She grinned. “Well, okay, I can’t personally, but my father and his council can.” She looked into my eyes, her face beaming. “Consider it done,” she said pulling me close and wrapping her arms around me.
“Although I am going to miss you. You’re such a good servant.”
I laughed, punching her in the arm as she giggled.
“Why?” I said breathlessly.
“Because you’re my best friend and I love you, and I want you to be happy.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, my heart feeling like it was filling my whole body as I grabbed my friend and hugged her close.
“You hear that?” she said fiercely to them. “I love her, so if you—”
“That’s never going to happen,” Jace said evenly, smiling.
Adele nodded. “Well, you can tell this to your council then. Or, what’s left of them after you throw these three in a dungeon. Tell them that your lovely girl here is no longer Anya Green. She’s now Princess Anya of Berne, effective within the week.”
I laughed out of pure silly happiness, the warmth and the love of everything around me just pouring through me.
“You know, your stepmom will never go for this.”
“Oh, about that...” She grinned at me. “Yeah, a lot has changed while you were gone last night.”
“What? Like what?”
She turned to her Captain of the Guard, reaching out and taking his hand before looking back at me with a blush on her face.
“Uh, a lot. We’ll catch up later, I promise. But no, I think you’re all theirs.”
I hugged her once more before turning and flying into Jace, Killian, and Dean’s arms. They hugged me fiercely, all three of them pulling me tight and holding me like they never wanted to let me go.
Something told me, they never would.
“So,” I grinned jokingly. “Are princesses allowed in the club?”
Dean made a face. “Actually, no, they’re not.”
I frowned. “Oh.”
“But guess what?”
I looked up to see all three of them grinning.
“We’re not allowed in the club either.”
My brow went up. “Holy shit, seriously?”
“Ask us if we give a single shit.” Killian chuckled darkly, his hand stroking my back.
He leaned in and kissed me deeply and passionately — just enough to send a sizzle though my body. I turned to Dean, kissing him the same way and gasping quietly into his lips before turning to Jace and doing the same.
I came away blushing, suddenly remembering my friend and the small crowd behind us. But when I whirled back, the guards were already dragging the three kicking and screaming Dukes of Tam away. Adele looked back though, and winked at me.
“Look, Anya—”
“Uh, that’s Your Highness now, thank you very much!” I grinned at them as they chuckled.
“Well, excuse me Your Highness,” Jace laughed. “But I wanted to say that we know this is nuts, and fast, and probably the single craziest thing you’ve ever even heard of, but we’re fucking head over heels for you.”
My heart thundered in my chest, my eyes darting from one face to the next.
“We love you, Anya,” Killian said quietly, squeezing my hand. “And we know it’s fast, and we know you barely know us. But there’s something about you that clicks with each of us and all of us in a way we thought we’d never find.”
Dean sighed. “What these two are trying to say is, we love you, we’re going to keep on loving you until the end of time, and we’d love to know one thing?”
“Which is?” I said breathless.
“Will you marry us?”
“Yes.” I said it without even thinking, just blurting the word out.
“No, I mean all of us. No jealousy, no drama, no mess. It’s all of us or nothing, so if you need time to think—”
“Yes,” I whispered, moving in and kissing him. I pulled Jace in, kissing him tenderly, before turning and searing my lips to Killian’s.
“Yes, absolutely, yes!” I shrieked as I jumped into their arms, peppering them with kisses as they held me tight. “A thousand yeses.”
It was minutes later before we all finally pulled apart. We turned, them holding me tight as we stood there watching the sun catch the edge of the fountain that sat beside the roses, there in the gardens of Berne.
“Call your council,” I said, nodding slowly as the grin spread over my face.
“Tell them it’s time for the three Kings of Tam to take their thrones.”
The three of them growled, nodding with fierce looks on their faces.
“Just, you know, make sure there’s a fourth one for me.”
They laughed, pulling me close and kissing me until I forgot everything else.
Epilogue
Anya
Moving to Tam was surreal after spending my whole life in Berne. And yet, it also felt right. It felt like the next step in life that I’d just been waiting to take, without even realizing it.
Also, Tam is really close to Berne, so Adele and I can still see each other all the freaking time.
Becoming a princess was…well, wow, how do you even describe that? It was a strange feeling, and yet, I also felt exactly the same afterwards. Adele wasn’t kidding about making it happen either — four days later, in a small ceremony in her father’s throne room, King Lorne himself — with a freaking sword and everything — dubbed me a real, honest-to-goodness princess of Berne. He also hugged me close and thanked me for being the sister his daughter never actually had.
As it turns out, Carl had spotted me that night at the club, and when I’d left with my princes, he’d had us tailed. After that, it was easy to put two and two together.
But, that was the random circumstances part. What made the whole thing even crazier was that the three of them had been plotting to overthrow things in Tam. They’d managed to weasel their way onto the royal council, and their plan had been to delay Killian, Dean, and Jace ascending to their rightful thrones until they could put together some fake dirt on them and declare the council itself the rulers of the kingdom.
The evidence to support all this was overwhelming, and the three of them were quickly tried, found guilty, and thrown into jail for high treason.
My men never told me the details about what happened with them and the club, only that they weren’t going to be going back there ever again. At one point, soon after the trial, a gorgeously vintage black and silver town car had driven up to the palace in Tam, and the three of them had taken a meeting in the car with whoever it was.
They’d been grinning when they came back, with Jace muttering something about “so much for them never changing their minds.” But even after that, they assured me, the Triple Crown Club wasn’t a place they needed, or wanted anymore.
“Now when we’ve got you,” they’d said.
Not a bad answer, really.
And so the Triple Crown Club was left behind for us. There were, of course, the two major events that happened right around the same time as me meeting my men. First, the insanity and almost scandal of my cousin Julia’s adventures there, and then the even crazier events surrounding her roommate Emma and the triplets she—