Ogre Daddy (Fantastical Daddy Doms Book 2) Page 2

  I stopped short when something jumped in front of me, blocking my path, and looked up to see her standing before me. Her scales were dry, and she looked withered in the light of the sun, but I supposed that was normal for a sea creature out of the water. Perched precariously atop her misshapen head, was Queen Margaret’s crown. The gold sparkled and the rubies glimmered in the sunlight, a paradox against her sallow and gray-blue skin. Looking at her made my blood boil, and I grabbed for the crown.

  “That doesn’t belong to you,” I snarled.

  Far more tentacles than arms, two of the long fleshy appendages knocked my hand away while two others held the crown in place, and four remained on the ground underneath her.

  “Of course it belongs to me. I am Queen Lamia of Venus. Bow to me, peasant. Bow to your queen.” She spoke in a raspy voice with a fake regal air, and I snickered.

  “You are nothing more than a washed up sea hag in a stolen crown, and if you stay on land much longer, you are likely to turn into a dried up old sponge,” I scoffed in disbelief. “Now get out of my way. I have to visit the princess.”

  Her eyes narrowed, and she fanned out her arms, blocking not just my path but the entire road. A passerby approached and she grabbed him, entangling him in her tentacled hold.

  “You!” she shrieked, pointing at him. “Who am I?”

  His eyes widened, and I shot him a sympathetic look of apology. It is not every day one is snatched up by a delusional sea creature.

  His voice shook as he snatched off his cap, and held it over his heart. “You are Queen Lamia, your Majesty,” he stuttered. “The most beautiful and adored in all the land. The fish swim to the surface gasping for air to catch a glimpse of your magnificent beauty, and the wood creatures abandon their hiding places just to bask in the glory of your presence.”

  My jaw nearly came unhinged as I gaped at him, turning from the man back to her, and then back to him. “Hello!” I shouted sarcastically. “Fat slimy blob, blue skin, eight rubbery tentacle arms? Any of this ring a bell?”

  The villager looked at me as if I was the crazy one. “Queen Lamia is the most beautiful woman in the land. Maybe in the entire world. Her red hair sparkles like the rubies in her crown, her skin glistens like the morning dew, and her blue eyes shine like the sea on a summer day.”

  He spoke with complete sincerity, and I knew then that we saw two different things when we looked at her.

  A growl rose from low in my throat and bubbled to the surface as I turned back to the witch, scowling. “I don’t know what kind of voodoo bullshit you’ve performed today, but it doesn’t matter what you say. You can’t put lipstick on a pig and call it a rose.” I was mixing metaphors, but it didn’t matter.

  Adrenaline took over, and I smacked her out of the way, all two hundred odd pounds of wet lard, smirking when she toppled onto the road, and the villager scrambled out of her grasp, squawking and bowing like a maniac.

  My boot made a satisfying slimy slurping sound as I tread heavily on one of her arms, and continued stepping over her as if she were a pile of horse dung on the road. I stomped hard, but she didn’t even flinch, regarding me with mild amusement. My chest heaved and my body shook with rage. I didn’t know what kind of madness was going on, but I couldn’t wait to get to the hospital and away from the shitshow in the village. The light of Ari’s smile, even on her worst day had the power to calm my ragged nerves and still the storm brewing in my soul.

  “Give my regards to the girl. Better yet, I’ll tell her myself.” As she spoke, a shadow grew behind me, looming over me as it cast me into darkness.

  I turned with a scowl, wishing I had my filet knife on me. I could have gutted her like she was the tiniest of minnows, sliced her up into sea bitch sushi and left her in the road to rot. I wasn’t a violent person, but at that moment, I’d have done it in a heartbeat. “Leave the princess alone.”

  “There is no princess,” Lamia announced, waving her arms in the air. “There is only I, the queen, and all of my minions, falling over themselves to do my bidding. That includes your precious Ariana.”

  My eyes narrowed into slits as I glared at her. My hands balled into fists at my sides. “Like hell,” I said. “Leave the princess alone.”

