Four Heirs: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (The Rothhaven Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  Copyright ©2019 Pinard House Publishing, LLC

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writers’ imaginations or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

  Copyediting by Amabel Daniels

  Formatting by C.J. Pinard

  Cover art and design by Emma Ryder @ Moonstruck Cover Design & Photography

  Author Note:

  This is Book 3 in the Rothhaven Trilogy, and is the last book of the series. If you have not read Book 1, Four Princes, and Book 2, Four Kings, you’ll need to read those first in order to continue the story in this book. We hope you enjoy them! We’ve had great fun with this series, and plan more RH books in the near future! ~Cassie & C.J.

  Chapter 1

  Mariselle watched the door close behind Mathias, and then pierced the other two Rothhaven brothers with a glare that caused them both to swallow hard. “Let me guess, I’m getting sent off to the South Haven?”

  Zackary smiled at her. “No, I want you to stay here. I haven’t had the chance to try yet.”

  Mariselle flicked her gaze at Alexander, then said to Zackary, “I believe you did try. Last month. It appears that neither of you, nor Griffin, can help break the curse. This entire country will wither away and die off. Maybe dinosaurs will come back and the whole Earth can just be completely redone! We’ll start over with the prehistoric era and hope we don’t botch up the world this time!”

  She turned on her heel, emotionally charged and feeling frustrated, and flew out the heavy wooden door, its weight causing a rumble as she slammed it behind her.

  Alexander looked at Zackary. “She’s quite upset.”

  Zackary pierced his brother with an amused look and said, “You’re very observant.”

  “What are we going to do with her?” Alexander asked as he raked his fingers through his jet-black hair. He began to pace back and forth through the solar room.

  “We don’t do anything. We let Mariselle decide. She’s been practically passed around between us, and it’s clearly upsetting her.” Zackary tried to rein in his frustration as he watched his older brother stomp back and forth across the floor.

  Alexander stopped his marching and looked at him. “Don’t you think we should have let Mathias stay for this conversation? I know it’s your castle, but he needs to be in the loop.”

  Zackary sighed. “I suppose so. And we better get a message to Griffin, too. Especially if she does decide to go to the South Haven.”

  Zackary cringed a little inside as he said it, as he didn’t want Mariselle going anywhere. Just like his brothers before him, he had grown to love the beautiful redhead, but didn’t want her to leave. He now painfully knew how his brothers had felt at having to let her go, and it made him have a little more respect for them than he’d had before.

  “Go fetch Mariselle and King Mathias, please,” Zackary requested of the knight standing at the door.

  “Yes, sire,” the silver-suited knight replied, opening the door and then disappearing behind it.

  The two Rothhavens looked at each other. Alexander could see agony etched in his younger brother’s face, and his features softened. “You love her, don’t you?”

  Zackary lifted pained hazel eyes to his brother. “I… I don’t know.”

  Before Alexander could counter with his rebuttal, the door opened, and Mariselle came striding in, Mathias on her heels.

  “It’s just so good to see you,” the youngest Rothhaven said, looking down at her. Mathias had his arm around her, and then looked at his brothers. “I cannot get over how absolutely gorgeous she turned out. I mean, look at her!” he said excitedly.

  Both brothers nodded, already feeling sorry for Mathias if Mariselle decided to go with him.

  “Yes,” Zackary replied, striding toward them and gently pulling her out of Mathias’s arms. He wrapped his own around her and looked down at her. “She’s beautiful and perfect.”

  Mathias’s dark eyebrows shot up and he glanced at Alexander, who couldn’t keep his gaze, and instead looked back at Zackary.

  Alexander cleared his throat. “Let’s sit, there’s much to discuss.”

  Mariselle narrowed her eyes at the blue-eyed king and lifted her chin in defiance. “I don’t think there’s much to discuss at all. I already know what this is about.”

  Mathias looked confused, his brow furrowing. “What the bloody hell is going on?”

  “Sit, little brother.” Alexander indicated the chairs.

  Reluctantly, he obeyed. Mariselle and Zackary did the same.

  Alexander started, staring at Mathias. “Surely you know about Mariselle’s, ah, condition?”

  She huffed and snapped, “It’s not a condition!”

  Alexander laid a gentle hand on Mariselle’s arm. “You’re right, love. I’m sorry.” He kissed her hand with an apologetic smile, and then looked at Mathias. “Mariselle’s… gift.”

  “It’s more like a curse,” she muttered under her breath, ignoring the butterflies Alexander had ignited in her belly as he’d brushed his lips against her knuckles.

  Alexander chuckled. “Anyway, Mariselle, here, has her menses.”

  “Bloody hell,” she groaned, burying her face in her hands.

  Mathias looked at them. “Yes, I know. In fact, all of Syracuse knows.”

  She groaned again.

  “Well—”Alexander cleared his throat—“even though she has them, she has been unable to conceive.”

  Mathias raised a dark eyebrow. “And which one of you has been trying to put a baby in her?”

