Chosen Bride of the Seven Dark Princes

Gwendolyn twirled in front of the large full-length oval mirror, admiring her nephews' handiwork.

The pale lavender outfit with embroidered lilac blossoms was stunning. The colors had been chosen with care and it deepened the blue of her eyes and made her skin glow with youthful dewiness.

This was an outfit that she had ordered from Jason and Jared several months ago and it had finally been delivered, just in time for this special dinner with the Emperor.

She touched the fabric with grateful hands. Even though they were her nephews, they were so inundated with work that she was lucky if she could get four or five outfits from them a year.

Gwendolyn smiled with excitement.

She was happy tonight. Rex had told her he wanted to talk with her.

Perhaps he was finally coming around and starting to understand her a little bit. Perhaps he could show her a little more love so that she didn't have to feel as if it was a one-way love affair.

Gwendolyn went to sit at the table. It had been specially prepared tonight, with fresh cut flowers arranged in a brilliant cut crystal vase. The scent of the flowers was making her giddy.

Running through her mind was the new song she had just written for her husband.

She picked up a mandolin and began plucking out the melody and the harmony. As the strains of the song began to play, she began singing in her soft husky voice of all the love she had in her heart for her husband.

The attendants waiting in the corner to serve the food sighed with wistful joy at the opportunity to hear the Royal Consort Gwendolyn play her instrument.

Had she not been a Royal Consort, she could have so easily been a first class performer. She knew how to play so many instruments and she wrote so many songs that she could hold concert after concert and never run out of new songs to perform.

As the minutes ticked away, Gwendolyn continued to play, going from song to song and pouring her heart out in her music.

Half an hour went by and she was still sitting there, plucking out the songs. At first the songs were light and airy, full of joy and promise.

As the hour wound down to the half mark, her songs began to get more melancholy. Still she played. The Emperor sometimes got waylaid by advisors and attendants to take care of urgent situations.

After an hour had past, Gwendolyn put down her mandolin and looked at her fingers. They were starting to bleed.

She waved a hand and the servers brought the food to the table. It had been kept warm, so the fish came out hot and tasty and the vegetables were tender and sweet.

Gwendolyn took a bite of the fish and put her fork down. She tried a piece of fingerling potato and chewed the tasteless thing for a few minutes before swallowing it down with some water. It tasted like a soft warm burlap bag.

Then she cut the fruit topped sponge cake and took a bite of her slice. She swallowed it down as best she could and put down the fork.

Dinner was over.

Gwendolyn waved her hand for the attendant to pour her some white wine. She sat there sipping on the wine, still waiting, hope against hope that he would show.

Two hours in, she had drained two bottles of Chardonnay.

Swaying on unsteady legs, she allowed her attendant to escort her to the bed where she sank down into the pillows. She was still breathing, but it was amazing that she was still alive, with such a bloody gaping hole where her heart had been.

It was fast approaching the midnight hour when the Emperor's youngest Consort fell into a drunken stupor.

=============

Morning came without the usual fanfare.

Farmers and plebeians got awakened by cocks-crows and animal sounds of a busy morning, but within the silence of the Royal Palace, there was nothing to awaken the sleeping royals.

The Emperor woke with a start.

His eyes glanced towards the window as the morning sun began to peek over the hills.

He closed his eyes and heaved a sigh. He had fallen asleep and had slept till morning. He was supposed to have dinner with Gwen the night before and he hadn't even called her to let her know he would be late.

Correction. At this time of the morning, he was not just late, it was a complete no-show no-call.

The Emperor heaved another sigh and furrowed his brows.

This was bad. He needed to go to Gwendolyn's place and throw himself at her mercy. She was going to be so mad at him.

He had gotten himself ready to go see Gwendolyn when he got a call from Anastasia, asking if he could talk with her for a moment.

That moment turned into an hour, with Anastasia crying in his arms about her worries regarding her family's world and about her son.

He knew he was a little bit late with Gwendolyn, but how could he leave a crying Anastasia. He had to stay to reassure her that everything would be just fine, and that Dante was no less a Crown Prince than he'd been before.

Gwendolyn would understand why he was late to dinner with her. Anastasia was so distraught. His beautiful Anastasia.

Gwen was the most understanding wife he had. If he explained that he had to take care of something urgent, she would not be upset that he would be a little bit late.

Except late turned into super late because they had made love, and there was no way he could call Gwen to tell her he would be late while he was in the middle of making love to Anastasia.

And then super late turned into midnight, because their lovemaking continued until they were both so exhausted they could not move.

By then, it was not even worth calling Gwendolyn because she was most likely sleeping, and waking her up just to tell her he couldn't make it to dinner was asking for pain.

And then night turned into morning and he now had to face the music. He would have to crawl to Gwen on bended knees and ask her for forgiveness. But Gwen always forgave him. She always understood.

He was about to get up from the bed when a pair of arms reached out and pulled him back.

"Where are you going? It's barely daybreak." A soft feminine voice called out.

"Anastasia. You're awake." He turned back to look at his Empress.

She was lying there, looking fragile and utterly adorable. His heart swelled with love for her.

"Mmmhmmm. You woke up sighing and moaning, it woke me up. Is everything okay?"

"With you by my side, how can anything not be okay." He smiled at her, all thoughts of anything else completely blown away.

Anastasia reached out and began caressing his body. The Emperor quivered with delight as she began touching his manhood, making him hard again with need.

They'd made love for hours the night before and ended up falling into an exhausted sleep, but it seemed his little Empress wanted more.

Rex sank back into the embrace of his wife as everything around him became the touch of her and the feel of her surrounding him.

There was nothing else and no one else…