  The sea witch smiled, the sleaziest smile I had ever seen, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit that it struck fear into my heart. Somehow, she managed to curl and snap the end of one arm, making the same sound that it would if I were to snap my fingers.

  “I will not,” she scoffed. “But you will have to.”

  “There is nothing on this earth that will keep me from going to Ari,” I vowed.

  “And that’s where you’re wrong,” she retorted, snapping again.

  In an instant, lightning filled the sky, and struck me right in the chest. I fell to the ground, and found myself unable to move, as if my limbs were paralyzed.

  “You fooled him,” I gasped, gesturing with my eyes toward the pauper’s retreating form. “But you are an ugly old hag, and the villagers are blind with grief. They will come to their senses and see you for the witch you are.” I believed the words as I spoke them.

  “We will see which of us is the ugly one,” she cackled, pointing an arm toward my stomach. My body was wracked with pain, my chest throbbed as it seemed to expand underneath my shirt, swelling until the fabric stretched and ripped. My arms were next, engorging to twice their original size. I watched in horrified silence as the skin slowly transformed in front of my eyes, until it seemed to glow a nearly neon shade of yellow-green. The process continued until every inch of my body was in agony. I opened my mouth to cry out, to yell at her, and tell her she would never be able to stop me from keeping my vow to the princess, but no sound emerged, and the effort seemed to suck every last shred of energy from my body.

  My shoes tore, my feet exploding from them as the transformation continued. What had she done?

  “You may have somehow been immune to my mind control and beauty spell, but nobody will believe you now, you ugly beast!” she cackled happily. “And even if they would, you won’t be able to tell them!” Her laughter grew shrill, and lightning flashed across the sky as it reached its peak, a piercing sound that had me covering my ears in pain.

  I lay there, chest heaving, energy depleted, watching as she slunk up the hill toward the hospital. What was she holding? I hadn’t noticed it before, but there was something curled under one of her massive arms. A book?

  Just the act of watching her walk away drained me, and I lay back against the dirt road, closing my eyes as I tried to catch my breath.

  When I regained an ounce of strength, I stood, holding my now large green hands in front of my face. I opened my mouth and tried to speak again, but nothing came out.

  The sea witch was right. I couldn’t see Ari like this. Anger collided with disappointment, coursing through my body as I shook my fist in the air. There was nothing I could do. I had never felt so hopeless.

  I would get Ari back someday, I resolved, starting the long trek down to my fishing cabin. The sea witch may have won the battle, but I would win the war.

  When I woke up, I looked around the room expecting Grayson to be there, wearing the same pained smile as before, but I was alone. Memories of the day came flooding back, and my stomach twisted in fear of the worst. Hugging my middle, I attempted to comfort myself. I was still groggy from the meds but desperate for answers. My hands fumbled along the rail of the bed, searching for the call button. Just as I found it and began to press it, the door to my room creaked open and a woman entered. At least, I was pretty sure it was a woman. My eyes were still heavy with sleep, and I felt disoriented and alone. As the figure drew closer, the bright lights over the top of my bed reflected off something shiny, temporarily blinding me. Mother? My heart leapt with joy, then sunk just as quickly as I squinted at the approaching form. I peered at her, scrunching my face into a frown of confusion. This woman was not my mother at all, but the crown... I opened my mouth to speak, but she silenced m
e with a finger to my lips.

  “Hush, child, it is I, your queen. There is no need for you to speak. You need only to listen.” She pressed her cold hand to the side of my cheek, and I sank back against the pillows.

  I didn’t know who the beautiful stranger was, but I didn’t care. My confusion and loneliness seemed to disappear when she spoke. Her voice was soft and melodic, and I felt instantly relaxed and at ease.

  “I have come because I heard about the terrible accident that has robbed you of your family.” Her face fell, and her words confirmed my deepest fears, but I didn’t react. I was entranced by her beauty and the sound of her voice. “You have no one left to take care of you, you poor little girl.” I was young, yes, but hardly a little girl, yet the endearment made me instantly feel childlike, hungry for someone to take care of me, to tell me that everything was going to be all right.

