PRINCE OF THE WIND by Charlotte Boyet-Compo Read Free Book Online

initiate the brat into the arts of lovemaking? The word "rape" ran through Duncan’s mind and he knew the moment it entered Aidan’s—his Overlord’s face took on a mottled purple hue and his compressed lips. The muscles in his arms became bands of steel as he stood with them folded over his chest.
    "He was taken against his will?" Aidan asked, his voice as harsh as the winters in the foothills of the Northlands.
    "Papa….." Riain said, putting a hand on his father’s rigid shoulder.
    Aidan jerked away from the touch and impaled Riain with a stony glower. "Were you taken against your will, sir?"
    Riain met his father’s stare. "Aye," he whispered.
    Aidan’s chin came up; his stare became flint-hard. "You were held down for her to mount?"
    Bright red infused Riain’s face. "No, Milord!"
    "Bound in some way?"
    Riain’s blush turned a deeper red. "No, Papa. No," he answered, his voice breaking in mortification. "Nothing like that."
    "That how was it against your will?"
    "Drugged," Duncan stated in a low, flat voice.
    Aidan glared at his Master-at-Arms. "It better not have been!"
    "She should not have done so!" Gunter said. "But she saw no harm in it. She only wanted him as eager for her as she was for him!" He, himself, blushed at the words, but he held his ground despite the raging fury now leaping over Aidan Cree’s set face.
    "She used a potion of some kind?" Aidan hissed.
    "She wanted only to insure his cooperation."
    "Could she not have had him restrained? Did she have to poison him with some brew?"
    "It was not poisonous!" Gunter assured. "Potent, aye, but not poisonous. She gave it to him in milk and—"
    "Milk?" Aidan roared so loudly, the chandelier rattled. "By the gods! What did she feed him?"
    Duncan’s brows shot upward. He had little knowledge of herbs and their properties and therefore could see no reason why a simple aphrodisiac could cause such a violent reaction in Aidan Cree. It wasn’t until the king named the drug he suspected that Duncan drew in a horrified breath and nearly staggered back with the implications.
    "Tenerse?" Aidan snarled. He unfolded his arms and took a menacing step toward the dais, totally oblivious to the two guards who moved to block his way. He shoved them away, swatting their crossed pikes to the side. "Answer me, de Viennes!"
    Gunter blanched and nodded.
    Aidan’s eyes flared wide. "My son was given tenerse?"
    Duncan groaned. In Chale, the drug had been outlawed more than twenty years before. It was an insidious drug of the nightshade family. Quite deadly when mixed with certain liquids; extremely dangerous when blended with others. In some highly susceptible individuals, the drug could cause an allergic reaction that could last a lifetime.
    "Only a small amount!" Gunter threw up his hands with hopelessness and defeat. "He was her first, so there is no reason to worry for his health."
    "A virgin?" Aidan questioned.
    "Aye, she was."
    Cree threw back his head and bellowed in rage.
    Riain jumped away from his father as though he’d been poked with a hot prod. His eyes went wide as saucers in his suddenly pale face and his mouth dropped open. Duncan knew the boy had never witnessed his father’s infamous Black Temper.
    The Chalean Black Temper was a force with which to reckon. Once let loose, it was extremely hard to lay to rest. It could take over a warrior completely and blind him to all but exacting revenge and penultimate vengeance. Such was its fierceness that men so ensnared and trapped by the Temper often lost all reasoning and went berserk. Thus the name "berserker" was bestowed on Viragonian and Chalean warriors known for their ferocity and destructive rage in battle.
    "We want nothing from your son!" Gunter shouted hysterically as the reverberations from Aidan’s thunderous outburst settled in the shocked throne room. "We would never ask anything of you or him because of this!"
    Duncan placed a hand on his Overlord’s back. "Aidan, calm yourself."
    Aidan