I pulled on the robe Nevarre had brought to me. I’d asked for clothes, but when a man wore a kilt and little else, I couldn’t complain that he’d brought me something similar to put on. At least it was comfortable, and I could sit down at the table with Winston and not be embarrassed.

Rik squeezed my hair in a towel, taking off some of the moisture so I wouldn’t drip everywhere. I hadn’t wanted to call the blood to me, because I didn’t know what it’d do to the trees my sacrifice had grown. If they could use the crazy amount of blood on the ground, let them have it. I preferred a hot shower anyway, though I couldn’t wait until my new bathroom was ready, complete with the biggest tub Gina could find.

Since we hadn’t had dinner yet, I’d decided to take a quick shower in the main house. The spare bathroom was perfectly serviceable (though Winston thought the master bathroom needed too much work to use before it was renovated), and I hadn’t felt like tracking back and forth to the guest house.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and couldn’t help but stare a moment. A scar the size of Rik’s fist lay between my breasts, the skin still pink and fragile. A reminder of what I’d endured to protect us. Something I would gladly do again when the time came.

“Goddess,” Rik whispered, pulling me back against him with a shudder. “Let there never be another time that you must suffer like that again.”

I turned in his arms and lay my head on his chest. “Now I have a scar to match the one I gave you.”

“What you did…” He breathed deeply, his big hands gentle on my back. “It was impressive. I mean literal goddess-level shit. Growing Morrigan’s Grove, here, in America, in the middle of fucking Arkansas of all places…”

I blew out a sigh. “Yeah. I didn’t know that’s what She would do. Only that if I was willing to make a sacrifice, She would use it. I didn’t know that I’d basically die, stabbed to death by a gazillion rose thorns.”

Even if Gaia had forewarned me… I still would have done it. I couldn’t imagine anything getting up through the ground into my nest again. Evidently ant carcasses were almost as good for fertilizer as my blood and the trees had made good use of both, towering both above and below the ground.

“I didn’t know about the new Blood, either. We could have won without him, but one of you would have had to feed me again to get me upright.” I watched Rik’s face in the mirror, listening to his bond for any concern about the new man. “I guess he and Daire were a thing.”

One of Rik’s eyebrows arched and he shrugged a little. “Maybe. It would have been before we became sibs.”

“Does it bother you, having Ezra here now?”

His eyes widened even more. “Because he’s with Daire? How could it?”

“Ezra still cares for him, though I get the impression Daire doesn’t have a clue.”

Rik snorted. “Typical. Winning hearts left and right without a care, never even realizing it.”

I turned in his arms so I could press against him, soaking in his body heat. His strength. My rock. Unshakable. “It’s just getting complicated. I don’t want to offend anyone by taking one to bed but not another. I don’t want to have to think so hard about it, you know? I just…” It seemed silly but I had to say it out loud. “I just want to love everybody. I want everybody to feel loved and happy and included.”

He tightened his arms around me and pressed his lips against my forehead. “And that is why we love you so much, my queen. There can be no mistakes when you call one or many of your Blood to your bed. All will come to you gladly, eager to experience and share any desire you may have. The only combination I would hesitate to suggest right now is Mehen and Ezra together, though as long as I’m there, I’ll keep the two of them in line.”

I tipped my face up so I could see his reaction. “So if Daire and Mehen fucked for me, you wouldn’t mind? Or him and Ezra?”

Rik’s eyes smoldered, his lips curling in a sublimely arrogant smile of a man fully confident in his ability to constantly blow my mind. “How could I, when you’ll be fucking me at the same time?”

I leaned up on my tiptoes so I could brush my mouth against his, letting my words become a caress. “Would Daire mind?”

“You don’t really need to ask that question.”

:I’m mortally offended that you even thought I might mind,: Daire whispered in my mind, sending me an image of his delectable bottom lip in a pout. His warcat rubbed inside me, wicked fur winding around my heart. :Which one would you like to see first, my queen? Big, mean Leviathan, pounding me to a pulp? Or the grouchy, obstinate no-good bear who’s actually the biggest softie you’ve ever met? He’s so hairy and rough, it’s sometimes hard to tell when he’s a man and when he’s a bear.:

Um. I couldn’t think. My brain had turned to mush. My nipples ached and I pressed harder against Rik, groaning at how hard he was. Everywhere, not just his dick. He was rock-hard muscle from top to bottom and I suddenly couldn’t wait to have his weight on me, crushing me into the mattress.

:I think her answer is both.: Rik’s bond rumbled like an avalanche.

:Sounds good to me.:

“You need to eat first,” Rik said, pulling me up tighter against him. “You lost too much blood tonight. And while we eat, you can decide how you want to arrange your lovers tonight.”

