Ogre Daddy (Fantastical Daddy Doms Book 2) Read online

  ©All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  No part of the book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  2018 © Published by Allysa Hart and Rayanna Jamison

  Ogre Daddy

  Cover by Allysa Hart at AllyCat’s Creations

  Formatting by Under Cover Designs

  Edited by Maggie Ryan

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Genie Daddy!

  Rayanna Jamison

  Allysa Hart

  We would dedicate this book to each other,

  but that would be silly.

  So instead we dedicate this book to truth and eggs,

  and the truth in the eggs.

  * * *

  All fairy tales have a moral to the story. Here are ours:

  May any sea witches in your life be cast back into the sea, but if they aren’t, rise above them anyway.

  Triumph over your trials and find the silver lining in all of your mistakes. Always remember you are really a princess, even on those days your crown looks a little smudged. See people for who they are and not who others say they are. The unlikeliest acquaintance can become your best friend, even if they seem like an ogre at first glance. Help sometimes comes from the places we least expect it.

  * * *

  REAL QUEENS ADJUST EACH OTHER’S CROWNS

  “There is a king, queen and princess up there in Venus, living in a beautiful castle, enjoying their life, and ruling from the top of the hill, looking down on their kingdom with happy smiles on their faces,” I muttered with great irritation, musing over the news that was just given to me.

  “Yes, Mistress Lamia.” My footman Rod answered from his position where he lay prostrate at my feet. “The king and queen are a beautiful couple who have been married for many years, and Princess Ariana is quite lovely. The princess is their only child, and the heir to the throne, along with, of course, whomever she chooses to marry.”

  Rod had a bad habit of talking too much, and his whiny serpent-like voice irritated me. “Silence!” I screamed, whipping him with my tentacled arm, enjoying the cries of pain that fell from his lips. I lashed him continuously while I started to think. The act of causing him pain titillated me, and soon I was abuzz with excitement.

  “Those stupid fools!” I cried, abandoning the whipping to raise several of my tentacles into the air. “They have no idea what awaits them! But they will. Soon there will be a storm, Rod, a great and dangerous storm! The king and queen shall surely find their death, and I will rise to the land and take my rightful place upon the throne. I shall rule the kingdom as the adored leader, and all shall bow at my feet and worship me as their true queen! Everything they have shall be mine, Rod! IT WILL ALL BE MINE!”

  “Yes, my Mistress,” Rod agreed with me, covering his head as he lay at my feet. “But, what about the princess?”

  The princess… what about the princess? The footman brought up a good point, and I climbed from my throne of ocean trash to pace the sandy rocks in front of him.

  “I shall keep her as my pet,” I announced. “She will become one of us, and she will do my bidding every day. Her sole purpose in life will be to keep me happy, and she will know nothing else. She will live alongside me grateful for every little scrap I deign to throw her, while having no idea that it all should have been hers.”

  This detail lit a fire in my belly and I cackled with delight.

  Rod reared up with his mouth open and one finger in the air, and I knew he was about to protest my idea or point out an error in my plan. In a second, I was behind him, cracking two tentacles across his back in quick succession. The sheer force of the blows knocked him back into place and he quivered in fear, cowering before me.

  “I’m sorry, my Mistress,” he stuttered woefully.

  “Call me your queen.” My voice cleared and there was a regal air about it as I tried the title on for size. “Queen Lamia of Venus. It has a lovely ring to it, I think.”

  “Hey, give that back!” I yelled at the fisherman who plucked the book from my fingers, holding it high in the air.

  “Get your nose out of the book and experience real life,” he teased.

  I huffed out my displeasure and turned in my seat to face the water. It was a beautiful day, and I was really enjoying the sunshine and my book. “Apparently you don’t understand the meaning of multitasking.” I stuck out my tongue in his direction.

  He shrugged his shoulders and tossed the book into my lap. “He’s a ghost.”

  “Joke’s on you, I’ve read it like three times!” It was a total lie, but I couldn’t let him know he won. Inwardly I was going over every detail of the book and cussing him out for ruining the ending.

  Grayson Jones was an enigma to me. He was handsome and strong and the most successful fisherman in the village. His family had served mine for years, and each time he made a delivery of fish to our kitchen staff, I tried without success to get his attention, but he was a decade older than me and too busy to deal with a little princess pining for him. Little Princess. That was what he called me. On the rare occasions he deigned to notice my presence, he treated me more like an annoying kid sister than a woman. I, on the other hand, noticed and took note of everything about him, including this newest detail.

  I glanced down at the book in my lap. “Wait a minute. You like to read?”

  He winked right before a deafening crack rang through the air, shattering the peacefulness of the day. Dark clouds moved rapidly over us, bringing strong winds and rain with them.

  “Shit,” Grayson cursed loudly as he turned to grab the wheel of the boat. “Sir,” he yelled to my father. “The life vests are under the bench in the back. Everyone needs one, now!”

