Page 115 of Nash

Sire lifts from Wren’s neck, nodding. “Give us two nights to prepare her test.”

“Wait,” Wren blurts. “You kings aren’t in charge. The queens are.” She turns her topaz eyes to mine. “Woman to woman, is this a good week?”

“Yes.” I grin, immediately loving Wren for understanding.

The first night on Nash’s boat, I put on a birth control patch, along with a motion sickness one. My menstrual monster won’t be here for a few weeks.

“Then it’s perfect!” Wren bubbles. “We can use the new room. Right?”

She asks Sire, but Nash answers, “Let the kings handle the details. Delta’s is our most secure location. It’s crawling with our men, but we need to find the right night.”

“Tuesday,” I suggest. “It’s one of the store’s slowest. I could tell Stacey it was dead, so I closed the store early.”

“Can everyone be there?” Wren asks like an eager party planner, and I can’t lie.

The question rouses me in ways I never felt.

Everyone?

“You mean like Jace and Grant?” My pulse starts to thrum. “Axel and the other kings, too?Andthe queens?”

Wren rolls her lips, not saying a word.

Sire lowers his stare at Nash, making Nash thunder, throwing his chin up. “Fuck! Brother, you better stop me from murdering someone.”

Sire laughs. It’s deep, dark, and delicious. “This test is more for you, my brother, than our beautiful, new queen.”

I turn to Nash, admiring his profile. Jealousy, passion, possession, protection, rage: they all strain his sexy, sadistic face and those lush, snarling lips.

Aw, he’s capable of murder for me. Again.

Yes, I’m clearly fucked up, too, because I find it romantic.

I put my hand on his chest, swooning at how his heart hammers under his tight, black T-shirt. “We can do it,” I ease. “We can pass the test together.”

“Sire was the same way.” Wren swings my eyes back in her direction. “It’s cute how the kings don’t want to share until they realize how much their queens like it.” She winks, her youthful aura morphing into a very wanton one. “They made meloveit,” she confesses, “and that made my king crave sharing me even more.”

“I think I’ll love it, too,” I confess.

“Goddamn,” Nash mutters his favorite word, dragging his hand over his trimmed beard. But I hear it in his tone. His anger fights his arousal.

“Let’s get this done,” Sire demands, reading his brother’s war. “We need to anoint a new queen before another gets married.”

“Wait? What? Another getsmarried?” I turn, confronting Nash. “Does he mean Alena?”

I’m about to lose my shit, as Nash explains calmly, “By default, as my daughter, Alena is a queen. She’ll never know it. She’ll never be initiated, and she’ll always be safe.”

Once more, doubt smacks me. I don’t like lying to Alena. It feels unnatural.

But now I understand what Nash means about being a valuable asset. Too valuable.

I know about The Queen at the club. I know about Axel’s law office. I know what Nash has done to victims on his boat. Axel, too. And now I know where Sire lives. I’ve never visited Jace and Grant’s homes, but they said they live on Sullivan’s Island.

If Turner and his men were ever to kidnap, traffic, and torture me, how long could I keep secrets protecting my king? All of the kings?

“I haven’t met Alena yet,” Wren offers sweetly. “But Sire protects her, too. He’s performing her service, and I can’t wait. It’s going to be a beautiful wedding.”

“Hold on.” I put my hand up to stop the race of logic mowing me down. “You?” I stare at Sire. “You’rethe one who baptized Alena?”

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