Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Coup and the Prince
    The Coup and the Prince
    The Coup and the Prince
    Ebook82 pages55 minutes

    The Coup and the Prince

    By Mell Eight

    2.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The coup should have been simple: oust the tyrannical regents and restore the rightful heir to the throne. No one expected the rightful heir to be dead, or for his younger brother to be missing. The search for the missing prince is important, but not as important as putting the destroyed country back together. At least, that's what Aiden thinks until he stumbles on a terrible crime ring and a pair of beautiful green eyes that might just derail everything he's been working towards.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNineStar Press, LLC
    Release dateMay 17, 2021
    ISBN9781648902840
    The Coup and the Prince
    Read preview

    Read more from Mell Eight

    Related to The Coup and the Prince

    Related ebooks

    Fantasy Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Coup and the Prince

    2.5/5

    2 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Coup and the Prince - Mell Eight

      A NineStar Press Publication

      www.ninestarpress.com

      The Coup and the Prince

      ISBN: 978-1-64890-284-0

      © 2021 Mell Eight

      Cover Art © 2021 Natasha Snow

      Published in May, 2021 by NineStar Press, New Mexico, USA.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact NineStar Press at Contact@ninestarpress.com.

      CONTENT WARNING:

      This book contains mentions of human trafficking of children.

      The Coup and the Prince

      Mell Eight

      Table of Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      About the Author

      Chapter One

      AIDEN

      Meetings, meetings, meetings! His whole life was meetings!

      Aiden was going to go mad, screaming and hair pulling included, if he had to go to another meeting. As if that weren’t bad enough, after the endless rounds of meetings, he had paperwork. Endless bloody stacks of paperwork. For every piece he finished, another fucking dozen appeared on his desk. He couldn’t escape from it all. He was a frigging soldier, not a paper pusher, and he hated sitting still. His new position as captain of the guard required he attend to his new duties, rather than actually being out in the city where the real work was, but Aiden was thinking of stuffing it all and running away.

      In fact, that sounded like a great idea. Fuck them all anyway. He deserved a long weekend off. Aiden slammed his pen down on his desk, glad to have his decision made, and stood with a violent shove of his chair.

      I’m done for the day, he snapped to his shocked-looking secretary across the room.

      Ernest nodded. Aiden had worked with Ernest long enough to know Ernest would have blindly agreed even if Aiden had declared he was off to fuck a duck, but Ernest didn’t mind the damned paperwork, so Aiden kept the kid around anyway.

      It’s after midnight, sir, Ernest replied softly. Shall I hold your appointments until tomorrow afternoon?

      Aiden winced at the thought of having any more meetings. Push them until Monday morning. I should be able to think straight by then. If he had to go to another meeting any earlier than Monday, he might actually snap and strangle someone.

      Ernest nodded in agreement again and quickly made a note in the ledger on his desk before jumping up to help Aiden with his coat.

      What should I tell Major Trell, sir, if he comes calling? Ernest asked before Aiden could fasten his buttons and get out the door to freedom.

      Tell the old bastard that he should have planned a little better before he threw his coup, and anything that goes wrong in my absence is his fault, Aiden snapped as he wrenched the door open and slammed it behind him.

      A muffled Yes, sir sounded from behind the door.

      And take tomorrow off too, Ernest, Aiden yelled before stomping off.

      Aiden didn’t go to his rooms in the castle. He could easily be found there and dragged off to something vitally important that Aiden didn’t give a fuck about. He needed to be out there doing, not sitting on his ass.

      Before the coup, Aiden had led men. He had been in charge of keeping the city safe, catching criminals and murderers and putting them behind bars so people felt safe at night. He had loved the job and the men and women he had commanded. Trell, the bastard, had promised Aiden he could have his job back after the coup. Hell, that was one of the reasons Aiden had joined with Trell in the first place.

      The coup had been a disaster, plain and simple. They had taken power back from the regents, yes, but instead of reinstating the heir like they had originally planned, they were stuck putting the country back together themselves.

      Ten years before the coup, the king had started forgetting things. It was only recent edicts, meeting times, and simple things in the beginning, but five years ago, when he forgot the names of his wife and two sons, the physicians declared the king needed to be sequestered for his own safety.

      The king’s oldest child was only fifteen at the time, so the council had chosen the grand duke and the queen to act as joint regents on behalf of the heir until he came of age. Given how quickly the councilors chose two people mostly unsuited for the task, Aiden had little doubt they had been bribed. Aiden would have let it go—that was politics after all—except then the council had allowed the regents’ excess to take over.

      For the subsequent five years of the regents’ rule, food, goods, and a lot of money had gone into the castle and only bodies had come out. Taxes were raised, and the crown stopped paying for the goods it consumed. Prices for wheat skyrocketed after a late-summer storm wiped out much of one year’s crops, and the crown demanded more instead of helping the people it served.

      The last straw for Aiden had been when the city guard had been disbanded. His beloved troops were left penniless and without prospects, as was he for that matter. When Trell approached Aiden, Aiden had been more than happy to lend his influence to the coup.

      The queen and the grand duke had been killed in the fighting. The king had survived the coup, somehow. Trell and Aiden had gone to see him once the castle was secured and found a clueless and helpless child in place of the strong man Aiden remembered.

      Trell had always planned to reinstate the king’s heir to the throne, not take power himself—which was why he was still

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 6