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She worries about my brother as I do.
“Yeah.” Loch cracks his eyelids open and smiles. “Yes, my queen. Thank you.”
I whisper over her strands, “Goddamn, I love you.”
After we refresh,I lie with Ruby on the platform. I need to hold her. I need to marvel that I found this woman, and not die in awe that she’s mine. All mine.
Of course, the other kings and queens take the opportunity to couple.
At moments, it’s erotic.
But always, it’s intimate.
“I feel what you mean.” Ruby glances around and smiles at what warms me, too—the sight of Jace sitting beside Loch.
They’re talking, and as long as their queen’s thrones are empty, why should they sit apart? Jace is man enough to sit in the seventh queen’s throne so that Loch won’t be alone.
“Don’t you mean that youseewhat I mean?”
“That, too,” she replies with her head on my chest. “But Ifeelwhat you meant all along. I’m sorry I called it a gangbang, because that’s not what it is. Yes, it’s the most erotic night of my life, but it feels safe and sacred, too. I finally feel like I belong with everyone. Like I love you the most, but I trust them, too.”
I squeeze her tighter and kiss her hair, knowing that’s a big step for Ruby, and it’s all I wanted tonight. Her belonging. Her trust.
Then I remember…
But can we trust everyone?
I don’t get time to go down that rabbit hole.
Sire stands and begins the final part of her initiation.
So, I guide Ruby to kneel with me, facing me on the platform, while everyone else settles into their thrones.
Grant pecks Delphine’s cheek while Sire asks, “Which brother here will vouchsafe as a second king, declaring this union between Axel and Ruby as honorable and protected? Who here is pleased to join their bed, mercifully granting that they may live long and bountiful lives but pledging, should her first king perish, he shall guard our queen and their children in his stead?”
I’ve heard this sacred vow so many times.
But now?
I gaze into Ruby’s sapphire eyes, and like a bullet through my heart, I think of Lev. I think of my father, and a shiver whips through me because for the first time, I fear…
My queen may need her second king.
My children with Ruby may need one of my brothers.
I may not make it out alive when I rescue my first son.
It makes me nuzzle my forehead to hers as Grant vows, “I do.”
“Will you, Axel, allow Grant to honor your queen?”
I swallow, holding Ruby’s hands. “I will.”
“Will you, Grant, honor Axel’s queen?”
“I will.”
“Will you, her kings, be subject to her as she is subject to you? Will you love your queen as you love your own bodies? For he who loves his queen loves himself. For no noble man ever hated his own flesh and…”