Page 25 of Queen Takes Checkmate
Llewellyn
My queen’s hunger burned, spurring my steps quicker to her side. I left the dragon curled in a miserable ball in the attic, thoroughly pissed that he’d be missing out on what came next. I couldn’t blame him.
I’d be pissed at myself too if I had cause to miss a single moment of feeding my queen’s hungers, whatever they were.
A sudden wash of guilt drowned my joy at being able to serve again. I paused outside her room in the hallway and pressed my head to the ornate door. I’d passed through these doors many times, drawn by my queen’s desire.
My former queen. My new queen’s mother.
I loved her. I would have sacrificed my life for hers in a heartbeat if that would have given her the child she yearned for so desperately. Any alpha would have fucked himself into a coma to please his queen and give her a child.
But it would have been a useless death, because my queen had never bred in all the centuries I served her. Had she looked through the future and seen me here, aching to fuck her daughter? Even as I made love to her? Had she seen the years of torture I’d endured, gladly, just to stand outside an Isador queen’s door again?
Even if it wasn’t hers?
Forgive me, my love.
:There’s nothing to forgive, Lew.:Her voice whispered through me like a faint ghost, so soft and distant that it would have been easy to dismiss her touch as my imagination.
But only my former queen had ever called me Lew. I might not be able to say her name, but I knew her touch. Her memory burned like a brand inside me. She’d etched herself into every bone and sinew in my body with her blood and her love.
And if I was extremely lucky, her daughter would claim me exactly the same way.
I waited a moment, making sure Shara felt my presence at the door. She didn’t order me inside, but I felt her tug on my bond like a crackling fire on a cold winter night. I entered the room and quietly shut the door behind me.
The heavy-set man who smelled like bear gave me a slight nod. I had a feeling that was as close to a friendly welcome as the man would ever get. The twins stood on the opposite side of the door. They barely even looked at me. Not that I cared. The one with a black sun tattooed on his cheek smelled like pain and death, and his brother smelled like jungle. I couldn’t see the wolf, but I smelled a hint of him wafting through the room. It was a special Blood who could hide in plain sight like that, even from former alphas. I had a feeling even Rik wouldn’t be able to see Xin, unless he used our queen’s bond. I had no doubt at all that she knew and saw everything.
The queen always did.
The Blood with long, black hair and kilt smelled… strange. Not quite right. I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong, but there was a secret there, too.
It was no surprise that her alpha and his purring companion were closest to her. The feline Blood was helping her undress, though Rik hovered close. Damn, he was one big fucker. I was taller, but I’d never seen a man built like our alpha. He put weightlifters on steroids to shame.
Combined with the Templar knight and Leviathan, king of the depths, our queen had quite an unusual array of Blood. No surprise, given that her father was Typhon, the god of monsters. Even her mother had always had a taste for the unique and strange.
A flash of something sharp in the bond drew my attention to Shara. A tear trickled down her cheek.
A fucking tear. Goddess. I felt the track of that salty drop like a knife sinking into my belly and scrambling my intestines. Her emotion became mine times a hundredfold. Blood needed to know when their queen hurt, so they could protect all the better. But this hurt…
Goddess, I didn’t know if I could bear it. That was one reason my former queen had released all our bonds before she went to Typhon. Before she conceived, delivered her daughter in blood and pain, and ultimately, died. Because suffering that kind of pain through a Blood bond…
The twin who smelled of pain exhaled, and a fine tremor shook his body. The bear fell down on his knees beside the bed and buried his face against the bedding. His shoulders shook. Rik scooped her up in his arms, tendons and muscles standing out in stark relief, and the cat purred frantically, as if that sound alone could help ease her pain.
“Shhh, my queen,” Rik whispered, his voice raw. He climbed into bed with her and held her on his chest, with Daire pressed against them both. “We’re all alive. You did it.”
Her bond tore open and released a flood of agony that buckled my knees. She’d contained her fear while dealing with the Skye sibs, but now, in the privacy of her bedroom, she wept.
She cried at the suffering Rik had gone through in the demon’s circle. The realization that he’d done it to spare her, to spare us all, shredded her heart to ribbons. The thought of losing him undid her. I understood that fear to an extent, but this seemed to go so much deeper than what had happened with Keisha Skye. Her fear mounted, her pain a suffocating weight that crushed my ribcage. I dropped forward on my hands and knees, trying to breathe through the agony. We all did. Her Blood were all down, brought to our knees because of her pain.
“You’re alive and well,” Rik whispered, each word vibrating with strain as he fought not to hurt her more by revealing how much her pain wounded us. “That’s all that matters. If we die…”
“No,” she retorted, jerking her head up to glare at him. “No one can die. I can’t bear it. I can’t. Please, goddess. Please, spare me.”
He cupped her cheek and smoothed her tears away with his thumbs. “You can, and you will, because you’re Shara fucking Isador.”
Bewildered, I didn’t try to search her bond for answers, not while she was so volatile. Her emotions sliced through the bonds, stabbing and tearing through me. I’d only had her blood once. I didn’t know how Rik and the others could even function with such blinding pain.
:My house’s goddess made a bargain with her,:the twin whispered in my head.:She can kill Ra, but it will cost her a life. One of us will die.:
