Page 1 of Queen Takes Queen
1
Shara
Loungingin bed was a luxury I’d been denied most of my adult life. When you were on the run, afraid for your life, the last thing you wanted to do was close your eyes. Let alone drop your guard enough to actually sleep soundly. Sleeping made me vulnerable, and alone, I couldn’t afford to be vulnerable. I couldn’t relax one second without worrying I’d end updead.
That fear was long gone now. I could lie in bed all hours of the day or night and sleep without a single worry. I didn’t have to keep one eye on the door, or strain my ears to hear a whisper in the hallway. Because I would never be alone again, not with my Blood by myside.
Before I opened my eyes, I liked to touch each of my six Blood bonds one by one, locating their position. Partly to know who was in bed with me, but also so they would each feel me touch their bond. They’d know I was awake and well, and I’d knowtheywerewell.
Of course as my alpha and my biggest, baddest Blood, Rik probably knew I was awake before I realized it, but I always felt for him first, even though I knew he’d be right there besideme.
Until hewasn’t.
He isn’there.
I jerked upright, my heart pounding. “Rik?”
He hollered from the bathroom. “In here, my queen. Sorry, I didn’t mean to worryyou.”
“Even alphas need to take a leak now and then,” Xin said besideme.
Whew. My heart still pounded, but I lay back down beside him and curled into his side. Even in his human form, Xin smelled like a wolf. Well, that didn’t come anywhere close to a good description. He smelled like a wolf, paused in a clearing in the middle of an ancient forest, beneath a full moon on a cold winter’s night, with frost and snow crystallized on hisfur.
Touching him felt so strange with that image in my head, because his skin was so hot and smooth. I ran my palms over his chest and shoulders, enjoying the play of muscle and sinew beneath his skin. He was one of my leaner Blood, but no less powerful or strong than the others. As my second-oldest Blood—born in 712 AD—he had endured centuries upon centuries in a cold, untouchable service to his queen. To say he was starved for touch was the understatement of the year. All my Blood were starved to a point, but he and Mehen, my oldest Blood, who’d been imprisoned as the mighty dragon, Leviathan, definitely felt the need mostseverely.
I pressed closer to Xin, tangling my legs with his and sliding one hand around to his back. My eyes drifted shut and I relaxed into his embrace, just enjoying the feeling ofcompanionship.
Okay, I was starved for touchtoo.
“Tell me something about you,” Xin whispered against my forehead, stroking my back. “Something no one else knows. Somethinggood.”
It would be impossible for me to tell him a secret when my Blood bonds tied our hearts and minds together. They usually knew what I was thinking before I realized myself. But he would at least be the first to hear thewords.
Silent a few moments, I tried to think of something not just good, but special. “It’s funny, but when you’re a kid, you think that your life is normal and everyone else is weird, you know? So I thought everybody had terrible nightmares and saw red glaring eyes outside their windows. I thought everyone was scared of the dark because of the monsters. So when I talked about it at school, I got labeled ‘special’ pretty quickly. After a few years, Mom took me out of public school and I stayed home with her. Dad was gone by then, but she really tried hard to make things normal and safe for me. Fun, even. But I didn’t have any friends, and as much as I loved her, I was still lonely, even before shedied.”
He made a low sound against my skin. “I said something good, myqueen.”
“I’m getting there, I promise! I didn’t have a lot of friends, and I hung out mostly with Mom. But all through my life, little things happened that made me feel like I wasn’t alone. That I was watched over. Like I had a guardian angel. Maybe I’d find a flower on the porch, something tropical and hot pink, when we didn’t have anything like it growing on our street. Or a really pretty red leaf in the middle of winter, pressed to the windshield of the car. Or I’d smell something sweet and soothing at night when I was scared, and I’d close my eyes, and it’d feel like someone was there, watching over me. I didn’t know then who it was, but now… I think it was my real mother. Even though she was dead and I had no idea of her existence, she was always withme.”
I didn’t bother saying her name. Thanks to a geas Esetta Isador had placed upon all Aima, no one living could say or remember her name. I didn’t have that problem, since I’d technically died the first time I came into my power when Rik and Daire found me just a few miles fromhere.
My throat ached and my eyes burned, but with happy tears. “Even though she knew I had no idea that she even existed, she still made sure I felt her presence. That’s prettyspecial.”
Mom would always be Mom, the woman who raised me, who died to keep me safe, even though she was technically my aunt. But now I had Esetta, too. I had her words she’d written to me. Even if no one else could remember her name, I would alwaysremember.
Thank you,Esetta.
Something soft brushed my cheek like a feather—though I didn’t see or senseanything.
“Thank you, my queen,” Xinwhispered.
He didn’t tighten his grip or press against me, but something tugged on my sixth sense in the bond. I sank deeper into his bond, now used to the gray fog that seemed to surround him. Each of my Blood’s bonds felt different in my head, and Xin had always been distant. Not that he tried to deliberately hide from me, not at all. His gift of invisibility wrapped his bond and made him harder for me to sense. His former queen hadn’t wanted any of her Bloods’ emotions to leak into her head, and so he’d learned a long time ago to keep his emotions tightly under wrap. When I first met him, I’d had to jump off a metaphorical skyscraper to find his true self. It was easier now, but I still had to reach to feelhim.
Raw need raged through him so fiercely it made my breath catch on a soft gasp. I already knew he was starved for affection, but this… A gnawing black hole ate through his bond. He needed my blood. He needed to fuck. Preferably at the same time. More, though, he burned to be alone with me. To have me to himself. Like this. Just me and him in bed together. Even if only for a fewminutes.
He’d never had that. None of my Blood had me alone, except maybe Rik. And even then… How often was I completely alone with even him? With six men all dedicated to protecting me and seeing to my every want and need, it was usually crowded aroundme.
Especially in mybed.
