Page 26

Lew had said survivors before. Only when the survivors were together again.

Now.

She’d known not everyone would make it. Infinite possibilities had brought us here. To four living men who’d once loved my mother and carried her blood and swore oaths to uphold their queens against any and all threats. They’d endured the loss of their friends. Knowing the torture and death they faced as one by one they were taken by the Dauphine. Captivity in a foreign court. Forced by their honor to obey another queen. A queen they did not love or even respect.

Biding their time. Hoping. Praying. Enduring.

Until I could finally come to reclaim what Isador had lost.

My fangs started to drop, forcing me to open my mouth or pierce my own lip. Air on the wicked sharp ivory made me quiver with anticipation. Need. Hunger so fierce it wiped away all thoughts from my head. Though I managed to say in their bonds, :I forgive you all. Now please forgive me.:

Gerard’s eyes flickered with confusion, not understanding why I might beg his forgiveness as I grasped his shoulders and pulled him closer. He came. Eager. Willing. On his knees before me, tipping his head to stretch his throat in a long, inviting curve of flesh and muscle.

Unable to wait even one more moment, I sank my fangs deep. His back arched on a guttural cry, his body shaking against me in release. I opened my knees and pulled him into the cradle of my body, holding him against me while I drank. Without the watchful eyes of another queen, I indulged in my hunger, drinking with no reservations.

We galloped down a distant gray beach. Storm-tossed waves crashed and rolled around us. Thunder rumbled, lightning crackling across the horizon. Salt and ozone burned the air. I clung to his upper body, the part of him that was a man, as his red-skinned demon raced across the shore, blending with the waves. Until salty ocean water closed over our heads.

Those same waves flowed in his blood, spiced with the blood of my mother. For a moment, I could see her. Her arms wrapped around us both, her face hovering over his shoulder. In one of those infinite possibilities, we might have even fed on him at the same time.

:Love them well, daughter of mine,: she whispered in my head. Then she was gone.

As he slumped against my knees, I licked my bite and lifted my head. Without me asking, Lew helped shift Gerard to the side, laying him on the floor beside me to make room for another Blood to take his place.

I looked back and forth between Nox and Khalid. “Who’s next?”

Without hesitation, they both moved closer, offering throat. In unison, they said, “Me.”

So it must have confused them when I raised my gaze to Rik and held my hands out to him. He immediately helped me stand, steading me as I turned around. Giving him my back so he could unzip the dress and let it slide down my body.

“I feel a little bad about draining Gerard first without even getting him inside me.”

Rik rumbled out a laugh as he swept me up into his arms. “When he wakes up, he can skip the line.”

KHALID

Gerard was one lucky bastard.

Disappointment flashed through me, hopefully so quickly that my new queen hadn’t noticed. I’d hoped she might feed on me again.

The sensations of a queen feasting on my blood was the greatest pleasure I’ve ever known. Her mouth on my skin. Her fangs piercing me. The pull and draw of her hunger as she swallowed. Her breath whispering over my flesh. Goddess. I couldn’t get enough. Even if I never tasted her again, I could die a very happy Blood.

If she allowed someone to fuck me at the same time…

Dare I hope, Gerard once more. After so long.

I would definitely end up a spirit bird hovering around her chair with the others.

Needless to say, I had zero complaints that the queen of Rome hadn’t wished to feed on me. Not one drop. Though she’d ensured the five of us all tasted her—so her blood bound us to her will. I dare say she feared even a drop of Isador blood might bring her to the same fate as Desideria. Though I doubted my blood still carried the cobra queen’s venom. Not after so long. But who could say? I certainly didn’t correct Marne Ceresa’s assumptions that we all fed constantly on our queen’s poisoned blood.

Shara’s alpha made quick work of her dress and carried her to bed. Another aspect of Blood service I had missed—and been relieved when Marne Ceresa had not required such duties of us. In fact, she’d forbidden us from feeding on each other in any way, including sex. As if she feared even her bond would fail to hold us if we gained power from each other.

So we were all especially starved for touch.

Though neither Nox or I moved a step closer, waiting for our orders.

I didn’t understand the smirk on Lew’s face as he walked over to open a window and let the Isador birds fly back outside. I got that things were different now. I had no problem whatsoever following another alpha’s orders. But for Lew to take these adjustments so easily, especially in our former queen’s bedchamber… I just couldn’t wrap my head around it, despite the order he’d received from our former queen.

“If it’s too strange to be here with me—” Shara began.