The Royal Her Read online

  Contents

  The Royal Her

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  Author

  Readers!

  More shifters!

  The Luck of the Wolves

  The Wolf’s Darling

  The Royal Her

  A Paranormal Reverse-Harem Romance

  Sophie Stern

  Copyright © 2018 by Sophie Stern

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  My coronation day was supposed to be the most magical day of my life. After all, I've been waiting my entire life to become queen. There's no one better suited to rule over Draco Patriam - Dragon Country - than me.

  If you talk to my twin sister, you'll hear a different story.

  This time, Ruby has taken things too far. She's used magic to keep me out of the magical borders that surround our home.

  And she's separated me from my mates: all four of them.

  Hot, sexy, and completely enamored with me: my dragon-shifter mates are everything a girl could ever want, and I can't get to them because of my evil twin.

  Now the clock is ticking.

  I've got one year to find a way inside the magical borders that surround the castle and save my mates. Otherwise, we'll be separated for all eternity, Ruby will rule the dragon world, and me?

  I'll be stuck in the human realm.

  I can't let that happen.

  Prologue

  Sapphire

  360 Days Ago

  After all of this time, my mating day is finally here.

  I’ve been waiting for this day my entire life: hoping, praying, and wishing. Now I’m about to accept four wonderful men as my life-mates and I will rule Draco Patriam as the queen I am destined to be. I won’t be complacent. I won’t be hurtful. I won’t damage my people or starve them or make choices that impact them in a negative way.

  No, I will be a fair queen.

  A good queen.

  I’ll be the queen Draco Patriam has been waiting for.

  I will be its everything.

  “Good morning, love,” Alexandra says, bursting into my room. For a maidservant, she’s quite loud, but I don’t mind. I like having her around. I like that she takes care of me, that she protects me. She’s sort of like a second mother or another sister. She is kind and thoughtful and attentive. Alexandra is all of those things and more, and I hope she stays around until the day I die to keep on taking care of me.

  “Alexandra,” I sit up in bed, stretching.

  “Don’t be lazy,” she says firmly. “You’re about to be Queen, love. Queens don’t lie around.”

  “My mother did,” I point out, and Alexandra shakes her head and murmurs some sort of prayer or blessing. It’s only been a few days since my mother’s death. The country isn’t used to it yet, and it’s certainly not ready for a brand new queen, but we’ve already waited long enough. My mother was a good queen. She was kind and gentle, but she also believed in sleeping late and getting rest when you need it.

  Alexandra doesn’t feel the same way.

  Hurrying out of bed, Alexandra and I eat a quick meal together before I have to bathe and dress for the wedding. I have butterflies in my stomach, but I try to push them down. There’s no point in being nervous. Not today.

  Nope.

  Today is the first day of the rest of my life.

  I knew today would come. Every princess gets her dragon mates. It’s just that today wasn’t supposed to happen until my 25th birthday. That’s not until next year. I was supposed to have another year before my mates and I were united as one, but then my parents… Well, let’s just say that in Draco Patriam, I can’t be a true queen without being mated. It’s one of those weird laws that doesn’t make any sense to me, but I suppose it doesn’t have to.

  Alexandra helps me wash, style my hair, and dress. My gown, which is a deep royal blue, highlights all of my best features.

  “How long have you been working on the dress?” I ask her slyly.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alexandra says innocently. I can’t help but smile. She and my mother were the best of friends. After my four fathers died in battle years ago, Alexandra and my mother became closer than sisters. Now, as I’m mourning her loss, I’m relieved to have someone trustworthy I can turn to during this time.

  Soon it’s mid-morning.

  Time for the ceremony.

  Time for me to be mated to Garnet, Emerald, Moonstone, and Chrysoberyl.

  Time for me to take my place as Queen of Draco Patriam.

  And all I can think about is the fact that I miss my mother.

  I stop in the doorway of my room for a second and grip the frame, trying to hold myself up. She shouldn’t have died. Not yet. Not my mother. It was a last minute trip to the countryside last week. The two of us were going to go and spend an afternoon picking strawberries and picnicking in the meadows. Who would have expected a worn-out bridge would be the death of her?

  She fell.

  My mother, the queen, and all of her closest hands, fell to their deaths while going on a picnic in the meadows.

  It’s insane, and it hurts.

  Now it’s my coronation day, my wedding day, and I have to face my country without my mother by my side.

  If I hadn’t stumbled down the stairs that morning and twisted my ankle, I would have died, too. Mother almost stayed behind with me, but she had so been looking forward to the afternoon away that I encouraged her to go.

  Told her to.

  Begged her to go.

  And now she’s gone.

  She’s gone because I urged her to go have fun, to have an adventure, and now she’s dead and I’m about to be queen.

  I’m not ready.

  I’m not ready for any of this.

  “Sapphire,” Alexandra says softly. “It’s time.”

  “I’m not ready.” I shake my head, but the rest of my body is still.

