Shara

Tipping my head back to look up at the rising moon, I raised the black blade above my head. I wasn’t usually so ceremonial, but with the Zaniyah clan watching, I felt like they needed to see my respect for rituals and the goddesses. “Great One, your last daughter offers a sacrifice to You and Your sisters tonight.”

Instantly, the rain stopped, as if someone had shut off the heavenly faucets. People whispered around me. Pale, Mayte stared at me silently. She wouldn’t dishonor me, or herself, by protesting my decision in front of her people, but I felt the need to comfort her, at least a little. :This will be ugly, but it’s nothing that I haven’t already done myself and survived.:

I made sure Itztli heard that thought as well, but his only reaction was a slight huff of his breath.

:Do what you must do, my queen,: Mayte replied softly. :Brother, I love you.:

:And I love you, sister.: Sincerity echoed in his bond, a heart-wrenching twist at the thought of not seeing her, or Xochitl, again. He didn’t look away from me, though, even as he said goodbye to his twin. :At last, you’re free of me, brother.:

Tlacel dropped to his knees beside him and looked up at me. “Take me, too, my queen. We came into this world together, and we’ll leave it together.”

I tipped my head to the side, listening to the distant whispers on the wind. Night fell quickly. “You already risked your life to save me and Xochitl today. This sacrifice is not required of you, Tlacel.”

“I won’t let him die without me.”

I laid the obsidian blade on my left palm and drew a deep cut. “I will decide who lives and dies tonight.”

With the scent of my blood on the air, all my Blood focused even more intently on me, automatically drawing closer, a tight ring at my back and on either side of the two men kneeling before me. Mayte took a step toward me, but I shook my head. “House Isador makes this sacrifice for House Zaniyah tonight. This sacrifice will strengthen your defenses and give you a direct connection to my nest in Arkansas, but it takes a great deal of blood and power to complete it.”

I let my blood fall on the muddy soil between me and Itztli. Despite his misgivings about feeding, his nostrils flared, and his eyes blazed with heat. He hungered, and no wonder. He’d never fully embraced his needs, for fear of releasing the dark god’s power.

He leaned forward slightly, his eyes locked on my blood that dripped down my fingers. I held out my bleeding palm, but I didn’t touch him or tug on his bond. He had to want to taste me of his own accord, or I could never bring him fully into his power.

His lips brushed my index finger, his tongue flicking out to gather some of the droplets before they could fall. His eyelashes fluttered down. His breath caught, his pulse leaping at the immediate adrenaline kick. Through the bond, I felt the heavy pounding of his heart. The surge of brutal desire. He quivered with need, his muscles straining to keep him locked in place on his knees.

My fangs descended, forcing me to open my mouth and bare them to the air, or risk puncturing my own lips. Tiny electric bolts flickered through me at the sensation. My mouth ached, my fangs too sensitive, too bare, needing to be buried. Deeply.

In him.

His mouth twisted in a grimace, revealing his own fangs. A low, rattling growl rumbled from his chest. But then he beat down that sound, locking his lips, tightening his throat, swallowing down the groan of hunger and desire.

Silly man. Did he think he could keep this need from me? That I, last daughter of Isis, needed him to protect me from lust and hunger and blood—the very gifts She gave me?

:I’ve lived this long without giving in to need. I can certainly die tonight without it.:

For a moment, my mind froze. Goddess. Surely, I misunderstood. :You’re still a virgin?:

His lips curled with disgust and he tried to avert his gaze, but the steady drip of my blood held him transfixed. :I have never known a woman, since the attempt to take my first sib that ended in disaster. I refused to risk harming a woman like my father did.:

I looked over at Tlacel beside him, my eyes wide. :You too? Are you still a virgin?:

:I don’t go anywhere without my twin. So yes, we’re both untouched, my queen, other than the pleasure you gave us last night when you took us as Blood.:

It was all I could do not to slap my forehead and sigh with disbelief. Two five-hundred-year-old virgins.

Daire snorted in the bond. :It’s going to be hilarious watching you break them in, my queen. If they survive this ritual.:

Mehen let out a reluctant grunt. :The scaly chicken did save our queen today when we could not. He can surely survive our queen’s darkest lusts, though I ask that you do to me whatever you do to him, my queen.:

:And me,: each of my Blood said immediately in my head, except Rik. He touched the small of my back briefly, the heat of his palm a reminder of his strength. He was there for me. He was protecting me, even from whatever darkness Itztli managed to bring to life in me. I could throw myself into the abyss and embrace the waiting darkness.

Because my alpha had my back and always would.

Ezra

My queen always made a formidable impression on a man, but Shara Isador holding a wicked-sharp obsidian blade in her hand made the hairs on my nape stand up. Ice dripped down my spine, but I said nothing.

I hoped to goddess I was wrong.

Fuck me. If she started torturing the man on his knees before her, I was going to have to…

My ribcage ached and I couldn’t breathe.

I’d seen too much shit go down in Skye’s court. How she’d tortured alpha after alpha. Itztli was not Rik by any means, but in any other court, he could be alpha. He had the age and enough power waiting to be unleashed by his queen.