“It seems ridiculous to waste time on something as mundane as eating when I could have you. Or Daire. Or Xin…”

“You’ll have us.” He set me firmly aside, though he tucked my arm around his and kept me close as we walked downstairs to join the rest of my guests.

Sitting down at the formal table in the dining room dressed only in a robe was strange to say the least. All my Blood stood as I came to join them, including Ezra, complete with a scowl leveled at the room in general. He’d even cleaned up a bit. His shaggy hair was pulled back into a trendy man bun, his beard tamed with a comb. He’d put on jeans like the rest of my Blood, but had gone with a flannel shirt instead of a T-shirt. Not unexpected, given his wild man preferences.

But he’d left the shirt unbuttoned, tucked into his jeans, but gaping open.

Which revealed loads of chest hair, a thick curly line that naturally led my gaze downward. I wasn’t sure if Ezra had left the shirt open to tempt Daire…

Or me.

Because I had a hard time looking away.

“Two can play that fucking game,” Mehen retorted, drawing my attention to him. He jerked his T-shirt over his head and tossed it over his shoulder. “Problem solved.”

And yeah, I liked looking at him too. All those iridescent scales across his shoulders and down his arms reminded me of his formidable power as Leviathan.

Daire tossed his shirt and his fingers settled on his fly. “Awesome, naked supper.”

Rik growled and jerked his head at Gina standing in the doorway, covering her mouth as she laughed.

“Oh. Right.” Daire winked at me, quirking his lips to show off his dimples, but he kept his pants on.

Nevarre only wore his kilt. Though he did have the long tail of his plaid wrapped around his shoulder, most of his chest was bare. Leaving Xin and G, daring each other to keep their shirts on, or take them off.

“No more stripping, please,” I said as Rik pulled my chair out for me. I’m pretty sure I was nipping badly with nothing but a thin silky robe on, but oh well. I sat down and watched as my Blood then took their seats too. Rik sat on my right, close enough our shoulders touched. Daire sat on his other side, far enough up the table that he could give sultry looks to both Mehen and Ezra, though luckily, they weren’t sitting close enough to do more than glare at each other.

Gina sat on my left with a leather case that she discretely set down on the floor beside her chair. She caught me looking though and smiled. “It can wait until after dinner.”

Lines about her eyes and mouth concerned me. She looked upset. Or ill. “Are you sure everything’s all right?”

She nodded and patted my hand. “Of course. What I felt was a mere fraction of what you endured. I’ll be fine after some sleep.”

Oh shit. I never thought about what my human servants would feel. “I’m so sorry! I should have warned you, but when I realized exactly what was going down, it was too late. Is Frank okay?”

“I’m fine, honestly. It just feels like I had the worst migraine of my life and I still feel fragile, like my skull is an eggshell. Frank texted me that he was going back to his room and lie down awhile, but would be back at five in the morning.”

I wasn’t bleeding, so I couldn’t heal her, but I listened unobtrusively to her bond a moment, trying to feel if there were any internal injuries or lingering problems I could fix. Other than weariness, I didn’t feel anything else wrong.

My stomach growled, which my Blood took as the “let’s eat” command. Rik immediately grabbed the large wooden bowl of salad greens in front of us and started loading up my plate. Lasagna and garlic bread were passed around, making my mouth water. Winston had also made seafood alfredo, spaghetti with a simple tomato sauce, and some kind of stewed or roasted meat that I wasn’t familiar with.

I tried some of everything and was not surprised that it was all fantastic. “Winston, you’ve outdone yourself again.”

“My pleasure, my queen, but I did have some help. Until we hire a few more staff, we have an arrangement with a caterer in town. Their osso bucco is fantastic.”

“How many people should we hire?”

Gina picked up a wine bottle and offered me some. I nodded and she poured us both some white wine. “We’re still talking about that. Winston thinks he only needs one or two people, but I keep insisting we need at least five to manage such a large house.”

With Winston’s age, I fully agreed with Gina. “I’m not even sure that five is enough. I mean, look at how much these guys eat.”

Guillaume paused with a huge mound of spaghetti headed toward his mouth, and Daire had an entire loaf of bread torn apart, half in each hand.

“Pass that meat back over here,” Ezra bellowed.

Mehen grabbed the platter before Winston could pass it and dumped the remaining meat onto his plate. “Sorry, it’s all gone.”

Ezra growled, rising up partway out of his chair.

Mehen only grinned at him. “Bring it on, big man.”

Winston laid his napkin down and pushed his chair back. “Now, now, not to worry, there’s another entire pan in the kitchen. I know how Blood eat.”

He popped into the kitchen and when he returned, Ezra took the whole pan from him and started eating out of it.

“Hey, I wanted some more of that,” Daire said.

