their merchant empire which would hopefully double the amount of coin streaming into his hoard outside of bounties. Of course, if there were also bounties to be chased down during the day that would be even better.
He was a lot more accustomed to human ways and large groups gathering, but he still thought the huge cities were rather unnatural as they approached the gates. There was a long line of wagons filled with raw meats and vegetables from the nearby farms, it seemed like an awful lot of effort when they could just live near the food and spread out. Of course, there was safety in numbers and large walls, both from monsters and invading armies.
The sky crackled and lightning lit the sky far out to sea, and he hoped they made it inside before the storm hit, then laughed at the irony of that thought after thinking the city unnatural.
Once they made it into the city and stabled their horses, the inn wasn’t all that far. He gave Willow a small smile when she took his left arm, and when he felt a soft hand on his right he turned to smile at either Nysa or Shar, but he was startled to find a teasing smile on Cinder’s face as she winked at him outrageously. Shar looked amused on the other side of Cinder, and Nysa had linked arms with Willow on the other side.
He shook his head at the wild woman’s antics, and he tried to ignore the phoenix’s heady scent. It was feminine, but it was mixed in with the scent of flames and things burning, all in all she smelled divine and quite tempting. But he’d sooner stick his cock in an oven.
“You’re trouble.”
She grinned, “Maybe I’ll just miss you tonight, when you portal to your princess.”
He snorted, “Or, you’re just fucking with me again.”
She put a faux innocent and shocked look on her face, and her lower lip trembled, but she couldn’t hold it very long before she giggled. She was evil, because for just a moment while her lip had trembled in hurt and sorrow, he’d felt like a dick and had wanted to comfort her. She also didn’t let go of his arm until they’d made it to the inn and moved inside. Which was annoying, because he was intensely aware of her arm there, her scent, and his cock stirred. It didn’t harden, but it was definitely taking notice, and he knew she was just fucking with him. Only she needed a room, but it was late in the day and they decided to eat with her since they’d missed any chance of eating with the princess, her family, and the other nobles in the castle. The evening meal time was an hour or two ago.
He’d also worried for a whole two seconds that the Duke in charge of the city might be insulted if the prince consort came through his city and didn’t call on his hospitality. But he dismissed it, he’d be home with his princess shortly and wouldn’t be spending his nights in the port city. He could pay his respects when he picked up the gold for any bounties in the area, during the day. He didn’t really give a fuck about politics at all, but he would support his princess and the future queen, and that meant not insulting the other nobles if at all possible, at a minimum.
They found an open six-person table for the five of them, but Nysa moved off right away to talk to the bartender behind the bar. No doubt looking for information on the local breweries. He felt the need to kill about ten of the men in the place, but it was a twinge easy enough to dismiss. Realistically, he’d just walked into the place with the four most beautiful women in the place at his side. Of course the men were going to look, even a few women, and the ladies could handle themselves. He’d come a long way in a fairly short time, once he’d gotten over the shock of the powerful emotions, and understood the cause, it just took iron will and control.
It also helped that he was confident they were his, jealousy was worse when a man doubted his own worth or his woman’s faithfulness. He’d never had that problem, it was the strangers checking out his monstrous and stunningly beautiful ladies that he didn’t trust.
He still felt jealousy, especially at the mouth breather eye-fucking his