We Aima loved feeding on blood and sex, sure. But the moment she started feeding on pain…

She’d be just another Keisha Skye, and that’d fucking break my goddess-damned heart. I never loved Skye, but I’d been welcomed into Isador. Between Shara and Daire, and yeah, the rest of her Blood, even the bitching dragon, I’d found family I’d never known I missed. The thought of dragging my shaggy ass back out into the wilderness to live the solitary bear life damned near made me lose my mind.

I couldn’t be alone now. Not like that. Not after being a part of Shara’s court. Her fucking family.

But if she was going to torture anyone, especially a Blood, then I’d have to find the strength in me to leave.

Her blood on the ground sprouted a plant that shot out of the dirt and surged upward toward the shining moon with alarming speed. Woody vines writhed like a nest of snakes, as the center of the bush grew tall enough to touch Shara’s outstretched hand. The plant shivered with ecstasy, her dripping blood giving it life like some kind of alien plant, but it curled its vines around the man, not our queen.

The whites of his eyes flashed with surprise, but he didn’t fight the entwining plant, even as it dragged him off the ground. When I finally realized what the tree was doing, I almost threw up.

The bush had flattened out into what looked like an altar, with Itztli spread-eagled on top of it.

Someone laid a hand on my arm, making me twitch with surprise. Daire whispered in my head. :She’d never torture someone like Skye.:

My heart insisted he was right, but my brain kept throwing up images of bleeding alphas and endless screams. It was horrifying how long Skye had been able to keep a man alive while screaming like that. Alphas, no less.

Despite his assurance, I sensed a heavy weight in his bond, too. A memory that made him feel almost as badly as I was right now. With a wry lift of his shoulder, he gave me the memory of a huge black cobra breaking Rik’s bones like nothing, and then pumping him with venom. I watched Rik’s flesh swell and blacken, and then the cobra sucked him dry.

The cobra. Our queen.

:It was awful,: Daire whispered, his mental voice shaken. :But it wasn’t done so she could revel in his pain. If Skye had this power, you know she’d be pumping every male she could get her hands on with venom. But that’s not Shara. She’ll do what needs to be done, even if it’s terrible, because she’s one fucking badass queen and she’ll do anything to keep her family safe. Us. Her Blood.:

I gave him a grudging nod and turned my attention back to the new Blood on his back, waiting for the knife to sink into him. His face was calm and smooth with acceptance. In fact, he looked up at our queen with relief and reverence. His bond was full of black holes and shadows that gave me the sense of being guarded by rabid dogs. Evidently, he’d been fighting some internal darkness his whole life, and it was apparent, even to me, that he fully expected to die.

He wanted to be sacrificed.

Shara turned to face the watching crowd. “This is the beginning of a heart tree, a powerful, sentient connection to our goddesses. I have one in my nest, and I believe it’ll be able to connect our two nests. My grove will power yours, and this will be the anchor. If your queen wishes to grow a full grove, she may sacrifice her blood as directed by your goddess.”

Mayte nodded. “I will, absolutely. I feel the call already from Coatlicue. We will have a grove here in Zaniyah.”

“To bring the heart tree fully to power, a great deal of blood and suffering is required,” Shara said solemnly. “I suffered and there was nothing my Blood could do to help me.” She touched the circular scar between her breasts. “My heart was punctured by a large thorn. I should have died, but Isis’s power kept me alive.”

She stepped to the side, making sure the crowd could see the man stretched out on the tree altar. “I would suffer for your heart tree. I would die on its branches and let Isis’s power bring me back. But Itztli has volunteered to make the heart tree sacrifice in my place tonight. He makes the sacrifice for you.”

Turning to him, she laid her hand on his shin, and even from feet away, I saw the fine shimmer of his muscles up his leg at the small touch. I couldn’t help but note that she never promised to resurrect him. She never gave him reassurances that he’d come back, because we all knew how fickle the goddesses could sometimes be. Her power had raised Rik and herself, but someday, it might fail to raise one of us back from the dead. It was a risk we accepted as her Blood. Our life for hers, even if her power failed.

“Are you ready, my Blood?”

“Yes, my queen.”

Closing her eyes, she tipped her head back and soaked in the moon’s glow. She had a fucking regal profile, the planes of her cheekbones gleaming with dark pearls and opals. The moonlight illuminated her perfectly, like a spotlight. Her breasts, high and full, the swell of her hips, the dark shadow between her thighs drawing my gaze. All her Blood stared at her sex. I burned to stroke her and give her pleasure. I ached to feel her skin against mine. Her sighs of pleasure, her hands on me, driving me harder.

I’d had Daire, and yeah, it’d been fucking great. I’d tasted her pleasure while I was fucking him, and I wanted more, more, more. Of him. Sure.

But I wanted my queen most of all.

I wanted to have her body beneath mine, writhing in pleasure I gave her. I wanted to touch her. Taste her. Feel her need. For me.

:Soon,: she whispered in my head, making me flinch with surprise. I hadn’t realized I was projecting my lust to her. :I want my bear hooked inside me.:

My dick swelled so hard that I couldn’t hold back a grunt of pain, need, desperation. All the above.

Daire snickered and pressed his tempting body against me, but thank goddess he didn’t touch me, or I probably would have spilled right there. :Who’s the big bad bear now?:

:Shut the fuck up.:

The little shit started purring, his chest vibrating against my arm. His dick was hard against my thigh. I looked around quickly and realized all of us were erect.

Even the man preparing to die for his queen.