
"You think she was already working to take your mother’s place?" Jared asked. His words were blunt, but his voice held a kindness that Jensen found increasingly endearing.
"Yes, but that's not where my thoughts were. We spoke of her so little that people forgot she was a Northerner."
"What?"
"A peasant girl. While the twelve kingdoms were trying to win a place at my father’s throne, my mother won his heart and kept it with a kiss"
"She didn't," Jared asked delightedly.
Jensen smiled. “She was very strong willed and smart. She adopted the Southern customs, their dress, even their way of speaking. She made herself Southern in their eyes. But she would have approved of our alliance Jared. She would have approved of our friendship."
"Friends?" A female voice sneered from around the corner. "The Northern Star and Southern Sea could never enter any real alliance. No one would allow it."
"So it would seem, Daughter of Chance," Jensen said as he watched their cousin Katie.
She was one of the Gambling West. She hated him with a passion that only past lovers could and Jensen knew all the secrets she wished to keep hidden. Katie was determined to become the King’s heir and she had hoped that playing up her hatred of Jensen would endear the old man to her. She'd have been better off to treat him as Jared always had; quiet disdain. Jared was the favorite and he knew how to keep the old man’s approval. Bringing up the adopted son of his once favorite son-turned disappointment only angered him.
Katie might be great with the odds and a hell of a back room brawler, but she wasn't the brightest of their generation of heirs.
"You managed to keep hold of him, Jared. I'm impressed. You seemed to think he would be more slippery than that," she sneered.
Jensen spun to look at Jared. He didn't believe her words but it was an easy enough scenario to follow. One of them gain Jensen's trust, then the other comes in to help kill him. Jensen was the only Swordsmaster in their generation and he was the greatest threat to the others. Only Jared himself was a warrior to match him.
"I might have lost him but then Grandfather gave us the snow and I am not without charm. A single cold night and I had him writhing for me," Jared said as he reached Katie's side. He wrapped an arm over her shoulder and looked at Jensen. For one heart wrenching moment, Jensen believed he’d been betrayed, but there was something in Jared’s eyes. The words he spoke to Katie were untrue. Why would he make such a boast where Jensen could call him out on it? Jensen hoped he'd read Jared right.
"Jared, you don't mean that. You said... We..."
"Oh, Jensen, did you think I meant what I said?" He laughed lightly as he turned to face Katie. "I did. I didn't mean what I said to you though." His blade was buried in her chest before she could respond to his betrayal.
Jared watched her fall but he didn't turn around as he began to speak. "It was a good plan. She found me as soon as the game started. She knew she didn’t have the skill to kill either of us. I think she planned to stab me in the back once I'd given you the killing blow. I knew she would betray me. She shouldn't have lied about you though. The way she hated you?"
Jared turned to look at Jensen. "She hinted at some very dark reasons for it and once I met you I knew they were lies. She misled me, enticed me to believe things she knew would have me seek you out."
Jensen felt his heart race. Had Katie admitted the real reasons behind her hated of him? Or had she simply told Jared his secrets and passed them off as rumor? He didn’t think Katie would ever admit the things he’d done to her, not to anyone. The look in Jared’s eye wasn't disgust or hate though. It was heat.
“You killed her because she told you I was something I’m not,” Jensen said as he moved closer. He shouldn’t. He should keep his distance and let Jared think what he did, but behind the heat in Jared’s eyes was a need. Jensen was very good at covering his own, but what if there was no reason here? What if he could actually have what he wanted?
“She was going to betray me anyway, but yes.”
“What did she tell you I was?” Jensen asked as he began to circle Jared. The Northerner started to turn to follow his movements but Jensen put a hand between his shoulder blades to stop him. Jared stilled immediately and Jensen fought back a smile.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jared didn’t want to answer and Jensen understood. For a man of Jared’s position, it could be damning. Would be damning if anyone knew. That was where Katie’s real anger came from. When Jensen ended things with her, he could have easily broken her world with a whisper or two. He would never but she had been unable to see that. She had never been able to see him as clearly as he saw her.
