A Price for a Princess (5 page)

"True.  Now if we can just make sure you don't get injured finding your second mate, that would be fantastic."  He smiled again, a thousand watt one that made my stomach clench.

His mother called from inside the room she'd entered that the bath was ready.  "Come on, sweetheart," he scooped me up in his arms and carried me away, calling over his shoulder, "You guys make yourselves comfortable, we'll be a while."

Perseus carried me into the large bathroom and kissed my cheek before he set me down gently on a padded chair.  “I’m going to talk to the council with my father, sweetheart.  You're in good hands with my mother.”

He smiled down at me and left the room, sliding a door shut behind him.  His mother, Elektra, said that the tub was filled with healing saltz that would speed recovery.  Alongside the human-sized tub she set out several towels, a bar of soap, and a jar of shampoo.  Before she left, she said she’d return with a dress for me.

I stripped and hobbled over to the tub, sliding down into the almost-too-hot cloudy water that had a salty scent.  I groaned in relief as whatever “saltz” was began to work.  My skin tingled pleasantly and I dunked under the water and then washed my hair.  The jar of shampoo smelled like wildflowers.  I had to wash my hair twice to get it to feel clean, and then I set to washing my body with the soap. 

I had just leaned back to relax a little after I was done when Elektra knocked on the door and came in with a pile of white fabric and a small basket of items.  She put them down next to the chair I’d sat on and pulled a small stool over to the tub and sat down.  Pulling my hand up from where it rested on the side of the tub, she took a small nail brush, rubbed it against the bar of soap, and began to scrub my nails.  It felt heavenly.

“So ask what you want to know.”  She said.

“What?”  I opened my eyes and looked at her.

Smiling, she said, “I know you’re curious about being married to a Centaur.  I’m from your realm.  I’ve been here for nearly seventy years, but I was born in Canada.  In Canada, there is a Centaur settlement hidden deep in a mountain range.  The men would come down to the city where I was born to trade once a month.  Men from this realm journeyed to the Canadian settlement through a portal to find brides.  When I turned 18, I met Cosmo and he told me we were truemates and took me away.”

“But I’ve never heard of Centaurs except from myths.  How does no one know about them if they’re running around human cities?”

“They can shift into human form and remain that way as long as they like.  Their natural form is the half-horse shift and they’re most comfortable that way.”

Well, that answered the question that had been banging around my mind when it came to our wedding night.  My stomach flipped.  Holy hell, I was getting married tonight!

I realized that my sister-in-law Elizabeth must have felt exactly the same way that I did.  One decision changed her life forever and with a simple ceremony she found herself married to my brothers.  For me, stopping at the booth to look at the dress created the scenario for me to find Perseus.  I don't know when I would have met him if we had simply rushed through the city as the guards wanted.

As she scrubbed the dirt from my fingernails, she let me have the silence I needed to let the weight of the situation settle in my mind.  I’d had the dreams for so long that it didn’t worry me to find Perseus, to know that he was one of the two men I’d dreamed about.  But getting married without my family with me started to burn in a special way.  I was in a different realm with strange creatures, and even though Perseus was gorgeous and his parents were kind, they weren’t my parents or my brothers or my sister-in-law.

When I started to cry, Elektra finished her task and handed me a soft cloth, promising to return in a few minutes to help me get ready.

I felt both too old to cry and too young to go through this alone.  My mom and I had talked openly about sex and love, but I really missed her right now.  I hadn’t actually ever had sex.  I had done
some
things, with bears from other dens during our full moon celebrations, but never more than light petting and kissing.  My nerves at what lay ahead of me tonight tangled like a hot knot at the base of my spine.  Would it hurt?  Would I bleed?  Would he be disappointed that I didn't know more about sex?  Suddenly, the romance novels I'd devoured didn't seem like nearly enough preparation for my actual wedding night.

My tears were gone and I was wrapped in a towel and sitting on the chair, chewing on my thumbnail, when Elektra came back in.  She said nothing after pulling a small vanity table with an attached mirror over to me, stepping around behind me and rubbing at my long hair with a towel as she pulled a comb through.  My onyx hair was half-way down my back now, straight as an arrow and soft as corn silk.  I stared at my reflection in the mirror, cataloging my high cheekbones, coppery skin, and dark brown eyes with thick lashes.  I was tall and plenty curvy.

When my hair was completely dry and combed to a lustrous gloss, she put the small basket on the vanity in front of me and reached for a long white ribbon.  She began to talk about the Centaur marriage ceremony as she braided hair from my temples with ribbon, weaving them behind my head and tucking small pink flowers into the braids.

"You'll spend the night with Perseus here in our home and for two days we'll give you the home to yourselves.  The morning of the third day, there will be a celebration and normally plans would begin for Perseus to build your home with the other males in the settlement.  But since you are leaving to travel to the palace, then those plans will wait until you return."

"I don't know how long that will be."  I met her blue eyes in the mirror, the same electric shade as Perseus'.

Her smile was sweet and genuine.  "It won't matter, Daeton, the length of time that you're gone.  Today you will become my daughter, and our home, our family, will be right here waiting for you when you are ready to come home."

As she spoke of home, I realized that marrying Perseus might mean that no matter what happened with the wizard, taking him away from his family and back to my realm would be cruel.  Clearly they kept the nature of their existence tightly under wraps, so moving my big horse husband back into the den wasn't really an option.  I lost myself in thought again as she fixed my hair, and by the time she finished I'd only come to the conclusion that I would have opportunities to see my family by going through the portal, but that here in the Medes Realm and the town of Cholas, was where I was going to call home from now on.

