Page 31 of Queen Takes Triune
Dr. Borcht chuckled, shaking her head. “Not at all. I think she’s just trying to spare poor Winston the gory details.”
Winston called out from the kitchen. “Don’t mind me, I’ve heard it all. You forget that I served the queen who managed to conceive our current queen in secret after hundreds of years of failure.”
I could only imagine how much Winston had overheard over the years, especially now with my Blood and our sexual activities. It wasn’t like I ever tried to be quiet, and there was always excessive evidence left on the sheets. Both blood and semen. Sometimes I remembered to call the fluids to me to increase my power, but often times I didn’t. I was just too busy running off to my next battle, or excited to go for a walk in my grove, or to take a leisurely soak in the grotto.
For fuck’s sake, I’d had group sex out in the open twice yesterday alone. If Winston had happened to look out the window, he’d have seen me ravaging Nevarre on the grass.
Groaning softly, I covered my mouth. My cheeks burned with embarrassment, hotter than when Smoak had been inside me.
Which made Daire snicker. Rik dropped an arm around me and pulled me close.
Ezra bellowed from the kitchen. “Sign me up to be ravaged next.”
“Fuck that shit,” Mehen retorted. “You still owe me a caber toss first.”
Nevarre strode around the table with a slow, arrogant pace meant to draw my attention to him. He flipped his hair over his shoulder and managed to give his hips enough of a shake to send the kilt flapping up a bit, giving me a tempting glimpse of the rounded curve of his ass. If his hair got longer every day, I was starting to suspect that his kilt got shorter. “Ravage me any time, my queen. I’m ready and eager to serve.”
I couldn’t be even moderately annoyed. Even though my cheeks burned hotter, which made all my Blood laugh more too. I waggled my finger at him, and he sidled up between me and Dr. Borcht. I hooked my arm around his waist and pulled him into the curve of my body, the same way Rik was holding me.
“Winston, I hope to goddess you weren’t looking out the window yesterday,” I said, trailing my fingers up beneath Nevarre’s kilt. I just couldn’t help myself.
Winston came over to clear away the muffin I’d demolished, along with the other dirty dishes. “Not to worry, Your Majesty. I learned that lesson long ago. Your mother loved to have garden parties before she closed the London house.”
Llewellyn snorted. “That’s a nice way of saying she was famous for her outdoor orgies. She loved to fuck beneath a full moon.”
Oh dear. Poor Winston.
Daire’s purr dropped another octave. “When’s the next full moon?”
“Five days,” Xin replied before Gina could look up the moon cycle on her phone. “Wolves know.”
I could only imagine how gorgeous my silvery wolf would be in the full moonlight dancing across the snow. “Will you howl for me?”
“Of course. I’ll see if I can draw the pack in to sing too.”
I blinked, wondering if I’d misunderstood him. “The pack? You mean there’s wolves in Arkansas?”
He shrugged. “There are now. I’ve seen their sign.”
“Where?” Ezra demanded. “I’ve not seen any wolf tracks.”
Xin gave him a cool look that could have frosted over Smoak’s fiery breath. “Then you’ve not gone out as far as I have into the surrounding woods. I assure you there are wolves in the forest. Real wolves, not Aima shifters. I haven’t spoken with them, but they left signs for me. Wolf song may draw them closer, and I can learn why they’re here.”
“So we’re all agreed that our queen should host a garden party in five nights?” Daire asked.
“Aye,” “yes,” and “fuck, yeah!” echoed around the room, making me roll my eyes. As if anyone would expect any other answer.
“Focus, boys,” Gina broke in with a firm voice, though her eyes sparkled with mischief. “We’re supposed to be talking about Aima conception, not planning a garden party.”
“It could be the same thing,” Llewellyn muttered.
I gave him a pointed, arched-brow look and then firmly ignored him. “So how do queens conceive?”
“It’s two part,” Dr. Borcht replied. She held up a finger. “First, her body must be ripe. She must be breeding. As you’ve learned, few queens breed any longer, which has drastically affected Aima numbers. I’d guess there’s fewer than twenty thousand Aima still living in a nest and actively serving a queen, and likely only a couple of hundred queens at most who’re powerful enough to support a nest. As more and more nests dissolve, Aima have spread throughout the world and integrated into human society, though they may still carry enough Aima blood to sense your magic.”
“And the second?” I asked.
She held up another finger. “Sacrifice.”
