Dragon's Challenge - D. R. Rosier Page 0,27

when the package arrived, and the man opened the box and saw what was in it.

Another thing to come out of it was that his ladies insisted they’d be posting a guard whenever he was alone with the princess. He had to admit, even his vigilance was degraded when he was balls deep in his princess. He tended to get lost in her eyes and the pleasure they shared, so he didn’t argue against them protecting him and Stephanie by standing guard outside the suite’s door.

Either Shar, Nysa, or one of the twins would be close by from now on, at all times. Apparently, his monster women were both concubines and highly effective bodyguards, something the enemy wouldn’t expect.

Lastly, April said she’d be more vigilant in scouting their way. She hadn’t been doing so while they were in the castle like she did when they were on the road. She’d assumed they were safe enough in the fortified and highly guarded castle. The truth was a determined assassin could get in if they had to, and they adjusted to that reality.

He wasn’t too worried about being gone either, the king would assign her guards when he wasn’t there to protect her personally, and if he felt her panic through the bond, then Shar could get them there in seconds.

Chapter Seven

Arrowreach was the furthest village to the east they’d been too. It’d been Baroness Virginia that had sent them back to the capital over two months ago when the problem with the western villages and the elves had come up. The plan of course, was to go through the portal and continue east immediately to reach Highpass.

So, of course the plan fell apart almost immediately. As the portal closed behind them, one of the four guards at the edge of town waved him down before they could mount up and get on the road.

He frowned, “Let’s see what they want.”

They led their horses off the main road, and the fifty feet or so down the side road that led into Arrowreach. All four of the guards kept moving their eyes off of him to look at his companions, but it didn’t set off his jealousy, mostly because they looked nervously at them. It was a stark reminder to him that just about the whole kingdom would know they weren’t water, fire, and nature sorceresses, but two monsters and a demoness. Lovely and sexy women, but inhuman.

Despite that fact, he wasn’t expecting trouble, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t wary, paying attention, and ready to release a whole lot of violence to preserve what was his.

“You need something?”

The guard that waved him over bowed, “Prince, Baroness Virginia was told of your plans. She worried you would move on east right away without checking the bounties, but it’s been over two months since you’ve been here.”

He grunted. So much for their schedule, at the same time bounties were the reason they were out there. It was what it was.

Shar chuckled, “Save us the trip to the inn, would you?”

The guard swallowed nervously, “Of course. There’s a family of ogres that moved into a cave around two miles into the woods. Almost directly north from the trailhead, I imagine you won’t be able to miss the tracks. They’ve been hunting our hunters, and they retreat to the caves when we send in soldiers. There’s at least four that we know of, but there could be more. Also, they have bugbears as pets.”

The last time he’d fought an ogre it’d hurt, and that had only been one of the fierce and large beasts, but he’d grown in power since then, and he hadn’t had Shar, Tansya, or Willow as allies yet. It was Tansya that was out today, Willow was resting in the tree. He didn’t even have to use his magic to figure that out, not since they’d made that deal with the princess so she could tell them apart. She had her long light reddish brown hair up in a bun, while Willow always kept it down.

Plus, ten gold a monster, the more of them the better.

Ogres were about eight to nine feet tall, not counting their wickedly curved horns. They were monstrous in appearance and all muscles, their skin was tougher than leather armor, and they were extremely strong with a denser muscular and bone structure. Bugbears were white furred bears and semi-intelligent, they were also about the size of a horse.

“We’ll take care of it. Watch our horses, this shouldn’t take