Page 34 of His Stolen Queen
"Oh, my god!" I shoved David away."Fire!"
***
Acheron
I observed from a distance as the tree outside their house burned. I had heard Alice's shriek of panic before the light in their room switched on. As much as it pained me to smell her fear, I preferred it over the scent that had been flowing out of her sixty seconds prior.
I heard his voice over the approaching firetruck, yelling at my sweet Alice to hurry up. I wanted to tear out his vocal cords for daring to raise his voice at my Queen.
By now, most of the neighbors had rushed out of their houses in a frantic panic. Their relief that it was only a tree alight was palpable.
Finally, her front door opened, and that coward ran out, quickly followed by Alice. My hands clenched in renewed fury.She should be the priority. She should have been the first person guided carefully out of the house. Nothim.
He was not good enough for her.
Although, even if he had carried her out in his arms, I would still have taken issue. He could have banged her head against the door frame or tripped on the stairs and tumbled with her in his arms. No matter what he did, he could not win. Nothing would convince me that he deserved her.
He did not live to exist for her. He did not consider her every thought or feeling, ensuring she did not want or worry about anything. He definitely did not crave or desire her as I did.
Just as she did not desire nor crave him. Not the way she desired and craved me.
I came to her window most nights. Not as much as I yearned to—which was every fucking night—but I could not have Vladamir discovering her. He had eyes and ears in every nook and cranny. I could not jeopardize her location until the threat was neutralized.
But on nights when I felt hopeless—when my jealousy overwhelmed me at the thought of my Queen living her life with another man, albeit temporarily—those nights I could not help but be near her, especially when I discovered what was occurring in the still of the night. Whenhewas lying helplessly asleep next to her.
Alice dreamed of me. Continuously and constantly. The discovery had a burst of joy flooding through my previously dead veins.
When I had finally found her, Alice's emotions became wide open to me. Her live thoughts were not as clear, and only a few trickled through. But her feelings and moods were like a loudspeaker in my ear. Eventually, once our bond solidified, the rest of her emotions would become stronger. And vice versa.
The first night that I had stood near her home and experienced her dreams, I had an overwhelming urge to smash into her bedroom and snatch her away. Consequences be damned. I didn’t know the vivid details of her dreams, but I definitely knew what weweredoing. I knew she was thinking of me. Dreaming of me. She spoke my name in her thoughts. Moaning them in some in-between land that I was desperate to meet her at.
I was unsure why my visions of Alice had vanished after her wedding. My Elders surmised that our bond had started to sever once she had tethered herself to another man. Another theory was that I had been so devastated by the vision of her marriage that I had blocked out any visions that were attempting contact.
But they were all hypotheses. I was, apparently, an anomaly. My situation had been recorded and constantly updated with zeal in our scribes, preserved forever in history to be studied for centuries to come.
Tonight was the first night in a long time that I had visited her home. I was constantly being called back to deal with the BloodKin or matters of urgency in my Kingdom. Not to mention following leads in sightings of Vladimir.
When I arrived tonight, Alice was in the midst of our shared erotica. My dick had hardened, punching my trousers with each sigh, moan, and scream Alice produced. My brow was damp with sweat , and I closed my eyes as I palmed my cock, conjuring images of what I could be doing to her in our fantasy world.
But then, like a hard punch to the face, I felthim.
Hehad woken her. With cajoled words of pathetic pursuit, he had seduced my sweet Alice. Flames of anger had licked up my spine. My eyes bled, and my fangs pounded my gums. For the first time in centuries, I was willing to tear a human to shreds. It would be so easy. Vladimir had already wreaked havoc in the human world. How easy would it be to stage the scene as another BloodKin killing? Too easy. And tempting.
Fortunately for him, I needed his presence. He helped maintain Alice’s facade. If, for some reason, she appeared on Vladimir's radar, all he would see was an inconspicuous human with a bland husband living in a boring suburb that housed human families with PTA meetings and HOA complaints.
So, with a restraint that surprised me, I held myself back, digging my fingers into my palms to keep myself from rushing to her. Instead, I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. I allowed my mind to open itself to my Alice.
I was initially reluctant to do so, in case I sensed a desire for him, though I knew it would be a false attraction—a byproduct of her passionate encounter with me prior to waking. Yet I had learned, to my detriment, what could happen if I let my jealousy and anger over Alice and him take hold of me.
I breathed deeply again before my eyes flew open. The orbs had returned from their stormy black to the ultramarine blue I had inherited from my father.
Alice did want to have sex with him. She did not desire him.
The scent of her confusion, guilt, and sadness had been overpowering. She did not want it. Did not wanthim. She wanted me. She just didn’t realize it yet.
That bastard was taking advantage of the arousal my sweet mate produced for her King—and was unashamedly stealing it for himself.
Without hesitation, I swarmed at speed past the tall tree outside the yard. I scraped my nails against the thick bark, watching in quiet satisfaction as flames climbed the trunk before engulfing the branches and leaves.
