Page 31 of Queen Takes Queen
I hadn’t gone to foster with House Skye for another tenyears.
He’d endured ten years alone in New York City in a nest ofvipers.
I still remember how glad I’d been to see a familiar face when he’d come to pick me up at the airport. He’d made sure I got settled, though he hadn’t offered to feed me right away. Nothing had seemed forced or strange between us, though we’d both changed and matured over theyears.
I’d gone to him after months. Upset. Alone. In fucking tears because no one had fed me the entire time I’d been in New YorkCity.
Aima could go a long time without blood, if they weren’t depleting their power by actually using it. I certainly wasn’t Blood, then, and had no power of my own to give anyone. But for sibs, feeding was a way to network and make connections. Plus, we simply liked to feed. It felt good. Damned good. I wasn’t going to die without it, but I was fucking sick of being the low sib on the totempole.
I’d whined that no one liked me. I wished I’d stayed at home. And he’d put his arm around my shoulders, pulled me in against him, and offered throat without another word. And yeah, as Aima tend to do when they feed, we’d fucked too. It’d been good, too. Good enough I stayed with him several days, sharing blood and hisbed.
He’d never once said anything about loving me or being glad I’d come to him.Nothing.
That wasn’t Ezra’sstyle.
Then I’d traipsed out into Skye’s sibs and sought another, and another. I had to build my network, prove my worth, gain their confidence. It’d still been tough going. Though I carried a bit of Skye blood then, Ezra sure hadn’t made it easy on himself. While he never begrudged me feeding elsewhere, he refused to make friends. Other sibs saw me having an association with him, and it only made them more wary of me. When I stumbled, literally, into Alrik Skye and his bed, I’d never looked back. Notonce.
I turned away again now, unable to bear the emotion blazing in his eyes. “Fuck, man. Why didn’t you saysomething?”
“Why should I? We had a good time. You moved on. If you’d wanted to stay, you would havestayed.”
“But I didn’tknow!”
“Do you think I would’ve wanted you to stay out of guilt? Because you owed me? Fuck that shit. You knew where I was and if you’d wanted me, you would have come to me. Then you left, and I started paying more and more attention to what was going on with Skye herself. It didn’t make sense to let a young alpha with Rik’s promise out of her sight. Not with her obsession. I watched. I waited until I had proof. And then I hightailed it straight toyou.”
Ezra wasn’t much for grand displays of affection, but I grabbed a handful of his beard and pulled his head low, tucking myself up under his chin. “How can I ever repayyou?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” He growled, but he didn’t pull away. “I don’t want your pity thanks. Just feed me a bit until I figure out how this court’s going to work. I’m fully prepared to hightail it to the badlands if Rik decides to bash my head in because I won’t follow his bullshitrules.”
I snickered, nuzzling deeper into his throat. I’d forgotten how hairy he was, and how much I liked it. His chest was covered with a thick mat, his hair and beard wild and shaggy. He’d always been more bear than man, even before Shara revealed his power. “You won’t have to worry about getting fed here. Shara’sdifferent.”
He rubbed his nose into my hair and breathed deeply, pulling my scent into his body. I remembered him doing that before, but hadn’t realized why. Now I knew and it fucking shredded my heart like a cheese grater. “Do the Blood feed each othermainly?”
“No, hardly ever. We feed fromher.”
“All of us?” He didn’t say it out loud, but I knew exactly what he was thinking.Even me? The new (low) guy? The one nobody willlike?
“All of us. Nearly every night too. Though she’ll about drain you dry in exchange. Her power is fuckingincredible.”
He huffed out a breath. “Yeah, I got that. With that bite ofhers…”
He hesitated, too polite to come right out and ask. It made me laugh again, shaking my head. Because when it didn’t matter, he was polite. But when he ought to be polite… He was crude and blunt as hell. “Yeah, she fucks us too, usually several at once so we can keep herfed.”
“Huh.”
I raised my head, meeting his gaze with a wicked smirk. “Suddenly eager to get back to the nestthen?”
“Lead the way, you littleshit.”
12
Shara
Ipulledon the robe Nevarre had brought to me. I’d asked forclothes, 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 beembarrassed.
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 couldfind.
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 guesthouse.
