Page 5 of Filthy Rich Vampires: For Eternity

Our future.

For minutes, we stared at each other until I had no idea how much time had passed. I couldn’t tear my eyes from him—from my mate.

Until a smile danced across his lips. “Can I speak yet?”

I laughed, nodding, as tears filled my eyes again.

“Good,” he said. “Why are you wearing a crown?”

JULIAN

My mate reached up to touch the crown that graced her bowed head. Diamond shards rose from its band like rays to mimic the sun. In the center of the sunburst, a delicate serpent, Le Regine’s oldest symbol, held aloft a crescent carved from moonstone in its jaw. Her nose wrinkled, drawing attention to her freckles, and she sighed.

“Oh, that,” she said flatly. “It doesn’t matter.”

But it did matter. Because I recognized that crown, knew whose head it once rested upon, and what it meant that Thea wore it now. I raised my head and looked around the room, unsurprised to find us near the Queens’ dais. The throne room was empty, but it had been cleaned since my last visit. No doubt in preparation for the sisters to welcome their newest member. It was supposed to have been my mother. But if Thea wore the crown, then…

“What happened?” I asked softly, knowing this was her story to tell.

She paused before finally speaking in a brittle voice, “You died.”

I nodded because I wouldn’t deny that fact. But there was more to all of this than that, and we both knew it. “I’m here now.”

There was one more moment of hesitation before her mouth opened, and the story spilled from her. I listened quietly as she told me about Willem—about who he was to her—and then continued to tonight’s events. When she finished, tears shone in her emerald eyes.

“I didn’t have a choice.” She wrung her hands together. “I would have done anything to save you.”

“You don’t have to justify yourself to me.” If she knew what I’d done to find her, the vampires I’d tortured as I’d hunted her, would she even look at me the same way?

“You don’t mind?” Her lips sank into her lower lip, drawing attention to her mouth. Suddenly, my pants felt tighter. At least I appeared to be recovering quickly.

“Mind?” Carefully, I pushed up until I was sitting up next to her. There wasn’t the slightest twinge of pain. It was almost like none of it had happened. If it weren’t for her crown, I might have thought I’d imagined the whole thing.

“That I…” She gestured to the crown as though she couldn’t bring herself to admit what she’d agreed to by wearing it.

“I’m just picturing you wearing that crown and nothing else.” I didn’t bother to paint the rest of the picture—her straddling me, her face contorted with anguished bliss—but judging from the heat that stained her cheeks, she’d imagined the same thing.

“I don’t know what they expect from me,” she admitted. “I think it was a mistake.”

“Thea,” I savored the way her name tasted on my tongue before dropping my voice to a lower octave, knowing others would be nearby. Taking her hand, I brushed my thumb along the back of it. I knew there was no way to soothe her ragged nerves, but maybe I could help her accept what she’d done. “You brought me back to life. It wasn’t a mistake. The crown chose you.”

She opened her mouth to protest as the doors to the throne room burst open. My mother, followed by a dozen others, flowed into the room, all of them stopping short when they saw us sitting there.

“Julian.” Sabine’s lips formed my name even though no further sound issued from her. She pressed her hand to her chest. My father stood next to her, confusion warring with relief on his face.

“It worked.” Lysander’s voice finally cut the silence. “It fucking worked.”

The woman next to him hushed him with a harsh glare.

“As I said it would,” Mariana announced as she swept past them and headed toward us. Her sister walking beside her sniffed slightly, the only sign on her stone face that she was disappointed at the outcome.

Mariana smiled at us as the two queens ascended the dais and took their respective thrones. As soon as they were seated, she called in a lofty voice, “Join us, sister.”

Thea’s eyes met mine, her teeth still chewing on her lower lip, and I knew it was the last thing she wanted to do. Not only because I was here but because she hadn’t processed what had happened—who she now was.

“Go on,” I urged her in a low voice only she could hear. “Take your throne.”

“But…” Her fingers locked tightly around mine. “What about you?”

---