  Alexander and Zackary looked at him as if they were wishing he’d just figure it out. Thankfully, the proverbial light bulb seemed to go off over his head, and his signature mischievous smile lit up his face. “So… Both of you?”

  “And Griffin,” Mariselle murmured under her breath.

  “Wow,” Mathias said. Then he looked at his brothers with that grin. “Maybe you three don’t have strong enough seed. Maybe she needs—”

  Zackary’s face flushed red and he held up his hand. “I’m gonna stop you right there. You don’t think Alexander and I both said the same thing when Griffin couldn’t impregnate her? Or me, when Alexander failed?”

  Mathias lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “I don’t know. I wasn’t there.”

  “Well, we did,” Alexander said. “Here’s the thing, though. We can’t give up until all four of us have tried.” He held his breath and closed his eyes, knowing what was coming next.

  And Mariselle didn’t disappoint. “Do I get a say, or are all you brutes going to sit around talking about me as if I were a prized mare, huh?”

  “Yes, of course, love,” Alexander replied quickly. “I was just going to say that it had to be your decision.”

  She looked longingly at Zackary, and her eyes welled up. “I want to stay here with you. I want to so badly it hurts.” She turned to look at Alexander. “As badly as I wanted to stay at the North Haven with you… and then had to leave.” She reached over and squeezed both their hands. “It was absolute agony to leave Griffin, too. It really fools with my heart to love all of you.”

&nbs
p; “And we all love you in return,” Zackary finally admitted, rubbing his thumb over her hand.

  She turned to Zackary. “But I don’t want to leave the West Haven. I love it here. I love my friends and being with you.”

  Her words cut Alexander, but he daren’t react.

  Zackary’s eyes lit up. “I want you to be here, too. You’re welcome to stay as long as you want.” He wanted nothing more than to swoop her up, carry her out of the room, and up to his bedchamber for an all-night fuck session.

  Alexander cleared his throat. “Be that as it may, if you can’t impregnate her, she will have to go to the South Haven.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Mathias said, his hands up. “It appears Mariselle is quite smitten with Zack, so why would she need to come to my castle? Obviously, the curse won’t ever be broken. Can’t you fools see that?”

  It felt odd to Mariselle that Mathias didn’t seem to want her to come to his castle. That being said, she was loving the way Zackary was looking at her. She’d grown attached to him over the past month, and was pleased to hear he’d done the same. She tried to ignore the pained look on Alexander’s face.

  Alexander ignored the longing in Mariselle’s eyes. Instead, he raked his hand through his hair, seemingly exasperated. “I’m going to send a message to Griffin. He’ll set things straight.” Without another word, he got up and marched out of the solar.

  Mathias looked at Zackary and Mariselle. “What do we do now?”

  Mariselle and Zackary glanced at each other, then to the youngest Rothhaven. Zackary said, “Let us leave things as they are now. You stay here for as long as we need for you to help me figure out this political problem in which I’d called you here for to begin with, then you go back to the South Haven once it’s resolved. After that… when—and if—I need your assistance, I will alert you.”

  Mathias lifted his aqua-colored eyes to his brother, that mischievous smirk beginning to lift his mouth. After glancing at Mariselle, he returned his gaze to Zackary. “And if I refuse?”

  “My castle, my rules,” Zackary quickly replied, his jaw ticking. “I need help with these renovations for the country’s safety, which is why I called you here in the first place. But after that, you can go. And you will.”

  Zackary did not like the way he was looking at Mariselle, nor did he like the excitement in her eyes when she had first seen Mathias. He was determined to send the baby Rothhaven on his way.

  Chapter 2

  Mathias wasn’t stupid. He could tell his older brothers had some kind of protective feelings for Mariselle. After locking the door to his room, Mathias took off his crown and tossed it onto the settee. He then lay down on the bed, folding his hands behind his head and looking up at the ornate red and gold tapestry adorning the top of the canopy.

  But… could he blame them? His childhood friend had definitely grown up to be a beautiful woman. He knew she was just barely eighteen, but that didn’t stop the impure thoughts of her from running through his mind.

  The truth was, he had thought about Mariselle quite often throughout the years. He remembered how they had played games of ‘tag’ through the forest as children, and her love of animals. He wondered what had become of the four kittens she had seemed unable to choose just one from that day at Castle Rothhaven when her father had brought her for a visit.

  Kind, compassionate, and sweet, Mathias hoped she was still the soft-hearted redhead he had had a little crush on as a child.

  He let out a sigh as he thought about all the complications that plagued her now. Her… condition couldn’t be easy to live with. When the pageboy had first delivered the message months ago about her situation, he had been surprised. Mathias had always known Mariselle was special, but to be the only fertile woman in the land? How could that be? She wasn’t of royal blood, and she wasn’t a Rothhaven. He thought for sure his sister, Eva, would have been the one to have been blessed with fertility—the one to break the curse.

  No, instead, fate—the gods—whomever—had chosen a simple, but beautiful sheriff’s daughter to break the blasted hex Syracuse was under.

  But… could she?

