Rejected Queen by Meg Xuemei X.

CHAPTER 11

Tessa

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both Loki and I nearly jumped at the knock. The consistent, rude bangs turned into a series of kicks.

We traded an alarmed look. Loki cursed profusely. “I’m going to kill the fuckers!”

“Don’t make me break the door, Loki!” a male voice barked. “And we will. You know it! We won’t even pay for the damage. Get your lawyers if you want, but it’ll take years to settle.” A pause was followed by another hard kick. “Open the fucking door, Demon King! Your wards can’t keep us out. We’re doing you a huge favor not teleporting into your lair. I’m giving you privacy for the moment since my darling Cookie persuaded me that privacy is important even to you. But my patience is wearing thin.”

“Fuck off, brat!” Loki shouted at the door, enraged, then turned to me while I frantically pulled up my pants, then buttoned my shirt. I still had a glow, dazed by the pleasure Loki had brought me. “Marigold, two demigods, and a couple members of their entourage are outside. The punks think they can just come here for a wild party whenever they want. Mari and those demigod pricks can always get around and avoid my guards. That stupid, yelling jerk is Axel. He should be named the Demigod of Jerks instead of the Demigod of War. I can’t stand him.”

Marigold giggled outside. “We can hear your intimate whispers to your date, Bro. Your fabulous introduction meant to defame my mate only has Axel more perked up. And we’re still waiting outside the door. I might be patient, but you know how Axel is.”

“You think this shit is funny, Mari?” Loki growled.

“Don’t they say payback is a bitch, Loki?” Axel shouted outside. I winced. Damn, he was loud. He could wake up everyone in a five-mile radius, and he didn’t seem to have a care in the world about that. “Have you forgotten already that you constantly teleported into our home, right into our bed—barefoot, uninvited, and unwelcome?”

“We changed seven fucking bedsheets,” another male, who had a deeper voice, grated. Loki had mentioned that two demigods were outside, so that might be Mari’s second mate.

How could she deal with that many mates? I could barely handle one man.

“Crybabies,” Loki snickered. “They erected numerous wards to prevent me from swinging by, and I wouldn’t put up with that shit. Besides, I was worried about their bad influence on my little sister. I care, you know.”

I arched an eyebrow. I didn’t know if I should show him sympathy for tasting his own medicine or side with Marigold instead. The King of the Underworld couldn’t help but prank and provoke others. It was in his blood. His grandfather was the God of Tricksters, who was notorious for playing pranks on everyone. Many of his pranks had gotten other gods killed and almost destroyed Asgard. 

Now, while the demigods were evening the score, I was caught in the crossfire. The orgasm Loki had given me was mind-blowing, and I wanted more. But now we’d been interrupted in the middle of it, which was a shitty way to end the day.

Loki was especially frustrated as he was being hung out to dry without a release.

We held each other, fully dressed now, neither of us intending to move an inch from each other to open the door, and it rattled on its hinges.

“What the fuck, Mari?” Loki hissed. “Are you just going to let your insufferable men harass your brother like that?”

“I can’t help you. As you said, they’ve already had a bad influence on me,” Marigold said in a singsong voice that aimed to get under her opponent’s skin. “And you should accept that my mates and I don’t control each other. That’s why our relationship works. You might try the same so your next relationship won’t drive into an avalanche.”

“I’ve never had a relationship before,” Loki snapped.

“Now you know why,” Mari said.

Loki shook his head in disgust. “I won’t visit any of you in the future if you go away now and call off your demigods.”

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Marigold said smugly, and her demigods barked with laughter. “You picked this fight, and now we’re finishing it. Paxton, my dearest, do you want to do the honor of breaking down the door, or should I kick it the fuck down?”

“I’d do anything for you, Buttercup,” Paxton chimed in, his voice full of pleasure. “Do not trouble your foot.”

Loki traced his thumb over my cheek before he zoomed toward the door. He swung it open a crack, his shoulders tensed in irritation.

“What now, assholes?” he shouted at the visitors. “Say your piece quickly. I’m busy!”

“We’ve come to your party, Brother,” Marigold said. “Our feelings were hurt when you didn’t invite us.” From my vantage point, I could see her cock her head toward one of her mates. “He isn’t going to let us in. My brother is like a bull sometimes.”

One of the demigods jammed his foot into the opening, and Loki tried to shove it out.

“I apologize, Your Majesty,” a demon guard mumbled. “Somehow the demigods got past us. They’re sneaky and refuse to play by the rules.”

“Sue us, please,” Marigold said. “But we’re going to party with your king, whether he likes it or not. We brought expensive booze and ice cream, better than what you have in Hell. Whoops, ice melts in Hell.”

I rose from the couch as soon as the searing heat inside me had cooled a little, interrupted by the drama outside. I touched my face to make sure it wasn’t burning either.

“Take the booze back and enjoy it with your mates,” Loki huffed. “You can leave the ice cream at the door if you want. I don’t have time for your shenanigans anyway, and I’ll be leaving soon.”

“Wow, wow, Demon King,” Paxton cut in with a tone of fake surprise. “You’ve never acted like this before. Aren’t you the fucking party animal? What gives?”

“What are you hiding?” Marigold asked, a smirk in her voice.

She knew I was here. She was taunting her stepbrother, and her demigods really enjoyed it too.

Loki shoved the door closed, but the party on the other side shoved it back open. The King of the Underworld was being bullied.

Marigold giggled and told her demigods, “I told you guys this would be fun. Axel, don’t stand there laughing. Get your lazy, sexy ass to helping Pax. The three of us can shove the door into the King of Hell’s face, maybe even dent it a little and let’s see how the ladies like his new look.”

I sauntered to the door, then saw who else was there, and ran the rest of the way. Dux and Fayette were at the door. Mari had brought them as a surprise.

“Childish!” Loki cursed through his clenched teeth. “Fine, you can have this place. Enjoy! My date and I are leaving.”

“So you do have a date, just as I thought,” Marigold said.

“Wait!” I rushed to the door. “Fayette! Dux!”

“Your Grace!” Fayette cried out. “Your Grace!”

“We’re here, Your Grace!” Dux also answered, his voice full of joy and relief.

Loki sighed and suddenly let the door go just as the demigods shoved it fully open. The King of the Underworld wasn’t the gracious type, so he waved a hand, and a strong Hell wind sent the door slamming back toward the demigods’ faces as they charged in.

“Why did you fucking do that, asshole?” the demigod with the amber eyes asked as he shielded Marigold.

But she didn’t need his protection. She slid by Loki easily, sprang toward the center of the room, and shrieked in delight. “Crème brûlée, fresh from Paris!”

“I got a dozen for you for breakfast this morning,” the other demigod said, following his mate.

He had intense purple eyes. I could feel his ocean power, since water was my element too, though my water element wasn’t as strong as his. He must be the Demigod of Sea, son of Poseidon.

“Everyone else ate them too, and that was two hours ago.” Mari snatched a cup of crème brûlée.

“That’s for Tessa,” Loki hissed. “They’re all for Tessa!”

“You need to learn to share and be gracious to your guests, Demon King.” The amber-eyed demigod patted Loki on the shoulder, and Loki shrugged it off. “We even let you keep your penthouse here and don’t come harass you much.”

He must be the Demigod of War then.

He nodded at me, his face screwing into a mischievous grin.

The demigods were extremely handsome. Paxton looked to be in his late twenties. Axel looked right out of college, carrying both sunny and vicious vibes at once.

While Paxton’s armor hugged him like a second skin, Axel wore a designer T-shirt, jeans, and sports shoes. All the demigods were giant men made of hard muscles.

According to Snow White, the tabloids claimed Marigold had once asked the war demigod to sell his clothes and donate the money to the poor, and he’d refused outright. They’d gotten into a heated argument, and Marigold had banished him from her bedroom. In the end, the war demigod had apologized to his mate and donated a million dollars to charity, but he still wouldn’t dress down. She had four mates, so do the math if any of them wanted to piss her off.

But luckily for the Demigod of War, Mari had forgotten what they’d been fighting over and taken him back since she’d missed him badly too.

Loki hurried to my side as if afraid the demigods would sweep me away, but they had eyes only for their mate and no one else. They pivoted around her and spoiled her in every way.

I doubted that I’d ever have her management skills.

“Share, my ass,” Loki retorted, unfriendly.

“We don’t want your demonic ass. So relax that tight demon butt. You don’t want to turn off your date,” said the Demigod of Sea as he nodded at me and then turned to watch Marigold sample a dessert with a hungry look on his face—not for the cakes but for her.