“It does to me,” Jensen whispered across the nape of Jared’s neck. The taller man shivered and Jensen forced himself to take a step away. He moved around until he was facing Jared then. The other man still didn’t move and Jensen was surprised at the obedience to his unspoken will.
“Did she tell you how she came to me when she was fostered in my home, seeking my bed and company? Or was there more?”
“More,” Jared said softly, his eyes were on the floor and Jensen allowed himself a small smile.
“Did she tell you about the dark, Jared? About the things I did to her there? The number of times she begged? All the things I did to make her scream?”
Jared’s eyes closed and Jensen took a step closer. He didn’t touch Jared but it was almost painful not to. He let the moment build though before he whispered, “Did she tell you I could do the same to you?”
Jared’s eyes flew open and there were so many emotions warring with one another. “I could, and I would, if we manage to find a way out of this Jared.” He reached out and lightly caressed Jared’s collarbone before he let his fingers stretch around Jared’s neck. He didn’t squeeze or push, just let his hand rest there, but Jared held his breath as he waited. When he met Jared’s eyes again, this time, there was nothing but need.
“You would be so good for me, Jared, I know. And I would be good to you.” He took a step back then, needed the physical distance to remind himself that his pleasures would have to wait until they were someplace safe. Someplace where they weren’t supposed to kill each other for the old man’s amusement.
Jared cleared his throat and Jensen watched as the Northerner pulled himself together again. It was an incredible feat. If Katie hadn’t come upon them as she had, he wasn’t sure he’d have ever seen this side of Jared. He needed more.
Jared turned to the body and began to rifle through what Katie had. There wasn’t much but Jensen understood Jared’s need to do something, to get control again.
Jensen leaned against the building wall and closed his eyes for a moment to push aside his own nature, to try to be the man he needed to be now.
“She was probably the last,” Jared said. When Jensen looked at him, it was still there between them, but it was contained. “She couldn’t have come for you until she was sure our alliance was at an end.”
“So what now?” Jensen asked. He smiled, “Will you come for my head now? Try to win your place on your Grandfather’s throne?”
Jared smiled. “I have been thinking of our problem but nothing came to me until this morning.”
“What? You figured out an escape? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t realize you’d been raised by a Northerner. When you spoke of your mother it reminded me of something. There is only one reason Grandfather would allow an heir to be disqualified from this fight.”
“Jared,” Jensen knew what the man was suggesting then. He was shocked at the idea. He wasn’t sure he could wrap his brain around it.
Jared let out a deep breath. “I was about to mention it when Katie showed up. That was before … when I thought …” he cleared his throat and Jensen understood what he didn’t say. It was before he realized Jensen was capable of the darkness that Jared craved.
“Why would you even think about it?”
“You’re handsome and smart. You’re a survivor even in a fight you had no place being in. But you’re also funny and warm. You’re kind and you’re a good ruler to your people. We would be very good together Jensen.”
“If we did this, there would be no turning back. No way to undo this. This choice is forever.”
“I am the Northern Star heir, Jensen. I do know my own ways,” he teased lightly as he moved to Jensen’s side.
“Would Grandfather honor a bond made here in his battle city?”
“Maybe to see if the others ripped us to shreds before he expired on his deathbed, or if we could stand strong enough together,” Jared answered honestly. “I think maybe, for me, he would.”
Jensen had fought to keep out of this fight and he had no illusions that the King had allowed him entrance just to see him dead. If he’d have thought to offer a bond to one of the others before, he might have done it without having to get his hands bloodied. Of course, he would never have seen Jared for who he was and Jensen could never regret what he had learned. The man he had seen.
Jensen was raised with the romanticized story of how his mother had won his father’s heart and there was a certain rush of joy and affection at being able to follow that path. He grabbed Jared by the back of the neck and pulled their lips together.
There was nothing hesitant in their kiss, nothing but the growing affection and passion that had come between them since Jared first offered an alliance. When Jared licked his way into Jensen’s mouth, he moaned as he opened to the other heir. He was nearly breathless when Jared pulled back to rest his temple against Jensen’s.
“Jared,” Jensen forced his voice to be more than a whisper. He knew that somewhere, somehow, the old man could hear them. He wanted to make sure this was loud and clear.
He pushed Jared back just enough that he could look into his eyes. “In the North, it is said that true love’s kiss is the first a couple share. In that one kiss, their fates are entwined and destiny set. You are my soul’s half and my heart’s love. Do you take me as husband?”
Jared smiled as he looked down at Jensen. His hand caressed Jensen’s face lightly before he leaned in for a soft kiss. “I take you as husband, Jensen,” he answered in the same clear voice Jensen had used. When he leaned closer though his words were softer. “You are my true love, the beat of my heart, the light of my world.”
When Jared kissed him again, it was hard to remember where they were, what they were up against. All he wanted to do was wrap his husband up and take him away from this city of blood, to wrap him in the soft silks of his bed in the South, and to keep him safe and happy and far from the harm of the King’s world.
When the kiss ended, Jared stared into Jensen’s eyes for a few moments, the air heavy between them, before he turned to the sky. “I will not fight my husband, Grandfather.”
Before he could say more, Jensen touched his arm. Jared might make an empowered plea to the King, but Jensen knew the politics of the moment better. He had always needed every advantage he could get and his father made certain that he had everything he needed to be a good ruler and to have a happy life.
“I abnegate my claim for the throne of the King. All my rights to such a throne, I give to my husband, Prince Jared of the Northern Star.”
Jared looked at him, wide eyed, but Jensen wasn’t sure if it was his abnegation or if it was the use of the word husband. Jensen was sure he could spend a lifetime trying to figure out the subtle shifts in Jared’s mood and because of today, he’d get that chance.
The ground around them began to shake and Jared reached for Jensen. So long as they got out of the city alive. “What is he doing?”
“I think Grandfather is upset,” Jared said as he looked at the tall buildings around them. “He never unleashed the earthquakes.”
Jensen let out a deep breath. “We need to get underground.”
“What?”
“The tunnels of the city are made to withstand earthquakes. Right? He made this monstrosity to be used over and over again. The tunnels were made to handle the stress but the buildings weren’t. He wants it all to fall down on us.”
The South might be considered superficial to others, but they were the mecca of culture and architecture had always been a love of Jensen’s. He had known better than to show his love, for fear that his step mother would find a way to withhold it from him. He had hidden it well under the guise of battle tactics and knowing how to defeat an opponent’s hold.
They ran, Jared followed Jensen’s lead but they both looked for a tunnel entrance. It wasn’t unheard of for the old man to make his dislike of a victor known at the end of the fight. The last time he’d held an open arena for the star conference’s entertainment, he’d unleashed floods on the last survivor. The man had barely survived but only because the crowd had looked to turn on him. The heirs of the houses had all been in attendance as was expected of them.
“Here!” Jared pulled at Jensen and they ran down a flight of stairs that led into a tunnel under the street. They were dry, which meant they had been sealed for the floods. Jared had found the access tunnels. They went down as far as they could before they stopped. The tunnels weren’t comfortable, but there was nothing trying to kill them either so there was a bonus. They felt the quakes of buildings toppling but after a few moments, they both relaxed. The earthquakes would last a few hours.
Jared continued to search until he found a doorway. They managed to force the door open and there was a small bench and blankets. Likely the laborer’s slept in the tunnels as they built the city and their supervisor slept in the room to keep an eye on them. They weren’t ideal conditions but Jared found more rations and clean blankets, as well as running water.
The bench folded out into a bed and Jared sat against the back of it. Jensen sat at the edge and looked at the man that he had just pledged his life to.
“You think Grandfather’s rage will be done with the earthquakes?”
Jared shook his head. “No, but he will be unable to do anything else about it. If you were the lone survivor, he could. You are not of our blood, but I am. He cannot do anything once this earthquake is over.”
“You believe that?”
Jared smiled. “He can’t openly do anything. I suggest we find a way to take care of your stepmother though, before she tries to move herself into our home, and into our power.”