  “It’s time,” she says again, and this time, my feet manage to start moving. They carry me out of my room, down the hall, and to the wide staircase. At the top of the stairs, I pause. Alexandra comes up beside me and helps me with my dress as we move side-by-side down the stairs.

  The castle is eerily silent this morning, which is unusual. Everyone must be ready for the mating ceremony.

  “Where’s Ruby?” I ask Alexandra. My twin sister is my best friend. I want her by my side today, but I haven’t seen her yet. I’m a little disappointed she didn’t help me get ready, but Ruby has been having a hard time since our mother’s death. We both have. Hell, the whole kingdom has.

  Draco Patriam is one of the most secret, hidden-away places in the world. Shrouded in magic, no mere mortal can travel here. Draco Patriam is a world of dragon shifters and mages and people like me and Ruby, who are something else entirely. I don’t like to say I’m a witch, but I do have some magic, and I plan to use it to rule Draco Patriam in a way that is fair and honest and wonderful.

  Alexandra hesitates. “She’s at the ceremony already,” she says after a moment.

  “She is? That’s strange.”

  “Why is that strange?”r />
  “You know Ruby. She’s just…usually she’s a bit slow in the mornings, is all. She’s not really much of a go-getter. I thought we’d have to drag her from her bed for this thing,” I chuckle, shaking my head.

  My sister is ridiculous.

  She would much rather leave the magical country of Drago Patriam and go explore the human world with its tech and its cars and its fashion. She doesn’t have time to sit around practicing magic or worrying about how to be a fair and just ruler.

  For Ruby, life is short, and it’s meant to be lived as fast as possible.

  Alexandra doesn’t say anything and I’m not really sure why, but I ignore it. I’m just being overly sensitive and a little bit awkward because it’s my mating day.

  My coronation day.

  My welcome-to-the-rest-of-my-life day.

  “All right,” we stop in front of the doors to the grand hall and Alexandra turns to me. She adjusts my hair and my dress, and she smiles at me. It’s a strange sort of smile, though. Alexandra seems almost…sad.

  What does she have to be sad about?

  That’s what I want to know.

  She loves me, and I love her, and this should be the happiest day of my life. Granted, it would be better if my parents were all here to see it. That can’t be helped, though. My fathers were all killed in battle long ago, back when the mages and dragons were at war. Now we all seem to live in peace, somehow, and I hope that during my reign as queen, I’ll be able to continue this legacy of peace.

  Of hope.

  Then Alexandra pushes open the doors to the great hall, and I realize why the castle feels so quiet.

  The guards.

  There aren’t any guards.

  Anywhere.

  There weren’t guards outside of my bedroom and there weren’t guards on the stairs and there weren’t guards in front of the door.

  And I can see why.

  Ruby is sitting on the throne, and she’s wearing the crown.

  I turn to Alexandra, but the sadness is gone from her eyes, replaced with fire and anger. Maybe even a little bit of…hatred? Can that be right?

  “Alexandra?” I whisper. “What’s going on?”

  Why is Ruby sitting on the throne looking smug as all hell?

  Why are there no guards?

  And where are my mates?

  They were supposed to be here, but I don’t see any of them. In fact, I don’t see anyone. The great hall is empty aside from Ruby and her four mates who, the last time I checked, weren’t actually officially mated.

  I’m guessing some things have changed that I wasn’t aware of.

  “You are not to be queen,” Alexandra says.

  “Then what the hell am I wearing this fucking dress for?” I shout, suddenly angry beyond all reason.

  A betrayal.

  I have been betrayed.

  “Why did you show up to my room and pretend to get me ready for my wedding? Why did you eat with me, Alexandra?”

  There is no love left in her eyes.

  No mercy.

  “You were supposed to die with your mother,” she says. “Then this could have been avoided. The crown would have gone to Ruby, and you could have saved us all a bit of trouble.”

  I look over at Ruby. My twin has a smug look on her face. Her mates – Tourmaline, Aquamarine, Topaz, and Alexandrite – are all standing near her. They turn and stare at me, but the dragon shifters don’t move. No doubt, they’re waiting to hear what she’s going to command them to do.

  That’s so typical.

  Everyone listening to Ruby and then giving her whatever she wants.

  “Why?” I say. I don’t yell it, don’t shout, but she hears me just the same. My sister stares at me for a long minute, and then she motions for me to come forward.

  Fat fucking chance.

  Only her mates stalk toward me and grab me, hauling me to the head of the room. Then they shove me down on my knees in front of her. Great. Not only do I not get to be queen and not get married today, but I also get to be humiliated in front of my little sister.

  Cool.

  I glance around the room for any sign of my mates. Garnet, Emerald, Moonstone, and Chrysoberyl are nowhere to be seen, though. I don’t know what Ruby’s done with them. There’s no doubt in my mind that she has done something with them.

  Those men are mine.

  They love me, adore me, worship me.

