Chosen Bride of the Seven Dark Princes

After dinner, they moved on into the games room and hit the bowling alley where they challenged each other with a few games.

Since Candace was a good bowler and the men were fairly terrible, she handily won each game, even as they struggled to look miserable after each defeat.

Truth was, they could care less about winning and losing to her. Candace's lithe dancer body looked so good doing bowling moves that their eyes lit up every time it was her turn to bowl.

After that, they took turns at the shooting range, firing virtual pellets at tiny bulls eye targets on screens. In this, they were expert at and Candace really sucked at firing, rarely ever making a hit at all.

"Why are you not hitting the target Darling?" Jared asked as he watched her shooting form.

"I'm not sure. I aim it just like you men do, but I can't seem to get the bullets to fly there."

"She just needs larger bullets," Jason laughed. "That way, she's not aiming for the tiny little dot at the center. The bullet would just blast the entire field out."

Jared chuckled. "That's a good way to do it. We can also change the trigger mechanism so she shoots a dozen rounds at once. If the first bullet doesn't hit, the remaining eleven will."

They reached out and high-fived each other and began fooling around with her gun.

By the time they were done, she was shooting out large glitter stars and rubber duckies which made the shooting almost impossible to do.

From the shooting range, they moved onto the trampoline where they jumped and held strange poses in the air for the automatic camera which took stills of their funny twisted faces and their contorted bodies.

"Candace! Make ballet moves in the air!" One of them suggested, so Candace began striking dance poses as she bounced into camera reach.

Between her ballet poses alongside their comedic attempts, they managed to take hundreds of rolling on the floor laughing pictures of Candace and the twins.

Candace's favorite picture was of them, holding onto each of her hand and spreading their other hands out in a huge TA DA!!! gesture, their hair streaming upward, their faces bright and mouths opened wide and laughing.

"Oh you like that one, huh?" Jared grinned with evil intent. "I'll have that one framed and hung in our house."

Jason laughed and threw in another of them goofing off and looking silly. "I like this one too."

"Yeah. That's a good funny one." Jason doubled up with mirth.

"Where are you going to put these images?" Candace asked with suspicion. Knowing these artist clowns, it could be anywhere.

"Have you ever seen us doing something that was not tasteful?" Jared asked with a pretend hurt look on his face, even as Jason covered his mouth and tried not to laugh.

From the trampoline, they moved onto the ice rink.

The men were absolute klutzes! As they scattered across the ice, they hung onto each other for dear life, sometimes dragging each other down, sometimes even dragging Candace down.

She was not a ballerina on ice, but at least she could move around the rink with some grace.

"Okay, that does it." Jason growled. "I'm going to spend time learning how to skate. Really learn how to skate, so Wifey can skate with me and not be so embarrassed."

"You and me both. Owwww!" Jared howled as he slipped and fell again for the umpteenth time.

Seeing how miserable they were at skating, Candace moved them onto the dance machines where they had to dance a specific number of moves to win points. In this, they were stellar!

"Wow! I didn't know you guys could dance!"

"Sweetheart, we could do a double tango where you could move back and forth between us." Jason laughed.

"Yes. We can double-cha-cha too! Want to try?" Jared jumped out and grabbed her hand. Before she could even respond, they were doing a tango with her moving between the two in a syncopated manner.

"Wow! I didn't even know this was possible!" Candace exclaimed!

"Haha neither did we." Jason laughed.

"We just made it up. You are such an amazing dancer that you picked up on our movements and added your own flourishes." Jared grinned.

They played all day long in the game room until it was almost time for dinner, whereupon they jumped into the showers and washed off the sweat of exertion.

The twins wanted more loving time, but she begged off until after dinner. She was much more energetic nowadays, but was still not back to her normal dancer self.

By this time, Candace was beginning to realize something important. The more shards of Avgo that she was slowly collecting were increasing her energy level.

Her exhaustion had been due to the fact that she didn't have all the pieces and much like a fetus, the living fragments of the Avgo egg were leeching off her for their survival. The more pieces she collected, the more it was able to take care of its own energy needs.

Perhaps once she got the final two shards, she would be completely free and unencumbered by the feelings of tiredness.

Right before dinner, a call came through from the Emperor. He had also begun the trek to Avalia. His mission: escort the Royal Consort Gwendolyn and his daughter Lyra home.

"Boys. Candace." He smiled, marveling at how happy the three of them looked. "I heard you three are traveling to Avalia."

"Yes," Jason smiled. "We are going there to deliver a custom-created designer original."

The Emperor harrumphed. "I find that hard to believe. Why would both of you boys need to hand-deliver something that you've made, to some dragons in a distant quadrant of space?"

Jared raised an eyebrow. "For the same reason that you are also running off and personally retrieving someone from a distant quadrant of space."

"That's different!" The emperor frowned. "I'm going to pick up my wife. What does that have to do with your delivery of goods that could have just been delivered there by couriers?"

Jason chimed in. "We tend to treat our family much better than our customers."

"You're all going to see Gwen?" The Emperor rubbed his chin. "We could perhaps all meet up and visit her at the same time."

His eyes lit up. He knew Gwen was upset at him. Maybe if the twins and Candace were with him, she would not be as mad…

"Sorry Father." Jared shook his head. "You're just going to have to face the music with Mother Gwen on your own."

Jason gave a thumbs up. "You'll do just fine. Mother Gwen has always been a kind and gentle person. She won't kill you." We hope. He thought to himself.

Jared nodded. "We'll meet her first and take care of the delivery, and then we can all meet up afterwards for a nice family get-together."

The Emperor pursed his lips in dissatisfaction. When did the boys stop being cute and become so stubborn?

He turned to Candace. "I have spoken to Dante, Byron, and Lucas about your upcoming wedding. I hope you will be back soon so we can make arrangements for your wedding."

"Ahhh. About that, Father. I've talked it over with the brothers and I'm afraid we're going to have to make a little adjustment to the marriage document."

"A—adjustments?" The Emperor's brows knitted. Since when did she get a say in the marriage document?