“You’re what?” One second, Sam was reclining against the pillows beside him. The next, she was sitting on her knees, facing him. She’d moved so fast, if Micah had blinked, he would have missed it.
“I’m King Bain’s cousin.”
Her eyes popped wide, those dainty brows encroaching on her hairline. “His cousin?”
He’d known this would blow Sam’s mind. “Yep.”
“What are you saying? That you’re royalty?” Her green eyes were wide and full of questions as she stared at him like he’d just told her he’d grown a sixth toe on each foot.
He had to admit, the whole royalty thing was still a shock to him, too.
“That’s what I’m saying, yes. I’m of royal blood.” Was that ever weird to say out loud. “My bloodline extends all the way up to the first king of our race, King Cato. I’m descended from one of his sons, a male named Rysk. King Bain is descended from Rysk’s brother, Ryland. That makes us cousins.”
“Cousins.” Sam relaxed on her haunches and dropped her dismayed gaze to the bed. “Holy shit.” The words came out as a whisper.
“There’s more.”
“More?”
Hadn’t he spent the entire night thinking the same thing?
“Hard to believe, I know, but yes.”
Her eyes locked onto his, but it was as if she were only half aware. As if her brain had locked onto I’m royalty and couldn’t quite shift to the next gear.
“I need you to focus, baby.” He took her hands and shook her arms.
She gave him an agitated nod. “I’m focused. I promise. I’m just . . . okay, wow. Royalty. Yeah. But really, I’m focused.”
He went on to explain about Rysk the Second and Argon. How he was related to them, as well, and that Argon was the rightful leader of the drecks, which meant Micah carried not just royal vampire blood, but also royal dreck blood. How Bain wanted him to be crown regent. No detail was spared.
He revealed all that he’d learned about his father’s “death.” About why his father had been sequestered all this time. About how his ancestors were being systematically murdered in an effort to kill the line that linked him back to both sides of the war.
The more Micah divulged, the more stunned Sam became.
An hour later, he quieted. He held both her hands in his, and from the thoughts coursing through her mind, she was processing everything he’d told her faster than he had, quickly coming to terms with it.
“You okay?” he asked.
She blinked and nodded then shifted position, crossing her legs and settling in beside him, facing him. “I’m starting to understand why you came home in such a stupor.”
“Like I said, I got hit with a lot of shit tonight.”
“You can say that again.” She shook her head and breathed out. “Is there anything else?”
“Just one more thing.”
“Ah, Jesus. You saved the best for last, didn’t you?”
He shrugged. “It all depends on how you look at it.”
“Well, hit me. I’m not going to let this conversation end until I’ve heard everything.”
That’s what he liked about Sam. She was a rip-the-Band-Aid-off kind of person, too.
“King Bain wants me to head up a covert black ops team.”
Her slender eyebrows popped high into her forehead. “Black ops?”
He nodded, careful not to read too much into the surprised worry rocketing through her thoughts.
“What exactly does that mean? What would you be doing?”
He told her about Bain’s plan.
“Sounds dangerous.”
“No more dangerous than what I’m doing now. Only I won’t be hampered by stupid rules that actually put me in greater jeopardy than if I didn’t have to follow them.”
Sam scooted off the bed and began pacing. “What you’re saying about hitting Searcy, Bishop, and Royce where it hurts . . .? Can’t that be construed as an act of war?”
He hopped off the bed and secured her hands in his, stopping her worried movement. “War is already upon us, Sam.”
“What do you mean?”
“Haven’t you heard everything I just told you? The Dacians and the drecks have formed an alliance. They’ve built an army. They’re intentionally weakening the vampire race, putting us in harm’s way. They’re already preparing for war. And there’s only one reason for someone to prepare for a war during a time of peace. They plan on starting one.”
Her shoulders fell as the air rushed out of her. “War? This is seriously coming to war?”
