Page 90 of Death God

The butler returned to his position, taking slow pulls of his cigar and blowing out a perfect smoke ring. I’d raided the horseman’s stash and given the cigars to Mouse to bribe him, so he wouldn’t hold a grudge against me forever.

I laughed lightly at my mate’s snoring as well.

“Isn’t my man cute?” I asked, then I waved a dismissive hand at my friends. “Don’t answer that. It’s the same as ‘how are you doing?’. Anyway, let’s watch a movie?”

I put a video into the player. Star Trek roared to life on the screen. I turned the volume down a little, as I didn’t want to wake up my vampire. I was a considerate mate, and he’d have heavy-duty work to do tonight. I wanted him to be at full strength.

My friends and I gathered around, eating popcorn and watching the show.

“Look,” I called after the show had been on for a few minutes. “Here’s what’s going to happen.”

“Shut up! Shut up!” all three of them barked at me rudely.

“But Spock is going to—” I tried to explain the plot precisely.

Popcorn rained down on my head. I shifted to my rainbow wolf and darted between tables to avoid the buttered popcorn.

“Scotty, beam me up!” my wolf yelled.

My friends stared at me, freaked out, and forgot to throw more popcorn at me. Yep, my rainbow wolf could talk.

Then I heard a roar from Marlowe, and I didn’t know what that was about, so I shifted back to Pip.

Marlowe sat bolt upright, sleep ebbing from his sapphire eyes as they sharpened into focus. He swatted a few kernels of buttered popcorn from his legs to the floor and darted a wild gaze around the room before it fell upon me.

“Why were you calling another man’s name, mate?” he growled so viciously that Paris and Danielle huddled together, hugging their bowls of popcorn as if that could fend off the Vampire God. “Am I not enough for you?”

“Well, Scotty is no threat to you,” I offered. “He’s a Scottish butler and serves the captain and the ship.”

Mouse poked his head into the room, his middle-aged face crestfallen. “Did I displease you, Queen Pip Ophelia, that you’ll replace me with another butler?”

Danielle, Paris, and Shade snickered at me.

“You’re going nowhere with this Scotty, Bride,” Marlowe declared. “Your place is with me. If he ever shows up, I’ll slay him.”

Mouse bowed deeply at his king and gave me a look of triumph.

My mate stalked toward me as if he owned every inch of the land and the air, even though this was my space. I put my fists on my hips and gazed up at him in defiance.

He lifted me with one arm, and I wrapped my legs around his waist instinctively.

“You’re mine, Queen Pip Nyström. Remember that,” he growled. “Never call another man’s name.”

My friends high fived and cheered.

“We appreciate you removing her, King Nyström,” Shade said eagerly. “We want to finish the show in peace, and Catnip is going to spoil everything. You might be the only one who will put up with her.”

“Not true.” I glared at him as Marlowe nodded at my friends, accepting their gratitude, and carted me toward the King’s Suite.

CHAPTER 26

“Don’t take me for granted, Sugar Cheeks,” I lectured my vampire as he carried me toward his bed in the King’s Suite, my hands clasped behind his neck and my legs clamped around his lower back. He liked me clinging to him. “People fall in love and then fall out of love all the time.”

“Because they don’t know what they want,” he hissed, obviously not taking my warning seriously, so I needed to spell it out for him.

“We need to keep communication open at all times, since relationships are really hard, you know,” I said. “We should also make some rules, like we don’t go to sleep angry without making up, or our love will die.”

“I’m all for makeup sex, or even angry sex, Bride,” he said, missing my point again. “But our love won’t die.” He gave me a look. “Well, your friends are probably right. You do talk a lot.”

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