Page 28 of Rise of the Queen

“You’re awake earlier than usual,” I said, closing my eyes again and pulling her closer to me, not wanting to wake up yet.

“Mmm … I can’t seem to get my brain to shut off.”

I opened my eyes to look at her. I knew she had been forced to remember the situation with Mike after hearing about Andrei’s and Misha’s experience with my father’s men. She was worried for them and about what would happen this morning. As I ran my hand over her back, down to her ass and thigh, I reminded her, “You did the right thing, solnishko. He was never going to walk out of here that day. If that hadn’t happened, there’s no telling what he had planned with Anthony, either. He was a threat. An even bigger one than we realized. You took care of it. You protected all of us.”

She was quiet for a minute, her hands never still as she thought about what I said. She was looking down, but when she looked up at me, I could see her eyes swirling. This time, however, there was white mixed in, so I knew she was trying to hold off on feeling her fear. While I knew she wasstruggling internally, I adored watching her eyes change. It was mesmerizing.

She finally smiled at me, her eyes landing on the deepest depth of the ocean blue. “Sometimes I need a reminder,” she said quietly. She reached up and pressed her lips to mine, sweetly.

“I will remind you as often and as many times as you need it, love.”

Andrei, Misha, and Ivan were waiting on us when we came out of the bedroom. Apparently, they were having trouble sleeping too. Andrei was making coffee for everyone. Vitaliy and Aleksei were still in their rooms. The sun had barely started to rise, it was still so early.

“Where’s Papa Bear and Yoden?” Sephie asked as she walked to Ivan to hug him good morning.

“I think they’re still sleeping,” Ivan said. “None of us could sleep anymore, so we came up here.”

“Same, Squish. Same,” she said. She walked to Misha next, sliding her arm around his shoulders. “You’re more bothered by this than you’re letting on,” she said, kissing his cheek. “Even Squish is bothered by the fact that those two assholes singled you two out.” Misha tried to laugh, but it was clear on his face that she was right. She thought for a minute, continuing on to Andrei, who handed her a fresh cup of coffee. “This is why I waited until I had the six of you to protect me to show anyone how different I was. As a general rule, people suck.” She looked thoughtful for a moment, then she and Andrei looked at each other like they’d both just had the same thought. He raised hiseyebrow at her, but she shook her head no discreetly. She would tell us whatever it was in good time. She leaned her head onto Andrei’s shoulder, once again lost in thought for a few moments.

She stood up, walking to me as I finished making my coffee. “You all know that something happened when I disappeared at Vitaliy’s house,” she said. She turned away from me, leaning back against me as she held her mug with both hands. I slid one arm around her waist, watching the guys’ faces. They all nodded. “It was a new one for me. It’s never happened before. It may never happen again, but I saw Adrik’s mother. We had a chat.”

“Like you see your father sometimes?” Misha asked.

She nodded. “Except he always comes in my dreams. This time, I wasn’t dreaming. She was in the same room as me, plain as day to me. But it looked like I’d zoned out completely when Ivan and Adrik found me. They couldn’t snap me out of it. That’s also why I think I went numb to all of you. It was like I was sleeping.”

“Her eyes were going crazy, though. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Ivan said. He was still surprised at being able to watch her eyes change as it happened.

“We mostly talked about Vitaliy and Adrik, but she gave me a message for all of you too. She told me that you’re all good men. I know this. She knows this. But she said that you guys needed to know that the Universe knows how good you all are.”

I watched as Misha clearly felt goosebumps over his entire body. He rubbed his arms, shaking it off. Andrei was looking down as he processed what Sephie had just said, and Ivan looked almost like he was fighting back tears. I knew how they all felt in that moment.

She sighed. “Whatever happens this morning, I need you to remember that,” she said, taking another sip of coffee. “Now, who wants bacon?”

It was exactly what was needed to help them break out of their own heads. Viktor and Stephen walked in shortly after she had started making breakfast. Vitaliy and Aleksei walked out soon after. I found myself grateful that we’d had a few extra minutes with those three. They definitely needed it.

We’d all been somewhat surprised at our reaction to Trino’s men having a problem with Sephie being able to know things she shouldn’t know. Finding out that Trino could’ve been killed by his men if they’d known about Misha and Andrei made it all the more real for us. People always fear what they don’t understand, and we had difficulty explaining what was happening to all of us. We were already wary of people we didn’t know. Now, we were extra cautious. Misha and Andrei being bullied like schoolchildren wasn’t helping.

It was starting to feel like us against the world.

Chapter Twelve

Sephie

The two assholes—I don’t evenknow their names; I don’t want to know their names—were the last ones to the gym. Viktor was sparring with one of Vitaliy’s other guys who had been with him for years. They were well-matched. Aleksei was right. It was good to get new sparring partners. When you constantly sparred with the same person, it was easy to fall into a routine. Since I had five to choose from, I hadn’t reached a point where I needed a new partner, but there was sometimes a routine with a few of the guys. Mostly Viktor and Stephen, as they took it easy on me. They were still worried about hurting me when they sparred with me. Ivan used to be, but after he saw what happened with Mike, he turned up the pressure on me the few times we sparred before he and I were taken. I had to admit to enjoying the challenge. He was surprisingly fast for such a massive human.

The greatest part of the morning, for me anyway, was the way that the other guys would watch the two in the ring. When they took a break, everyone offered advice and brought to light areas that could be improved. It looked like they were fighting, but it was a learning experience for everyone. The same happened when Stephen got in the ring with another of Vitaliy’s regular guys. I enjoyed seeing them being able to sharpen their skills even more. It never hurt my feelings that they were all chiseled, handsome men who generally took their shirts off at some point.

Because Vitaliy’s men knew Ivan and knew that he’d had “extra” training, even though they didn’t know the whole story, none of them would spar with him. Apparently, he had a reputation. I looked to Andrei, who was standing next to me. “They’re really scared to spar with him?” I asked, completely surprised.

Andrei chuckled. “He still takes it very easy on you, spider monkey.”

“And here I thought he wasn’t holding back as much,” I said, crossing my arms across my chest like I was pouting.

It made Andrei laugh. “You know he has more training than pretty much any human alive. He controls it with us, but he likes to challenge new people a little too much.”

“That tracks,” I said, laughing at the thought of Ivan getting enjoyment out of almost killing someone.

Adrik stepped into the ring, motioning for Ivan to follow him.This was new.Adrik only sparred with the guys on very rare occasions. I had asked him about it one night when we were alone, curious as to why he didn’t practice. The next morning, he sparred with Viktor, just to show me that apparently he did not need to practice. Poor Viktor. It took him a week to recover.