Queen Takes King

by Joely Sue Burkhart

  Yet she said nothing to me as she turned away. “So, how do I do this, exactly?”

  The alpha signaled one of the older Blood, the one who moved like a medieval knight. I would have had a very good time chomping on knights if I hadn’t been locked away. I didn’t bother hiding that thought, and the man’s eyes narrowed, though he didn’t grace me with a retort or direct look.

  “Guillaume is going to walk you through it, since he’s participated in establishing a new nest from scratch,” the alpha said. “But it’s basically like the salt circles you used when we first found you, only you use blood instead.”

  “Mine?”

  “And ours,” Guillaume said. “You’re the power. We’re the deterrent. The most important thing to remember is that whatever you start, we have to finish, or it’s useless. If you make the circle too large, we may not be able to close it before one of us faints or needs to be fed. This first circle, I think we all should participate.” He did give me a stern look then. I barely held back a smirk, though I’m sure he felt my disdain in the bond. “Then each time we walk the perimeter to guard your nest, we’ll add blood to it. We’ll constantly strengthen and expand your defenses. But this first time is crucial. This will be the heart of your nest, the tightest, safest, most secure part of your court.”

  “So it needs to be big… but not too big,” she mused aloud, looking up at the main house. “I’m feeling better. Good, actually. How much blood do I actually need to put on the ground? A solid line? Or drops?”

  “Drops are enough, but the more you do, the better, as long as you complete the circle.”

  She held her hand out and Guillaume made a blade appear in his hand like a magician. Yet the knight hesitated.

  “I feel I should warn you about the… side effects.”

  “Yeah, I don’t want any of us to faint.”

  He coughed, a slight smile curving his lips. “Indeed, my queen, but that’s not what I meant. You know what your blood does to us.”

  “And what our blood does to you.” The alpha’s voice dropped an octave. “Plus, you’ll be building power into the nest. A great deal of power.”

  “It’s not uncommon to… uh…”

  I started to laugh. I couldn’t help it. The great Templar knight was blushing. “What the good knight is so reluctant to say is that a queen and her Blood usually establish the nest while nude. It makes the resulting orgy easier if there’s no clothes to remove.”

  31

  Shara

  Orgy? If he thought to shock me, he’d be sorely disappointed. At least my period was finally over. “How many humans are on the premises?”

  “Frank and three humans are at the front gate,” Xin answered immediately. “Winston’s in his quarters in the main house. Gina left earlier in a car. No other human is within a three-mile radius.”

  I felt for Gina’s bond. :We need an hour undisturbed to set the nest. Can you call Winston and tell him not to look out the windows for a bit?:

  I didn’t have to taste her blood to feel her laughter through our bond. She knew what a nest entailed.

  With my human friends taken care of, I unbuttoned my jeans and started shimmying out of them.

  Daire leaped into action like he was a competition stripper, though my other Blood were quick to get naked too. I didn’t look at Levi. I didn’t need to. His bond crackled and sparked, torn between surprise and lust. Frozen in place, he watched as I pulled my sweater over my head and tossed it in a pile.

  “If you’re not participating, could you go drag some blankets from the guest house so we don’t have to fuck on the ground? Though ice and snow won’t stop me once I get a taste of blood.”

  I felt Guillaume’s concern in the bond, but he didn’t say anything. He’d already said all my Blood should participate. The problem was that Leviathan didn’t count himself as my Blood in any way, shape, or form. Not yet.

  I didn’t have to order Leviathan. I knew what he wanted. What he needed. And if I tried to command him… He’d gladly balk. He wanted me to give him a reason to hate and distrust me.

  I sure as fuck wasn’t going to cooperate in that regard. But my patience with him was limited. He had to let go of the past and start anew. Or he should have stayed in that motherfucking cave. I didn’t send those words to him directly in the bond, but I made sure he felt what I was thinking.

