Aden absorbed their lives, their histories, until he thought he’d burst, until he thought he could bear no more, and still they came. And then finally, with a long relieved breath, Lucas’s gaze broke, and his chin dropped to his chest. His grip loosened as his hand slipped away from Aden’s to fall limply to his side.

With matching groans of relief, they both sat back on their heels, chests heaving with effort. The level of vampiric power thundering around the room dropped abruptly. Papers and pictures settled, albeit not in precisely the same places, and the walls ceased their groaning with only a few cracks to show for it.

Aden remained kneeling on the floor as he struggled to make sense of all the new feelings and needs filling every corner of his self. It hurt his soul to have them there. There was a constant tug of war inside him, between the person who was Aden and the vampire who was now Lord of the Midwest. He sighed tiredly and felt a gentle hand on the back of his neck.

“Aden?” Sidonie knelt next to him, her arm around his back as if offering him her strength and support, her cheek resting on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

His arm reached out automatically, circling her waist and pulling her against him. He raised his head and met her concerned gaze, and he wondered anew that this woman loved him.

He touched his lips to hers. “I’m fine,” he murmured against her lips. “Better now that you’re here.”

She blushed hotly, her gaze cutting sideways to where Lucas still knelt far too close.

“Don’t mind Lucas,” Aden assured her. “I’ve tuckered him all out.”

“Fuck that,” Lucas growled right on cue and surged to his feet, as if ready to do it all over again.

But Aden had anticipated his friend. He grabbed Sidonie and stood just as quickly, taking two steps back to put some distance between them.

Lucas stared at Aden for a long moment, then huffed a laugh. “This definitely calls for a drink.” He looked around the office, which was somewhat worse for the wear. “Maybe we should have done this outside.” He shrugged. “Too late now, but let’s go down the hall. The booze is better, and, if I’m not mistaken, my Katie is waiting for me.”

Sidonie closed her fingers over Aden’s arm when they stepped out of the office, holding him back as the others crossed the main entrance hall and continued into the opposite wing, turning into a room about halfway down.

Aden gave Sidonie a questioning look.

“Is that the last of it?” she asked softly, touching his bleeding fingers. She lifted her head, and there was a sheen of tears in her eyes. For him? “Does it hurt?”

He had to admit his hand ached like a son of a bitch, like every finger bone had been cracked to the edge of breaking. But he couldn’t tell her that.

“It hurts,” he admitted, “but not too bad. Lucas is probably feeling much worse.” He could only hope, he thought privately.

Sidonie shook her head, her lips flattened reprovingly. “You guys are like children in a schoolyard. Are you finished now? No more tests, no more earthquakes?”

They started walking down the hall to where the others could be heard talking.

“No more tests,” Aden agreed. “As for the other, time is short. I’ll need to consolidate the territory under my authority as quickly as possible.”

She frowned in concentration. “You mean some of Klemens’s people might try to take it back from you?”

“They might try, but they won’t succeed,” Aden said, shaking his head. “I can’t let them. There’s a far greater danger to all of us looming on the horizon, and I’ll tell you all about it . . . tomorrow,” he added quickly. “I just became Lord of the Midwest, and damn it, I’m taking one night and forgetting everything else. No worrying about the territory or a war that might not come. Tonight, you and I are going to celebrate. All of that other crap will still be waiting for us tomorrow.”

Epilogue

Chicago, IL

SIDONIE HURRIED into Aden’s office suite in the new house. They’d moved in two weeks ago, after the shortest escrow she’d ever heard of. Vampires really must be magical, she thought, if they could purchase a property this big and expensive with a thirty-day escrow. It helped that the house had been empty for a while. The sellers had been what their agent called “highly motivated” and what Aden’s agent called “desperate.” They’d been more than happy to let the vamps begin renovating the property for their specific needs even before the purchase went through. Renovating in this case mostly meant installing extensive security measures, including a new front gate and sensors all over the grounds that were worthy of the White House. In fact, she was pretty sure the White House didn’t have this level of sophistication, it being the peoples’ house and all.

The new house was huge, three levels in two wings, including a basement which had been completely retrofitted to provide secure accommodations for lots of vampires. There were new vamps joining Aden’s security detail every day, and Bastien had told her there would be many more. It was more than simple security. It was an army, and they were already training like one.

