Vengeance of a Queen: The Resurrection of Queens, Book 2
Vengeance of a Queen: Chapter 8

I don’t have more time to process his statement before Malcolm slams his cock into me. My pussy contracts around him, and I drop my forehead onto the table.

“I love how wet you get for me, kitten.” I can hear the smug smirk on his face as he continues to pound into me. “You’re so hot and tight. It’s like your pussy never wants to let me go.”

Probably because she doesn’t ever want to let him go. Not when it feels this good.

His magic lashes against my clit, and I can feel my channel begin to convulse around his cock. He presses a hand against my upper back, pulling my hips more firmly against his at the same time, causing him to slide deeper.

“Right there!” I cry as he picks up the pace. “Yes! Malcolm, yes!”

“Scream my name when you come, kitten. I want this whole damn house to know I’m fucking this pussy.”

I hadn’t realized that dirty talk could make me come. But hey, you live and you learn.

My scream echoes off the walls as I clench so hard around Malcolm’s cock I’m afraid I’m going to somehow cut it off. Malcolm’s answering roar sends another mini orgasm barreling through me. He can’t move much because my pussy has a death grip on his dick, but that doesn’t seem to bother him any.

My last thought before I black out is that the man has mad cock game.

Despite waking up in the middle of the night and staying awake for a few hours after, I feel damn good. Great sex does that for you.

I’m pulling on a baggy sweater and some leggings, opting for comfort over fashion today, when I feel a grin spread across my face—for the tenth time since Malcolm and I tore ourselves from my bed. We showered quickly and he ran to get himself dressed. When we’re finished, we’ll meet the rest of the group back in the war room.

I swiftly braid my hair and head out into the hall, that stupid grin returning when I spy my mate leaning against the wall opposite my door. My panther stretches and purrs, letting it rumble through my chest. Malcolm’s eyes narrow on my chest, and the smile he gives me makes me want to drag him back into my room.

Mates shouldn’t have to leave their room for at least a year after finalizing the bond. It should be law.

“I take it she’s happy.” His hand rests against my lower back, causing my panther to preen.

“Very much so.”

His hand drops to my ass, and I can’t help rolling my eyes. Men.

Fayden is the only person in the war room when we enter. I glance to the spot Malcolm bent me over before looking at her. She’s typing away furiously on a tablet, her brows furrowed. Uh-oh. Something isn’t right.

“Hey, Fay. What’s wrong?” Malcolm moves away from me and heads over to his sister. “What’s happening?”

“I…” Fayden looks from Malcolm to me, appearing lost. “I have no idea what’s going on. The program…” Her voice fades as she gestures to the tablet.

I pull up a seat next to Fayden and gently place my hand on her arm. “It’s okay. Everything we’ve been through is new. We may just need to tweak the magic a bit. We won’t know for sure until you tell us what’s happening.”

“I’m only getting snap shots and images of the future. Nothing that will really help.” Frustration flashes in her eyes. “This has never happened before.”

“Have you ever dealt with gods before?” When she shakes her head, I smile. “There we go. I’m sure this is going to help us, especially with locating Ayla’s sisters, but it might not be too helpful when it comes to the rest. We’re really in uncharted territory.”

“She’s right,” Ayla calls from the door, causing all of us to look over at her. There’s something different about her today. I can’t tell what it is, but she’s glowing. “I think a lot of the answers we need have been lost with time. Otherwise, I would have some inkling of what the hell is going on, especially now that I have my memories back.”

Caleb comes in behind her, appearing a little more puffed up and protective than normal. My eyes instantly narrow on my best friend. Something is up. I’m going to have to attack her once we’re alone again.

“That makes sense,” Fayden responds. “If we don’t have the information we need for the data to accurately form a prediction…” She trails off and starts frantically tapping on her tablet again.

Ayla stops abruptly, her eyes shooting between Malcolm and me, and a sly grin spreads across her face. Caleb seems just as smug, but quietly hands Ayla some money.

My jaw drops. “Did you two bet on us?”

Malcolm’s focus shifts to our friends, a scowl on his face.

“We all know you’re mates. I said you’d get him to plunder your treasure chest sooner than Caleb.”

My eyes narrow further.

Caleb’s shoulders shake with laughter when he says, “I figured Malcolm would wait at least another week before claiming you.”

