New World Queen (Part One of the New World Queen Trilogy)

Learning

Roasted rabbit, sautéed green beans, mashed potatoes and hot sweet rolls! I was in food heaven. I devoured everything on my plate and even went for seconds. I was probably eating like I hadn't eaten in weeks. More like four days. I chugged down four glasses of ice cold water, all while my mates watched me with amusement.

"You weren't kidding about being hungry." Alec said with a chuckle. The mood between my vampire mates and myself had changed dramatically since the whole Declan experience. I felt more in tune with them and less defensive. Arrin on the other hand was quiet and broding. Not a happy elf. Even after my wink and smile he fell back from the group, stayed quiet and sulked at the end of the table. I noticed he didn't touch his food.

"Not hungry?" I asked him, he looked up at me, sadness filled his eyes and he shook his head. Still not saying anything. I frowned and looked back at my now empty second plate. It had been delicious.

"I didn't know vampires knew how to cook." I commented softly. I didn't want to offend them but there was obviously so much I didn't know about them.

"We were humans at one time and we did have to cook to live." Collin said, his hand moved to my thigh under the table and he gave it a gentle squeeze. I think he knew Arrin's attitude was getting to me. And after having to deal with Declan, well, I was emotionally confused. I knew what I wanted, I wanted to be a team but getting there was going to be harder than I thought. Damn it! It was going to take work. Stupid relationships.

"How old are you?" I asked Collin, trying to distract myself from the problems at hand.

He raised a dirty blond eyebrow, his orange eyes alight with amusement, "it's rude to ask someone's age." He said, I laughed and shook my head.

"It's rude to ask a woman's age!" I corrected and raised a brow at him, still waiting for his answer. He grinned.

"Five hundred thirty something." He answered. My eyes bugged out and my mouth dropped.

"Geez, cradle rocker much?" I ask with humor. He is grin widened and he leaned forward, a sweet smell drifted from him, one that made me want to lick him.

"You think I'm old, ask Declan how old he is." He whispered to me, I pulled my eyes off him and looked to my left waiting Declan's answer. He scolded Collin but sighed.

"You really want to know?" He asked as if, maybe I shouldn't know. I nodded slowly, watching his hesitation.

"You don't have to..."

"Nine hundred ninety eight." He interrupt me.

"Holy shit! Your old as dirt!" I said it loudly and my mind tried to wrap around everything he had seen in his life, everything he had experienced. And everything he hadn't.

"Gee, thanks." He grumbled. A thought nagged at me and I had to ask. No filter, remember.

"Have you ever been mated before?" The question started out strong but ended quietly. I was scared of the answer, when no one answered right away I looked up to meet Declan's stormy blue eyes. Fear clutched my chest and made it hard to breath.

"No baby, I haven't been mated before. We only get one mate, you're it for us." Relief ran through my body, releasing all the tense muscles that had tightened while awaiting his answer. "But I was married once before." My body froze with those words, my eyes closed and I flinched. It was as if he had hit me. "Before I was turned." He said.

"How old were you when you..." I couldn't finish my question but he seemed to know what I was asking.

"I was twenty seven when I died. I killed my wife." He said quietly. Pain laced his words. My eyes looked up from my plate to his, a mixture of emotions went between us. Anger, confusion, happiness, fear, worry... You name it, it flowed from us in turn. I nodded, not sure what to say, not sure I should say something. What? I'm sorry? That sounded stupid, but what sounded stupider was me saying, while I'm sorry about your wife I'm glad she isn't in our way. Yeah, I could picture that going well. So I sat in awkward silence.