  “You are all alone in the world now, but not to worry, your benevolent queen has brought you comfort.” She removed her hand from my cheek and picked up a book I hadn’t seen her set down on my bed. It was thick and bound in leather. The front was embossed with dolphins splashing in the waves. It made me smile, despite everything, and I eagerly took it from her when she held it out to me. “This book will soothe your soul and give you the direction you so desperately need. You may thank your queen now.”

  The words stuck in my throat as I stared at the cover of the book, running my fingers across the soft leather. I was filled with an inexplicably urgent need to read it right that second. Eagerly, I flipped it open, but it was slapped shut before I could even read the title page.

  “Do not disobey your queen, girl. Especially after she has given you such a precious gift.” Her voice hardened, and I cringed, instantly craving the melodic tone from moments before. I would to do anything to get it back.

  “I’m sorry, please forgive me,” I begged. “Thank you, m-my queen.”

  “That’s right, now you be a good girl and you read that book front to back. Don’t let any word go unstudied, and be sure to commit each sentence into your memory.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Her eyes narrowed into a sharp glare, and she reared back as if I had struck her. “Yes, my queen,” she corrected.

  “Yes, my queen,” I repeated without hesitation.

  “You wouldn’t want to let the efforts of your queen coming all the way down here personally to bring you a gift be for naught now would you?”

  I shook my head as the need to do as I was told and to please her increased ten-fold. “No, my queen. I promise I will read it.”

  The nurse bustled in, stopping short at the sight of the visitor. “My apologies, my queen.” She dropped to her knees and bowed her head. “I didn’t know—”

  “Silence,” the queen snapped at her before turning back to me. “You be a good girl now, Ariana. Read the book I have given you. It will give you comfort and direction.” The command was clear and I nodded, opening the cover of my book again. Within the first few words, every thought fled from my mind. All the pain left my body, and the room around me disappeared. There was only me and the book.

  Life as a mute ogre was a painfully lonely one. This was a truth I recognized almost immediately. With this body, there was no more rambling into the pub in the center of the village and finding some randy fun for the night. It was too bad too, because my dick was freaking glorious, and I was the only one getting to enjoy it. As for my hands, they could have delivered one hell of a spanking to a naughty little barmaid. One single palm could have easily covered both cheeks of the thickest of asses. A shame that such assets were going to waste, but how was I to get a woman to sleep with me now? Just another thing the sea witch had taken from me with her stupid little spell.

  Romance. Sex life. Job. Ability to go out in public. The list was never-ending. How does one make money when one cannot leave the house or be seen by people? I had taken up bitcoin farming, and hoped for the best. Thankfully the house was paid for, and I had a meager savings account, but who knew how long I would be stuck in this body, and unable to speak.

  My life was changed completely, but hopefully not permanently.

  A meager two weeks after my run-in with ‘Queen Lamia,’ her reign over Venus was in full swing. As far as I could tell, the entire village had been brainwashed by her voodoo magic. I saw no evidence that anyone remembered a time before Queen Lamia. There was no mention of the king or queen’s death, and nothing about Ari surviving the crash. No mention of Ari at all. It was like she didn’t exist.

  Venus had fallen into line worshipping their new queen as if she really was the most beautiful and adored in all the land like she claimed to be. But I saw her for her true form, and someday, I would find a way to expose her for what she really was; nothing more than an ugly wicked sea witch. Somehow, I would rescue the princess, even if I had to be her knight in giant green feet to do it. I just didn’t know how.

  For now, I holed up in my cabin by the sea. While modest, it was grand to me, the home of my youth. A small two-bedroom shack with wood floors, an old-fashioned kitchen with bay windows and a lovely little garden in the side yard. The garden had been designed by my mama and boasted a pretty French garden settee. The first time I sat on it with my new body, the legs broke, collapsing underneath me, spilling me onto the ground. I fixed it, of course, but now it was just for show, and I spent most of my days perched upon an old cable spool I had pulled to the edge of the yard. Sometimes I read, sometimes I whittled, but mostly I just stared down into the village feeling helpless.

