“I can put him inside you sometime while we fuck,” he said. “But you can’t keep him.”
“Of course,” I said, surprised by the swell of emotion and arousal in my chest at the thought. It was beyond intimate, what he was describing. The thought of him fucking me and filling me not just with his cum but his feline spirit…
It made me squirm against him. I didn’t know him that well, and somehow, it seemed too intimate, even knowing he’d already done it. I hadn’t been conscious for it last time. He’d be putting a part of himself into me, and not just his cock. This was a sacred part of himself, a primal part. He would make himself completely vulnerable for me, more so than if I could read his mind, more than if he told me his most secret desires and laid his heart bare for me. And though it would be the ultimate intimate act, I also knew that it was a burden I’d have to bear gently, reverently. Because being worthy of that level of trust was the greatest honor—but it was also the greatest responsibility. He was offering not just his heart to me, but his soul.
“Thank you,” I whispered, finishing my pastry and wrapping my arms tight around him, angling my body so I was stretched out against his.
“Damn,” he said. “Guess I should get a lady pastries more often.”
“You know that’s not what I mean,” I said, almost choked up at the thought of how much he loved me. Even if he made jokes and ran his dirty mouth all the time, under it, he was the only one who had been willing to die for me. And he was the only person who had ever offered me something like he just had. He’d died for it last time, but he’d still share it with me again. I knew I had a responsibility to treat his heart like the treasure it was. He’d been more vulnerable with me than any of my mates, even if he hid it well.
I fell asleep with my head on his chest, my arms still tight around him, knowing he would continue to surprise me with his love for as long as he was my mate. It was my job to be worthy of it.
I woke to a pair of hands gently shaking me. “Hey, there, Princess,” Lord Balam said when I blinked up at him sleepily.
Startled awake, I sat up. Kenosi shifted to stay closer to me, though he hadn’t woken.
“Did she answer?” I asked.
“Yes,” Lord Balam said. “She said she’d come with one guard for each of yours. I assume that means us.”
“Where can we have her meet us?” Prince Kwame asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “She owns this whole country. We’re going to have to pick a place so she can meet us there.”
“She’ll ambush us,” Shadow said.
I shrugged. “Wherever we meet her, she can send people after us or in front of her. The only leverage we have is the amulets. We’ll need to stash them somewhere away from us, so she can’t attack if she wants them.”
“I’ll hide them,” he said immediately. “The less people who know where they are, the better. That way if she captures and tortures us, there will be less chance someone will break.”
He cast a suspicious glance Tadeu’s way, and Tadeu bared his teeth. “I don’t want to know where you hide your fucking amulets,” he said. “Count me out.”
“Okay,” I said to Shadow. “Just you and me, then.”
“I’ll send a message back to her,” Lord Balam said. “I’ll just have her meet us here if that works. Nowhere’s really any safer than anywhere else.”
As we sprang into action, I was filled with calm certainty. I didn’t know what Camila would offer, but I was ready for whatever happened.
Nine
“So, this is where you’ve been hiding out,” Camila said, her nose wrinkling in disgust as she scanned the empty servant apartment. “Right under our noses.”
I was glad we’d decided to simply have her come to us. Otherwise, we might have had to admit someone had aided us in our insurrection. A couple of the guys had gone back to help clean up Magda’s shop, and Sir Kenosi had wired her a hefty sum for damages and feeding and protecting us. He assured me the people who had harbored him and Kwame had also been paid handsomely. But an empty apartment was safer for everyone involved.
“We’re ready to negotiate,” I said, getting right to the point.
“You know you’re going to get caught,” Camila said. “You can’t take over a country while in hiding.”
“If I was hiding, I wouldn’t have invited you here,” I pointed out.
“I’m here to get my amulets,” she said, crossing her arms and glaring at me.
“We both know what you want,” I said. “The question is, what are you willing to give up for it?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I could snap my fingers and have all six of my guards here in two seconds flat.”
“Go ahead,” I said. “I have six shifters with me, too.”
Her nostrils flared as she pursed her lips. She may not have cared if her guards got slaughtered—which they would, considering how much bigger all of my mates were—but she wouldn’t risk being left without their protection. She’d left five of her guards outside the small apartment, bringing only Gabor inside with her. I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d done it to be petty, to rub his devotion in my face. She’d guessed my feelings for him, and she wanted me to see that they weren’t returned.
It wasn’t going to work anymore, though. I’d given up on Gabor. I had to stay focused, and pining after a guard wasn’t going to achieve anything. I hadn’t even looked at him since he entered the room with her. My attention didn’t waver from my sister.
“Gabor,” she said, reaching behind her without taking her eyes from me. “Give me the amulet.”
Gabor deposited something into her hand with a slight inclination of his head, then went back to staring straight ahead.
“You will give me the snow leopard and the lynx amulets,” Camila hissed at me, her eyes narrowed to slits. “Or I will open this.”
“You’re sick,” I said, realization dawning. She palmed the round disc that must be the ocelot amulet. The one that had made Gabor into her puppet.