Chapter 6

The dress was made of several layers of sheer white fabric.  When Elektra dropped it down over my head, careful to avoid the crown of flowers she'd painstakingly woven into my hair, I found myself dressed in something from the pages of a book of Grecian myths.  The slim shoulders of the dress were gathered with golden braids that fell to my hips.  The neckline was a low v that gave me good cleavage and ended in a waist gathered with more golden braids that dusted the floor.  It draped to the ground and my feet were encased in soft leather sandals that she cushioned with fur after rubbing ointment into my blistered feet.

She tended the wound on my wrist to ensure it continued to heal, but the pain was all but gone in the middle of my growing excitement.  Cosmo knocked on the door, and when Elektra opened it, he stepped into the bathroom wearing a leather vest with bands on his arms and his long hair was out of the tie, the sides braided.

"Before you see your groom, Daeton, I wanted to tell you what the council has decided."

"What is this council you keep referring to?"

He chuckled, "Apologies.  Our herd doesn't have a ruler like your den would have, we turn to the elders to guide and rule, and we call them our council."

"My father is king bear."  I said, nodding at his explanation.

His brows rose in surprise.  "Then we're even more honored to have you join our family, princess."

"No," I shook my head, "I'm not a princess anywhere but in the den and even then it's not a title that's used.  Daeton is fine, I promise."

He nodded and continued, "Perseus will accompany you when you continue your journey to the palace.  We've spoken to your guards and they understand that you are unable to be separated, not only because of your nature but because of ours.  When a Centaur finds his mate, only death separates them.  Two of our warriors will join you on the journey, Perseus has his reservations about the palace being a place of safety for you, and I don't disagree.  Whatever this wizard's threat is, Prince Aedan has a reputation of being a ruthless ruler and we consider it good advice to err on the side of caution when it comes to him, always.  Especially considering that your guards seem to think you will be his mate."

"Have you met the prince?"  I fiddled with a gold braid.

"Once.  We traveled to the palace to ask for assistance from the royal army to deal with the Vehsi.  He said he had no desire to waste his time with trivial matters of those below his station."

I shuddered.  First the slavery in Dran and now this.  Just what the hell kind of man was Aedan?

I'd grown up in a world where the king bear made the decisions for the den based on his experience and knowledge.  I was floundering, trusting strangers to look out for my welfare.  I would have given anything at that moment for a cell phone or a laptop, to seek advice from my family.  Since I had neither of those things, I went with my gut.  From my dreams, I knew that Perseus was meant to be mine.  A male wouldn't harm his mate, or lead her foolishly into danger.  The tentative feelings I had for him would grow into love in time, and although I only knew him for bare minutes, I felt like I'd known him for much, much longer because of the dreams.  No, Perseus wasn't a man to fear that he would lead me astray.  He was my mate and our future lay together with whoever the mysterious Leonemen was who was also meant to be mine.

Cosmo left the bathroom and Elektra straightened my gown, touching my crown gently once more.  She gave me a light hug, pressing her cheek to mine.  "You are so lovely, Daeton.  A finer bride for my son I could not have hoped for.  I wish you much happiness."

With a soft kiss to my cheek, she took my hand and we walked out of the bathroom together and then out of the house.  Perseus' brothers stood outside the home, wearing finely embroidered vests, their hair long to their shoulders with braids down each side.  Casper offered his arm to his mother and Abrax offered me his.  I placed the sole of my shoe on his upturned hoof as a step and he pulled me up easily until I was sitting sideways on his back.  He told me to place a hand on his shoulder to steady myself for the ride and that he would be walking slowly.

It was a tradition for the family of the groom to escort the bride to her new husband, because in most situations, the bride's family was not present.  Because of the need for secrecy, any human females that came from my realm would say goodbye to their old life and remain in the Medes realm for the rest of their lives.  Because Medes was a supernatural realm, when mortal women joined with a Centaur they took on the long-life that the Centaurs and other supernatural beings had, through a blood sharing ceremony.  I was glad that Perseus would age as slowly as I did, one body year for every twelve years that passed.

While Abrax moved slowly through the throng of Centaur homes, he told me that their herd had sixty-three adult Centaurs, but only twenty-seven were mated.  Because their kind only believed in truemates, they did not marry for love alone but waited for the dreams to lead them to their bride.  Neither he nor his brother had mate-dreams yet, but they were considered quite young, just entering their true age of 20.  I marveled to know that they were already more than twenty years older than me even though they didn't look like it.  Perseus was 20 plus 7.

When I asked about children, Elektra said that there were only 8 children in the herd under the age of 18.  Only boys were born, which was why the Centaur men had to choose brides from other supernatural groups.  Mostly, Elektra told me, the brides were human and the mate-dreams would lead the men to the Centaur city in Canada where they would search for them.  I couldn't help but think how romantic that sounded, and that I was actually living it myself.  I'd had a dream, many of them, about a man and we'd found each other across a crowded street in a world that was alien to me.  All things considered, it was pretty damn cool.

The homes ended in a lush meadow at the base of the hills and it looked as if the entire Centaur herd had come out to watch us get married.  Women stood by their Centaurs and children watched quietly as Abrax carried me straight down an aisle strewn with white flower petals to the edge of a large lake with clutches of tall trees and fed by a waterfall flowing over the edge of the hills.