She and Aden had a private basement suite of their own, well removed from the others. Doors had been installed on all basement entrances that more closely resembled the kind on big bank vaults, and there were redundancies on redundancies.

Sidonie had gotten used to the security and to living mostly at night. Although being human, she still needed sunlight, and being female, she needed to have her hair and nails done and to indulge in the occasional shopping spree or lunch with friends.

Like today, when she’d discovered a whole new crop of friends who truly did get where she was coming from. Tonight was the official welcoming for Aden as Lord of the Midwest and member of the North American Vampire Council. All of the other vampire lords were in town, and Sid had been delighted to discover that most of them had mates and they’d brought them along.

The mates had all gone shopping today, a field trip organized by Cyn, who was the woman Sid had seen across the room talking to Aden that very first night at the gala. Cyn had seemed to take it as her personal mission in life to get them all into as much trouble as possible. Fortunately, cooler heads had prevailed, and they’d settled for a wine-fueled lunch, with shopping afterward.

Sid glanced down at her arm and had to stifle a laugh. Well, cooler heads had mostly prevailed. She was feeling far more wicked than cool right now. But then Aden loved it when she was wicked, and Sid loved it when he taught her the error of her ways. She grinned happily, just thinking about it.

Kage was lounging on the big leather couch in the outermost room of the office suite, his muscular arms mostly bare in a short-sleeved shirt that showed off his tattoos, his piercings glinting in the low light. He grinned at her.

“How’s things, Sid? You ladies have a good time today?”

“We did, yes, and look—” She pushed up the sleeve of her sweater. “I got a tattoo!”

Kage’s smile froze on his face. He came off the couch in a single, smooth movement, his gaze fixed on the delicate feathered quill sketched on her right forearm.

As if drawn by Kage’s reaction, Bastien, Travis, and Freddy suddenly appeared and gathered around, all of them staring at the tattoo as if expecting it to leap off her arm and go for their throats.

“Sidonie.” Aden’s deep voice had all four of his vampires jerking in surprise, which was a surprise in itself. She’d never seen them react that way before. They always knew where he was.

“Hey,” she turned around with a smile. She didn’t know what the vamps’ problem was, but she was feeling good and was happy to see her lover. She crossed the room and raised her arms automatically for a welcoming hug and kiss. She was used to waking up with him and had missed him today.

But like the others, Aden’s gaze was riveted to her forearm, with its new artwork.

His brow lowered, and he seemed to swell with anger, his eyes shifting to glare at his vampires.

“Who the fuck—” he started.

But Kage quickly interrupted, another first in Sid’s experience. “I would never, my lord. Not any of us. But I’m not sure—”

Sid had had enough. She stomped her foot to get their attention, but directed her anger at Aden. “What’s the big deal. It’s my arm. If I want—”

“You let someone touch you, let them bleed you?” Aden demanded.

She opened her mouth to respond, then abruptly realized the significance of what she’d done. If she’d learned nothing else in her time with Aden, it was that vampire lords were territorial about everything, including, no, especially, when it came to their mates. They were the alpha of all alphas. They made Tarzan look like a piker. And a tattoo? What had she been thinking? Blood was the ultimate prize to a vampire. She might as well have opened a vein and let another male take a lick.

“I didn’t,” she said urgently. “Look . . .” She rushed over to the desk and opened a drawer, grabbing the package of hand wipes that was inside. Ripping it open, she rubbed the wipe over her pretty feather quill. “It’s temporary,” she told him. “It comes right off.”

Aden gave her a level look, then glanced over her head at his vamps. “I’ll see you at the conference room.” With murmurs of “Sire” and “my lord,” they all filed out of the office, closing the door behind them.

“Come here, Sidonie.”

Sid thought about how wicked she’d been feeling, and how she’d looked forward to her time alone with Aden. But this was not what she’d anticipated.

She finished cleaning off her new “ink,” then walked over to gaze up at him, her hands resting on his narrow hips.

“I’m sorry,” Aden said, surprising her yet again. This whole evening was turning out to be one giant surprise.

Her face must have registered her shock, because he laughed and pulled her into his arms. “I may have overreacted. This time. If I’d paid attention to my nose instead of my eyes, I’d have known there was no blood and that the tattoo couldn’t be real. But let’s be clear about one thing. Your body is mine. No one writes on it, but me. And sure as hell no one pierces it but me.” He punctuated this last with a press of his growing erection against her belly.