  Even with the menacing storm approaching, I was impressed with his take-charge attitude. He barked orders for safety measures at his king, and my father followed without question.

  “Be careful, Daddy!” I scooted closer to my mother and grabbed her hand as the boat rocked hard, slamming against the water.

  Grayson shouted numbers into a handheld radio and I closed my eyes and shot a quick prayer up to the heavens. Lord, please keep my family safe.

  As I mouthed the words, guilt wracked my gut. I was the one who had instigated this boat ride. I all but begged for it, just in the hopes that Grayson would finally take notice of me.

  As I ended my prayer, a life vest was pushed over my head, and I opened my eyes in time to see the fear on my father’s face framed by the biggest wave I had ever seen. The boat tipped; I felt a sharp pain as my head crashed against the floor of the boat, and my whole world went dark.

  The boat shook, lurching back and forth as if it were possessed. What in the hell? I stared at the suddenly black sky in confusion. A minute ago the sun had been shining, and th
e sky had been full of fluffy white clouds. It was a perfect day for a boat ride, and I had been enjoying the company of the king and queen and their beautiful daughter Ariana.

  Where the hell are the life vests? I tore through the stowage in a hurry, finding only one. “What in the hell?” I muttered again, knowing that I always kept at least three on board, and that it was something I had double-checked this morning. Cursing softly, I pasted a smile on my face, and threw it toward Ariana, watching as her father shoved it down over her head just as the wave came crashing over the boat.

  I fought against it. The safety of the king and queen was my responsibility, and it would be my burden to bear if anything should happen to them. Where had those damn life vests gone? With one eye on an unconscious Ari, I crawled through the waves, and up the floor of the tossing boat that was nearly upright from the force of the storm. The king and queen were at the helm, gripping the edge of the boat with all their might, desperately trying to stay alive. Where had those life jackets gone?

  The water reared up beneath us, and the boat flipped, turning me face down into the ocean. The salt water stung my eyes and nose, and I sputtered as I fought my way to the surface. Just as I reached the top of the waves, something latched tightly onto my leg, dragging me down again. My eyes popped open in shock, and I looked down to see what had captured me.

  It was an octopus, no, a sea serpent of sorts? No, it was definitely an octopus. But, also a woman? What in the hell was I looking at? Had I hit my head? Was I dead? I had to be. This thing was too ugly to be real. Her skin was a slimy grayish blue, covered in lumpy warts and rough barnacles. Her body was that of an octopus, but she had a grotesquely distorted woman’s face. The sea calmed and cleared around her as she met my gaze head-on, and I knew in that moment exactly what I was looking at. A sea witch.

  Pulling my leg away, I kicked her in her enormous gut as I wrestled free from her grasp. As I swam away, I turned back and marveled at how clear and deep the ocean was; an unusual phenomenon. I could clearly sea every tiny fish and murky algae pile, all the way down to the bottom of the sea. I saw her turn and grab something off the ocean floor. My gut twisted as I identified the shiny, abandoned object as the queen’s favorite crown, and saw the bodies of the king and queen lifeless on the ocean floor.

  I closed my eyes in pain as I mourned the loss of our benevolent leaders. Venus would never be the same without King Arthur and Queen Margaret, but there was no time to mourn their untimely death, I told myself as I swam away with renewed resolve. There was only one thing that truly mattered at the moment. I had to find Ari.

  My head pounded in time with the incessant high-pitch beeping noise. Groaning, I squeezed my eyes tighter in an attempt to relieve some of the pain.

  “There you are, Princess. How are you feeling?” The soft voice was deep and familiar. I recognized it instantly. The owner of that voice often starred in my dreams.

  “My head hurts and I’m really thirsty,” I complained, wincing as I did so. It hurt to talk, and I couldn’t seem to force my eyes open, despite several attempts.

  “Drink some water. I’ll get the nurse to bring you something for the pain.” A thin straw pressed against my lips, and I sucked gratefully, relishing the cold water as I swallowed, the liquid helping immensely to soothe my aching throat. With my thirst satisfied and desperate to see a familiar face, I forced my eyelids open, squinting against the bright lights. Grayson filled my line of vision, dressed in a pair of blue medical scrubs.

  “Why are you dressed like that?”

  “I came straight here once I found you. My clothes were all wet.”

  “Found me? What’s going on? Where are my parents?” The questions came rapid-fire, faster than I could even think.

  “Shh.” Grayson smiled, and I scrutinized his face, anxious for answers, but he offered none. “The doctors said your throat would be sore when you woke up.”

  As he spoke, a frumpy looking nurse with a friendly smile entered, going straight to the pump that was attached to my IV.

  “Good afternoon, sleepy head. It’s good to finally see those beautiful eyes open.” She fussed with the buttons on the machine without looking. “This will help with the pain.” She smiled at me and turned to Grayson. “You need to keep the princess calm while she’s awake, but this will help her get back to sleep soon.”