My eyes drift back to the spot on the table where not so long ago I was getting railed by the male now standing behind me. My mate.

I can feel you getting wet, kitten, he purrs, and I clench my thighs. Santa Mierda.

You are a dirty, dirty witch. He chuckles softly at my accusation.

We’re so wrapped up in each other, we miss anything else Ayla and Caleb say about our mating. Fayden giggles lightly.

“I’m going to call Kelly and Darcy. I want you to play us those images, Fayden.” Caleb brings up a screen to video chat with our group back home.

Kelly’s face appears on the screen, and she gestures for us to hold on before disappearing from sight, presumably to go get the others. Soon, Connor, Dante, Darcy, and Xin have crowded into Kelly’s office with her.

“Hi, everyone!” Kelly’s voice is as soothing and calming as ever. I hadn’t realized just how much I’ve missed her until this very moment. Once we got all the answers we could here, we needed to make sure the gang was reunited as quickly as possible.

“Has everything been quiet on the home front?” Ayla asks.

“Thankfully, yes,” Xin answers. “Everyone is settling in well, and we haven’t heard a peep from any demons.”

“They seem to have followed us across the pond,” I state with a sigh. “I suppose it was too much to hope that Malick would fuck off for a while longer.”

“We heard about the fight,” Kelly comments, her eyes trailing along my body in a way that tells me she’s making sure I’m not still injured. Aw, I love that bitch.

“We wanted to see if you’d been able to dig anything up in your research. We also want to show you what Malcolm’s sister has been working on.” I smile at Kelly reassuringly.

“It looks like what we know, or what we’ve seen, comes from multiple religious factions. We assumed this to be the case, but getting confirmation from you has helped us narrow things down to what might actually be true.” Connor has a tablet in front of him. “A lot about our origins has been lost to time. Thankfully, with Darcy here, we’ve been able to get a sense of what happened during those early days.”

Darcy nods, her eyes dimming slightly. “A lot of what I remember is hazy from that time. There was so much fighting and chaos. I have a sneaking suspicion that the gods removed most of my knowledge, and any other original’s knowledge, of that time.”

“Which suggests,” Connor inserts, “that Darcy and the other originals knew something about these Härja. They had the information at one time, but the gods had deemed that knowledge too dangerous. It’s odd that Darcy can remember her creation, both as a witch and a vampire, but the term Härja and the images she saw with you guys are foreign to her.

“We know shifters and witches were the first creations of the gods, and humans came about later, so it stands to reason that we had some part to play in the war you witnessed. It’s possible we were created as some form of soldier. Since witches and shifters breed so fast, we could have, in theory, overwhelmed the Härja with sheer numbers sooner or later, especially since neither the gods nor the Härja seem to have been able to reproduce.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Fayden tapping away on her tablet, entering in all of this information in the hopes of getting a better prediction from her creation.

“Can we start at the beginning and piece information in?” Fayden’s voice is more confident now than it had been when I first walked into the room. Good. “I want to make sure I have all the relevant data in my system before we show you what I’ve been working on, Uncle Connor.”

Ayla coughs a laugh into her hand. Quiet, nerdy Connor was Uncle Connor. It was kind of adorable. My lips twitch when I catch Kelly giving Connor the gooey eyes of someone who is staring at a particularly adorable puppy, but Connor just ignores the look and nods at Fayden.

“You’re right, Fay. I forgot about your project. Let me send you all of the data we have.” He turns to look at Darcy. “You put everything you remember in here, right?” At her nod, Connor taps on his tablet, and the telltale whoosh sound of a sent email tells us we now have what they have.

“Thanks, Uncle Connor! It’ll take me a bit to download and input the data,” she says in a distracted tone. Her eyes dance over the screen, her fingers following suit. “But I still want to show everyone the isolated images I was able to get.”

Everybody nods and moves a bit closer. The anticipation is palpable, and I can feel my panther pacing restlessly, itching for more information so she can act.

Calm down, I soothe. We can’t be all riled up. I won’t be able to focus. 

Something isn’t right, she rumbles in reply.

How so?

The other day, you said it felt as though we are all pawns. That’s true, and I still feel that way. If the gods truly believe in free will, why not give us the information we need to make whatever moves we have to in order to keep everyone safe?

