Read Online Horns for the Harem Girl by Lynn Red - Free Book Online Page A

her own. Even if it was short-lived it felt good to do. “But how am I going to get out of here?”
    Maret tilted her head toward the window. “As I said, this kingdom holds many... strange secrets. Your prince has come.”
    Of all the bizarre things to see presented in front of her, Helena found a grand ibex – it stood tall enough that the tips of his huge, curled horns were visible without looking down. “A... Arad?” she asked, her whispered voice belying her disbelief. “Horns?”
    The ram narrowed his eyes and let out a mighty snort into the cold, night air. Billows of steam erupted from his nostrils, and when Helena stuck her hand out the window, her fingertips met a velvety coat on his snout. “You turn into... an ibex?”
    “Many secrets older than the oldest humans here,” Maret said, pushing Helena toward the window. “Go on, child, he’ll take you to safety and then return for what he has to do here. Go!”
    Lifting a leg, Helena felt unsteady and fearful. She’d never ridden a camel without her father guiding the reins. And this – she’d heard legends about the royal family having strange, magical blood – but she could hardly get her legs around either side of the beast prince’s massive ribcage. Regardless, she slid out of the window at Maret’s urging, and perched atop the huge back. The ibex snorted again, and Maret turned her head.
    “Hum, he says you need to trust him. Let down your legs and squeeze his sides. Take hold of the hair on his neck.”
    “You can understand him? I wish I could,” Helena said.
    The ibex turned his head back to her and nuzzled ever so gently in the crook of her neck.
    “You will,” Maret said. “In time. But for now, just trust what I say. Go with my son, he may be the king’s heir, but he’s not his child. I know his heart, and in time so will you. Now go, and never look back until the flames are gone and the world is new.”
    Astonished, and unable to process anything she’d just been told, Helena grasped tightly onto the coarse hair on the prince’s ibex neck. She squeezed him as tightly as she could with her knees, but still almost toppled off him when he wheeled around sharply and sped off.
    “Ah!” she shouted. “You awful brute! I’m hardly holding on!”
    “Grab... tighter,” a pained voice came. The sounds weren’t quite right, but then again, they’d come from an ibex’s mouth. It must not be all that easy to make human sounds with an animal mouth, Helena thought. He bucked slightly, pitching her forward.
    The girl’s arms naturally went around either side of the great neck. When she lay flat on him, she found that she fit better, and far less awkwardly than when she was sitting up. “I think I’ll stay like this,” she whispered into his ear, hugging his muscular neck tightly and letting the scent of her prince flood her nose. “I’ll stay right like this my prince, for as long as you’ll let me.”
    “Half the night,” he said with a voice that was similar to the one with which Helena was familiar, but with a few peculiar twists to his words. “You stay with your family, enjoy your time. I’ll be back before you know it,” he nuzzled her hand. “I swear it.”
    A tear rolled out of her eye, down her cheek and vanished into the fur on her prince’s neck. “Why me?” she whispered as his trot became a fierce gallop. “Why did you choose me?”
    He made a sound that reminded her of an awkward laugh. “Because of all the women I’ve ever seen, you’re the only one I fell in love with before I saw her naked.”
    His bold honesty struck Helena as hilarious and raw and vulnerable; three things she’d never particularly seen in the prince during their brief, secret courtship. “I’ve felt you through your clothes,” she said into his ear. “I’ve got a fairly good idea of what you’ll look like.”
    It was his turn to laugh. The laugh of an ibex is like a whinny mixed with a neigh mixed with a sharp exhalation.