  Looking at my men, my hunger stirred. My nipples pebbled in the chilly December air and goose bumps raced down my arms. Though I wasn’t cold exactly. Just… exposed. My fangs started to descend, making my face throb. My stomach knotted and grumbled, ready to feast. In more ways than one.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Levi jerk his shirt over his head. I didn’t look at him directly. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. I didn’t know all that he’d suffered yet, though hundreds or thousands of years locked away from the world would have driven anyone insane. I got it.

  But I wasn’t one to tip-toe around a man who wanted to be in my bed. Especially when I had four fearless, honorable, loyal men ahead of him. He could figure it out.

  Or he could fucking sleep on the fucking floor.

  I tried to gauge how far I wanted to pace out this circle. The heart of my nest had to include the main house, and the guest house, since that’s where we’d stay for at least a few weeks while repairs were made. I was starting to regret picking out such a large house. I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough blood left in my body to worry about any orgy.

  “We’ll help,” Rik said at my side. “You don’t have to walk it yourself. You just have to bleed. If you get woozy, I’ll carry you.”

  Guillaume passed the knife around to each Blood first.

  So much blood scenting the air. All five of them. Their blood glowed and sang to me, mesmerizing me like I’d stared into a fire too long. My fangs throbbed in time with my heartbeat.

  Waiting to sink into one of them until I had the whole circle marked was going to be a pain in my ass.

  Finally, Guillaume turned to me. I offered my left palm and he cupped my hand in his. “I’m going to make a fairly deep cut. Squeeze your hand into a fist to control how much blood you drip onto the ground. You’ll feel the power rising. That’s a good thing, though it might seem like it’ll never end. It will—once you close the circle. That’s when all hell will break loose.”

  “The orgy.” I wiggled my eyebrows, making him laugh. “I can’t wait. Let’s get to it.”

  He sliced me deeply enough I actually sucked in a breath at the pain. Fisting my hand like he said, I squeezed hard, applying pressure to the wound so that blood only seeped through my fingers.

  The first drop of my blood hit the earth and the soft thud reverberated through my body like a gong. I’d bled plenty of times before, but I don’t think I’d ever allowed my blood to drip onto the ground itself other than when I’d opened Leviathan’s portal. Something wild and raw stirred deep in the earth. Mother Nature, Gaia, the earth goddess, the great matriarch of the Aima houses.

  She felt her child’s blood, no matter how thinned over the ages, and responded.

  She accepted my sacrifice. In fact, She was hungry for more.

  I walked quickly in an arc around the front of my house, trailing blood on the frozen ground. Each drop gleamed like rubies in the moonlight, sprinkled among the ice crystals and frosted grass. I glanced back, not surprised to see the red glow rising up from the ground. It looked like the tapestry in my head—only this was outside of myself. Power hummed and pulsed through me like a mighty generator coming online. Switches fired, flipping from dormant, to high speed ahead.

  Switch. After switch. After switch.

  I started to understand what Guillaume had meant. Power rose inside me—but it had nowhere to go. Nothing to do. Magic rose to a fevered pitch inside me, vibrated my bones, and screamed through my nerves. My hair crackled with static electricity around my head. If one of the guys touched me right now, I was afraid I’d blast him on his ass.

  I
walked faster from necessity. Half running now. I had to finish before I came apart at the seams. I stumbled over a low landscape wall and Rik grabbed my elbow to steady me. I heard him suck in his breath, his fingers going numb on my arm. But he didn’t let go.

  “More blood,” Guillaume said on my other side, his voice tight with strain. “It’s a little thin. Or slow down.”

  Fuck that shit. I wasn’t slowing until I had my fangs buried in one of them. I worked my hand to get more blood flowing. My whole body throbbed with my heart beat, a heavy, steady thump that was driving me mad. I’m sure I looked like a lunatic, running naked around my own yard, my mouth gaped open with gigantic fangs protruded. I’d wished for fangs—but I should have been careful what I wished for. They grew even longer, poking through my own lip.

  The taste of my blood in my mouth was a torment. I didn’t want my blood. I wanted theirs. My hunger torched higher, searing my lungs like Leviathan had burst free and blasted my insides with fire.