  He nodded and thanked her by name. A shockwave of jealousy pulsed through my body at the way she smiled at him and touched his shoulder on her way out of the room, but his eyes never left me.

  “What happened?” I repeated. The unexpected storm and the fear in my father’s eyes crashed through my memory in flashes, and I shot up to a sitting position. “Where are my mom and dad?”

  Grayson stood and put his hands on my shoulders forcing me to lie back. “Calm down. You heard the nurse. You need to rest if you want to get out of here anytime soon.”

  My chest burned from the sudden exertion, and I couldn’t have argued if I wanted to. My eyes were getting heavy, and I fought to stay awake.

  “I want to go home,” I mumbled.

  “Soon, but right now you must rest.” He brushed the hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear. The gesture offered comfort, and I pressed my face against his warm hand. “Sleep, little princess. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

  The princess had always been off limits. The deaths of the king and queen didn’t change that fact. I was still just a lowly fisherman, and she was a freaking princess. That she was currently sitting alone in a hospital bed with no recollection of her parents’ deaths, and I might just be the only familiar face she would see for a while… that was what I had to focus on. Not the overwhelming urge to scoop her into my arms and spend my life taking care of her, like my heart wanted, or the fact that my cock hardened in my pants every time I looked at her. Or thought of her.

  “Shit,” I swore to myself as I rummaged around the small oceanfront cabin I had inherited from my father, holding an empty duffel bag in one hand.

  There was absolutely nothing there that I could bring for the princess. I lived like a pauper, and she in the lap of luxury. Not to mention the glaringly obvious age, size and gender difference. I didn’t think I could get to the castle, and even if I did, I didn’t think I could get in. Getting here from the hospital had been hard enough, and had taken twice the time it normally would have. The village had been in turmoil, emergency vehicles filled the streets and the Coast Guard was combing the sea for any sign of the king and queen. Castle security would be in an uproar, and why would they let a lowly fisherman like myself comb through the princess’ things?

  I was going to have to make do and hit up a local department store when things settled down. For now, I threw in a pack of brand new white T-shirts, my favorite pair of sweatpants, a pair of soft boxer shorts, a comb and a few old Reader’s Digest classics from my father’s collection. Locking the door to the cottage behind me, I set out on my way. It was much quicker to walk than to attempt to navigate the traffic detours and rescue workers in my beater of a car, so that’s what I did.

  Despite the storm that had capsized my boat, it was a beautiful day in Venus, a small island village off the coast of Scotland. The sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy, and the birds were chirping from their perches in the treetops. It was as if there hadn't been a storm at all. The ground wasn’t wet and there were no raindrops on the trees or bushes. An eerie sense of apprehension washed over me as I remembered the creature I had seen under the water. Her ugly face had been gleefully smug, and she had grabbed my leg, almost as if she wanted me to see her, wanted me to know that the storm was her doing. But that was crazy… wasn’t it?

  Shrugging off the memories of the sea witch stories my father used to tell me, I continued my walk toward the hospital. Turning the corner, I began to notice more strangeness around me. The emergency vehicles that had cluttered the streets were gone, no sign of them anywhere. The sea was clear, only a few small fishing boats set upon the calm waters. Th
e Coast Guard search teams were also gone. I frowned in confusion, dread settling in my gut. They wouldn’t have turned up results that fast, and even if they had, they would still be out. I hadn’t been in the cabin more than a quarter hour.

  Looking around, I began to observe the oddities of the day, making mental notes as I did so. Everyone in Venus seemed to be out in droves, but that was no surprise. People loved a good spectacle, and a tragedy like this one was sure to bring them out. They would, of course, be restless and curious as to the fate of their beloved king and queen.

  As I walked, the pit of unease in my stomach grew. Something was off. While several of the villagers seemed happy, dancing and singing in the streets, others appeared dazed, walking like zombies along the same road I was taking.

  There was a low rumble of murmurs carrying on the breeze, and I stopped to listen.

  “All hail the queen,” they chanted. I looked up the hill toward the castle, and my jaw dropped in shock. The structure was there, in the exact place it had always been, but nothing about it was the same. Where it had once stood, new and glorious with pale tan stones carefully stacked together to form winding staircases and tall turrets, with well-kept grounds, on a lush backdrop of roses and green fields, it was now completely different. This castle was a dark gray box-like structure with towers that seemed to reach to the sky, making me recall the fairy tales of my youth. The grounds were hidden behind moss-covered stone walls, and all the lush greenery was now a dull brown. I shook my head, and looked again, my confusion growing when the image didn’t change. Had I hit my head when the boat wrecked?

  The gloomy castle seemed out of place amongst the cheerful village, and the cheerful village, well, that seemed just plain wrong. And where were all the Coast Guard boats and emergency vehicles that had been blocking the roads when I had left the hospital?

  My stomach churned as I strode up the hill, walking faster now as if my legs could carry me away, erasing the madness in the village below. The castle cast a dark shadow along my path, keeping its image ever present in my mind.