FaRoFeb 2025 Micro Story 7
EPIC FANTASY ROMANCE
Part 1
by Amanda Bouchet
A younger version of myself would never have thought it, but a man can actually get tired of war. So tired, in fact, that he agrees to a deal with his sworn enemy.
Marry the aging man’s only daughter. This war of conquest finally ends, and the oldest living child inherits both kingdoms.
The frown pulling at my mouth feels permanent now.
“My Lord Ryken, she arrives.”
I glance over at my steward. She is Princess Marianna. She is my future wife. She is not welcome here.
I still get up and walk over to the huge double doors. They open as if they have minds of their own, the servants invisible and the chill wind blowing in a bride I don’t want or need.
She exits her carriage, and the first thing I notice is that she’s alone. No aging, bellicose father. No attendants. Not even a guard.
I scowl down the steps at her, half-squinting against the icy sheen on the stones. Her dark head bowed, she seems to take a deep, calming breath, squares her shoulders, and lifts her chin.
Emerald fire stares boldly back at me, eyes so green they could rival my forests in springtime.
Something darts across my chest, and I ignore it. She might look isolated and brave, but I don’t give a damn.
“Princess.” I nod curtly.
“Greetings, future husband.” Her voice is both soft and rough, like that velvet blanket I pull over myself on cold nights.
“Is your father so callous that he sends you to your fate alone?”
“My fate is my own,” she answers smoothly as I descend the staircase, drawn toward her despite myself. “Whether I’m bartered or sold, I’ll turn my future into one I can abide, and I suggest you get on board.”
Intrigued, vexed, I lift my brows as she starts up the stairs and slips on the merciless winter frost.
Find Amanda Bouchet’s books at amandabouchet.com.
Part 2
by Joline Pearce
“Didn’t take you long to throw yourself at my feet.”
A gasp bursts past my parted lips. Hard arms banded with thick muscle cage me upright. I’m startled to find fabric clutched in my tight fist.
The audacity of this man. My husband-to-be.
“You’re even uglier from this angle,” I lie. Lord Ryken is careworn, with weariness etched on either side of his mouth, but a glint of humor warms his ice-blue eyes. He’s tall and strong enough to have killed legions of my people. Far more compelling than I will ever admit.
A pity that such a man must die.
The hitch in my breath is anger, not attraction. I am here to kill Ryken, and I will not waver. I cannot abide a future ruled by a man with so much of my people’s blood on his hands. The war is not over. The fight is now between us, and I intend to prevail.
Ryken effortlessly sets me onto my feet. Belatedly, I snatch my hand away, leaving a crumpled spot on his sleeve.
“Whereas you are lovely from any angle,” he says, studying my face.
I snort at his too-smooth compliment, though heat rises to my cheeks. The fluttery sensation in my middle is nothing but a warning that I could fail in my mission if I am not careful.
“Let’s get this wedding over with,” I snap. Ryken’s brows lift.
“Are you so eager for our wedding night, Princess?”
“Believe what you will, Ryken.” Gripping the balustrade, I mount the rest of the steps without looking back. His boots scuff on frosty stone, following me.
Find Joline Pearce’s books at jolinepearce.com.
Part 3
by Casey Blair
The moment she touched me, my magic knew.
I caught her on reflex, and her fall covered the moment where I froze, stunned to my core.
Her people may not remember what that spark between us means, may have done their best to stamp it out of this world, but mine do.
It changes everything.
Not just that I now know this princess isn’t planning to come meekly to our wedding bed.
Five minutes ago, I was so tired I might have considered letting her stab me.
Now, a part of me I thought long lost, sacrificed to the scores of my people dead on the battlefield, has risen to life. I haven’t felt my magic this wild in years.
I have a mate bond. A gift so rare and precious I never dreamed it would happen to me.
And it’s with my enemy.
Everything I’d resigned myself to, all my plans—they’re gone between one moment and the next.
We will have peace. Real peace.
I just have to woo a princess with a spine of steel who came here to murder me in my sleep.
My lips curve, a motion almost forgotten.
“Then follow me, princess,” I rumble in a low voice, not missing how her eyes darken, how her face flashes in surprise at the depth of her reaction to me. “Let’s prepare you for the wedding night.”
A flicker of confusion, there and gone; the first indication I’ve seen of the sharp mind I sense, masked by nerves of steel. Marianna knows she just missed something.
“The wedding night?” she echoes tartly. “You’ve missed a few important steps. A sign of your age, no doubt.”
The grin that stretches across my face is feral. “Didn’t you know?” I purr, leaning down to press a soft kiss to the jumping pulse at her neck. “We keep to the old ways here, after all.
“The wedding night comes first.”
Find Casey Blair’s books at caseyblair.com.
Part 4
by Lisette Marshall
Something is wrong.
It’s been there since Ryken touched me—a strange pull, a yearning. A softness that doesn’t belong in this place of stone and frost.
It has me hesitating by his bedroom door when evening falls.
Dark magic, no doubt. My enemy is a fearsome mage, just like Father, just like all of my family—everyone but me. Yet after tonight, I will no longer be the weak one among them.
I push the door open, my dagger heavy in my sleeve.
Red velvet. Candlelight. My future husband, tall and foreboding.
“Marianna,” he says, and something in his deep voice makes me wince. He speaks as though he doesn’t think I’m weak and useless, and that unnerving pull returns in my chest.
I must end this before I cave after all. Jerking my chin up, meeting his ice-blue gaze, I snap, “Can we get this over with, my lord?”
“Ah, the rashness of youth.” He’s strangely beautiful when he smiles. The twist of his lips looks like a warning, yet it softens the cool of his eyes. “Surely you’ll want to converse a little, before we get to the less … rational part of the night?”