“You’re the one with six lovers,” she shot back. “That’s sick.”
“Loving people is not sick,” I said. “Enjoying sex isn’t sick. Killing people and controlling their minds and hearts, that’s sick.”
Camila stroked the surface of the amulet, cocking a brow. “If love is never wrong, then you can’t object when they all love me.”
Behind me, Tadeu let out a menacing chuckle. “Is that your only threat? You’ve already used that one on me, Princess. Can’t you think of some new way to manipulate us?”
“I only need one threat,” Camila said, her eyes flashing with triumph.
“Yeah, well, good fucking luck with that,” Tadeu said. “I’m not even a real shifter. Go ahead. Open it. Not one of us could love a frigid bitch like you.”
Camila smirked at him before casting her gaze toward her stone-faced guard. “You sure about that?”
If he could love her with his stone heart, anyone could.
“You don’t know what you’re doing,” I said, stepping forward and holding out a hand to stop her. “Camila, your guard is sworn to protect you. He cares about that more than he cares about himself. If you open that, you’re going to be the one with six lovers.”
“So?” she said. “You did it. Why can’t I?”
“Because you’re not me,” I pointed out. “You can’t do that, Camila. It’s suicide.”
She huffed and stamped her dainty little foot. I shuddered to even think what would happen if she carried out her threat. She thought my mates would be devoted to her the way Gabor was, but I knew she’d never be able to withstand the savage love of even one of my mates, let alone all of them.
“It’s no different from whatever you did,” she said. “I know they don’t really love you. You enchanted them somehow, with whatever magic you were leaking outside that woodshed.”
“I didn’t force anyone to love me,” I said, clenching my jaw and glaring at her.
Camila smirked. “
You know, I couldn’t figure it out before that. I didn’t understand how you were convincing them to join you. I thought you were just giving them your body in exchange, but even your body’s not worth that much devotion. And they really seemed to love you, but I’ve known you my whole life, and trust me, you’re not that loveable. Now I know it was just magic.”
I’d spent my whole life being told I was inferior because I didn’t have magic. Now that I had it, it was apparently just magic.
“That’s not what happened,” I said.
“Sure it is,” she said. “You got it from Mom, didn’t you? She was always popular with men, too. You really went to the Spirit World, didn’t you? You found out how she did it. You even figured out how to mark these men, make them think you’re their True Mate, even though you can’t be a True Mate when you’re not a shifter. And they’re so brainwashed they believe it. You think they won’t really love me, that they’ll hurt me? No, Itzel. They’ll thank me when I break the spell you put on them.”
“They’ll kill you,” I whispered, genuinely terrified for her as well as my men.
“They won’t kill me,” she said. “They’ll love me too much.”
She reached for the amulet with her other hand, and I dove at her, trying to knock it out of her hand. At the last second, I remembered that only an ocelot could touch it or they’d die, and I jerked my hand back. In that second, Camila opened the amulet.
A puff of pearly white magic burst from the instrument. I spun around, hoping to block the line of sight between my sister and my mates. But their eyes had all been locked on her to see what she’d do. I could see it on their faces, in the way they were gazing raptly at her as if they’d never seen her before.
“You—” I sputtered the word, unable to think of something bad enough to describe what Camila had just done. There were no words. It was beyond betrayal, beyond even what my father had done to women, making them fall in love with him against their will. This was so much worse. These men already loved someone. I was their mate. And yet, the dazzled look in Sir Kenosi’s eyes and the smile on Kwame’s face let me know that the potion had worked. She had stolen not just their hearts, but my lovers.
But it was the look on Shadow’s face that did me in. He was the one who had always, always despised her, from the moment they met. He had warned me about her even when I couldn’t see her for what she was. He had taken the amulets and hidden them from her, even though it meant he didn’t get to be with his True Mate. Shadow had always stuck by my side and told me the hard truths about my sister, even when I hadn’t wanted to believe them. And now he was looking at her like he might spring across the room and pin her against the wall and fuck her at any moment.
It wasn’t the desire in his eyes that hurt most, although that hurt. It was knowing it wasn’t real, that she had forced that into him, taken over his mind that had always known what she was and made it into her slave.
She was using all of them, not because she wanted anything to do with them, but because she didn’t want me to have them. She would never love any of them. Anguish swelled in my chest like a bubble, pressing out my ribs until they ached. Losing them would devastate me. But this was about so much more than my heart. It was about theirs.
She would hurt them all, every single one of them, the way she was hurting Gabor. They would be her puppets, do her bidding, and she’d let them. But their love would always be one-sided, and that’s what killed me. These men—these strong, protective, wounded, savage, rough, damaged, misguided men—deserved love. Not just to give their brand of love, but to receive big, passionate, all-consuming love in return. They deserved someone who strived to understand them and their needs, even when they didn’t express them. Hell, they deserved more than I could probably ever give them, but at least I’d give them every last drop of my heart and soul, and I’d die trying to be what they deserved.
Camila wouldn’t even try or pretend that she would. She’d hurt me plenty, but this time, she’d crossed a line. This time, she’d fucked with my men.
