Shaking, I stared up into the god’s dark, shining eyes. I had his blood burning inside me. If he chose, he could certainly rip us all to shreds and disappear back into Aztlán.

But he stayed. Waiting for me to decide if I would take what I most wanted in the world. Even if it meant I had to surrender my pride and embrace all that I was, inside and out. No matter how uncomfortable it made me.

Already, my body hummed with unexpected pleasure. The tugs on my hair. The force Eztli had used to squeeze my hands. Such powerful, strong men, willing to do anything I asked.

But I had to ask.

I’d thought I wanted a child more than anything in the world. Enough to risk my life, my nest, even my beloved Blood, all to sire a daughter to continue the Zaniyah line. And I did still want this child. Desperately.

But whether I had a daughter or not, I would never be complete if I didn’t accept that beneath my power and magic, I ached for a lover’s strong, unforgiving hand. I burned to be taken. Hard. Out of control. Even hurt.

Like when I’d called a centuries-old Blood, who’d never had his own queen, to my bed the very first time.

“Please,” I whispered.

Tepeyollotl twisted his wrist, wrapping my hair tighter around his fist. “Please what?”

I moaned, helpless to hold back the small sound. “Hurt me. While you make love to me.”

He turned his attention to Eztli. For a moment, I froze, afraid that I’d offended or upset my alpha, but when I touched his bond, all I felt was a river of molten lava.

“What does her alpha say to this request?”

Eztli’s voice rumbled with the growl of his beast. “I would beg only that I be allowed to love her, too.”

“Granted,” Tepeyollotl agreed. “Remove these wet clothes. Our queen is cold.” He looked to my other Blood one by one. “Are you willing to participate if called upon?”

“Nothing will keep me from our queen,” Maxtla said. “Not even you.”

“Agreed,” Luis and Diego replied together.

Tepeyollotl laughed softly and focused back on me. “So eager. So willing to please you in any way you wish, even if I bat them away like annoying cubs. It’s a shame that you waited so long to fully take these young jaguars.”

Maxtla grumped beneath his breath. “Nine hundred isn’t exactly young.”

“It is for someone who remembers a time before humans roamed this earth.” Tepeyollotl narrowed his eyes on the man behind me. “She shivers.”

The sound of my clothing shredding away made me shiver harder, but not because I was cold. Eztli used his claws to tear my hoodie and jeans away from my body. The sound of ripping material was barbaric. Feral.

It made my blood simmer hotter in my veins.

Tepeyollotl pulled me upright so I stood before him, naked and exposed. Had it just been last night that I was so embarrassed by all my Blood looking at me? Seeing me vulnerable? Aching with need? It seemed so long ago.

He took his time looking at me, even making me turn around and face Eztli. Then Maxtla. Diego. Luis. The god waited for me to look into each of my Blood’s eyes, acknowledge my need, and see that nothing had changed.

My Blood still looked at me as their queen, whom they loved more than anything in this world. Nothing would ever change that.

Even if I asked the god of jaguars to hurt me. Especially if I asked it of them, too.

Tepeyollotl jerked me back around to face him. I wasn’t sure why, not at first. He didn’t make any demands of me, but merely stared back at me steadily. I allowed my gaze to run over his body. He sat on the ground, leaning back against the log I’d sat on earlier, yet his head was barely below mine. He was a big man. A strong man.

I dropped my eyes lower and gulped. A very big man.

Then it dawned on me. The god of jaguars was erect. He wanted me.

“Prepare her, alpha.”

Eztli engulfed me with his body and heat, eagerly taking me down to my knees on the ground. He thrust into me so hard that I fell forward and had to grab onto Tepeyollotl’s massive thighs on either side of me to brace myself. Eztli had made love to me many times over the years, but he’d never felt so large inside me before, nor as out of control.

He was as aroused as Tepeyollotl. My admission had not put a dent in Eztli’s desire at all. Instead, it had inflamed him more than ever.

His arms slid around me so he could cup my breasts. His fingers sought my nipples, as he’d done last night, but this time, he pinched. Hard.

I moaned deep in my throat. He always felt incredible inside of me, but the small pain made my nerves scream with sensation. I twitched around his cock, already coming. I would have let my head fall back against his shoulder if I could have, but Tepeyollotl refused to surrender my braid. In fact, he tugged me closer to him, bringing me eye-level with his magnificent cock.

