“As you desire, my Queen.” One more foot. But she dared not take it. Dared not make the Queen the least bit suspicious.
“You will be mated with my lover. He is wilder than ever. I will enjoy watching the two of you having sex.”
She tried hard not to shudder with disgust. Tried not to think of what might be happening to Tristan, Jaymes and Luca right now. She had to focus on her plan.
“Anything, my Queen.”
Instead of reaching for the cane, she followed tradition and showed the Queen her submission. She knelt onto one knee in front of her.
“I will belong to you in every way possible, my Queen.”
The Queen had a look of smugness and lust. Lisbeth needed to take advantage of this opportunity. She stroked a finger along the left side of her neck and observed the Queen’s gaze dip.
“Please, take me. Dine on me. I eagerly await the feeling of your fangs sinking deep into my flesh.”
Zeena shook her head slowly with disbelief and confusion. But Lisbeth caught her gaze and in one quick sweep observed the cane and then peered back at Zeena, willing her to understand that Lisbeth needed to get to that cane.
But her friend could only stare at her with questions in her eyes. Lisbeth dared to cast her glance at the cane again and back to Zeena. Zeena’s brows dipped with confusion.
Damn it!
The Queen’s fangs continued to lengthen and Lisbeth tried to stop her breath from quickening. But it was useless. Just thinking of the pain the Queen’s sharp incisors would inflict made her want to run as far away from the Queen as she could. An unexpected shiver of revulsion and fear roared through her before she was able to suppress it.
The Queen noticed her reaction. She frowned with displeasure. Anger flashed in her eyes and Lisbeth knew the Queen would kill her if she got the chance to dine on her. She had to make her move now.
In a flash Lisbeth stood, but the Queen was faster. She rose from her throne and stepped forward, her big body blocking the way to the cane. Lisbeth’s hopes plummeted.
“You will remain there, slave,” the Queen ordered. “From now on you do not make a move unless I direct it. Is that understood?”
Lisbeth nodded. All she needed to do was step around the Queen. Dare she defy her?
From the corner of her eye, she detected movement as Zeena reached out to the cane. She grabbed it.
Yes!
She tossed it to Lisbeth, who without even hesitating grabbed the cane and threw it into the pool. The Queen shrieked in despair. Lisbeth had to cover her ears, the noise was so painful. Zeena joined her.
Suddenly the Queen’s features began to waver in front of Lisbeth. Then the female disintegrated, leaving behind a poof of evil-smelling black smoke.
“Oh…sweet…vampire,” Zeena whispered.
“The Queen is dead! The Queen is dead!” Shouts came from down the hall and before Lisbeth could grab Zeena and run, the doors burst inward and many soldiers and other vampires rushed in. Tristan, Jaymes and Luca were in the lead. They crowded around her and Zeena asking if they were okay.
“We’re fine. We’re fine,” Lisbeth reassured them. “Why are the soldiers celebrating? What has happened?”
“We had overpowered the soldiers and they were chasing us back here, when suddenly we heard the shriek,” Tristan explained.
“Then the soldiers stumbled and seemed to not know what to do,” Jaymes continued.
“And then we knew, the Queen was dead.” Luca laughed. “We could literally feel the evilness leave with her.”
Thank the sweet vampire Gods!
“Where’s my daughter?” A strong male’s voice bellowed through the shrieks from the crowd as more vampires burst into the throne room.
Lisbeth recognized the voice of Zeena’s sire. With the death of the Queen, her mind shield that prevented anyone from materializing and dematerializing without her permission and knowledge would have dissolved as well.
“Papa! I am here!” Zeena called out and waved. She turned to Lisbeth and gave her a quick hug.
“I must go to Papa or he will start a war here,” Zeena said breathlessly.
“Thank you for your help,” she said to Zeena as they parted. “We make a great team. I wasn’t sure you knew what I was trying to tell you.”
“I wasn’t either. But the only thing you kept glancing at was her cane. I hoped I was right.”
“You were right.” Tristan chuckled.
Zeena gave him a curious look, and then she gazed at the other two males. She sniffed the air and grinned.
“I assume you made up with them?” she said to Lisbeth.
“We’re together.”
Zeena’s eyes widened with curiosity. “All three of them?”
Lisbeth nodded.
“Oh…sweet…vampire. Why would you ever run from them?”
“Long story.”
Zeena laughed and her curious gaze deepened with extreme interest. “We’ll get together for tea. You can tell me everything,” she said.
Lisbeth nodded. Amazing how quickly Zeena could bounce back from such a horrific experience.
“Where is my daughter?” The male Lisbeth had heard bellowing earlier was getting closer and desperation laced his voice.
“I’d better go. He is so going to kill me. He won’t let me go without a bodyguard this time, I just know it. Mother too. They are so overprotective.” Zeena shrugged as she moved into the crowd.
Lisbeth caught glimpses of Zeena’s sister Christina, their mother Megan, and her sire Zane and several others from the Crystal Clan. They were all heavily armed. But the Crimson Clan soldiers and others didn’t appear to notice the intruders from another clan because all the vampires were staring at Lisbeth and chanting.
“Queen! Queen! Queen!” The crowd bustled all around them. Nervousness whipped through Lisbeth. They should be upset that she’d killed the Queen. But they seemed happy. Deliriously so.
“Maybe we should get out of here,” she shouted to her males.
Tristan shook his head as he scrutinized the crowd. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“They don’t appear to be threatening us,” Jaymes commented.
“More like they’re calling you their Queen.” Luca grinned.
“Me?”
Oh no, not this again
. That’s what the Queen’s brother had said. Thinking about him being dead because of what she’d done made a momentary pang of grief slice through her. But she hadn’t any choice. Their Queen had been evil. She had been threatening the vamps she loved. She’d had to kill the Queen.