“Come and get it, pussy cat.”

Daire let out a rumbling purr and started to get up. I could only imagine what kind of show that could get us into, so I quickly changed the subject to something that would definitely distract him. “So, where are we going shopping?”

Turning back to me, his eyes lit up. “Rodeo Drive? London?”

Gina said, “I was thinking Dallas on the way to Mexico. There’s a beautiful boutique shop that has some of the most unique designer gowns in the country, as well as men’s clothing. I thought we could stop on our way down, without worrying about spending the night outside a nest’s protection. Dallas is one of the few cities we don’t currently own property in and I doubted Rik would be willing to deal with a hotel, even a super nice one.”

Rik shook his head. “Security would be a nightmare, and they’re not going to have rooms large enough to accommodate us all near her.”

Gina nodded. “That’s what I thought. I’ll set up an appointment with the boutique so we have the place to ourselves, well before dark.”

“Good. There will likely still be thralls in the area, even though the queen left.”

“I wish we knew if she was Mayte or someone else,” I said. “Has Zaniyah always had a nest in Mexico City?”

“According to our records, yes.”

“So if it was Mayte in Dallas, why did she leave her nest? How long did she stay?”

“There have been reports of thralls off and on for a year or two. Enough to show up on my map. Since we didn’t have a confirmed identity, I actually thought it might be you, and sent several private detectives to the area with your picture. Of course they never found the queen, since it wasn’t you.”

I pushed my plate away and picked up my wine glass, settling back against my chair. The guys were still eating like a pack of starving wolves, and they’d need all the energy they could get. After the ant battle and growing the trees, my hunger went deeper than food. A dull ache spread across my cheeks, my fangs throbbing, even though they hadn’t descended yet. I was going to need blood. A lot of blood.

I had a feeling that my hunger would be insatiable. My stomach quivered, remembering how I’d drained my Blood when it’d been just the three of them, to the point that they couldn’t walk. I was afraid I’d get my fangs in one of them and not let go until it was too late.

Rik’s bond gleamed like molten lava in my mind. Red hot liquid rock. :You would never harm us.:

:I fucking killed you once already.:

He dropped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me in close. I turned my face against his chest, breathing in his scent, even while fear gnawed through me. This hunger…

:You’ve got seven Blood eager to give you every drop of blood in their bodies.:

:That’s what I’m afraid of.:

:Trust me to help you control it. I stopped you when you’d drained Daire before, remember? You need. We’ll provide. Gladly.:

Gina reached down beside her and pulled a folder out of the bag she’d set down. “Ready to go over a few things?”

“Of course.”

“I’ve been talking with Bianca and we’ve set out an itinerary for your trip.” She opened the folder and pushed it over to me so I could read the pages inside. She’d neatly typed out the dates and times. “I know you’re not an early riser, but if at all possible, we need to leave by nine, so we have time to stop in Dallas and still make it to Mexico City by dark. House Zaniyah will have cars pick us up at the airport, and we’ll drive out of the city a short ways to the nest.”

Inwardly, I groaned. I didn’t think I’d been up by nine since Rik and Daire found me.

“We’ll have a formal dinner with Mayte Zaniyah each night and will need to dress accordingly.”

“How formal?”

“Black tie. Her consiliarius will introduce your Blood one by one. Each will walk in with one of Mayte’s Blood.”

Guillaume scooted his chair closer. “In the old days, a visiting queen was never allowed to bring more Blood into the nest than the host. If anyone stepped out of line, there would always be a home Blood assigned with the sole duty of eliminating their assigned target. So there’s an art to assigning Blood to Blood. It’ll be interesting to see who she pairs with each of us, though since you’re relatively unknown, she may not have enough information to build a file on each of us.”

“How many people will be there?”

“No idea, honestly,” Gina replied. “I don’t believe Zaniyah has a large court, but conservatively I’d guess at least fifty, maybe one-hundred people.”

Great. Just the thought of walking in front of one hundred strangers all staring at me…

“At least it’s not Desideria’s court,” Guillaume added. “She always made visiting queens approach her court naked and refused them a single Blood when introduced. She wanted that queen as vulnerable as possible.”

Gina patted my arm again. “I know it seems strange, but formal processions are a holdover tradition thousands of years old. If you’re ever called to Marne Ceresa’s nest, you’ll be presented to at least five hundred of her court. Every queen is different. Some will use it as an opportunity to intimidate a new queen and reinforce the host queen’s power. Mayte Zaniyah will want to show you her power and prove her worth, if we’re right about her wanting to be your sib. She’ll want to know how much she can trust you, too.”

“Marne Ceresa uses formal presentation to prove her power, the same as Desideria,” Guillaume said with a scowl. “The old queens make their halls long and narrow, forcing the visiting queen to walk seemingly miles through hundreds of watchers.”

