Page 71 of Queen Takes King
“It’s not uncommon to…uh…”
I started to laugh. I couldn’t help it. The great Templar knight was blushing. “What the good knight is so reluctant to say is that a queen and her Blood usually establish the nest while nude. It makes the resulting orgy easier if there’s no clothes toremove.”
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Shara
Orgy?If he thought to shock me, he’d be sorely disappointed. At least my period was finally over. “How many humans are on thepremises?”
“Frank and three humans are at the front gate,” Xin answered immediately. “Winston’s in his quarters in the main house. Gina left earlier in a car. No other human is within a three-mileradius.”
I felt for Gina’s bond.:We need an hour undisturbed to set the nest. Can you call Winston and tell him not to look out the windows for abit?:
I didn’t have to taste her blood to feel her laughter through our bond. She knew what a nestentailed.
With my human friends taken care of, I unbuttoned my jeans and started shimmying out ofthem.
Daire leaped into action like he was a competition stripper, though my other Blood were quick to get naked too. I didn’t look at Levi. I didn’t need to. His bond crackled and sparked, torn between surprise and lust. Frozen in place, he watched as I pulled my sweater over my head and tossed it in apile.
“If you’re not participating, could you go drag some blankets from the guest house so we don’t have to fuck on the ground? Though ice and snow won’t stop me once I get a taste ofblood.”
I felt Guillaume’s concern in the bond, but he didn’t say anything. He’d already said all my Blood should participate. The problem was that Leviathan didn’t count himself as my Blood in any way, shape, or form. Notyet.
I didn’t have to order Leviathan. I knew what he wanted. What he needed. And if I tried to command him… He’d gladly balk. He wanted me to give him a reason to hate and distrustme.
I sure as fuck wasn’t going to cooperate in that regard. But my patience with him was limited. He had to let go of the past and start anew. Or he should have stayed in that motherfucking cave. I didn’t send those words to him directly in the bond, but I made sure he felt what I wasthinking.
Looking at my men, my hunger stirred. My nipples pebbled in the chilly December air and goose bumps raced down my arms. Though I wasn’t cold exactly. Just… exposed. My fangs started to descend, making my face throb. My stomach knotted and grumbled, ready to feast. In more ways thanone.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Levi jerk his shirt over his head. I didn’t look at him directly. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. I didn’t know all that he’d suffered yet, though hundreds or thousands of years locked away from the world would have driven anyone insane. I gotit.
But I wasn’t one to tip-toe around a man who wanted to be in my bed. Especially when I had four fearless, honorable, loyal men ahead of him. He could figure itout.
Or he could fucking sleep on the fuckingfloor.
I tried to gauge how far I wanted to pace out this circle. The heart of my nest had to include the main house, and the guest house, since that’s where we’d stay for at least a few weeks while repairs were made. I was starting to regret picking out such a large house. I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough blood left in my body to worry about anyorgy.
“We’ll help,” Rik said at my side. “You don’t have to walk it yourself. You just have to bleed. If you get woozy, I’ll carryyou.”
Guillaume passed the knife around to each Bloodfirst.
So much blood scenting the air. All five of them. Their blood glowed and sang to me, mesmerizing me like I’d stared into a fire too long. My fangs throbbed in time with myheartbeat.
Waiting to sink into one of them until I had the whole circle marked was going to be a pain in myass.
Finally, Guillaume turned to me. I offered my left palm and he cupped my hand in his. “I’m going to make a fairly deep cut. Squeeze your hand into a fist to control how much blood you drip onto the ground. You’ll feel the power rising. That’s a good thing, though it might seem like it’ll never end. It will—once you close the circle. That’s when all hell will breakloose.”
“The orgy.” I wiggled my eyebrows, making him laugh. “I can’t wait. Let’s get toit.”
He sliced me deeply enough I actually sucked in a breath at the pain. Fisting my hand like he said, I squeezed hard, applying pressure to the wound so that blood only seeped through myfingers.
The first drop of my blood hit the earth and the soft thud reverberated through my body like a gong. I’d bled plenty of times before, but I don’t think I’d ever allowed my blood to drip onto the ground itself other than when I’d opened Leviathan’s portal. Something wild and raw stirred deep in the earth. Mother Nature, Gaia, the earth goddess, the great matriarch of the Aimahouses.
She felt her child’s blood, no matter how thinned over the ages, andresponded.
She accepted my sacrifice. In fact, She was hungry formore.
I walked quickly in an arc around the front of my house, trailing blood on the frozen ground. Each drop gleamed like rubies in the moonlight, sprinkled among the ice crystals and frosted grass. I glanced back, not surprised to see the red glow rising up from the ground. It looked like the tapestry in my head—only this was outside of myself. Power hummed and pulsed through me like a mighty generator coming online. Switches fired, flipping from dormant, to high speedahead.