  We might not have spent very much time together – that’s for after the mating ceremony – but the moment my parents chose them as my mates, we formed an unbreakable connection. They would do anything for me, and I for them. If they knew I was in trouble, though, they would come for me. They would be here. If they aren’t here, it’s because Ruby has done something to them.

  And it can’t be something good.

  She looks at me curiously for a minute and then cocks her head.

  “I’ve always been prettier than you,” she says carefully. “And smarter.”

  “Ruby?”

  I don’t know if it’s true. Maybe. It could be. Ruby is really, really, ridiculously pretty. She’s tall and lean and has these long, dark red locks. She’s gorgeous in every way that matters and me?

  I’m blonde.

  Short, scrawny, and blonde.

  I don’t have the curves she does that seem to go for miles and miles, but that’s never seemed to matter before. Yeah, we’ve been competitive. As twins, it’s normal, isn’t it? We’ve been through so much together, though, that a little bit of competition hasn’t stopped us from being close. Losing our fathers was so hard and painful. It forced us to grow up younger than we should have.

  Losing them was like being stabbed in the stomach.

  Losing Ruby is like being stabbed in the heart.

  “And I have always, always deserved the crown,” she stands and walks down the few steps to where I’m kneeling. Then she fucking hisses at me. “You? You don’t look like a queen, Sapphire. You don’t look like anything but a damn loser. The crown should have been mine a long time ago, and if you’d just gone off and died with mother, I wouldn’t have had to go to all of this trouble.”

  “What trouble is that?” I ask, swallowing hard. I probably don’t want to know, but something tells me there’s more to what’s happening than I realize. Something tells me that Ruby has been planning this for awhile and she’s not about to be deterred.

  “If you had just died,” she tells me. “The mating bond would have been broken. Your stupid fucking mates would have just gone off and lived their lives. Alone. Miserable. Bored out of their stupid little dragon minds.”

  “Ruby, what have you done?”

  “It would have looked natural,” she continues, ignoring me. “You and mother: out for a fun little picnic, spending time together in the countryside. It would have all seemed so very normal and no one would have batted an eye, but you ruined that, didn’t you? You didn’t go with her, and now I don’t have any way to kill you off quietly. Oh, rebels, okay. I suppose I could have faked your death and blamed it on some sort of uprising, but that’s not really the type of bad press I need right now, is it? Besides,” she sneers down her nose at me. “I have a feeling your mates wouldn’t leave me alone if I took the throne, and I have a better idea.”

  “Ruby, where are the men?”

  “Quiet,” Aquamarine squeezes my shoulder tightly. He presses so hard that tears form in my eyes. I try to use magic to push him away, but nothing happens. Ruby smiles.

  “Oh, did I forget to mention? I’ve performed a couple of handy little spells today, sister. You won’t be able to lay a hand on my mates. The only thing that can touch them is another dragon shifter, and you, well, you’re not.”

  So that’s how she’s going to play this.

  She couldn’t get me to go die quietly, so now she’s using magic?

  What’s she going to do?

  Lock me away?

  Ruby is right about one thing: if she tried to kill me now, even in a way that made
my death seem natural, it would be anything but. My mates would attack her. They’re clever, those boys, and they would figure out she had something to do with it. Then war would erupt in the kingdom.

  Now Ruby has to come up with a different plan, and if it’s something new and half-assed, then maybe I’ll have a chance at fighting it.

  “I’m going to lock you away,” Ruby says.

  “What? You can’t. I’m the queen.”

  “No,” she purses her lips. “You’re not. Sweetie, no.” Alexandrite steps up and places his arm around Ruby. Ruby tenses briefly, but then steels her face.

  “And you’re never going to be,” he says, and that’s when I realize why Alexandra betrayed me. I turn and look at her, and when our eyes lock, I see that it’s true. Alexandrite is her son. He was chosen as Ruby’s mate a long time ago and now I see what’s happening.

  “You wanted him to sit on the throne, didn’t you?”

  “My son should be king,” she says tightly. “Not a second-rate prince.”

  “And now, he will be,” Ruby says. Now all four of her mates move to stand beside her. Side-by-side, they look regal, but they look evil. Dark. Ruined. The Kingdom is broken.

  “Where are my mates, Ruby?” I try one last time. The room seems to be closing in on me, and soon I’m going to have to make a choice. I know that she has them somewhere. If my guess is correct, then Ruby is going to try to lock me away with them: probably for all eternity. I can’t let that happen.

  Ruby may be the prettier, smarter twin, but I’m the more curious one. I spent years hiding in this room as a child, listening to our fathers conduct kingly business with our mother. It was years ago. I doubt Ruby remembers how many secret passageways there are in this room. There’s one right behind the throne, in fact, and it leads outside the castle and to the forest that wraps around it.

  If I can get there, then I can escape and figure out my next move. I have magic, but I’m not powerful enough to defeat six people who are trying to attack me at the same time. I might be brave, but I’m not stupid. If I can keep her talking, though, I might be able to get her to inadvertently tell me where they are.