  I had observed a great number of interesting things lately, and I knew that someday they would come together to help me conquer the sea witch. Today I had a notebook, holding a tiny pen curled into my massive fist, as I attempted to make a legible list from my awkward chicken scratch.

  1. No memory of the king and queen.

  2. Blatant and unabashed worship of the queen at the same time every single day. Had I missed a memo, some sort of royal decree?

  3. To everyone besides myself, the queen really was stunningly beautiful. She had cast a sort of beauty spell upon herself, and I was the only one who was immune to its powers.

  4. Young women rushed to the castle in droves daily, walking as if entranced. Their eyes were blank and hungry, and the looks on their faces full of need. It chilled me to the bone.

  5. Each one of them clutched a book under their arm, gripping it as if it held the secret to life.

  There was some sort of Pied Piper effect going on, and it had something to do with the books. No two books were the same, but the effects they seemed to have were.

  Perplexed by my notes, I looked up into the sky, judging it to be about two in the afternoon. I expected to see a gaggle of hypnotized young women passing by my cabin at any moment. Closing my notebook, I set my eyes upon the road, watching for them. Even though there was always a group of five or more, they made no sound, as if they too had been rendered mute. It wasn’t normal for large groups of young women to walk together in utter silence. Any man who knew anything about the opposite sex knew that.

  And yet they never made so much as a peep. Even their shoes were silent as they clomped against the gravel drive.

  I sat there in wait, counting the minutes as they passed, first ten, then twenty, then ten more. No girls came.

  No girls came, but the timer beeped on my tiny oven, signaling that my bread was finished baking. Thank god for online grocery delivery service and things like Amazon Pantry. That was another thing I had been doing too much of to pass the time. Breads and muffins filled the countertops in my tiny kitchen; there was no way I would ever eat it all. And still I baked.

  With a sigh, I turned toward the house, intent to rescue my newest creation from the oven, and that’s when I saw her.

  Ari. The dress she wore was the same one she had worn the day of the storm, and it had obviously been washed, but now it hung on her tiny frame. Her eyes were set in a blank stare, and her gaze pointed toward the
castle. She clutched a worn leather-bound book tight to her chest, and I knew my greatest fear had indeed been realized. The witch had gotten to her, too.

  She was alone though, and I couldn’t stop myself from approaching her. My feet moved quicker than my brain, and only when I was side by side with her did I remember my new look. I stopped short in the road, and she did too.

  She looked straight at me! Her head cocked to the side, and she opened her mouth as if to speak. So badly I wanted to call out to her, to warn her of the peril that was surely to come, but I knew that if I tried, the effort would literally knock me upon my ass.

  Just as quickly the moment passed, the dead stare returned, and she looked right through me like I wasn’t even there. Then, as if she had been beckoned by some silent calling, her gaze returned to the castle on the hill, and her feet began to move. She passed me, and I watched her back as she retreated with a sense of escalating doom building in my chest. I couldn’t let her go.

  Opening my mouth, I put all of my effort and concentration into forming her name on my lips. My chest ached as I pushed air forward from my diaphragm, willing my voice to be heard. And it worked. It worked, all right, but the sound that came from me was a loud and terrifying roar of a growl that began low in my throat and bubbled to the surface like a volcano erupting.

  “ARRGLLRRR”. The wretched noise took all my effort, and the result made even me wince in fear and surprise at the sound that escaped from my lips.

  The worst part was, Ariana didn’t even turn. If she had cowered in fear or even startled, it would have been bad enough, but she didn’t even flinch. She hadn’t heard a thing. All I had managed to do was startle myself and deplete the rest of the day’s energy. I fell back on my ass into the soft grass, and curled my knees to my chest as I did the only thing I was able to. I watched.