“You fucking cunt,” I hissed at her, my hands balled into fists to keep from ripping her hair out of her pretty little head and strangling her with it. “You will pay for this.”
“Are you threatening me?” she asked, giving me those big, innocent eyes, like she was about to do her poor-little-victim routine.
“I don’t need to threaten you,” I said. “You just brought a torment upon yourself that you’re too blinded by the hunger for power to even understand. You think you’re going to be able to endure six lovers? You think you can handle Tadeu’s wrath, after what you did to him? You saw what he did to me—and he actually loved me once. And that’s just one of them. Every single one of these men is going to destroy you night by night.”
“I’m not worried about it,” she said. “I have guards. And I’m glad you’re not threatening me because there are seven men in this room who will bow at my feet or slice off your head at the snap of my fingers.”
I swallowed hard, unable to meet the gaze of even one of my former lovers. I couldn’t bear to see what their eyes would hold for me. I’d already seen what they held for Camila.
She gave a triumphant little smile that twisted her lips into a sadistic grin. “You always thought you were so special,” she said. “Everyone always loved poor little Itzel, the lonely human child. You really milked it, too—being common. Even Mom loved you more. But guess what? Now they all love me.” She threw her arms wide, a look of pure, gloating triumph on her face.
“I will end you,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her.
“You can’t,” she said, smirking. “You have no claim to the throne, and now that I have your men, I’ll have the amulets. I bet one of them carries them, right?”
“They don’t,” I said, but my heart was hammering. I had to get out of here and get to the spot where we’d stashed them before Shadow could.
Camila turned to the room, tapping her index finger on her lower lip, her eyes glinting with enjoyment of my torment. “Who has them?” she mused. Then her gaze lit on the panther shifter, and a sultry purr escaped her lips. “Oh, Shadow,” she cooed. “Where’s my big, strong, panther lover?”
I gaped at her as she transformed into someone else before my eyes, a change more dramatic than when I’d seen her as an ocelot. She stepped forward, a sway in her hips I’d never seen before, and fit herself against Shadow’s chest, curling her fingers into the neck of his shirt and standing on tiptoes to speak against his throat. “You have them, don’t you, big boy?”
He stood there like he wasn’t sure what to do, his arms halfway raised, as if he didn’t know if he should put them around her or not. She tapped a fingernail against a vein I could see pulsing in the side of his neck. “I’ll let you use one on me if you give them to me,” she purred. “I’ll even let you pick which one.”
I snapped. Something inside me broke, clean and swift. Without thinking, I leapt at her back. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was too blinded by rage. I grabbed her hair, wrenching her backwards and slamming her to the floor. I leapt onto her, punching her in the face so hard I felt the bones in my hand give.
She shrieked as blood exploded from her nose, but she didn’t fight.
She didn’t have to.
The next second, half a dozen hands had dragged me off her, and someone flung me across the room. I flew through the air, and my body hit the wall so hard the breath was knocked from my lungs. Then I was slammed face down on the floor, a knee in my back.
Fuck shifters and their super strength, their speed, their inhuman abilities.
But I had inhuman abilities, too.
I tried to remember something, some of Lilith’s lessons, but before I could, a clawed hand gripped the back of my neck, ready to tear my head off.
“Wait.”
For a second, I didn’t know who’d stopped him. I blinked hard, trying to see past the blur of pain and the hair covering my face. I couldn’t see him, but I knew his
voice. Gabor had finally spoken.
“Don’t hurt the princess.”
“She busted Camila’s nose.”
“The king wants her unharmed,” Gabor said. “If you kill her, half the country will mutiny. He wants her brought before him and tried for her crimes.”
“Fuck the king,” Tadeu growled.
“You, on the other hand, have no such protection in the king’s orders,” Gabor said coldly. “Speak against him again, and you won’t walk out of this room alive.”
Tadeu grunted, but he released my neck.
My head was clearing of the pain, and I felt around the room for their presence, making sure they were all still there. I could use my magic to influence them, to make them all horny as fuck. But there were several problems with that. My magic didn’t channel their lust my way, and even if it had, I didn’t need them to fuck me. I needed to free them of Camila’s hold. Making them fuck me when they loved her wasn’t the answer. Not to mention that it wouldn’t work that way. They’d get horny and want to fuck her. And more than any of that was the fact that I didn’t want to use my magic to interfere with anyone’s free will. If I did that, I’d be no better than Camila or my father.
Still, I had to do something. I tried to push myself up, but Lord Balam laid a heavy hand on my back, holding me down. “Are you going to go after Camila again?” he asked.
My heart broke a little in that moment, and tears stung my eyes. Balam had been my first, and he’d been with me since the day Tadeu died, never wavering for a moment in his steadfast support.
Until now.
“Step away from the princess,” Gabor said, approaching with his gun drawn. I wasn’t sure if he was worried about them or me.
Tadeu and Balam moved away, edging over to where my sister stood with the rest of my lovers, all of them fussing over her broken nose.
Gabor crouched over me, gripping my upper arm and rolling me over. “Are you hurt?”
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