She glanced behind me and I realized she was looking at the chaise lounge I’d just had sex on. “Do you allow my brother to—”
“Nope, no, you’re not asking her questions about our sex life,” Cerdic cut in.
I gave her a wink and held my finger up to my lips when I saw Kristof coming back with a tray of food for us. He set it down and I frowned at the towel. “You’re not wearing my gift.”
He went over to the other chaise and picked up the pajama pants, sliding them on under the towel and taking it off. He came back to me and sat on the chaise with me.
“Will you get that stuff for aches and rub it on me after breakfast?”
“Of course. What else can I do?” he asked as he handed me a plate with a huge burger and piled-high fries.
“Comb out my hair? I like when you play with my hair.”
“I can do that,” he agreed, leaning in and kissing my neck.
“Can I sleep on you and snuggle?”
“Yes.”
“Can I—”
“You can do whatever you want, my love.” He glanced over to Oliva. “And the point she’s trying to make is we ridiculously spoil her rotten when she lets us get aggressive with her as it’s every vampire’s nature now and again. She’s saying if we weren’t willing to give as much as we took, she’d never allow it as that’s how women get walked all over and mistreated.”
“Exactly,” I chuckled, but then frowned at what I saw. “I said you could talk to Olivia but then you were to leave. I said to get the fuck out of my castle and territory as I’m not playing this charade anymore after one of you burst the bubble. There is no going back to what we said and you lose your comfort food. We’re bringing the extras to my outposts where lots of old vampires would sense if you even came near.”
“And we would blow up your covens,” James reiterated with a smile. “It’s so much more fun to deliver the threats in person and bluntly instead of all the political dancing. I always hated that.”
The princess I had been specifically speaking to set down her plate with a huff, giving me a death look.
“Princess, all of their hotel rooms have been packed and their luggage ready for them, but at the guest trailers,” Hope announced as she joined us. “We weren’t petty and let them steal the bath products they had packed, but we did take back the electronics as several were lifting just about anything they could find.”
“There’s no way you packed our belongings that fast when this all just happened,” Camilla argued.
“Well, we had some sex and stuff, and my coven isn’t only shifters,” I drawled. “Plus, again, we were listening and knew you were going to do this.” I gestured to the assault vehicles and lots of armed people. “They didn’t just magically appear. We were ready for you and they have lives, so leave. Now. I won’t say it again or allow you to challenge me in my own coven.”
It annoyed me that several seemed to hesitate and think about doing it, but only behaved when Vitor, Petre, Tian, Moon, Sisay, and Branko all pulled out swords or weapons. They gave me curt nods or withering looks, but then stormed off like they were going back in the castle.
That wasn’t happening.
“The trailers and your bags are closer this way,” Vitor told them as he moved to block the path. He pointed past the tower to his left so they had to go by all the assault vehicles and people with guns. “We’ll escort you out of the territory and off the continent.”
They listened though, truly understanding they’d pushed me too far. No one said a word for several moments and I enjoyed my burger, loading my fries with ketchup and just devouring it all.
“Princess Hanna we also found—” Trisha started to say.
“Wait,” Winston, one of Hanna’s nobles who stayed, like Sebastian and Jacob did to be her eyes and ears here, cut in. He waited a few more minutes where everyone was tense, but I just kept eating as I knew I had to get back to the tree and crash soon. “We’re clear. I apologize for interrupting.”
“No, thank you,” Trisha said firmly, before turning to Hanna again. “We caught something that will interest you. It’s muffled and we didn’t catch a name, but Ostrava, which is not far from you in Czechia. You know the princess there?”
“I do,” she sighed. “What is going on?”
“Camilla’s been in touch with her, and we have her on tape saying that princess was planning on making a move against you to acquire all your electricity, and she might not be the only one,” Trisha explained. “They’re not happy they weren’t invited to play and get in on your finds. Camilla was gloating that they were stupid going for you when she was going to take the source and all would bow to her then.”
Me. That was me.
I snorted. “Funny because they didn’t even take my kicking them out seriously until the ancient guys with blades backed me up.”
“That sounds like a boy band,” Hope chuckled, cutting through the tension.
“How do the bugs in their covens work?” Hanna asked Vitor.
“Wait, we have everyone here that we made a pact with, but some of them brought relatives that do not like me and might not behave well,” I interjected, glancing at a few I was speaking of, focusing on one in particular. “And if you don’t stop looking at Kristof like you plan on trying to have a rendezvous with him or steal him from my bed, I will fuck you