“This is a fucking disaster!” Loki snapped. “We don’t want so many people here.”

“If you promise to spend the night with me tonight, Cookie,” Axel said, strolling to Marigold, “I’ll go get you hundreds of crème brûlées now.”

Marigold flushed. I was pleased to see she wasn’t immune to embarrassment either.

“If you want a duel with Zak, then ask Buttercup that question again,” Paxton said, still eyeing the Earth Princess hungrily.

So, she had some kind of schedule with her mates.

“Guys, let’s shut up and eat the cakes Loki bought,” Marigold said, desperately trying to distract them from revealing more of their bedroom antics. “My brother always has good taste. You have to give him that.”

She bit off half of a cupcake and offered the other half to Paxton. The Sea Demigod’s violet eyes glittered with desire, and she smiled at him, pink lips parted.

“This is getting more disgusting and disturbing by the minute,” Loki sighed, rubbing the space between his eyes.

I hugged Dux and Fayette. They held me tightly too.

“We saw the trial on the screen,” Fayette sobbed quietly. “We failed you, Your Grace. We should have been with you and watched your back.”

“We should have been defending you instead of sitting on our hands,” Dux whispered, pain flashing across his face.

“I’m fine. I’m alive,” I said. “The Wild Hunt has its own rules. There’ll be hell to pay if you get caught up in its web. It’s important that you two stay safe. That will ease my mind.”

We studied each other, trying to spot any changes from the time we’d been apart. They’d missed me just as much as I’d missed them.

I could see that they had a lot of questions for me, especially about why I’d holed up in this luxury Manhattan penthouse with the King of the Underworld—our mark. But this wasn’t the time or place to tell them that Loki was the flame.

That thousand-word exchange had to wait.

I darted my gaze to Loki and found him watching me with longing and pent-up frustration. He’d promised me a perfect date. He’d prepared a feast for me, planning for us to enjoy the hell out of it after we’d both sated our carnal needs. I shook off the images of him making me come so hard with his wicked tongue.

Once again, our date had been crushed.

Mari and her demigods sat around the table, laughing and chatting and consuming cake like three large locusts. Loki clenched his teeth. I contained my smile. Sometimes, his scowl and sour looks were just adorable. I bet that was one of the reasons Mari and her demigods kept riling him up. They liked his reactions.

“Bunny, come,” Loki said with determination, extending a hand toward me. “The feast is for you. Don’t let these scavengers take it all. Bring your friends. Four of us outnumber three of them.”

I smiled at him. “It’s not a competition.”

But he wouldn’t let it go and took another swipe at the demigods. “I hope they get stomachaches.”

We all settled in chairs and sofas. Loki grabbed every variety of delicacy on the table in a blur of motion as if he were going into a battle, piled them on a large tray, and brought it to me.

I shared the desserts with my team. I’d introduced Dux and Fayette to Loki, and they had been eyeing him warily as if he were a rattlesnake. They looked stunned when I offered Loki a chocolate-covered strawberry and he ate it from my palm with a snarl and a purr. He calmed down after that.

“So, why are you here?” Loki demanded as he purposefully consulted the gold watch on his wrist. “And when exactly are you all leaving?”

“We’re not leaving. We’re here to party,” Axel said. He stalked to the refrigerator to get ice cubes for Mari, likely seeking more opportunities to raid Loki’s kitchen. “Cookie wants a party, so she’ll get one.”

“We won’t consider leaving until my mate is bored,” Paxton added. 

“And where is the best, most expensive booze that you promised?” Loki asked drily.

Axel flicked his wrist and summoned a bottle of champagne into his hand.

“Just one bottle?” Loki grated.

Axel grinned and returned to the table with the champagne. “Don’t worry, Demon King. I’ve got a bucket of them on ice. I just don’t like to show off.”

Loki snorted before narrowing his eyes in displeasure. “How did you know I was here? Were you spying on me?”

“All the time, bro,” Marigold said. “Who do you take us for?”

Paxton grab a large almond cookie and put it on one of the three big plates Marigold was hoarding. “We keep tabs on you as often as you do on us.”

“This might hurt your ego, Loki,” Marigold said, going after the cookie her mate had gotten for her, “but this time, it has nothing to do with you.” She took a bite of the cookie and moaned in delight. Her mates all stared at her in desire. “We need to get this kind next time. Let’s wrap one in a napkin so Héctor and Zak will know what I’m talking about when it’s their turn to make me happy.”

