Page 23 of Rise of the Queen

“Which guys?” he asked, as he walked to me. He immediately bristled as well.

“The new guys. The guys who have been with Vitaliy for a while are fine, as always. The two new guys were jerks to Bubba and Misha because they’re the youngest,” I said, leaning into Adrik as he slid his arms around my waist from behind. He softly kissed my neck.

“When did this happen?”

“Usually when you were gone with Vitaliy,” Andrei said.

I could feel Adrik’s anger rise another notch. “Because they know my father would never allow that so they did it while he was away. Did Aleksei or any of his other men see it?”

“Not that I know of. They were usually talking with the other guys,” Misha said.

“They were just assholes toward you two? Did they say anything else about anyone else?” Adrik asked.

Andrei sighed. “They never said it out loud. Does that count?”

“What did you pick up on, Bubba?” I asked. Andrei seemed suddenly nervous.

“I swear I wasn’t poking around in anyone’s head,” he said. He looked legitimately worried we’d be mad.

I laughed. “I believe you, Bubba. Sometimes people’s thoughts scream at me. It’s hard to ignore.”

“Oh, thank God it’s not just me,” he said.

“What were they thinking?” Adrik asked.

“Lots of animosity toward you, some toward Sephie. One of them thinks Sephie is going to make Vitaliy weak,” Andrei said.

Adrik and I both stood silent for a few moments. I could feel his anger, feeding into mine. I knew he was more worried about them thinking anything negatively toward me, but I also knew he wouldn’t stand for them disrespecting his men either. It didn’t matter that they were his father’s men.

“Gazelle, have you mastered keeping your demon eyes back now? I can tell you’re angry right now, but your eyes are normal,” Misha asked, clearly curious.

Adrik looked down at me, a small smile on his face. “She’s wearing contacts,” he said.

“I knew it!” Andrei said.

Both Adrik and I laughed. “Her eyes have been doing more than just going dark, but I was struggling with feeling jealous after she was hurt for so long, so we kept it a secret. Ivan is the only one who knows, because he felt her panic and saw them before she could hide it. We knew it was only a matter of time before the rest of you figured it out.”

“What else are they doing?” Misha asked.

I looked to Adrik to explain, since he was the one who saw it happening. “Much like when her eyes go dark, the other colors of her eyes take over for different emotions. The only one that’s completely different is when she’s afraid. They go almost white when she’s scared. It’s scarier than her demon eyes and the reason we decided to get her contacts. She struggles with controlling her fear when it comes on. The other emotions she can control, much like her demon eyes,” he said.

“Is it the same color for the same emotion each time?” Andrei asked.

I nodded my head. “So far, green means sarcasm, blue means I’m thinking about how much I love him, light brown meansI’m sad, white means I’m scared, and black means run.” Adrik laughed as he kissed my temple.

“They also sometimes constantly change, like they can’t pick a color to stick to. That’s happened a few times recently,” he said.

“You had the contacts when we were in Panama, gazelle?” Misha asked.

“Yep. I got them the day before we left.”

Both Andrei and Misha exhaled loudly, looking at each other. “Good call. We’re glad you did that. I don’t think it would’ve gone well if they saw your eyes change,” Andrei said.

I couldn’t help but laugh. I looked at Adrik. “See, I told you they would scare everyone.”

“They don’t scare us, gazelle. But everyone else is obviously not as smart as we are,” Misha said, grinning at me.

“You make a strong argument, Misha,” I said, winking at him.