Jensen sighed. “I agree.”
He hated to think of it, hated even more the part of him that still ached for the woman who had comforted him after his mother’s death. He was quite capable of dispatching her and her children, but a part of him had always hoped she’d come to realize that he’d loved her back then. To realize that she’d loved him too. It was a child’s hope though and it would never happen. She had never loved him or his father.
“Come here,” Jared said, as he grabbed Jensen’s arm and pulled. Jensen let himself be maneuvered until he was straddling Jared’s thighs. He rested his arms on Jared’s shoulders and smiled down at him.
“I wonder what you could want,” he teased.
“I am tired of worrying about my grandfather and the kingdom and everything else. What I want, is to hold my husband. I think he just might be amendable to that,” Jared laughed as he leaned in to kiss Jensen. Jensen pressed into the kiss as he let everything else fall to the side.
Jared was right. They were stuck there for now and they were safe. If the King wanted to contest the marriage bond, there was one sure way to make sure it stuck and Jensen wasn’t at all opposed.
“I am very amendable to that, husband,” he said softly. “Though I would suggest that we might both enjoy this more if we had on less clothing.”
“I guess you are a Northerner’s son,” Jared teased.
Jensen laughed as he began to unbutton Jared’s shirt. “My father always said a Northerner would go to crazy lengths to get someone to bed. I wouldn’t have thought you’d have been the marrying kind.”
Jared covered Jensen’s hands with his own until Jensen looked up at him. “It is not for survival that I married you, Jensen. I would have done anything to keep you safe, but I would not have taken you for husband if I didn’t think we could be happy together.”
“And I would not have kissed you if I hadn’t intended to keep you,” Jensen answered. He could see the sincerity in Jared’s eyes and he smiled softly. He leaned in slowly and kissed Jared. Jared opened beautifully to him and he pulled Jensen closer. As much as Jensen yearned to have Jared under his control, this still wasn’t the time and place. He was quite happy to let his husband have his way with him.
When Jared pulled Jensen’s shirt over his head, Jensen returned the favor and removed Jared’s shirt. The playfulness disappeared as they began to undress one another and tension filled the space between them.
Their clothes were on a pile on the floor when Jared pushed Jensen down onto the converted bed. Jared’s body covered his own and Jensen thrilled at the feel of Jared blanketing him.
“How will you have me, Husband?” Jensen asked. He was breathless with the desire than ran between them.
“Every way I can,” Jared said as he kissed his way across Jensen’s neck. He kept going, but stopped as he reached Jensen’s ear. “And when we get home, safe and in a place that is our own?”
Jensen smiled then because he understood what had changed between them. As much as Jensen knew they would live well together, would love well together, Jared was not as experienced in the darker pleasures that he craved from Jensen. “When we get home and we are safe, then it will be my turn to have you every way I can.”
Jensen pulled him close again and he could feel Jared relax over him. He smiled into the kiss and he felt Jared respond to that as well.
Jared was a responsive lover, an inquisitive one, and Jensen was more turned on than he’d been in years. When Jared abruptly left him alone on the bed, Jensen sat up on his elbows to demand attention when he saw Jared find the belt pouch he’d been able to store his winter gear in. He smiled at Jensen when he held up a small bottle.
“You actually came prepared for this?” Jensen asked incredulously.
“Not all the rumors about Northerners are true. Not all are false either,” he said as he leaned over Jensen and began to kiss him again. When his hand reached between them, his fingers were slicked with warming oil.
He didn’t press in quickly the way Jensen thought he would, but his fingers trailed lightly over Jensen’s body, leaving him overly sensitive. “Jared,” he moaned.
“Yes, love?”
“Now.”
Jared laughed against Jensen’s neck but he began to open Jensen up. Once he began, he worked quickly. As Jensen began to push back into his hands, Jared worked him open until Jensen begged for him.
When Jared pulled his fingers clear of Jensen’s body, he pressed himself down onto Jensen before he pulled away completely. Jensen watched Jared sit up against the back of the bed then and he quickly followed to straddle Jared’s legs. He rested his arms on Jared’s shoulders as his husband lined them up. Jensen lowered himself slowly, enjoyed the burn of each moment as he watched Jared’s reaction.