I… Mierda. She has a point. Giving us more information would help us make more informed decisions without tampering with our free will. My heart plummets at the thought.

“What if the gods don’t even really know what’s happening?”

“Or,” Ayla murmurs, “what if they don’t have the power they once had?”

That notion sends ice shooting through every nerve in my body.

“We saw them struggling against seven,” Ayla continues. “There were hundreds of them against seven. They couldn’t destroy those beings, instead they locked them away. At least that’s what I gathered from what we saw.”

“If they couldn’t end them, how are we supposed to?” I question, my voice trembling.

“One thing at a time,” Kelly soothes. “Let’s gain more information. We may not even need to destroy the Härja. We may only need to permanently seal them away.”

“That’s a far more manageable task,” Darcy agrees.

I shake myself out of my gloomy thoughts and nod. They are right. Focus on what we can do instead of what seems like an impossible task.

I can only stare at the images on the screen, my mouth slightly ajar. The shock from the others pulses through the war room.

Malick is bent over a painfully stunning woman, his hand resting almost lovingly on her cheek.

The massive Härja we saw in the past has his fingers wrapped around my throat. Both of us are covered in blood, and Ayla’s lifeless body is at his feet.

Two cloaked figures stand beside an archdemon who looks disturbingly like Malick, but isn’t, as he looms over Kelly who is surrounded by demons, their essence draining into her glowing body.

Darcy, covered in blood, is lost in the throes of bloodlust.

Another woman, one who looks a lot like Ayla, is laid out on a stone slab with a spear sticking out of her chest.

Shaken, I turn to look at those around me, noticing everyone is just as pale and frightened as I am. It isn’t until that moment that I fully comprehend that everyone I love could very possibly die on this little quest. I knew it. But being hit in the face with it is something else entirely, and it feels as though my soul is being stripped from my body one painful piece at a time.

“How accurate is this thing again?” Malcolm mutters to his sister.

“Prior to this, it had been almost ninety-eight percent accurate. But it also showed video, not images. I can’t honestly say how accurate this is.” Fayden chews on her lip, looking uncertain.

Another image flashes before us. It’s of me, holding a box with the Celtic knot symbol that had been on the mantel at the cottage. I stiffen. That box!

“Stop!” My hand goes flying out. “I pulled that box out from under a bed in the cottage before we were attacked!” My eyes fly to Malcolm. “That’s what was bothering me last night!” My gaze swings to Ayla and Caleb. “Did anyone grab it from the cottage after the battle?”

Ayla shakes her head, shooting a glance at Caleb for confirmation. “We didn’t go back into the cottage and haven’t been back since. I didn’t even know about the box until just now. You called me into the room when we were attacked.”

“Is it safe to go back?” I ask.

Malcolm and Caleb share a look before they both nod. “We’ve had the cottage watched and there hasn’t been any sign of demonic activity.”

“And that’s it for the images. I couldn’t see what was in the box, just Olivia holding it.” Fayden, her tone distracted, has her nose buried in her tablet.

I stand, and Malcolm moves to place a protective hand on my lower back. He leans over and disconnects the call with the rest of our community before leading us out of the war room. I can feel the tension radiating out of his body as we continue out of the castle.

What’s wrong? I wrap my arm around him, my fingers finding a small swatch of skin between his shirt and pants.

I’m remembering the last time you were at the cottage.

Hey. I’m okay. We can’t avoid battles.

I know. He sighs. I know. But it doesn’t make this any easier. You’re my mate, Liv. The fact that I wasn’t there when you needed it…His magic swirls in vicious lashes around him. I won’t fail you as a mate again. 

We’ll come back to that when we’re not about to go open a random magical box. But you didn’t fail me, Malcolm.

He doesn’t respond, instead he opens a portal to the cottage. I let him drop the subject for the time being, but we’ll need to talk about it eventually.

It’s ingrained in mates to want to take care of and protect each other, so I can understand why he feels the way he does. However, we’re not exactly in normal circumstances.

The area around the cottage is quiet and peaceful, the wind whipping against the cliffs providing the only sound. It’s soothing, especially after what happened the last time I was here. I don’t sense any taint left behind by the demons, and the wards around the cottage are still holding strong.

Here goes nothing.

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