Page 83 of Queen of Vampire Hearts

“Lucien! You scared the life out of me,” she said with a surprised squeal, letting me carry her to the throne room. I placed her delicately on her new seat. She smiled up at me and said, “I’m supposed to be sparring with Gunnar soon.”

Gunnar had stayed on as a personal guard for Phoebe. The gruff and stoic lycan felt the need to protect her at all costs. I would have felt uncomfortable about another male hanging around my mate, but Erik pulled me aside, explaining that Phoebe reminded Gunnar of his lost sister. The lycan’s need to protect her stemmed from his inability to do the same for his sister centuries earlier. I welcomed the lycan after that and was happy to have the extra security.

“Gunnar can wait. I have some surprises for you.” I smiled and hoped it didn’t betray my nerves. “Stay right there.”

I sprinted to my office, pulling out the two boxes from where I’d hidden them, and was back in front of her in a blink. “I got some help from Erik for this. He said it was his olive branch to you for bringing me the bounty.” I kissed her hard when she frowned.

“He’s forgiven.” She smiled, reaching for the gifts. I sighed at her but handed them over, holding my breath as she opened them. “Are these…?” Her eyes filled with tears.

“Your grimoires. Erik found them supporting a wobbly nightstand in some troll den.” I thought I probably should have skipped that part when she started crying, but when she looked at me again, I saw the love shining there. She brushed the tomes off her lap and leaped into my arms, smacking loud kisses over my face.

“I love you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” More kisses on every place she could reach.

“You better not be thanking Erik like this,” I warned, and she laughed, sliding down my body to inspect the two books. When she opened the Atreus one, she noticed the note I’d left tucked under the cover. When she glanced back at me, I was down on one knee next to her.

“Lucien?” she asked, still unsure, but tears filled her eyes again.

“Let me get this out. I know witches don’t recognize mates like other species, and I wanted you to have everything you dreamed of before everything changed. I love you more than the air I breathe. Will you marry me?”

I flicked back the lid of the ring box that I’d pulled from my pocket, displaying the ring I’d picked for her. It was non-traditional, just like her. A massive black diamond sat in the center, surrounded by a halo of smaller white ones. Inside the ring, I’d inscribedMy Enchantress.

I’d felt like a sap when I first purchased it, but the way Phoebe’s face was lighting up now made it all worth it. She was staring at the ring but wasn’t saying anything, and I was getting a bit nervous.

“This is the part where you say yes,” I hinted.

“Yes!” she screamed, tears still falling down her face. She held her hand out, letting me slide the ring on her finger. Phoebe threw her arms around my neck, kissing me as I stood. Before I could spin her around, unable to contain my delight at her acceptance, the throne room doors burst open. Blood scented the air, and lots of it. I turned to glare at the intruders, pushing Phoebe behind me. Erik half-carried his younger brother into the room. Alaric was covered in blood, and his face was nearly gray.

“Please help us,” Erik said, his voice pleading.

XLIII

The Realm of Mortals.

Outside Bucharest, Romania.

Two Hours Earlier.

WHAT IN THE HELLS KIND OF TROUBLEhad Alaric gotten himself into now? I scoured through Bucharest on the rumors that my younger brother was raising hell in the capital. Alaric always checked in, but it was over a week without hearing from him. I really should have my title changed. It shouldn’t be Erik Wulfric, King of Lycans. It should be Erik Wulfric, Wolf Wrangler. It sounded a little too much like the Crocodile Hunter. Rest In Peace, Steve.

I growled in irritation and sent Leif and Thurston ahead, hoping they could track down my wayward brother. I was just like him at one time, wild and carefree, no crown weighing me down.Then everything had changed, first the war, then my ascension to king. Responsibilities dragged down my shoulders until I worried I might collapse beneath the weight.

I pushed away the memories of those three hundred years of freedom and stormed into another bar, looking around for my brother, a shiver of foreboding shooting down my spine. I couldn’t remember Alaric, or any of my siblings, going this long without checking in with me.

Viggo sniffed the air, alert to any threats. I hated traveling with a posse, but the wolves refused to let me go to Întuneric alone, so I was stuck with them for the entirety of my sojourn to Romania. One thousand years old, and they still treated me like a child.

Viggo hissed next to me, “Leeches.” He growled, indicating the two vampires sitting at the bar, their backs to us.

Unlike the vampires I usually kept company with, they smelled like aggression and blood, like death. My instincts screamed at me as my nostrils flared. I bolted across the bar, not even caring that several humans likely noticed the blur of movement.

I slammed one of the vampires against the wall and growled, “What have you done to my brother?”

My claws sunk into the leech, unable to control the wolf clawing within me. The blood I scented was Alaric’s. Viggo grabbed the remaining vampire, discreetly telling the remaining visitors of the bar to fuck off unless they wanted to join the incoming fight. The room cleared in a matter of seconds.

The vampire struggled, his eyes turning a menacing red. “We only did what the other mongrel paid us to!”

“What did you do to my brother?” I demanded again, refusing to relinquish the squirming vampire, my grip grinding his bones together.

“We took him to the caves! He should still be there!” The other vampire shouted as Viggo displayed his own fangs to the vampire. I threw the second down, breaking his arm before grabbing the uninjured one in an uncompromising grip.

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