  I ran harder, dribbling blood from my mouth and my hand. Though I wasn’t sure that my lip bled hard enough to help. The guest house was in sight. I could see the fiery glow of the finish line straight ahead like a wildfire roaring across the lawn.

  A bird screeched in the night. What the fuck? Not an owl. It sounded like a crow.

  Raven.

  I jerked my gaze up as something black soared over the trees headed for us. Larger than any bird—but not as big as Leviathan. Rik roared, shifting to rock troll in a heart beat, the signal for my other Blood to leap to my defense. He shoved me behind him and Guillaume pressed me tight to Rik’s broad granite-hard back.

  “You have to finish!” Guillaume whispered urgently against my ear.

  I could feel the strain in the line I’d laid already. It brightened, hovering on the edge of closing the circle… Or dissipating like fog in the night.

  Xin and Daire pressed tight to my legs, silvery fur on one side, black stripes on the other.

  Leviathan… or rather Levi, the man, stood alone. Forlorn, and yes, angry. He reached for his dragon. He strained to fill himself with scales and claws and wings.

  But Leviathan the beast belonged to me now.

  “I think it’s Nevarre.” I couldn’t focus on the tapestry, not with magic pounding through my blood. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought it was the man I’d dreamed about. The man I’d called as Blood, though he’d claimed it was too late for him.

  I had to move. I had to close the circle.

  Even if a dead druid raven was inside.

  He dropped to the ground in front of us, a massive, black feathered bird.

  “If you close it with him inside, and he’s a thrall, you won’t be able to keep him out unless you kill him,” Guillaume said.

  Fine. So be it. I’d kill him myself if he even thought about hurting someone inside my circle.

  My home.

  My nest.

  I sprinted forward and closed the circle.

  32

  Rik

  The circle snapped into place.

  She threw her head back and screamed, lashing the heavens with her magic. Her hair blew wildly, power exploding out of her like fireworks. She stood in the center of a glowing nimbus, head back, arms outstretched, skin gleaming with magic, and I’d never seen anything more fucking gorgeous in my life.

  Her magic called me. Like she’d tied a rope around my dick and jerked me toward her. All of us moved to her.

  Even the new man. His long black hair gleamed in the moonlight like liquid ink. He didn’t smell right, though. Ancient Celtic magic masked the truth.

  This man was dead. Either a thrall… or something unnatural.

  My first instinct was to pound him into a smear on the ground, but she’d dreamed this man. Like she’d dreamed the king. She must have need of him.

  And what my queen needed, she received. Or I was no alpha.

  :Keep an eye on him,: I told Xin and Daire. :Guillaume and I will deal with Leviathan if he tries anything.:

  :Understood, alpha,: Xin replied. Then he blurred and disappeared. Through Shara’s bond, I felt him closing on our new guest, though the man was too focused on our queen to realize death hovered at his side once more. If he tried to harm our queen, we would learn how well druid magic worked if he had no head.

  I turned back to my queen.

  Ribbons of blood ran down her forearm and droplets glittered on her chin, throat, and breasts like the finest, most expensive jewelry in the world. She opened her eyes, meeting my gaze, and my heart stopped. Waiting for her command.

  She ran toward me, eyes glowing, fangs glistening in the night. She launched against me, but her fangs couldn’t penetrate my rock troll’s hide. Not unless she shifted to her cobra queen. :Shift. Get inside me. I want my alpha first.:

  Normally my queen’s wish was my command. But I didn’t comply right away, no matter how hard my dick was. I widened my stance, holding my queen high on my body, and then I met Leviathan’s gaze.

  He burned. Thirst knifed through his gut like he’d swallowed half a dozen of Guillaume’s blades. Desire blazed through him like wildfire.

  But his pride kept him frozen in place.

  Leviathan did not bend knee to any queen no matter how he burned for her.

  I could forgive a great deal, especially mistakes made with love, like Daire’s, when he’d worried for my safety in our cobra queen’s coils. But Leviathan’s greatest sin was his willingness to kill her to save himself. That I could not forgive. Not unless he made the realization that he would die, gladly, simply because she loved him.