Jared’s eyes never left his and Jensen was taken aback by the passion there. He’d never expected to see the heat in Jared’s eyes, never thought he could be friends with the Northern Star, let alone find himself married to him. He kissed Jared, his tongue slipping between Jared’s lips as he settled against his lover’s thighs.
He felt Jared’s fingers grip him tighter and Jensen lifted himself slightly to feel the movement inside him. Jared moaned and it was everything Jensen had wanted to hear. He didn’t think either of them would last long tonight. It had been hard days and sleepless nights for most of the week and as much as Jensen wanted so many things, they had needed this first time, here, in the battle city, before the King could question their commitment to one another.
Jensen knew he was right when he felt Jared’s hand on his cock, stroking sure and fast. Jensen began to move and Jared thrust into him and they found a rhythm that worked for them both.
“Jensen,” Jared breathed his name like a benediction and that was all he needed. Jensen’s orgasm crashed over him and he spilled onto Jared’s stomach. Jared gripped Jensen’s hips and tipped him back until he was lying on the bed. Jared thrust hard into him then. When Jensen’s hands went over his head, Jared twined their fingers together as he worked himself harder. Jensen pulled his legs tighter around Jared’s waist and pulled him in tighter. When Jared came, he dropped his head to Jensen’s shoulder and bit hard enough to draw blood. Jensen swore but Jared continued to bite and suck until his body finally stilled.
Jensen closed his eyes and didn’t move until Jared began to pull away. His husband cleaned them both up and then curled into Jensen’s side on the bed. Neither spoke as they fell into deep sleep.
**
It wasn’t easy to find the exit but in the end, they were all that was left and their grandfather’s rules were rigid. Not even he could force them to battle against one another once the bond had been struck.
The old man was on his death bed and Jensen and Jared were led to him. The room was silent for a moment before Jared asked everyone else to leave. The King’s attendants whispered among themselves but Jared stared them down until they walked away.
“Does he know?” The old man wheezed as he looked up from his propped up position on the bed.
“No. I wasn’t sure you did either,” Jensen answered.
“Jensen?” Jared asked.
“I never told anyone,” he explained to Jared. “It was a secret my mother asked me to keep on her death bed and one I would not have betrayed. I was no strange child adopted to become the Southern Sea heir.”
Jared didn’t look surprised and when Jensen gave him a questioning look Jared sighed.
“My father was not an idiot. There was much about the Southern Sea that intrigued him. He was never close with your father, but he had always said there was something not right with his marriage, or his bride.”
“And why was that?” Jensen asked.
“Because no one ever saw her. As much as she was loved by the people, she never came to court. She was always sick or visiting elsewhere when rulers came to visit. It led to much speculation. My father believed that his brother’s eye would never stray to a woman, that he had taken a wife who was barren so no one would question his love of men. He produced an adopted heir and no one questioned him over it.”
“His brothers would have seen it as a weakness, his love of men, though he never did,” Jensen said.
“He raised you with the same abominable tastes,” the King stated.
Jared shook his head. “Is it so wrong to love my husband?”
“Answer me when you know who he really is, Heir.”
Jared looked to Jensen and he knew it was time. Nothing could undo the vows they’d taken, not even the truth. It would be up to Jared to see if he could love him knowingly though.
“I am not a cousin. My mother was the Queen’s handmaiden. The King fancied her and took her bed. She ran when she found she was pregnant, afraid the Queen would have her killed, and me with her. She went back to her family and I was born there. She met my adopted father in the village she grew up while he was visiting the North country. He recognized her and she told him of her plight. He took her to wife that very night and they sent for me once they felt it was safe. I am not an adopted cousin of other blood, but the direct blood of the king; his only living child.”
“And I have tried to remove you from my line since your birth. Your brother, as he raised you, became aware that I knew who you were but he hid you well among the SwordsMasters.”
