Rik

I carried her from the black-marbled bathroom and tucked her into bed. She clung to me, crying, but it felt as though the tears cleansed an old, nagging grief.

Daire started to climb onto the bed with us, but she shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. Not this time. I need to speak to Rik alone.”

“Of course, my queen.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead and filed out with the rest of the Blood. Someone had turned down the blinds, and the room was dark and cool.

I closed my eyes and sank into her bond. I was not a jealous alpha, but I had to admit, having my queen to myself was a rare luxury that I would remember well. Even if foreboding chilled my heart.

Despite her tears after seeing her birth, she was braced for war. She wasn’t closed off from me—she would never lock me out of her heart and mind. Yet she wasn’t easy and open to read right now. I could easily guess what troubled her.

We were here to kill my former queen, who tortured alphas. My queen was many things, including fearless and powerful, but she could also be tenderhearted, especially for those she loved.

Before she could ask, I said, “Yes. Use me as bait. She’ll want an alpha to make an example of, and I’m strong enough to last until you can find a way to kill her. Let her take me.”

“No.”

“You can heal me,” I insisted. “I trust you implicitly. If you can’t heal me, then I’m still relieved to spare your other Blood the same fate. You will kill her, I’m sure of it.”

She jerked upright and glared down at me, tears glittering on her cheeks like diamonds. “You think that’s why I wanted to talk to you? To ask you if I could risk your life to kill Keisha?”

“It’s not?”

She blew out a long breath, shaking her head. “Despite knowing my heart inside and out, you couldn’t be more wrong. I will kill her, and I won’t have to offer you or any of my Blood up as bait, either.”

Eyes narrowed, I searched her bond for answers. She gleamed like fresh, hot steel straight out of the forge, showering me with sparks. “How?”

“By giving her exactly what she wants.”

I started to push up in protest, but Shara planted her palm on my chest. I could have ignored her, of course, but my body melted to her every touch and desire. If she wanted me to stay flat on my back, then so be it. “You can’t give her your blood.”

She swung a thigh over me and straddled my lower stomach. Arching a brow, she shrugged out of the elegant emerald green silk suit jacket that Mehen had picked for her to wear to New York City. “Oh, really? I can’t?”

“She’s not going to be as easy to kill as Greyson. She won’t blindly take your blood like he did.”

Shara pulled the ivory shell over her head and tossed it aside. She’d gone braless. The sight of her naked breasts stilled my tongue—so I could put it to better use. I leaned up and nuzzled her breasts, breathing in her scent. She always smelled divine—literally. But when her hormones raged, and blood spilled from her center, I couldn’t think of anything else. Her scent permeated my senses, rich, thick blood calling me to insanity.

“I tried something new this time.” She looped her arms around my shoulders and leaned back into my hands, letting me support her so I could lave her nipples and feast on the softness of her skin. “I think it worked. No tampon—but I didn’t bleed everywhere either.”

It took a few moments for her words to sink into my brain. I closed my eyes and let my senses flow through her bond, gliding through her body. All her bonds gleamed in the corner of my mind, glowing red streams tangled around her heart. Deep in her abdomen, something else glowed.

I sank lower, reveling in the way our souls rubbed and melded together. Her power made it possible for me to look inside her body and search for any illness or injury, or in this case, liquid moonlight that caught the menstrual blood flowing from her core.

Her scent still flooded my senses, ripe with hormones and need, but the blood itself stayed contained rather than leaking over her clothes. Smart. But I couldn’t help but miss the very visual sign of her fertileness. Since it was difficult for Aima queens to breed at all, we’d been conditioned to respond to the sight and smell of menstrual blood. It was a biological compulsion bordering on the strength of a meth-head’s drive for that next hit. One taste of that power-laden blood would fucking blow the top of my skull off.

So much blood, pooled in one place. Waiting.

“What I wanted to ask you…”

She waited until I blinked and tugged my gaze up to her face. “Yes, my queen?”

“When we are presented to Keisha, will any of her people try to feed on you? To try and cower us, or prove her dominance over me?”

“Generally, no, but House Skye likes to push boundaries. Since this is a fight between two powerful queens, her Blood may very well try to make an example of us. If one of them feeds on your alpha, a former sib, that automatically puts the Skye stamp on the rest of your Blood.”

She nodded, a small smile quirking one corner of her mouth, but her eyes remained locked to mine, watching my reaction. “I thought to warn them not to feed on any of my Blood, especially my alpha, or I would see them dead.”

I smiled back with appreciation for my queen’s wicked sharp wit. Of course, if she warned them not to do something, Keisha would very likely do it out of spite. “An excellent idea.”

“You said you didn’t care for anyone to feed on you outside of my bed, and I don’t want to put you through undo pressure. If you don’t—”

I grinned and lay back down, giving her a bump with my hips to remind her I was fully at her disposal. “It will be my great pleasure to let one of those fuckers sink fang into me and taste my cobra queen’s poison.”