He stroked his thumbs over the backs of her hands. “It’s been this way for hundreds of years. Thousands. Long periods of war have been broken by shorter periods of peace. This is the longest peacetime we’ve ever experienced, but whether we like it or not, war is coming.”
“And this black ops team is meant to hasten that?”
“Not if I can help it.” He let go of her hands and raked his fingers through his hair. “I’d like to think we might be able to hold it off, or at least buy us some time to prepare. By joining with the lycans and making some precision hits to cripple their operation, we could considerably push back their timetable. Maybe even put off an attack indefinitely. I don’t know.” It was his turn to pace. “I know it’s risky, but it’s no riskier than being an enforcer. And if I can put together the right team and find a way to hit the drecks where it hurts for maximum impact, our kids might have a chance to grow up in a world where they don’t have to think about this godforsaken war.”
Sam grabbed his arm and pulled him around to face her. She searched his face, her eyes full of respect and admiration. And love. There was most definitely love in her eyes. Her hands wrapped around his reassuringly. And in the same way he’d calmed her only moments ago, she calmed him.
“Do you want to do this?” she asked.
“It’s a lot of responsibility.” The fate of the entire race could depend on how well he built and ran his team.
She sighed and squeezed his hands, giving him a pointedly impatient grin. “Do you want this?” she asked again, emphasizing each word for maximum impact.
He stared into her eyes, knowing whatever answer he gave, she would support it. That was his Sam. Stalwart. A rock. Unshakeable and determined, even for him.
“Do you?” she asked again, speaking more quietly and giving him a little nod.
He shifted his hold on her hands and pulled her closer. “Yes. I do.”
“Then do it.” Her eyes sparkled.
“But you’re worried for my safety.”
“Baby, I’m always worried for your safety.”
“Yeah, but you’re more worried than usual.”
“That’s only because I don’t know what to expect, yet.” She let out an abrupt breath. “And I think part of my concern is that I don’t want our kids to have to live in a world torn by war.”
“War is inevitable.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
He let go of her hands and pulled her into his arms. “I know, and maybe now we can create permanent peace.”
“Do you really think that’s possible?”
He released her and shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Everything just feels different this time. With the lycans joining us. With Argon revealing himself after all this time.” He pulled her back to the bed and sat down on the edge. “It feels like everything’s coming full circle.”
“Maybe it is.”
He looked at her. She was smiling at him in the way that always made him feel like the luckiest male in the world.
“War or no war,” she said, “this is what you’ve been wanting, right? A way to do your job without all the rules getting in the way?”
She’d had to listen to him bitch about being hog-tied by the terms of the truce ever since he’d mated her. Of course she knew what running his own team meant. To be granted free rein over how ops ran. Never having to answer to anyone but himself. He was a kid set loose inside a toy store with a limitless credit card. He could have anything he wanted.
“Yes.”
Sam sat back down on the bed. “So, you’re going to accept?”
He joined her. “I wanted us to decide together.”
Sam inched closer and reverently wrapped her hand around his, letting her fingers slide firmly between his, instilling him with the feeling that she was handing the power completely over to him. “I think you should do it.”
“Even though I told you earlier I was going to quit?”
Her head tilted to one side. “I didn’t actually believe you’d quit, Micah. You need the action too much.”
He turned to face her, pulling his legs up onto the bed. “If I take this on, it could mean longer hours—”
“Not necessarily.” She mimicked his body language, turning to face him, too. “You’ll be in charge. And black ops missions can usually be pulled off in less time than a full shift walking the streets, right? I mean, if they’re anything like human military ops, you’ll have weeks of planning and recon followed by a few hours of execution.”
This was another thing he liked about Sam. With her military background, she could speak his language.
“Okay, but my job will be more dangerous. You were right about that.”
“It was dangerous before. Now you’ll be able to minimize the risk by planning for every contingency outside the normal rules of engagement you’ve had to follow as an enforcer. You’ll have more options to protect yourself.”
“But—”
“Micah, just do it. Quit trying to talk yourself out of it when I know the idea of running your own black ops team has got to curl your toes.”
