Page 97 of Princess Claimed

“Blade is the one in the archives?” Selina asks, and I nod. “And…” Her brows rise with follow-up questions.

I need to talk to Selina privately. I want her to know everything, or at least most of what’s happened to me since I left the palace. I hope she can help me figure out what I’m feeling and what to do going forward. Because as much as I can’t bear the thought of being separated from any of these four men, I can’t begin to think how we’d ever fit into each other’s lives. I have a duty to the crown and, unlike Selina, it’s a duty I care about, deeply. Selina only discovered her royal lineage recently, and as a vampire, she’s a newborn baby. I’ve only been a vampire for a hundred years, but that’s close to a hundred more than my sestra.

“Flame.” Taking his hand, I turn toward him. “Can you give Selina and I some time to talk alone?”

He shrugs, but then his expression shifts. “I’m not going on library duty again. So boring.”

I laugh. “No need. Blade’s fine on his own. We’re all very safe in the palace.”

There was a time I didn’t feel fully safe here, but there are no current assassination plots against me, so far as I know. So much changed after King Dunkan returned.

“Why don’t you explore the palace?” I suggest.

His body tenses. “This place is a maze.”

Selina jumps to her feet. “I’ll see if one of my guys is around. I’m pretty sure Gray is?—”

“Someone mention my name?” Grayson, Selina’s tall, elegant mate enters the room, dressed, as always, in a bespoke suit that makes him look every bit the billionaire he is. Not that I’ve met a vampire without means, not one who’s lived a hundred years or more.

Flame shoots to his feet. “Is this the king?”

I try not to laugh as I rise, but Gray doesn’t hold back his laughter.

“Not even a tiny bit royal.” He grins. “Although I am, shall we say, intimately acquainted with a member of the royal family.” He winks, and Selina’s cheeks pink.

I love seeing how just a few words from Gray can make Selina flush with desire.

Gray crosses the room and bends to give her a soft kiss on the lips.

“Ana.” He turns toward me. “So good to see you again.”

We quickly embrace. “Gray, this is Flame my…my…”

“Pleased to meet you.” Flame strides over to shake Grayson’s hand, saving me from having to find the right word to describe what Flame and I mean to each other. A massive question mark at the moment. “I’m Ana’s bodyguard,” he tells Gray. “One of them.”

“Ana needs a lot of guarding, does she?” A mischievous smile brushes Gray’s lips and Selina bumps him with her hip.

“Gray,” she says, “Ana and I would love to catch up. This is Flame’s first visit to the palace. Do you have time to show him around?”

“Love to.” He looks genuinely pleased at the idea. “Come on, Flame, is it?” His eyebrows quirk up. “Let’s leave the ladies to chat while we find something manly to do. Something fun.”

“Don’t have too much fun.” Selina wags her finger, but she’s laughing, and her tone is light.

“Princess, you very well know I always find ways to have fun.” Gray uses the nickname he gave Selina, even before she knew she was royalty. I suspect Gray knew Selina’s true identity from the moment he set eyes on her, but I’d never voice that suspicion. The laws have now changed, but the things Gray did, that Selina and Gray did together, would have been treason for him at the time. Especially since, as a Knight of the Order of Sanguis, he was sworn to protect her.

Selina shakes her head at Gray, like she wants to scold him, but she can’t keep the smile off her face. She loves Gray’s mischievous, sharp-witted side, and the love between the two is so obvious I can taste it in the air, feel it on my skin. Selina’s much younger than I am, but she knows so much more about love, and I’m both nervous and excited to hear what she has to say about Flame, and about the others, as I try to sort out all the things that I’m feeling.

“Come on, Flame.” Gray gestures. “Let’s see if we can set this place on fire.”

Laughing, Flame follows Gray out of the room.

“I think those two will get along swimmingly,” Selina says. “And now that they’re gone, tell me all about the very hunky Flame!” She plops onto the sofa where I was sitting and pats the spot beside her. “He reminds me a little bit of Colton.” She shakes her head. “No, more like a mixture between Colton and Rock, I guess.”

Her teeth scrape her lower lip as she thinks about two of her four mates.

I sit down. Can she tell how much I care about Flame? Can she see the chemistry zapping between us? Can she detect his blood, fresh on my lips, the memory of his cock still singing inside my body?

“How is Colton?” I ask. “Is he still…”

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