"What battle?" The sound of swords clanging and a war cry from both Fae princes rang through the air. Oh, right. That one.
"It is my sworn duty to make you mine and keep you safe. Once I've done the latter, we'll get back to the first. That, I promise you." Nuss stood and shook his legs and one arm. The other was still in the sling and when he moved his shoulder, he hissed and grimaced.
Guess I didn't believe quite enough. Although, Nuss was up and about as if he hadn't been dying ten seconds ago, so that was something. "Great, you're fine and going into battle. Dreams are so strange."
Nuss frowned at my words, but then a mouse crawled up his leg, I squealed, and he sent it flying into a tree, where a whole rash of pixies covered it in snow. He gave me a wink and then literally jumped into the fight. Leb threw him an axe that he literally pulled out of somewhere below the belt.
Okay, so it was gonna be that kind of dream where men have weapons in their pants.
The Gingerbread Viking
Leb
Icould be having my cookies frosted right now by Princess Clara, but no. Fucking Konig Maus had to show up and pick another God-damn fight with us. He knew I was going to whip his ass. Again. Although, we were both going to have fun doing it.
The Fae Princes and the Nutcracker were good warriors. Great, even. It's why I threw in with them and joined the nutcracker guard as a single power unit all those years ago. But none of them matched Konig's ferocity in battle. He'd always had a chip on his shoulder and could go berserker as well as any Viking from the Kingdom of Gingerbread.
He'd even bested me a time or two. But never when it mattered. One on one, we were close to evenly matched and that made the fight all the more worth it.
Now that the Princess Clara was back in the Winter Realm, I was going to kick Konig's ass all the way back to his mama. Then I was taking the princess back to mine. Because Clara was absolutely my perfect match, with all those curves and sass. I wouldn't crush her with my brawn when we were in bed, and she wouldn't allow me to crush her heart.
I wasn't exactly the gentle giant with bodies or emotions.
"It's high time we faced off again, Maus. I've missed beating you to a pulp in battle." I swung my axe in a figure eight, not just for show, but to shield against his freaky little mouse army from launching the tiny attacks. Those suckers fucking hurt when they bit. I had more than one chunk of flesh missing because of their sharp teeth.
"I'm not here for you or any of the guard. Just give me the princess and I can go." He twirled his sword, fully prepared to go through me to get to Clara.
"Never gonna happen. So, let's get this over with so I can get on with giving her the orgasms she needs and desires." I brought the axe up and over my head and yelled my favorite war cry. "For kingdom and cookies!"
Our weapons clashed and I loved the feeling of my blood boiling in battle. I slashed, Konig dashed. I swung and he jumped away, spinning, and then bringing his sword around aimed for my ribs. I deflected with a turn, but his blade still cut a thin line across my back.
"You may have drawn first blood, Mouse Prince, but I'll draw the last." I parried again and Konig met my blow with his sword, holding his own against me. He'd developed his skills since our last clash.
"Not today, cookie." He attacked again, bringing down fast and hard blows, three in rapid succession.
In defending against him, I caught a glance at the rest of the battle. Four of his lieutenants and a sheer shit ton of mice had joined in the fray. When the hell had they gotten here? The Fae were on the verge of being overwhelmed, Nuss was backed up against the tree, defending the princess, and she was throwing balls of snow at clumps of mice.
Smart girl.
Dumb Viking.
Konig was a sly rat. He'd focused on me to keep me distracted while his hidden army laid waste to my friends I'd come to call brothers, and our savior and future mate. Damn. He'd known exactly what he was doing baiting me, and I'd fallen right into his trap.
Fuck him and his queen.
I ran straight for him not to deal a killing blow, because that he could deflect. This was no nutcracker guard tactic from the books. I barreled right into him, using the momentum of my body to toss him through the air and into the trees.
That gave me enough time to turn and sprint toward the princess and rally the troops. "I'm a coming, princess. Don't hit me in the balls with your snow."
Instantly, I was surrounded by a mountain of mice. They crawled up, and up, and up, over my torso and chest, and then poured over my shoulders as if they could tackle me to the ground with their sheer numbers. I will admit, they slowed my progress, making me slog through hundreds of their little wiggly bodies. The resilient bastards were nigh on impossible to kill, even if someone as big as me stepped right on them. Shifter magic was some weird stuff.
My legs were pelted with Clara's snowballs, knocking away some of the mice, but that left her vulnerable to a wave of them swooping toward her. The scream she let out when they crawled up her skirt, swirling like a tempest around her waist, then her arms and legs, would curdle my blood for the rest of my life.
"Hurry lads, save the princess." I sank deeper into the mass of mice and there was little I could do beside chopping off my own legs with my axe to get them off me. I watched Zucker and Tau cut down by the queen's warriors and disappear as if buried under a thousand rodents, still I pushed forward. We'd only just found our girl and gotten her home to the realm, I'd be damned to hell before I'd let her get taken by the mouse army.
Nuss was looking knackered but slashing through the mice and holding back the warrior trying to slice and dice him. There was a good reason he was our captain. If I could make my way to him our combined power might be able to save the princess and escape.
To where I wasn't sure. If we'd been found this fast, the mice spies would have infiltrated all the lands. Where there was one, there were more. Except the Gingerbread Kingdom. No mouse had found their way to the hidden pass that led to our mountain stronghold. We were the last bastion of freedom in the Realm and the only land not to give into the Mouse Queen's demands.