“What about you and the babies?”
“What about us?”
“You’re my responsibility. It’s my duty to look after you.”
She sighed and nodded patiently. “I know, I know.” Her voice took on a caveman-like quality. “You, big bad male. Me, weak female. You take care of me.”
“I’m not that bad.”
The look she gave him could have frozen water. “Really?”
He rolled his eyes at the image of him she’d painted as some kind of modern-day Tarzan. “I don’t think of you as weak.”
“Oh, I know, but sometimes I think I need to remind you that I did manage to take care of myself for almost thirty years before I met you.”
“Technically, your parents took care of you until you were eighteen.”
“Well, technically, I took care of myself. No disrespect to my parents, because they were great parents, but I was always independent, taking no shit from anyone.”
Images of a young and feisty Sam danced provocatively through his mind.
He shifted closer, his knees touching hers. “That was then, this is now. And as a mated male vampire, I’m supposed to protect my mate and my children.”
She patted her stomach. “We’ll be fine.” She dropped her hands to his knees and rubbed up and down his thighs encouragingly. “Accept the job, baby. You know you want to, and, honestly, you were made for it. It’s the perfect job for you.”
Despite the worry still haunting her mind, Sam was giving him the green light. She wasn’t going to let her fears rob him of this opportunity. If he wanted to accept Bain’s offer, she wasn’t going to put up any roadblocks to stop him.
“What if we have to move?” he asked, recalling what Bain had said about relocating.
“Fine.”
“What if I told you a security detail would be assigned to you at all times?”
She huffed as if she hadn’t thought of that, but then said, “I’ll get used to it.”
“And what if something happens to Bain and I have to fill the role of king?”
A coquettish, lopsided grin curled her lips. She leaned toward him until her face was only a few inches from his. “Would you make me kneel before you?”
Desire began a slow churn in his groin. “Only if you wanted to.”
She bit her bottom lip and trailed one finger down the center of chest. “King Micah. I like how that sounds.”
“Don’t let it go to your head,” he teased, enjoying her seduction. “I’m just the understudy. I’m not the king and may never be. In fact, I hope it never comes to that.”
Her hand trailed lower, stoking embers into flames beneath his skin, until she reached the waist of his pants. Her palm flattened against his cock and firmly rubbed down and back up before her fingers curled loosely around his shaft through the flannel.
Blood doubled its efforts, racing to his growing erection like firemen rushing to a burning building.
“You’ll always be my king.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.” She crawled closer and brushed her lips over his, reinforcing the friction down below.
Her soft lips left simmering kisses down the side of his neck then back up to his ear, where her tongue flicked his earlobe right before she caught it with her teeth.
“You’re taking all this better than I thought you would.” He caressed the backs of her thighs as she climbed onto his lap.
She released his ear and rose up over him, hands on his shoulders, and circled her hips, making him grow even harder. “Maybe I’m channeling my fear into something more productive.” She giggled and rotated her hips against him again. “And maybe power turns me on.”
He grinned and shook his head, sinking down until he was flat on his back. “You’re too humble.”
She laughed and rocked her hips forward. A flash of heat zinged down his back and burst inside his groin. His grip on her thighs tightened as he rolled his hips against her, increasing the contact.
Her laughter cut off abruptly, giving way to an aroused sigh as she dropped her hands to his chest and arched her back, rocking against him more forcefully.
No more talking. No more rehashing the night’s events. Now was the time to love his female and feel her body give way to his. She was his foundation. No matter the challenges he faced outside these four walls, he could always come back to her and find his center.
Without her, he would be nothing. He wouldn’t be where he was now. She was his power. She was the strength that made him the male he was. With her, nothing was out of reach. He could accept anything life threw at him as long as Sam was by his side.
She quickly stripped out of her shorts and tank top as he shoved off his pants, and then she sank down on him and paid him the kind of fealty any good king deserved from his queen.