The fabled lost princess of the Land of Spirit and Magic, born under the Christmas Star along with me and six other princes, had finally returned to the Winter Realm, and she belonged to me.
At least for the next eight days. The Mouse Queen would have my head when and if she found out that I had the princess and hadn't immediately brought her to the castle, but that was her own damn fault for not being more specific.
I may have to obey her commands, but only in the extremely specific way that the curse demanded. The queen hadn't specified when I had to bring Clara to her, only that I had until the twelfth day of Christmas. That gave me plenty of time.
Surely if she could fall in love with the rest of the Nutcracker guard in two days, I could get her to fall in love with me in a week and see exactly how they had all betrayed the meek of the realm instead of protecting them.
If she didn't see how the other lands had mistreated my people, than she was just as corrupt as the rest of them. I wasn't yet ready to accept that such pure magic and spirit could look the other way at the atrocities wrought on the inhabitants of the Land of Animals, but I'd been wrong about those I believed in before.
Clara looked at me like she was both scared and turned-on at the same time. Perhaps she was. For being a naive virgin when she'd entered the Winter Realm, she'd grabbed onto her sexual desires like a fiercer warrior than I could have foreseen.
She was so much more than any of us expected.
"Don't make me tell you again to get dressed and sit down, or so much more than that spanking you so desire is what will be waiting for you when we get to our destination." She had to be fucking freezing and yet she still stood her ground.
"I... don’t want you to spank me." We both knew she did. Her pink ass had color in it not from the cold but from Tau and Zucker's hands.
Stars above she was fucking glorious standing here in her naked glory, defenseless and yet still fighting. She was the champion my people needed on their side.
"Yes, you do. And I will do that and so much more to pleasure you, princess." As would the good prince of the Snowflakes. He just didn't know it yet.
Out of us all, he thought he knew the most about how her magic worked. Nuss was sure, only he could control Clara and bend her magic to his will. The Snowflake court and their all-knowing church decided they were the gatekeepers of all the knowledge left over after the destruction of the Land of Magic and Spirit. But what they didn't know was that the behind those forbidden walls, was not simply eviscerated grounds destroyed in the battle between good and evil. The Steel Tree Castle still stood, and within its ruins was all I needed to learn.
A beautiful blush rose up her chest and cheeks. Wasn't I going to have fun bringing that out in her over and over? But along with that flush came a defiance that made me want her all the more. "You can't tell me what I do and do not want."
She clasped her fists at her side and the magic swirling around us turned into a snow flurry, obscuring her from my view for just a moment. She forgot, or perhaps didn't understand that the beast in me didn't need sight to track her every move. My other senses served me just as well.
When she tried to make a run for the Flower Fae border, I was ready.
"Hey, hey, you flower people assassins up there, help me." She shouted toward the trees where the guards had their arrows trained on us.
The only thing those Flower Fae were going to shoot at were Sweet Fae trying to cross the border. They hadn't even flinched at the mouse army surrounding this cave entrance since it was on the Land of Sweet's side. Probably happy I was invading the Sugar Plum Court.
I heard their bow strings stretch at the ready. Shit. Had they figured out what an advantage it would be to have the princess in their land? They had seen Tau enter the cave with her and yet not return. I had no doubt they had their spies headed into the cave from the Land of Flowers side now and that meant a rescue mission for at least Leb and Tau.
Enough. I wasn't losing the small advantage I had over the Nutcrackers.
I captured the princess, and this time didn't give her a choice. I threw her over my shoulder and held her arms and feet in a soldier's carry. No amount of squirming would allow her to escape me.
"I don't want to hurt you, my lady, but I will if I have to." In the service of my people, I would sacrifice her strong will and her comfort.
In hauling her back to the sleigh, I caught Nuss's glare. He would hate me even more in the coming days. That was nothing new. He thrashed against his bindings and made a series of sounds that were likely cursing my name.
I was already cursed. His wouldn't hurt me any more than the Queen's.
For a half second, I considered throwing her in the back seat with him, just to show her that she had no power in this situation. She might have some access to her magic, but without her bond to the Snowflake Prince, she wouldn't be able to use it to her full ability yet.
The draw to have her by my side as we raced to the castle was more than I could resist, even if she'd be a pain in my ass the whole way. I dropped her onto the seat, loathe to let her skin escape my touch. Once we got to our destination, I'd keep the rooms nice and warm so I could keep her naked the whole time. But until then, I wouldn't have her freeze to death.
"We don't have time for you to dress now." I yanked the pile of soft woven blankets out and tossed them onto her lap. "Wrap yourself in these from head to toe, and if you move even and inch from that bench, I'll strap you down for the duration of our ride with my belt."
She did something I didn't expect even a little bit in response. She stuck her tongue out at me. Such adorable defiance.
"I can think of a lot better things I'd like you to do with your tongue, but they'll have to wait." I sat next to her and took up the reigns, thought I didn't need them. With nothing more than a push of my thoughts, I sent the reindeer the mental map of our route to the Christmas Tree Forest and then across to the border of the Land of Spirit and Magic. We'd skirt along the far side where the once thriving jewel of the Winter Realm met the wild Land of Animals.
They took off like an arrow, and the princess squeaked beside me. She glanced back toward the cave, but no one was coming to rescue her. My army would keep the other Nutcrackers busy until we were far away.
I didn't count on the Flower Fae to take any notice of us. In fact, I'd assumed the opposite. The first arrows landed hard into the side of the sleigh. Those were only warning shots because their assassins didn't miss.