My kin might appear obnoxious, but she deserved the devotion of her mates. Loki had told me that his little sister had sacrificed herself to save her mates. Ares and Lucifer had dragged her to Hell, and the two cut every inch of her skin to seek the great power she possessed, then she came back to life again for her beloved mates.

Mari waved her half-eaten cookie. “We came to see Tessa.” She gestured at Dux and Fayette. “And her good minions want to spend time with her.”

Dux and Fayette kept their expressions mild and resigned. At this point, I bet my team knew that the Earth Princess liked to joke about everything.

I smiled as I watched the two demigods on either side of her fight for her affection. She kept eating her cookie, not getting involved in their banter.

Noticing my rapt attention, she grinned, a glint in her gorgeous green eyes.

“Everyone knows I have the four hottest mates,” she said. “If I fuss over everything they do, I’ll be an old woman in no time. I decided not to get a single gray hair over their alpha dominance competition shit. But they don’t dominate me since I’m The fucking Marigold.” She flashed an amused, sharp grin. “They do try, though. A crocodile can’t change its nature.”

“Your demigod mates are all asshole crocodiles.” Loki nodded in agreement, ignoring the demigods’ glares. “But Mari, you’re an immortal. You don’t get gray hairs.” He paused to look over me with worry. His royal healer had mentioned to him that I hadn’t settled into my immortality.

Fear also sparked in Dux’s and Fayette’s eyes. Anything could happen to me in a year—especially since I was in the middle of the brutal Bride Trials. I smiled at them bravely to ease their minds.

“Whatever.” Marigold waved a hand to dismiss Loki. “The other day I was telling Tessa’s people here that their civilization is different than ours. And then my mates also have their interpretations about how to rebuild civilization after the collapse of the Great Merge.”

She glanced at me to make sure I was paying attention and frowned when I went for a cupcake. I couldn’t help it. It looked so soft and fluffy and smelled delicious.

“Civilization isn’t just about convenience, comfort, and technology.” She raised her voice, pleased with her speech, and looked around the table, ready to crush any challenge. “It’s about ideas, things like freedom, free will, respect for differences, and what else?”

“I understand what you’re saying, Princess Marigold,” Dux said. “However…”

Fayette joined the debate. We hadn’t had this kind of social gathering for a long time. They missed it. Before it’d become just the three of us, we’d had a much bigger team. Back then, Archer had still been with us. We used to celebrate every win between the hunts.

I shoved down my deep grief.

The Demigod of War groaned, not into the debate. Paxton laughed.

“If you all understand the concept of civilization and being civil so well,” Loki asked acidly, “why can’t Tessa and I enjoy the freedom and the free will to be alone now?”

“If you keep talking like that, you’re going to sound like Lucifer,” Mari said.

My heart skipped a beat, and my blood iced over. These days, that name was a thorn in my soul. I’d been trying my best to put him and the blood contract out of my head for as long as I could.

Dux and Fayette held their breath. They didn’t look at me for fear of giving something away.

“Shut up, Mari; I’m not like him,” Loki growled and returned the demigods’ glares. “And go fuck yourselves, demigods, before you say anything more unpleasant.”

“That’s fair. I apologize for misspeaking.” Marigold sighed and turned to look at me. “My stepbrother can be an asshole, but he’s our asshole. The demon species is the toughest to rule. If you check the dictionary, you’ll see that demon means a supernatural creature of extremely foul, cruel, and violent temperament, and Loki’s the Demon King. Even so, most of the pureblooded demons hate Loki because he might be the only high demon who bears a shard of humanity. He isn’t totally destructive. He may have massive darkness inside, but he also holds a spark of light, a scorching fire, and absolute loyalty. He hates to admit it and tries his best to conceal his spark, but he always has the capacity for compassion. Yes, he loves to stir shit up, but that only means he’s a flawed being and a complicated man.”

“I don’t agree with any of those unflattering depictions,” Loki seethed. “You put me in a bad light in front of my Bunny, and I—”

Bunny?

Dux and Fayette stared at me, jaws dropped, then at Loki.

The sound of an explosion interrupted the rest of Loki’s complaints, my team’s silent questions, and my utter embarrassment.