She was fourteen when my father kidnapped and forced her to marry him. She bore his six sons, and the only reason we escaped our father’s sadistic clutches was a dark romantic twist of fate.
In my father’s tradition, one of ruthless, powerful men with wealth, when a man claims a wife, he shares her with another man on their wedding night.
It’s a ritual dating back to kings and paupers. When women were property, providing offspring as labor and lineage for the king.
Should the king be killed before his first son could inherithis dynasty, the other man would claim the woman, her children, and the wealth as his own.
Not only did my father rape my mother on their wedding night, but he forced another man to do it.
But that man, my mother’s second king, as they’re called, fell in love with her. He saw what she endured with dignity and never abandoned her.
Over the years, they grew closer in secret. He hated my father but loved his sons. Whose sons? No one is sure. But my mother’s second king honored his vow. He died helping us escape our father.
My mother’s second king was Maxim, and to this day, my brother, Jace, says I look like him.
I’ve always wondered if that’s why Maxim risked everything for us. Because I was secretly his son. Maybe one of my other brothers is too. Or maybe Maxim was madly in love with my mother. She’s a breathtaking, badass woman.
Either way, Maxim was our saving grace; the second king who died, saving his queen and her children.
This is the story I’ve been told. And it’s why my brothers and I continue the tradition of the first and second kings. It’s to honor Maxim and our mom.
We’re seven brothers, seven kings now—because we include Nash—who’ll find seven queens.
Each king will marry his queen, but he must take a second queen too. In one night, one ritual, he and another king bond with her. They lay with her, vowing to protect her and our family.
But unlike what our father did to our mother, our queens consent. They love their first king, their husband, and choose their second king. If they wish, they can receive more than two kings on their initiation night.
All the kings and queens are there.
All witness and want it.
Our queens now have control, and the kings provide their protection. Of course, our mother isn’t involved in the bonding or present to bear witness, but she supports us. She knows more than anyone how it makes us even stronger together.
Powerful queens and protective kings: it’s a carnal, consenting bond, using our evil father’s tradition against him because he’s still alive.
Ruslan Kholodov is scouring the earth, searching for his escaped wife and sons.
“So, what do I do?” I start pacing my cabin, my phone pressed to my ear. “Alena will figure out who I am one day.”
“Which part?” Sire sounds amused. “The Bratva part or the secret bodyguard part or the you’re-in-love-with-her part?”
I stop in front of my windows. “All of the above, and it’s not funny, man. I just spent the best day of my life with her. Even though I squealed like a little bitch at a snake, and she busted me.”
Sire laughs.The holy fucker.“Wait till she sees how you love spiders.”
“I’m not afraid of spiders, despite y’all putting them in my fucking hair all the time.”
“Aw, man, I’m sorry.” And yet, he’sstilllaughing. “We were total dicks to you. Boys will be boys, but big brothers are assholes. You may need counseling.”
“You weren’t always assholes.” I huff, staring at the sunset over the mountain. “You also all had my back.”
Sire taught me how to read. Axel always came to my football games. Nash gave me investment advice. Grant didn’t laugh when he found out I was a virgin at twenty-two. Jace shares my love of romance books. We tell our brothers to fuck off when they give us shit for it.
And Nick is just a couple of years older than me. A bornathlete who encouraged me to play football in college as he did, but school wasn’t for me.
Alena was for me.
It just took me years to figure it out.