Lisbeth shook her head. “I can’t be their Queen.”
“Yes, they are calling you their Queen, Satin,” Luca stated.
“This is ridiculous. I’m a slave.”
“You are our Queen,” one of the soldiers said upon overhearing her.
“You are brave,” another soldier replied with a stone-cold expression on his face. “You came back and you saved us all from her reign. You are a legend here. You are our new Queen.”
Other vampires continued to pour into the room. Many stared into the pool where Lisbeth had thrown the cane. But Lisbeth could see from her perch at the throne’s base that there was no sign of the cane. Just like there was no sign of the Queen. Both had vanished.
“How did you know what to do?” Tristan asked as he surveyed her for injuries.
“Why in hell didn’t you tell us you had a plan?” Jaymes growled.
“You are a fearless female, Satin,” Luca praised.
“I remembered what the Elder said about not using force. I started thinking that perhaps her power may need air to survive. Then I tried to figure out how to suffocate the cane and the pool was handy…”
She trembled at the idea of what could have happened had she been wrong. She blocked those thoughts before they grabbed traction. There was no room in her mind for what-could-have-beens. Only what was.
“Queen Satin! Queen Satin!” the vampires shouted.
She stared at the three males, feeling utterly helpless.
“What should I do?”
“Sit on the throne. It belongs to you now,” a nearby soldier said.
“But…”
“Queen Satin! Queen Satin!” the crowd roared.
This is ridiculous
.
“You must name your mate.” Someone yelled above the shouts of the crowd. The cheers doubled. “Name your mate! Name your mate! Name a king!”
Oh my goodness
.
Tristan and Jaymes and Luca all smiled at her, enjoying her predicament.
She couldn’t choose between her three males. It was impossible to do so. She loved all three equally. Besides, she wasn’t Queen material. Surely the vampires realized this fact.
But the three males gazed at her expectantly and so did the rest of the chanting crowd.
“I…can’t pick. I love you all. All three of you.”
The crowd went wild. More cheers. “Three mates! The Queen has named three mates! Three mates!”
Surely everyone had gone mad. Surely she was crazy for even considering this nomination to the throne.
“Three Kings for the Queen!” Tristan shouted. He grabbed her hand and held it up into the air.
The crowd went insane with a volley of cheers. Jaymes grabbed her other hand and lifted it up into the air. Luca joined in the festivities and yanked Jaymes’ hand up into the air. Lisbeth shook her head. Disbelief at this sudden turn of events made her lightheaded.
“I need to sit down,” she whispered.
The males let go of her hands and ushered her onto the throne.
“The Queen wishes to have some rest. We will throw a feast tonight. Everyone please leave the room and prepare for it,” Luca called out.
“The Queen is pregnant!” an elderly female vampire shouted and vehemently nodded her head.
The crowd grew silent. Lisbeth recognized the female as one known for her predictions.
“The Queen is with child. Not only one child, but with three,” the female cried out.
Oh sweet vampire. This is insane
.
“She’s always right,” Luca whispered and winked at her.
The elderly female, her hair gray and straggly, was known as the oldest living Crimson Clan member. She was also known for correct predictions. What was her name? Lisbeth tried to remember.
“They call her the Prophet,” Jaymes whispered, as if sensing Lisbeth’s dilemma.
Of course. The Prophet. Yes.
“Come forward,” she called out to the female. She might as well listen to what the female had to say.
She bowed her head and then stepped forward a few steps, stopping at the base of the thrown.
“You are with three children, my Queen. They will be healthy. Each of your mates has given you a child. It happened during the Crimson Moon, did it not?”
Heat fused Lisbeth’s face as the female stared at her, awaiting acknowledgement. How embarrassing.
“Yes, it did. All three of us took her,” Tristan boldly bragged.
Humiliating.
She was going to kill Tristan.
“Your Queen is favorable in bed,” Jaymes said too loudly to the crowd.
The elderly female smiled at her.
Oh, throne! Please swallow me up!
“And she truly did enjoy herself,” Luca chimed in.
Oh!
She was so going to kill all three of them.
“Triplets for the Queen. Long live the Queen!” the Prophet shouted. The crowd went insane with cheers. Thankfully, they began to follow the elderly female after she quickly curtsied and headed toward the exit. It took way too long for all the vampires to leave. Way too long.
Finally the four of them were all alone. Her three males grinned at her, their gazes lusty and loving as they dropped onto their knees in front of her where she sat on the throne.
She was pregnant with triplets. Each of these males was a sire. This was unbelievable.
“You knew this would happen, didn’t you?” she asked them. Oddly she had no anger at them. “That if all three of you fucked me during the Crimson Moon, each would become a sire.”
Tristan nodded. “There was a legend, if a Crimson female is fucked by three males on the Crimson Moon, she will become pregnant with triplets. We didn’t know if it was fact. We didn’t do it on purpose to tie you to us.”
“But we are glad it happened. We are forever intertwined,” Luca said.
“We are your servants,” Tristan whispered. “We are your Kings.”
“The sires of your offspring,” Jaymes replied softly.
“The love of our lives,” Luca nodded. “We will do whatever you command, my Queen.”
“Whatever you wish,” Jaymes agreed.
“Anything, anything at all,” Tristan said.
Hmm, she rather liked having her males on their knees before her. Since she was Queen she might as well starting acting like one.
“Pleasure me, my males,” she instructed and opened her legs to them, signifying exactly where they should start. Their fangs lengthened with arousal.
“Use only your fangs to tear the clothing from my body,” she commanded. Yes, having them rip the clothing from her body aroused her. She grinned at them.