Page 82 of Queen Takes Queen
Daire snickered. "I guess you're going to get him comingandgoing, myqueen."
With the twins dealt with, I met Bianca's gaze across the plaza and gave her a nod to continue. Need pulsed inside me. With Rik's erection digging into my back and these two new Blood smelling of sex and desire and blood, the last thing I wanted to do was sit through hours of formalpresentation.
But that's exactly what I was going to have todo.
One by one, court Zaniyah was introduced to me. My new sibs. My new family. They were all smiles and bows. Some wept. Some wanted to kiss my hand. A few gave lingering looks to my Blood, as if I'd allow them to take on a few new sibs. We'd talked about that before, and the idea still didn't thrill me. The twins probably had sibs in the court, since they'd been alive a very long time. If they wanted to keep thoserelationships...
Tlacel finally released my throat and leaned back enough to meet my gaze. His golden brown eyes were dazed and my blood trickled down his lip. "Why would we want to feed on sibs when we could have our queen's blood? You did say you feed your Blood regularly,yes?"
I nodded, letting my gaze slide down to his lips, then lower. His brother was bigger and broader, built more like Rik. Tlacel was leaner and slender. He moved with a delicate grace, like his bird, drifting through the air without effort. Tattoos scattered across his shoulders and chest, though on his face, he only had the red spiral. Some of them looked like tribal tats I was more familiar with, but many of them looked like glyphs of his people. They told a story that I couldn'tunderstand.
And I wanted to understand that story. I wanted to read him like abook.
"How much longer is this fucking procession going to last?" Daire asked, nuzzling his head into my lap while his fingers inched up to my knee. I shifted my thighs apart as much as the tight dress would allow, and it was nowhere near enough for him to slide on up and stroke my heat. Much to mydismay.
"An hour at least," Mayte said, her words still slurred. "Though I can ask Bianca to speed thingsup."
"Fuck," Daire groaned, his fingers kneading myknee.
Which made megroan.
Which made Tlacel lean in harder against me, interfering with Daire's efforts to get his hand up my skirt. So he hissed a warning. Which made Eztli's jaguar make that coughing growlagain.
Chuckling against my ear, Rik tightened his arms around me. "I think you should end this procession as quickly as possible, myqueen."
Itztli straightened, shaking off the daze that had clouded his eyes after taking my blood. He leveled a hard look on Nevarre that saidmove. Naturally, Nevarre dug in tighter against myknee.
"Or they're going to start afight?"
"Hmm. No. I wouldn’t allow a fight." The rumble in his voice told me a fight was the last thing any of them were thinkingabout.
Mayte surprised the hell out of me when she dropped into my lap and looped her arms around my neck. She raised her voice so everyone in the plaza heard, though she looked only at me. "Thank you, all. We accept your continued oaths to Zaniyah, now given willingly to Isador. But my queen is weary and needs to retire. Thank you forunderstanding."
Then she pressed her lips to mine and I decided that she was right. It was time to end this fucking event. Even if it pissed off some of herpeople.
Because I couldn't fucking wait any longer to take myqueen.
30
Rik
My queen had accomplished muchon this trip. She had taken her first sib, gained an ancient, proud court, and added two new Blood in the process. These men weren't lightweights, either. They weren't as old as Guillaume, nor as famous in Aima circles, but they brought new gifts to my queen that I knew without a doubt she'd need in this fight againstSkye.
Though I might have to smash their heads together on occasion, which was far from a hardship. Or maybe I'd just pair them up with Mehen and Ezra. That would behilarious.
Shara's power had already been so immense that adding Mayte and her court was like a drop in the ocean. But Zaniyah brought more than raw power to my queen. She brought a solid foundation and generations of experience, laid out like a feast for my queen to draw on atwill.
Even more, Mayte brought a tenderness to my queen that we Blood could not give her, though we tried as often as possible. Many of us were predators. Aggressive males. While we could be tender on occasion, and I handled my queen as gently as possible, I could never compare to the soft, light touch of awoman.
My queen had grown up without many soft and pretty things. She'd grown up in a tower bedroom with no windows, because she feared the monsters outside. She'd never had a nest or a community of Aima to teach her our ways. Even the woman who'd raised her had struggled at times to balance her role in raising a powerful queen outside of any nest, with no protection, while under her sister's geas. Shara had said many times that her mother wasn't the same after her human loverdied.
For my queen, that meant she had often felt alone. She hadn't had the warm, soft hug of her mother, or another familymember.
So it was no wonder that she craved another queen's soft touch. She wanted laughter and tenderness and sweetness, and I would be no alpha if I didn't ensure my queen received exactly what she wanted. The only problem was my queen's potentially prickly pride. She wanted Mayte. But she didn't want Mayte's Blood, and she definitely didn't want any of us to touch the other woman. My queen was a jealous queen, which I loved. I didn't want to touch another, even though it would be more difficult to arrange her lovers to best meet her needs while remaining within her comfortzone.
Still on my queen's lap, Mayte nuzzled her ear playfully. "I have a place I'd like to showyou."
Shara melted at the soft light shining in the other woman's eyes. "Then lead theway."