“I would never have vied for your throne. I wanted no part of that. It was the woman you sent to kill me who set me on this path.”
“And yet, you will now rule beside my favored grandson, your nephew, as Companion-King.”
“Jared will make this world a place of peace again, a world of greatness that you have destroyed with your pettiness and warmongering. I will help him in that, yes.”
“Then you have both failed me. Jared, are you not strong enough to see what has been done?”
Jared looked between his grandfather and Jensen. Jensen wasn’t sure what he saw in Jared’s eyes. It was common enough to marry between families, for cousins to marry one another to keep the bloodline, but this was something else entirely. The one redeeming factor in all of it was that no one would know the truth. Jensen had no intention of sharing his unknown parentage for the world. He would rather be known as the unblood Southern Heir, to be known as Jared’s Companion, than to be known as the King’s last blood.
“I made a vow, Grandfather, one that you have sworn time and time again is beyond question. I cannot unmake it. Nor would I,” he said as he faced Jensen. “We were thrown into the city like a pack of dogs to thrash each other over a scrap of meat. There was only one decent person in the entire group of us, and he didn’t win your throne, he married it. Even I lied and betrayed my way to the end of the game, but Jensen survived with the honor of the SwordMasters and I am grateful that he cannot undo the vows he made to me. Knowing who he is doesn’t change anything, except that I wish I could speak with his father one more time, to thank him for taking his half-brother into his home and raising him as he did. I would like to think, if my father had known, that he would have welcomed Jensen as well.”
The old man scoffed. “He probably would have. As the youngest he was always the most soft hearted. He was physically hard, as the North must be, but his heart was too light, too much time spent chasing skirts. I thought you were different.”
Jared moved closer to Jensen and he brought one hand up to caress Jensen’s cheek. “So, Uncle,” he said with a smile. “Cousin. It doesn’t matter to me. The only title that does is Husband. Are you still content then, to be Companion-King?”
Jensen laid one hand over Jared’s. “I am content to be your husband. That is all I want to be.”
Jared leaned forward and kissed him and Jensen couldn’t help but smile into the kiss. He’d thought to take the secret to his grave. He hadn’t believed the old man would have told anyone but he had forgotten how vitreous he could be. Even on his deathbed he couldn’t stand the thought of one of his children being happy. He had killed 12. Only Jared himself had ever seemed to gain the man’s approval. He didn’t want to know why. Didn’t want to look too closely at what the man saw in his husband, about what his hatred for Jensen and the man who’d raised him could stem from.
“Are you ready to leave, Jensen?” Jared asked as he pulled back to look at Jensen.
“Where will we live now? To the North?” It was Jared’s decision as the new King. The King’s Clan would move with him, wherever he chose to set up his new throne.
“Grandfather kept his throne there to be inhospitable. The North is not a welcoming place except to those who know its ways. I think we could find a grander place to make a new start for our world. I think we should hold a feast and invite the Star Conference back to us once more. We would need someplace far more hospitable, someplace where we could display the best of our people and not hide it away. Would you know of such a place?”
He could hear the old man sputtering in the background. Jensen wrapped an arm around Jared’s offered forearm and they began to walk out. He wasn’t sure if it was indignation or if death had come, but Jensen had no desire to stay for either.
“I just might,” Jensen said with a smile. “Let me show you.”
**
The night was warm as vining flowers scented the air. The Southern Sea had always been a place of culture and beauty but it had been many years since the other kingdoms had sent their people to gather in numbers.
A great fair had been opened to showcase the wares of the planet and music spilled into the evening. From time to time the scent of the open aired fires drifted past, bringing with it exotic foods, from their kingdoms and from other planets as well.
What held Jensen’s attention wasn’t any of that though. While he heard the laughter of his people, it was all secondary. Jensen sat up from the bed and let the sheet spill away from his body as he went out the doorway to the balcony where his husband stood watch.
Jared was dressed in loose sleep pants but that was as far as he’d dressed. He was a Northerner, quick to lose his clothes but quick to put them back on again too. Jared said it was a lifetime of being cold, but Jensen thought for all his boasting, Jared hadn’t quite come to terms with the way the Southern people dressed for the heat.
