Chapter 17 #2
I gave her a disgruntled scowl. “I thought you said you weren’t picking up on the Blood bond chatter as much.”
“I’m not, usually, but I guess having Leonie join us made me hyperaware of what she might be hearing.
Though now that we’re home, and I can focus a little easier, I toned down her access to all of you.
I didn’t block her access to me. I just put up a little shadow around your bonds to shield them.
I still feel her, so I think it worked.”
:You basically put up a firewall,: Nevarre said. :Her bond to you is a direct back-and-forth connection, but you protected your other access points.:
I wasn’t technically savvy enough to fully understand the metaphor, but some of the subtle tension in the back of my mind eased knowing we had our queen’s bonds to ourselves again.
:Mehen, Daire, Ezra, you’re up first,: I said in the Blood bonds. :Tlacel—:
:I don’t want to fuck another Blood if I can fuck our queen,: Mehen retorted. Though he also grudgingly added, :No offense, Tlacel.:
:Everybody’d rather fuck our queen if given the chance,: he replied. :Though I’d love to be bound in her hair again all night and just watch until she’s ready for me.:
:Done,: Shara replied.
Tlacel’s bond shimmered in an explosion of blue-green feathers. :I’m sorry, my queen. I didn’t realize you were listening, or I wouldn’t have spoken so casually.:
:As I said earlier, you’re all welcome to speak your mind to me. Always. Especially if you have a need I can meet.:
:You could leash me in your hair and make me follow you around like a dog and I’d love every minute of it, my queen.:
:Same,: Vore, Nevarre, Itztli, and Lew replied at the same time.
I wasn’t surprised in the slightest by their request for restraint, except for Lew. After all, he was Esetta’s alpha, and most alphas didn’t care for submissive games.
:It’s not about submission for me,: Lew replied. :It’s the magic itself and what it means.:
Touching Shara’s hair was as close as he could get to his former queen, her mother.
:Plus, don’t tell me you wouldn’t love anything she did to you, even if she ordered all the others to fuck you. I wouldn’t believe it for a second.:
:True,: I admitted.
I’d fucking love anything she did or ordered or wanted. As long as she was involved or at least watching.
Guillaume opened the door for her and bowed as she passed through. Vivian stood guard with him. Daire was already in the bathroom, drawing a nice hot bath for her, but she paused and slowly turned to me.
“I’m going to ask you something, and I want your honest answer. This is Shara asking, not your queen. Alright?”
I already knew what she was going to ask but I nodded and waited for her to voice her question.
“Would you want to fuck another queen?”
My knee-jerk reaction was to blurt, “No, of course not.” But she wanted the truth.
Honesty that laid my heart bare. Which was always what I offered her anyway, but this was too important to her to brush aside her question casually.
“Want? No. Not of my own choosing. But if you found pleasure in it, I would too. I will eagerly do anything you desire. As Lew said, you could tell all your Blood to fuck me while you watched, and I’d enjoy the hell out of it.
But it wouldn’t be something I secretly desired myself. ”
“I know we talked about this before, and it’s not been that long.” She laughed, shaking her head. “What, a few months? But our lives have changed countless times. I’m not the scared, on the run twenty-two-year-old virgin any longer.”
My lips quirked. “You’ve seen and done some serious shit and lived to tell about it.”
“Exactly. My eyes are opened to a whole new world. I didn’t foresee a future where I’d have female Blood with us, let alone other queens who might want to be intimate as well.
Things change every damned time I open my eyes.
I had no idea some queens shared their Blood.
That I’d be fucking a Blood my mother once loved too.
If your feelings—or any of the Blood’s feelings—have changed since we first set the expectation that my Blood… ”
Her words fell off into silence. Her eyes flashing with emotion I could read without listening to her bond. Even the extra emphasis she put on my Blood told me exactly what she wanted.
I let my voice rumble deep and low. “Are you still a jealous queen, Shara?”
She didn’t answer immediately, giving me the same serious consideration.
Her jaw worked, the muscle ticking in her cheek.
Power thickened in the room, making it difficult to breathe, even for me.
My ears ached with pressure. Her hair slipped free of the bun, rippling like a black silk cape around her shoulders.
Flaring like a massive fan above and around her.
“Yes. I am. I don’t want anyone touching or looking at what’s mine.”
“That’s a fucking relief,” Mehen said as he strode past us toward the bathroom, bare-ass naked. “I’d sooner rip another queen limb from limb just for thinking about laying a finger on one fucking scale.”
As he intended, her eyes locked on him. Her hair tumbled to the floor. Her hunger stirred. Even the cobra queen perked, lifting her head.
She dragged her gaze back to mine. Her gleaming eyes dark. Her lips parted. Her brutal, glorious fangs starting to drop. I bowed at the waist but kept my gaze locked to hers.
“No one in their right fucking mind would ever want anyone else when they could have you, Shara, my queen.”