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“You don’t mind?” Nuri whispered.
Confused, I turned toward her, but with the red mask over her face, I couldn’t read her expression for context. “I’m sorry?”
Undina wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug. “I told you it wasn’t a problem.”
Bewildered, I looked from one queen to the other. “You thought I’d be upset about something?”
Nuri reached up to her mask and slowly removed it. Tears shimmered in her jade eyes, and she stared at me for long moments. Waiting. For something.
When I didn’t react, she dropped her head to Undina’s shoulder.
Okeanos’ mother wasn’t a warm and fuzzy kind of queen, so any tenderness shocked the hell out of me. But I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t see any reason for Nuri to wear a mask. She wasn’t hiding a deformity or scar, not that either would repulse me anyway. She was beautiful. Her skin glowed with power, and she moved like a graceful, elegant swan.
“I was born male,” Nuri finally said. “Few queens see me as an actual queen.”
I blinked a couple of times, letting her words filter through my head. “We were bound together to the Mother’s table. Our blood mingled into one. Our thoughts merged. And you thought I wouldn’t believe you’re a queen?”
Her mouth opened. Shut.
“Together, we created a tsunami so powerful it could have leveled every human city on every coast in the world. Who am I to judge you worthy of the gifts your goddess blessed you with?”
Eyes shining, she smiled and reached out to take my hand. “I have someone you need to meet.”
I felt Rik behind me, signaling the rest of my Blood I was on the move. Though they already knew. They all hovered close in my mind, as desperate to get home and hold each other as me. :Let’s get everyone to the yacht.:
:Fuck yeah,: Ezra said. :Let’s blow this fucking joint.:
:Blow me,: Leviathan growled.
:In your fucking dreams, asswipe.:
:All I dream about is getting another taste of our queen, motherfucker.:
Nuri led me to a group of her Blood who stood under a large palm just outside the nest. I turned and gave Undina a wave. She lifted her hand in a casual salute, but her lips moved. “Thank you.”
“I hope you can help him,” Nuri said. “I don’t like to see him chained all the time, but we don’t have any other way to control him. This is my brother, Vore.”
I’d seen the large bull creature when House Kijin approached the nest. Sekh said he was a king flesh eater.
Rik shifted his body ahead of me, not blocking my line of sight but ready to defend me at a moment’s notice. Though the king was so heavily bound, he could barely move.
He stood as tall as Rik, his shoulders and neck just as wide, built to carry the immense load of those gleaming black horns. The rest of his upper body wasn’t as muscled as my alpha. What I could see of his face was red and mostly human-looking except for his heavy brow, the horns, and the pointed ears of the bull. A heavy shock of black hair hung down over his forehead. A metal mask sealed his mouth and wrapped around his head. Silencing him. Gagging him.
His lower body was spider-like with six jointed black legs with jagged tips that looked as sharp as Itztli’s obsidian blade.
“I’m afraid there’s not much I can do.”
Nuri’s smile slowly faded. “But your kings can control their beasts. I thought…”
“Because they’re my Blood.” I replied gently. “I only take Blood that I love.”
Her head tipped to the side. “You can’t love him?”
My eyes flared and I had to laugh. “Well, let’s see. I usually know pretty quickly…”
I placed my hand on Rik’s back, and we stepped closer to Vore. I watched his face, searching his eyes. Mostly red with pupils of inky black. Sparking with emotion.
With hope. Searing, soul-yearning hope.
