Page 47 of Cherish

I can’t make out what he’s saying, but he doesn’t sound happy. And neither do the people he’s talking to.

Jaxon must be thinking the same thing I am, because instead of knocking, he suddenly slams the door against the wall hard enough to make the hanging artwork rattle.

Conversation stops as everyone in the room turns to stare at us. Hudson lifts a brow—a definite welcome to the party if I’ve ever seen one—while everyone else looks outraged at being disturbed.

But since my mate’s the one in charge, and I don’t have a lot of—meaning any—respect left for anyone else in this godforsaken Court, I don’t actually give a shit.

“Everything okay?” Hudson asks, rounding the table in the center of the room to meet his brother and me.

“The nurse is with Mekhi,” I answer. “Thank you for arranging for him to come back so quickly.”

He nods before returning to the people gathered around the table—two men who look vaguely familiar from Cyrus’s rule and a woman with a tight black updo whom I’m sure I’ve never met before.

“Aunt Celine,” Jaxon says as he crosses the room to press a very perfunctory kiss on her powdered cheek. “What an unpleasant surprise.”

Her lips pucker in a bizarre version of a smile as she reaches up and pats the scar on his face. “Is that any way to talk to your aunt when I’ve come all this way to help you with this Court mess?”

“Is that what you’re calling it these days? Help?”

I glance at Hudson to see what he thinks of Jaxon’s strange interaction with his aunt, but he’s just leaning a shoulder against the wall, arms crossed over his chest and an amused half smile on his lips. When he catches my questioning look, he gives a slight shrug as if to say,What can I do? Jaxon will be Jaxon.

While that is absolutely true, I’m still confused by what’s happening here. It doesn’t surprise me that there’s no love lost between Jaxon and Hudson and this woman who must be Cyrus’s sister, if her chilling vibe is anything to go by, but I don’t have a clue what she’s doing here. Or why they’re letting her be here when it’s obvious they want nothing to do with her.

“Well, I have heard that there’s some question of who will be taking over my dear brother’s throne now that he is…indisposed. And of course, since you abdicated as well, Hudson.” She waves a hand. “I know the formal ceremony isn’t for another couple of weeks, but I thought I would come and volunteer the services of Rodney and Flavinia for when your abdication is final. My heirs stand ready to assume the mantle of leadership.”

My stomach pitches. Hudson swore to me last night that he has no interest in being vampire king, and I believe him. We both considered the formal ceremony nothing more than pomp and circumstance. But standing here, looking at this woman with avarice in her eyes and cheeks stained pink with excitement, I can see why not assuming the role of king may not actually be the same as rejecting it.

Hudson may not want it for himself the way Celine, Rodney, and Flavinia obviously do, but he doesn’t want them to have it, either, because his people deserve better than the new-and-unimproved Cyrus 2.0. Which leaves him in one hell of a conundrum.

More, it leavesusin one hell of a conundrum.

“How kind of you,” Hudson tells her in a voice that says she is anything but. “We are managing to muddle along here in London, though. I’m sure you’d be much more comfortable back home in Stoke-on-Trent. You know how Rodney misses Mummy if you’re gone too long.”

I can’t help it. I turn to give Hudson a what-the-hell-is-even-happening-right-now look. Stoke-on-Trent? Mummy? Who are these people, and what have they done with my mate?

But he just smiles placidly back at me, as long as I don’t look too closely at the wicked gleam in his eyes.

“Yes, well, perhaps we should wait until later to discuss this in more depth. We don’t want to air our not-so-clean laundry in front of the non-vampires in the room.”

Considering I’m the only non-vampire in sight, I try not to be too offended by that. Then again, if it wasn’t for Hudson and Jaxon, I wouldn’t care at all about what went on among these hideous people in this hideous war room, as long as it didn’t affect the world outside it.

But I do care about Hudson and Jaxon, so I keep a smile plastered on my face even as Hudson tells her, “The non-vampire is my mate. And she’s not leaving until I do.”

“Of course not, dear Hudson,” she answers slyly. “We know you would never dream of putting the Court before your mate. Though that’s not a problem that my dear Rodney has…”

“Goodbye, Aunt Celine,” Jaxon grinds out as he links his arm with hers and escorts her firmly toward the hall. And he doesn’t bother to kiss her cheek before he shuts the door in her very affronted face.

“Any other business we need to take care of?” he asks as he turns around. “Or can we get on the road?”

Hudson grins, waving at the two other men to dismiss them. “I’m done here.”

But I can’t help wondering…is he really?

27

An Epic

Throne Down

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