As an Aima queen, putting a man’s dick in my mouth wasn’t something I ever considered, for fear my fangs would cause him too much damage. Eztli would have allowed me to do so, without question, but I’d never wanted to risk hurting him. Not like that.

Tepeyollotl released my braid, and yeah, for a moment, disappointment rippled through me. Until his palm slid around my nape and he squeezed so hard I moaned again, making him chuckle with a dark, sexual heat that turned my moan into a whimper.

“That’s better,” he said a silky voice that somehow managed to convey both menace and lust. “You want more than pain, little queen. You want to surrender, too. What should I make her do, alpha?”

Eztli bit my earlobe, making me jolt against him. “You should make her suck your dick while I feed.”

“An excellent idea.”

His hand was so heavy on my neck. So strong. It snapped something inside me. Something that I’d shoved away and locked deep inside me. That lock sprang open as he hauled my mouth onto his dick. He didn’t bring me gently to him. He didn’t care about my fangs. I had a feeling he wouldn’t have cared if I deliberately tried to bite him, though that was the furthest thing from my mind.

The locked doors inside me swung open wider. All the chains and locks and secrets I thought I’d buried so well were exposed. Tepeyollotl pushed into my mouth so deeply that I couldn’t breathe. Relentless, he filled me, making me choke. Breaking me apart.

No, that was Eztli, sinking his fangs into my throat.

I hung, suspended between them, consumed with complete and utter ecstasy. I’d never known such freedom. Such relief. I didn’t hold anything back. I moaned around Tepeyollotl’s cock. I clenched harder on Eztli’s inside me. My blood danced and sang in my veins, filled to the brim with power. It welled up inside me like a geyser.

I had never felt so much power.

Eztli shuddered on top of me, his release pushing me higher. The only thing that kept me from soaring into the night sky was Tepeyollotl’s heavy hand on the back of my head.

He pulled me up onto his lap, shifting me onto his thighs. “Take me at your speed, little queen.”

I sank onto his cock slowly. Loudly. Because I couldn’t help the raw sounds of desire escaping my throat. He was so big, everywhere, not just his cock. One big hand palmed my head easily. His other hand roamed my body, plucking and playing me like a delicate harp. Small pains blended with the pleasure, until I honestly couldn’t tell the difference. It was wondrous.

He was wondrous.

This was wondrous.

Why had I been so terrified of my secret need? When I could have felt so… free?

I didn’t have to control my reactions or worry about showing too much. I had already given them everything. They knew everything. And they were still here. Loving me.

When I had him seated deeply inside me, Tepeyollotl gave a deep grunt of satisfaction. “So good. I had forgotten the incredible pleasures to be found in the flesh. What else may I give you, little queen?”

“You can feed from me.”

“You would take Mountain Heart, the jaguar god, as Blood?”

For a moment, I was afraid I’d offended him, but he laughed roughly and nudged his hips upward, sliding even deeper into me. I twitched and jerked in his arms as if he’d electrocuted me.

“Very well. I’ve never been Blood before. What else, my queen?”

I fisted my hands in the heavy cords of his hair on either side of his face, and he obligingly lowered his head so I could touch my lips to his. “I liked little queen.”

“Ask,” he rumbled against my lips. “So I may fulfill my little queen’s every desire.”

“Can you give me a daughter, Mountain Heart?”

“Yes. On one condition.”

I pulled back enough to look into his eyes. I stared back at myself, mirrored in his gaze. But this time, I knew who I was, what I wanted most of all, and I wasn’t ashamed of that truth any longer.

“If I must call you my little queen, and he is your alpha, then you must call me your heart.”

Tears burned my eyes. He stated his intentions so clearly. I could keep Eztli. He would always be my alpha. Tepeyollotl would bend to my wishes, even as he gave me the strength and control I had secretly desired. And, of course, he would give me the child I so desperately needed to continue the Zaniyah line.

All I had to do was love him, too.

No more hiding. No more secrets. No more fruitless external searches, when the truth I needed had been hidden inside me all along. I stared up at him, proudly, my eyes shining as brightly as his. “My heart, please make me yours for all time.”

He turned my head to the side, baring my throat. And this time, when he bit me, I screamed with pleasure, not terror.

Read the rest of the Their Vampire Queen series, starting with .