Page 12 of Queens Ride Horny Dragons
"You should come see all the rocks Tavis and I painted. He's such a good painter."
"Let me guess," Vance said. "They're all as blue as his hair?"
Asa grinned up at him. "How did you know?"
We followed Asa inside and found Tavis and Calhoun waiting by the door and talking in hushed voices. When they saw my expression, their shoulders slouched and their faces paled, even more than they already were. The three of them looked exhausted, far beyond what I felt, and that was really saying something. On top of their weakening states, I would have to drop another bomb. I hated being the bearer of more bad news.
Calhoun, wearing nothing but black jeans, bandages on his neck, and his usual dark expression crossed toward me and gave me a peck on the cheek. "Did you get it?" he whispered, his warm breath caressing past my ear.
I nodded and hugged him to me. “Are you all right?”
“A couple stitches,” he said. “I’m fine. Really.”
Tavis swept in for a bear hug that lifted me from my feet, his blue hair like silk across my cheek. I clung to him like the wind might carry me away, needing all three of them to keep me grounded.
"Big changes inside,” Tavis said and set me down again, his strong arms still locked tightly around me. “I just want you to be prepared."
Shit. I was through with change. Like, for good.
He wasn't wrong either. Inside the castle, the place swarmed with dragon shifters who were scrubbing everything in the huge entryway, some on their hands and knees and some on tall ladders leaned against the windows. When they noticed me striding past them with my harem and Asa, they bowed low and shot me all kinds of curious looks. None of them seemed hostile, at least openly. As of right now anyway.
"We need this many workers?" I whispered to Vance.
"It's a big place. When things calm down after the coronation, we can give you a tour so you can see just how big it is."
So never, then. I was beginning to think that being queen meant one catastrophe after another.
Asa led us to the “art room” as he’d nicknamed it—no longer the stuffy art room, according to him—and ran toward a table that the dead dragon shifter queens glared at from inside their fancy frames. The largest pile of rocks I'd ever seen sat on top of the table.
Asa zoomed toward it. "Come look, guys!"
A laugh bubbled up from somewhere, a mysterious place inside me Asa could easily find. I reached out and took Tavis's hand to stop him while the others went on ahead.
"You are too good.” I brought my hand to his chest, which was covered with a T-shirt with a blue fire hydrant on it. “Thank you. I hope you don't think I've just dumped Asa on you."
"You kidding me?" His blue eyes sparkled, a breathtaking display, even with the dark shadows spread underneath them. "I'm having a blast. But you're welcome."
I stepped in and pressed a kiss to his cheek. Despite how sucky being queen was so far, I really didn't deserve these three. They had my back, no questions asked, no requirements in return. Plus, they were hot and horny. I definitely wouldn't complain about them, and I genuinely liked being around them. Asa did, too, which was huge, though not surprising. He liked everybody, while his sister usually hated everyone based on instinct alone.
We joined Vance and Asa at the table while Calhoun rolled in a flat-screen TV on a cart at the very back of the room.
"Hey, big guy," Tavis said to Asa, eyeing the TV. "See how many rocks you can paint before I say stop, and then I'll see if I can beat that. Ready?"
Asa's head bobbed as he sat and readied his supplies. "Say go, Tavis."
Tavis paused for dramatic effect and then barked, "Go!"
Asa got to work while the rest of us joined Calhoun at the TV, far enough away from Asa so he wouldn’t hear or see anything he shouldn’t.
I produced the video footage, and Calhoun took it, his gaze never leaving mine. “Do you want to tell us what happened before or after we watch this?”
“After,” I choked out. I needed time to process still, and seeing the video might help me make sense of it by explaining last night.
Calhoun nodded and loaded the video while Vance and Tavis pressed in close to my sides. Vance took my hand, and Tavis wrapped his arm around my waist.
"Let's see what we got." Calhoun hit play on a remote and then fast-forward until close to the end. “It looks like this only goes until midnight, so we won’t see what actually happened at the full-moon ritual. We’ll see everything before it though.”
When two men in tuxes entered Oliver's office, he pressed play again. The time stamp at the bottom of the screen read eleven forty last night. The picture quality was crystal clear, but the other man had his face turned away. Then I slipped through the door wearing my fancy gown, looking like I might pass out from stress alone.