  I gently set her back down on the ground and crouched over her like a sprinter ready to surge at the first shot.

  My challenge was clear. “Come, Leviathan. Try to take my queen from me. I’ll rip your fucking head off.”

  He stepped closer, eyes blazing. “She won’t let me have my beast. It’s not a fair challenge.”

  “Unleash his beast, my queen, and I’ll still rip his fucking head off.”

  She rolled over and rose to her knees beneath me. I hovered over her back, ready to leap over her and smash the fucker into the ground if he so much as thought about touching one hair on her precious head.

  “I’ll unleash your beast, Levi. But if you shift now, I’ll never feed you again, let alone fuck you. Accept my alpha. Or get the fuck out. I don’t really care.”

  “That’s not the way this works.”

  Her spine stiffened, her bond ringing like drawn steel in my mind. “Oh really? Am I not your queen? Then I believe this is exactly the way it works. If you want your beast, you can have him. And you’ll never touch me again.”

  “Because I’ll kill your alpha?”

  She snorted with disgust and turned back to me, ignoring the other man completely. “No. Because he’ll kill you.”

  And that was the secret she had finally come to understand. My power came from her. Her love, trust, and magic.

  I was alpha because she willed me to be alpha, and I could do no less than fight for and protect my queen. Because I loved her, and believed in her, and she in me, there was nothing that would make me doubt her power, or her right to be my queen. Let alone my ability to serve as her alpha simply because she willed it to be so.

  She lifted the silver chains of moonlight she’d wrapped around the dragon living in Leviathan’s bond, casting her magic aside. The dragon was free to go.

  Staring at her, I went to my knees and allowed the rock troll to fade as she’d ordered, surrendering to her will. She wanted me. She’d have me. Even if Leviathan shifted and tried to tear me apart.

  Climbing up my body, leaving bloody hand prints on my chest and shoulder, she took my cock inside her. I shifted back on my heels, seated deep inside her, and offered her my throat. I knew it made me vulnerable. I’d come as soon as she bit me, and a Blood was never as easy to kill as when in the throes of passion with his queen. I truly believed that was why queens took multiple Blood. So at least one Blood
could stand guard while she blew another’s mind.

  She pressed against me, sinking fangs into my neck so deep. So exquisite. It was like being fucked in the throat. I roared with climax and she drank me down, gulping my blood like a woman dying of thirst. Maybe she was. Maybe we all were. Because I couldn’t keep my fangs out of her, either, even though I knew she’d just bled a huge circle around her nest.

  :G.:

  Her bonds blazed higher, pulsing hot lava that seared my mind. Guillaume came to us, sitting back on his heels as I’d done, shoulder to shoulder with me, offering our queen what she wanted. Pressing her bleeding hand over his heart, she sank over his big cock with a groan and sank her fangs just as deeply into him. He couldn’t hold back his desire. Not with our queen’s fangs in his throat.

  :Xin.:

  He materialized beside her as if he’d been there, invisible, the entire time, though I knew that wasn’t true. He’d guarded the new man well. I didn’t have to look to ensure Daire had taken over that duty with Xin’s absence. She took him inside her, smearing her blood on his chest, and when she sank her fangs into him, his wolf’s howl reverberated through the night.

  Guillaume recovered to take Daire’s place guarding the new man when she called him. As was his nature, Daire invited her to take him flat on his back.

  Still seated on his hips while he panted from the force of his release, she lifted her head from Daire’s throat and said aloud, “Nevarre.”

  The new man came to her side. He went to his knees and bowed his head. “I’m sorry, my queen. Forgive me. I’m not worthy of your service. I have no blood to offer.”

  Her head tilted to the side as she studied him. Through our bond, I felt the absence of the man’s heartbeat. He was dead, as she’d dreamed. Blood did not flow in his veins. Only druid magic sustained him.

  Yet a dead man had never stopped the goddess of resurrection.