“Not just the old ones,” Daire snorted. “House Skye’s formal court is the length of a few football fields.”

“The first dinner will be formal and very structured,” Gina continued. “Every queen’s court is different, of course, but generally the queens will sit together at an elevated table overlooking the rest of the court with their consiliari. Usually the queens sit side by side, so they can talk, and their alphas will be close, usually standing behind them the entire dinner.”

I frowned. “The alphas stand the whole time and don’t eat?”

“Usually, no, they don’t eat,” Guillaume said. “Some queens won’t let any of the Blood eat for fear they’ll be distracted. This is all about the queens and their security. We’ll eat after, usually in shifts. Both her Blood and yours will be on high alert the entire time. A twitch at the wrong time can be deadly. Bloodshed before questions.”

With a sinking feeling, I looked down at Ezra, who was still glaring at Mehen across the table. The more wild bear Ezra acted, the more indolent lord Mehen became. The two of them were going to be insufferable.

“Don’t worry about those two.” Guillaume didn’t raise his voice or even look at them, but there was an edge in his voice that made everyone at the table stop talking and look at him. “We’ll be on our best behavior for you, my queen. One word or look out of place before your host’s court, and I’ll have the man’s head. Whoever it may be.”

“I can hold my tongue when I must,” Ezra muttered darkly, his cheeks turning red. From anger? Or embarrassment? I wasn’t sure. His bond roiled like an angry bear who’d been roused too early from hibernation, but he’d felt like that since he’d shown up.

“The rest of her court will be seated on the main floor in smaller tables,” Gina said. “They will all be watching you and your Blood, evaluating your power and your stature. Watching the way you interact with Mayte. If she’s unhappy, her court will be displeased. Everything from your clothing to the way you eat will be judged. If you send an offered dish away, for example, then Mayte could be offended. It will say her best efforts to entertain you are insufficient.”

Geez, talk about pressure. “I’m not so great in social situations. I mean, I know better than to eat with my fingers or belch loudly, but other than that, formal table etiquette is beyond me.”

“We’ll practice,” Gina promised. “And Zaniyah’s a small court. The pressure won’t be as immense as you fear.”

“Oh, the pressure’s there,” Guillaume said, nodding. “But for Mayte, not you. She needs you. Remember that. She wants to impress you. She wants to make sure you’re willing to protect her from other queens. Anytime you’re worried about something, just remember that her alternative is Keisha Skye, the queen who would have tortured your alpha before he could find you, and you’ll be fine.”

Indeed, just the thought of how close I’d come to never having Rik at all made my power rise. Goose bumps flared down my arms and my hair fluttered slightly about my shoulders, as if someone had cracked a door.

“What’s the worst thing that could happen?” I asked. “Honestly, I want to know.”

“Honestly?” At the end of the table, Mehen kicked back with a beer in his hand. “We’re killed. Every fucking one of us.”

Guillaume sighed. “The snake’s right. Worst case, she seals the circle, locking us inside. We’ll be out numbered. It’s been done before under the guise of diplomacy.”

I took a deep breath, my mind racing. I didn’t want to go into this if we didn’t have a Plan B. Some back door way to get out if we needed to escape. “I couldn’t break her blood circle?”

Gina spluttered on her wine and set her glass down. “No.”

I arched a brow at her. “No? For sure?”

“It’s never been done before. A blood circle, made by a queen, is impenetrable.”

“So you’ve told me, but then ants tried to crawl up from underneath my circle.”

Mehen took a long pull of his beer and then said, “I could fly you out. But no queen’s circle can be broken.”

“Unless the queen’s killed,” Rik said. “Here’s my orders to each of you so we’re absolutely fucking clear. If this meet goes badly, we get Shara out. No matter what. Kill your assigned Blood and get her to Mehen. He flies her out. Guillaume, your main priority will be to kill Mayte. Only you will be able to do it if she’s well protected.”

Guillaume nodded coolly. “Understood.”

Rik looked at Xin. “You will use your gift of invisibility to reach Shara and get her to Mehen. I don’t care if you kill anyone else, even your Blood. Just get her to the dragon so he can fly her out.”

“Understood, alpha.”

I shivered, looking down at my men, now grim and hard as they contemplated killing our way out of Zaniyah’s nest. I wasn’t scared, just… On edge. Nervous. Adrenaline already pumped though my veins and we hadn’t even left for Mexico yet. I didn’t doubt our ability to win. Not in the slightest. How could I after tonight’s battle with the ants? After Gaia and Morrigan and Isis worked together to grow a formidable grove of magical trees to protect us?

I wouldn’t have my trees or my nest in Mexico.

I would have something better.

My Blood.