  Mathias began to grow angry. Who did Angelique think she was, cursing the whole of the country in that way? He barely remembered the red-haired witch. He had been so young during the one and only time he could recall her visiting Castle Rothhaven. Barely eleven years old. But what he couldn’t forget was the tension, stress, and fear that had permeated the air at the mere mention of Angelique’s name. He never quite understood why it brought such terror until he had been much older. Griffin, his eldest brother, had explained what their father, King Edward, had got up to with Angelique, and how a woman scorned was something worth paying attention to.

  Still, being as innocent as he still was, Mathias’s young brain still couldn’t comprehend why a woman would curse an entire country. How her selfishness and evil nature could wreak such havoc on a simple and innocent nation. Why? Why had she done something so sinister and hurtful? Sure, his father—allegedly—had used her sexually… but to conjure up such a devastating curse to his beloved country. Was it really worth all of that?

  I have barely lived, Mathias thought. Why is this my lot in life? Did I not deserve better? Don’t we all?

  With a sigh, his eyes slowly slid shut as the excitement, travel, and exhaustion from the day finally blanketed him.

  The forest was thick with trees, their felled leaves crunching underfoot. Armed with his bow and a quiver full of arrows, he continued to quietly trudge through the forest in search of the doe he was sure he had spotted just moments beforehand.

  The young king knew his two best knights were trailing just meters behind him, but he paid them no mind. He would prefer to be out here alone, but his right-hand castle lord wouldn’t hear of it. He’d insisted on an escort.

  “I can’t even have some recreation without a security detail,” he groaned under his breath at the sound of the knights’ footfalls behind him.

  But, then something caught the corner of his eye. Spying the spotted doe once more, he smiled. He reached back slowly, grasped an arrow from the quiver, and quickly loaded it into the bow. He closed one eye and held his breath, watching the doe as she lowered her head to drink from a nearby stream.

  He pulled his arm back, ready for the kill, when something moved in his peripheral vision. A flash of purple rushed by, and he gasped. The distraction was enough to alert the doe, whose head popped up seconds before she sprinted off into the forest.

  Staring open-mouthed at the apparition floating above the forest floor, the young king was rendered speechless by her beauty. Raven hair, flawless, porcelain skin, lavender eyes, and the smell of jasmine permeated the air around the beautiful woman.

  He heard the swords of his two knights being unsheathed. Mathias held up a restraining hand, but kept his gaze on the ghost. “Hold steady.”

  Her breathy voice floated on the wind like a melody. “Mariselle needs you, Mathias. You mustn’t leave the West Haven. Not yet. Stay. Be strong. Get to know her. She will come to you. She is just as much smitten with you as she is your brothers. You need to make her yours. It is very important you listen to what I say.”

  Mathias, frozen with fear and intrigue, lazily nodded his head at the witch. “I’m listening.”

  “Heed this warning, my young king: You mustn’t leave until you have lain with her. You must try to help break the curse of Syracuse. She needs to be with child soon, or the curse will never end.”

  Mathias’s eyebrows bunched together. “But what if I cannot? My brothers tried, and—”

  His words died on his tongue as the apparition turned to mist and disappeared, leaving nothing but the strong scent of jasmine in his nostrils.

  Mathias sat up with a gasp, his hand to his heart.

  “What in the bloody hell was that?” he breathed, shaking his head as if to rid himself of the dream.

  He swung his legs over the side of the bed, but before he could stand, the s
ame apparition now appeared in the doorway to the latrine, hovering in the air.

  “Make her yours, my king,” she said melodically, and then she disappeared as quickly as she’d come.

  Frozen in shock, Mathias could do nothing but try to force his limbs to move, but he seemed to be cemented to the bed.

  Hecate giggled, quite pleased with herself as she materialized outside of the guestroom Mathias had been staying in.

  Sure, she had used her magic to intervene ever so slightly in the attempt to end the curse, and yes, she’d invaded dreams. But never had she been so straightforward and forthright in flat-out telling one of the kings to have sex with Mariselle.

  Truth was, she was mentally tired—exhausted. As she floated out the window and rode the breeze down toward the Red Sea, Hecate, again, wondered why she even cared. If Syracuse remained barren, what did it matter to her? She, herself, would never bear children. She knew this for a fact. She’d tried for decades, but no amount of magic or spells would ever let it be so. And she had accepted this. She was theoretically dead, after all. But she knew that what fueled her desire to see Syracuse prosper once more was her hatred of Gaylen. The disgusting, evil warlock would not win. He would not get his way in letting the Rothhavens die out—and Hecate would see to it, even if it took her very last undead breath to do it.

  A smile lifted her lips as she continued to fly over the land, the smell of the sea getting stronger as she headed east. The beautiful Mariselle would be with child soon; she could feel it in her ethereal bones.

  She just hoped she would still be around to see the birth of the first Rothhaven heir. She hoped her hard work would pay off and she would be rewarded with laying eyes on the tiny babe she just knew would be coming soon.

  In the meantime, she knew she needed to rid the Earth of Gaylen the Warlock once and for all. And once she was sure Mathias would pursue and eventually bed Mariselle, slaying Gaylen would be her number-one priority.