Jensen leaned against Jared’s back and felt his husband’s sigh against his chest. “Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.
Jared turned his head to look at Jensen. “Not quite ready yet.”
“I could probably help with that,” Jensen said as he moved around Jared to stand before him. He leaned back on the stone bench that encircled their balcony. Flowers surrounded the entire balcony so they were mostly covered from others, but Jared’s eyes widened as he realized Jensen had come out with no clothes on.
“Jensen,” his voice was hushed and dark. “The others.”
Jensen wasn’t sure if it was shame or need that colored Jared’s voice. It had been six months since he’d stolen Jared’s kiss and he was just as enamored of his moods as he had been the day he’d met the Northerner.
“Do you want them to see me, Jared?” he asked. Jared shivered and it was everything Jensen wanted to see from his husband. “Do you want them to see you take me? Right here on the balcony? You could, you know.” He pulled Jared close and he could feel his body responding to Jensen’s words. He leaned up to whisper into Jared’s ear. “I’m still so open from earlier, you could slide right in, right now, and I’d let you.”
He leaned back on the bench and spread his legs as he pulled Jared’s sleep pants down just enough to free his cock. Jared’s eyes widened but he didn’t say anything as Jensen wrapped his legs around Jared’s waist.
Jared didn’t move for a moment, but then he wrapped an arm around Jensen and pulled him up closer. Jensen reached between them and found just the right spot and he was sliding down Jared’s cock. He moaned and Jared lifted him completely off the edge of the balcony.
“They’ll see you,” Jensen whispered in his ear. “They’ll all see you fucking me, Jared,” his was already breathless from the little thrusts and grinds Jared was doing but he knew it was nothing to what he was about to get.
“They want to see me with my husband?” Jared asked. “They want to see their King make love to his Companion? I want them to. By the Makers, Jensen, the things you make me want.”
Jared pushed him back against the wall of the Southern Palace and he was held there between Jared’s hard body and the flowering vines that crawled up the wall. “Let them hear it Jensen,” Jared said darkly. “I want them to hear everything I do to you.”
He fucked hard into Jensen then and he didn’t try to muffle his voice then. He moaned loudly, called out his husband’s name as Jared spread his legs even further and fucked deeper into him. Jared did this to him, made him incoherent with need and want and he had no control whatsoever when Jared fucked him like this.
Jensen scratched down Jared’s back and Jared rewarded him with a bruising kiss. For all Jared wanted to hear him moan, he took great pleasure in making Jensen wordless with kisses. Jared didn’t need to touch his cock, his thrust was perfectly placed and Jensen came quickly between them. Jared didn’t last much longer but Jensen clung to him through it all. Instead of setting Jensen down, Jared carried him back to the bench and sat with his husband still in his lap.
“You’re giving them an eyeful, My King,” Jensen teased as he pressed a kiss to Jared’s neck.
“I did promise to show the Star Conference all the best we had to offer,” he teased.
Jensen laughed as Jared pulled him away to look at him. “You know, you are the best thing I have to offer this world. Your father might not have understood, but you were always the best of them. You are the best of us. I am ever so grateful that I found you in that city, that you agreed to be mine.”
In Jensen’s darker hours, he had dreamed of finding a way to the crown, of tearing down the people who had betrayed him and hurt him, but those had been dark hours of his youth. He had never sought any such thing and had tried at every turn to be a faithful son to the man who had raised him, an honorable student to the SwordMasters who had taught him and a good leader to the people whom his father entrusted him with. To hear Jared speak of him with such high regard was something he felt he scarcely deserved, but he smiled at the praise.
“I should have listened to the warnings about those Northerners. My father always said it wasn’t the way they strip you of your clothes that we of the South have always feared. It is that they strip us of our defenses and we are left with nothing but an open heart and a desire to have them take that from us too.”
“And have I done that, Jensen? Have I taken your heart?”
Jensen laughed as he pressed a kiss to his husband’s lips. “Yes. With a single kiss.”