The wedding night. That’s what he must be talking about: simple, barbaric claiming. Not the dagger in my sleeve; he can’t know about that.
Can he?
I must make haste. I must not waver. Yet stepping forward feels so wrong—as if it’s my own heart I’m about to pierce.
Ryken’s smile falls as I move. “Marianna.”
My breath quickens.
“I know you think us enemies,” he says, a sudden urgency in his voice. “But you must let me explain—if you harm me, the bond—”
Bond?
What bond?
My fingers have already drawn the dagger, hand swinging faster than conscious thought. Ryken dodges too late. Steel cuts through cloth, through skin.
The moment it sinks into his chest, pain explodes through me.
Find Lisette Marshall’s books at lisettemarshall.com.
Part 5
by Jeffe Kennedy
“Marianna!” I bite out her name like a curse and a prayer in one. I reach to steady her as she staggers from the agonizing pain of the dagger she planted in my breast with astonishing strength and speed. My blood pours out around the steel that must have just missed my heart.
Else I’d be on the floor.
Or my heart already resides within her fair breast, even though I have yet to seal the mate bond between us with that ultimate physical union.
“No,” she cries out, her breath shuddering, those emerald eyes wild on mine before sinking to the crimson blood spreading over my shirt in a starburst. “You should be dead.”
“Several times over,” I agree grimly. “But not today. Not at your hands. And not at the cost of both our kingdoms.”
I lift her easily into my arms, her body lush against mine, her dark hair falling to the floor in a glossy black waterfall. She clutches at my blood-soaked shirt, jeweled nails digging into my skin.
“What are you doing?” she gasps, but the knowledge shows in her eyes, bright as jewels with pain. And desire.
“Finishing this,” I growl, laying her on my bed. Jerking the blade out of my chest, I use it to slice her gown open, baring her to my avid gaze. She is unbelievably beautiful. All mine.
“Your wound,” she protests.
But she sees what I already know—that the wound has healed over. “You forget that I’m a mage. No mere steel can kill me. It’s your life we must save,” I tell her, letting her hear the urgency in my voice as I free my cock, already hard and eager for her.
“By fucking me?” she asks in clear disbelief.
“By sealing the mate bond.” I hold myself poised at her entrance. Her heat and slickness promise her willing surrender. But I must have her mind and heart as well if this union is to last, if we are to make an heir for lasting peace. “Yes or no?”
Find Jeffe Kennedy’s books at jeffekennedy.com.
Part 6
by Megan Van Dyke
Mate.
The word rings through me over and over, a loud echo above the rush of blood in my ears and the sharp pain in my chest that makes rational thought nearly impossible.
“I’m your mate?” I rasp. My clenched fist sits hard between my breasts, right over the spot that feels like it’s been pierced by shards of ice. And they’re spreading, clawing me out from within.
He makes a sound low in his throat. “Yes, Marianna. We’re bound by fate. One that is two. You may not see the wound you delivered on your fair body, but it will kill you if I don’t bind us.” The tip of his cock strokes along my seam. “I will not find my mate just to have her die before we’re bound.”
“Mate,” I mutter again.
This time, the rightness of it resonates into my bones. My soul knows. The ache between my legs says my body does as well. It’s my stubborn mind that’s taken time to catch up.
I uncurl my fist and cup his cheek in my palm, savoring the scrape of his whiskers. “Yes, Ryken.”
The word has hardly passed my lips before he surges in, filling me in one deep thrust. I moan at the fullness, the rightness. Then something rushes under my skin, leaving bright tingles in its wake. Euphoria swells my chest. The sharp pain is gone.
“This …” Shadows swirl around my fingertips. Alive. Powerful.
It’s not just his body that’s joined with mine, but his magic.
Deep emotion radiates from his ice-blue eyes. “What’s mine is yours, in all things.”
Find Megan Van Dyke’s books at authormeganvandyke.com.
Part 7
by Avie Adams
Her body mesmerizes me like a spell as we come together on every plane, and I hold back a moan at our connection … powerful and obliterating.
Perfect.
We glow brighter with each of my thrusts, our powers merging and surging through us. Her emerald eyes are wide as she takes me in, fully recognizing me for who I am.
I should have taken my time with her—but the way our bodies sing to each other overrides my reason. We know and don’t care, addicted already, so I let our connection guide us, knowing I cannot hurt her.
Then Marianna arches, her hands tangling in my hair. A sweet, intense rush rips through me and I gasp, confused, before my own violent climax claims me.
Her incredulous moan tells me that she shared it through our bond.
Coming twice within a few heartbeats? Can’t wait to do it again.
Now our breaths are ragged, and my bed is a battlefield, complete with torn clothing, an abandoned weapon, and two spent bodies clinging to each other.
“Ryken.” She lilts my name. “How is it possible?”
“What, you coming twice?” I catch her fist just in time before earning a punch and kiss her knuckles. Her breath hitches. “To explain our bond, I’d have to take you to the library.”
“Oh?” she purrs like a satisfied cat. “Yes, please. Show me your library. I hope it’s big.”
“It’s … rather large.”
“Let’s find out.” She smirks as her gaze travels down and back. “Especially that I’ve seen all your other assets already, shockingly out of order. Your bedchamber before the chapel, where we should have started with the library.”
“So you can judge me by my books?”
Her emerald eyes sparkle with mischief. “That, too.”
I grin. So you love books? Excellent. “I accept your challenge, my beautiful mate.” I press a possessive kiss on her lips, enjoying her heated response. Forever, my queen.
Find Avie Adams’ books at avieadams.com.