From the website: King Mair's life is in the hands of a fae captive. Mair is the half-faerie son of the goblin king's sister, a product of rape at the hands of their enemy, the sidhe, and the last person that the goblin horde wants to see sit upon the throne. When the king is killed in battle and all of his sons die squabbling for the crown, Mair finds himself the sole heir to the throne--a position that he neither wants nor is likely to survive. To make matters worse, he is presented with a slave to see to his needs--a mute sidhe soldier captured in battle--and Mair is again reminded of how much he resembles the enemy.

The sidhe, Zakatri, is not as stupid and bloodthirsty as Mair expects, and they strike an uneasy alliance. If Zak can keep Mair alive until the coronation ceremony, Mair will grant the faerie his freedom in return. But will his bitter and vengeful half-goblin heart allow Mair to keep his promise, or will Zak's only reward be a goblin dagger between his ribs?

Forced to share his bed with the bound and naked slave in order to keep up pretenses, Mair suffers a moment of weakness and succumbs to the desires of the flesh, never imagining the consequences of this one thoughtless act. ( )

Mair doesn’t particular like the goblins, the people from his mother side, but they are the only family he has always known. Born from a rape his mother was subjected, she managed to escape and come back to her home, but then she discovered she was with a child. All her people told her to kill the baby, the bastard son of a fairy, but he was also her son, and she was the king’s sister, so her blood was enough to save him, almost. Many times goblins tried to kill Mair, once even his uncle, the king, but more or less he arrived to 23 years old unscathed but deeply alone. He is the spitting image of his father and so, where goblins are little, curved and with long horns, he is tall, lean, with a creamy complexion and two little wings he always hides. No one wants to be near him, other than his mother, and so he is not only alone, he also misses the human touch. And he hates his body, that is so different from what he is used to see around, and he hates sex, that he links to what happened to his mother.

When a turn of fate makes him the new king, Mair has to face many problem: first of all, everyone around him wants to kill him again, and second, has an healthy and young goblin, he is expected to have a sex slave to relieve him of his “needs”, and slaves are usually fairies. The one they brought to him is Zak, a music fairy that his now mute due to a bad wound. For any parameter Zak is a beautiful man, but for Mair he’s also a constant remember that he is not like the others. He is more like Zak.

There is a strange contraposition between Mair and Zak. It’s clear that Zak is stronger, not only in body but also in inner strength, but sometime I had the feeling that he didn’t want to fight back. It’s not clear if Zak was a warrior caught in battle, or if he was a slave even before, for sure at first he is scared by the situation but then maybe he realizes that Mair is not exactly the ugly and dangerous goblin king he was expecting. In that moment I had the clear idea that Zak chose to be with Mair, as a slave, not since he was forced but since he wanted.

The novel didn’t show us how Mair will manage to be the king of a bunch of people that want to kill him, but I don’t think it will be easy. Mair, truth be told, has not the streak to be a leader, he is too gentle and troubled. He has too inner fears, true they are more psychological than real, but in any case I think he is not even interested in being a king. Maybe the relationship with Zak will help him, being the master even of only a man, it could be a first step to strengthen him to a bigger task.

The master slave relationship is only hinted, also since Mair as I said is not exactly a real master, and so also the sex is more “simple” and basic than in a BDSM relationship. Mair is too scared of sex to do something really wicked to Zak, and Zak, I think, is way more experienced than Mair, to be able to lead the younger man, at least in bed.

http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/875478.html