“Who else has fed from you since I poisoned you?” She leaned down and pushed her hands up beneath my shirt to stroke my chest. “Daire, right? Anyone else?”

“No, but it’d only take a few minutes to envenom them all, except Guillaume, of course. Your headless knight won’t need any poison, though.”

“If you don’t mind—”

“Never. Ask me anything, my queen, and it’s yours.”

She pushed up to stand above me and unbuttoned her pants. “Then I ask that you allow me to give you the blood you hunger for the most, while the rest of my Blood taste yours.”

Shara

The thought of allowing him to taste my period blood still squicked me out—but not as much before. How could it, when his eyes blazed with hunger?

He locked his hands around my ankles. “Are you sure? I don’t need or require anything from you, my queen. I’ll gladly give your Blood my last drop if that’s what you need.”

“I’m sure.”

His hands convulsed on me, a shudder wracking his big frame. “I wouldn’t wish to cause you any unease, and I know—”

“Rik,” I broke in. “I’m sure. Why else do you think I used my power to come up with a better way to contain my blood? So I could give it to you, if you wanted it.”

“I want.” He licked his lips, his eyes so hot the silk should have disintegrated off my body. “I want every drop.”

I let the silk pants slide down my body, pushed the black lace panties down to my knees, and kicked them both off. As I started to lower myself to my knees, he reached up and caught me around the waist, lifting me up his body so my knees slid up over his shoulders. He flattened his tongue against me, slowly tracing his way down my body. Locking his mouth over my opening, he thrust his tongue inside me to taste the magic I’d used to contain the blood. Groaning against me, he squeezed me harder against him, working his mouth against me.

:Call your first Blood, and give me every fucking drop.:

:You heard him.: I said through the bond to no one in particular.

Shuddering with pleasure, I let the magic dissolve. He reared up beneath me, quivering as the blood hit his system. An explosion of power surged through our bond. He thrust his tongue deep and growled inside me. His hunger roared through me, his hands hard on my hips. I jerked in his grip, drowning in sensation. His hunger, pleasure, and ultimately, his need, to sink deep inside me. My pleasure, rising higher, threatened to throw me to the moon and back.

Mehen joined us on the bed. :I decided we should go by age.:

Of course, because that allowed him to go first. He wasn’t even going to be allowed inside Skye’s nest, but it wouldn’t hurt to make him poisonous too. He flashed slitted dragon eyes at me as he sank his fangs in Rik’s biceps. His bond flooded me with flames, as if he could taste my blood through Rik. He pressed closer to us and wrapped one arm around my hips, so he could touch me too.

Itztli came in next, his eyes glittering like his obsidian blade. :Alpha—:

:Yes,: Rik said immediately. :I can feed you both while our queen feeds me. I can feed you all.:

Now that the initial rush of blood and magic hit him, he focused more on technique. Which meant I was quickly moaning and jerking in his grip. I’d fucked one of the Blood while feeding others before, but I’d never seen them feeding off each other. Two mouths, locked on my alpha. It was hot, yeah, especially when they both touched me too.

But I had to admit, I’d rather be feeding them than watching them feed off Rik.

As soon as the thought registered, Mehen surged up to sink his fangs in my throat. Tlacel slid in beside his brother, wrapping his arms around us both as he bit Rik’s forearm.

:How much do we need to take?: Itztli asked.

:As much as you want,: Rik replied in the bond. :One drop of our cobra queen’s poison is enough to kill.:

Xin and Nevarre crowded in on the other side, both of them biting Rik’s other arm.

Climax poured through me, making them all groan. Rik sucked on me harder, working his entire face against me. Gasping, I opened my eyes and looked at them. My Blood. Four heads crowded around Rik, while I rode his face, and Mehen fed from my throat. They’d positioned themselves on purpose, so I could see them. So I could enjoy the way they fed from my alpha.

Itztli and Tlacel lifted their heads as one and turned to me. I offered them my right arm and they drank from my wrist and biceps, just as they’d done Rik, though they moved aside to make room for Ezra.

Which left only Guillaume and Daire. Silently, I held out my other arm and Daire came to me, sliding up against Mehen with that delicious rumbling purr. He cuddled into my wrist and bit me. Guillaume pressed against my back, also straddling Rik. I had a moment of hesitation, worried that we were all on top of him, but then he pushed me to another climax and I didn’t care.

Because he didn’t care.

He gripped my buttocks, pulling me down harder on him. Drowning on my blood. My pleasure. They all were.

I flew so high I lost sight of my Blood and this new bed we were bloodying so thoroughly. I lost sight of everything. I flew through a night sky on silent wings, cutting through the air effortlessly. No stars blinked in the sky. No moon.

Utter darkness.

How I had been conceived. How I had been born.

Panting, I slowly became aware of the bedroom once more. My Blood all cuddled around me, crammed into the bed. It was large… but not that large for ten full-sized adults. Luckily, they didn’t care about lying on top of each other.

As long as they could get a hand or mouth on me at the same time.