Page 60 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

Standing at the dock I look around and try to keep my fangs under control.

Prepared with all the pomp and ceremony you’d expect of something put together by the Queen, albeit hastily, the gallery is packed with onlookers representing royal vampire families and their hangers-on from all over the globe.

Everywhere I look there are garish hats, priceless jewels, gowns and tuxedos.

Either they’re all dressed for one hell of an after-party, or they’re bored as shit and have nowhere else to peacock.

‘What a fucking circus.’

Glancing down at the rows of seated lawyers, all dressed in black robes and hunched like crows waiting to pick the flesh from bones, I catch Wolf’s eye, and nod.

He’s grinning, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s because ceremonies like this appeal to his sense of humour at the ludicrous, or if he’s so confident that he can’t hide it.

Jag, on the other hand, has eyes of steel and his jaw is set. I hope to hell he’s been able to coerce or convince Asumpta to recount what she’d told him.

Spider is nowhere to be seen. No doubt he’ll enter with a flourish at some stage.

“Order,” the Queen’s man shouts, banging a long, heavily carved gavel on the marble floor and bringing instant silence down upon the crowd.

As the charges are laid against me I look across the crowd once more, trying to catch every eye.

Some meet my gaze and nod, most look away quickly.

Many in the gallery I’ve come across at some point or other, including at my wedding, but others I’ve never seen before.

This trial has obviously drawn some of the more reclusive royals out of the woodwork.

Some, I know, are friends of Mother’s and supporters of our family; others are the opposite.

Sighing, I lean back in my seat and listen as Spider’s counsel give their evidence against me, and I can’t help thinking back to a similar spectacle I’d had to take part in, one that ended with me finding my wife.

‘Once again, let the games begin.’