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

Apparently...trust is a two way street.

I laid back on the bed with a satisfied smile on my face. That had felt amazing. Not the on fire part, which was weird within itself but the way Collin had been, damn that was great.
I turned my head to Declan, he was watching me.
"I don't understand." I told him. His eyebrows raised and he cocked his head to the side.
"It's the affects of vampire blood. More specifically, your vampire mates blood running through your system." He said.
"Why?" He smiled gently.
"In a normal person, likely the blood would have changed them, because you had lost to much of your own blood. Most of it actually." He brows drew together and I saw concern in his eyes, he shook his head and met my eyes again. "And when Collin gave you his blood, normally it would've change a human into a vampire. But for you, it was slightly different." His blue eyes became intense.
"Why?" I asked again, I wanted, no, I needed to understand what had happened.
He gave me a small smile and sat at the edge of the bed. He surprised me by reaching over and brushing a stray hair from my face and pushing it behind my ear. My breath caught in my throat at the sweet gesture. Declan was a very distant man, er, vampire. Out of all my mates he was the most distant towards me, and not because I thought he didn't want me but because he didn't quite know what to do with me. Add seven other men in my life and...well, I could understand his distance.
"You belong to us. You're part of us." He simply said, I pursed my lips.
"So I can't be changed?" Not that I wanted too but I was just struggling on how to make sense of all this. Movement at the end of the bed made me glance over as Collin's naked body crawled up the bed and laid beside me. His arm wrapped around my stomach and he kissed the tip of my ear. My mates and my ears, I guess they all had an elf ear fetish.
With a sigh, Declan looked at Alec, Alec gave a small nod and then all three of my vampire mates looked at me. I felt my body heat rise at their stares, my face probably red as I shied away from they're glazes.
Collin gently took my chin in his fingers and made me look into those bright orange eyes of his. He smiled gently and ran his thumb over my lower lip.
"If you were human, we could change you. But because you're something else entirely, no, you can't be changed. But as Easton told us all before, because we are mated, you will take on some of our..." He paused and pursed his full lips. I licked mine as I stared at them. I swallowed as the orange in his eyes darkened with lust. "Qualities." He finished with a low and husky voice, his fingers begin to trail across my belly.
"Which qualities?" I whispered, I was trying to stay focused on what I wanted to know but damn Collin and his fingers. He was leaving a trail of fire in their wake and I wanted to moan and seriously wanted another go. So I squeezed my thighs together and refocused my attention.
"So far that we can tell, blood and sex is the first." Alec answered my question with a low growl. My glaze shot to him, and my body grew hotter at the way his eyes traveled across my skin. I swallowed hard.
"Blood and sex?" Ah shit, was that my breathless voice.
"You know that vampires need blood to survive and stay strong." I nodded. "When it comes to mated vampires, we live off our mates." My eyes widened.
"Do I have enough for all three of you?" It didn't seem possible, three vampires drinking from me? It couldn't be possible.
"We wondered the same thing, but now..." Collin paused when he smiled.
"But now?" I pressed.
"You can live off ours as well, your blood is very potent and..." Collin paused as he looked up at Declan. My brows furrowed even more.
"And what?" I asked, slightly irritated that they kept stopping.
"Powerful. It only took about four or five pulls of your blood before I was satisfied. And since you can drink our blood, there is no reason to worry."
"So, because I drank your blood I got all hot and horny?" I asked, disbelief in my voice. "I felt like I was on fire." I mumbled.
"That only happens with mates of vampires." Alec said, a smirk on his beautiful prefect face. "Hot and horny, don't worry though because Collin felt the same way." He finished, his smirk turning into a wide smile showing off his pearly white roll of teeth. Damn he was hot! I swallowed again.
"You felt on fire?" I asked while glancing at Collin from under my lashes. He smiled and shrugged
"Not like you felt, I could smell my blood pumping through your system and it called to me, i..." He glanced away, took an unneeded breath and looked back me. "I needed to make you mine, in every way. It was instinct that took over, after Alec said blood and sex, we knew he was right."
"Scared the shit out of the rest of us though." Colton grumbled, I sat up and looked across the room to see my five other mates sitting, standing or in Colton's way, pacing back and forth.
"I'm sorry, I just couldn't." Couldn't what, what was I sorry for. Colton stopped by the wall and punched it suddenly, I winced.
"Why did you attack him? We had a plan! All you had to do was stay where you were! What the fuck riplyn? He could've killed you." He yelled and covered his face with his hands. Groaned in frustration and turned those hazels eyes on me.
I opened my mouth and then closed it. What could I say, other than the truth. "He was going to kill you." I whispered, I shook my head, "that's all I heard." I mumbled. I looked down at the fur I sat on and rubbed my hand over it.
"You have to trust us!" I flinched at the anger in his voice. "We knew what we were doing, Declan and Ryan already had a plan before they even reached the door. All you needed to do was stay with Arrin and Easton, but no, you have to be the hero that saves everyone, don't you? Can't trust that your mates can handle themselves!" He yelled at me, the back of my eyes prickled with tears and I bit my bottom lip as I stared at the fur.
"I did think it was weird that they caught you." I whispered.
"We wouldn't have been caught if we didn't want to be. You've been here for a mouth and nothing has happened, we can take care of ourselves and you. When are you going to get that through your thick skull woman!" He finished his rant breathless. The tears I tried to hold off, yep, they fell.
"I'm sorry." I whispered as my heart broke. I hated when Colton was mad at me. "I just saw red, I ran off before Arrin and Easton could stop me." I mumbled, now angry with myself.
"We could've stopped you." Easton said from his chair. I glanced up and saw him give me a sympathetic look.
"Why didn't you stop her then?" Colton yelled.
"Colt, calm down." Ryan said quietly from his post against the wall by the front door.
"Calm down, she was almost dead. She has no respect for herself or us and you want me to calm down!" He directed his anger at Ryan who stood slightly taller now as he took Colton's anger.
"I thought he was going to kill you!" I yelled at him. "He threw Jax into a goddamn tree colt!" My eyes quickly found Jax and a breath of relief left my lungs as I saw him leaning up against the table in the kitchen. He smiled at me gently and winked. I felt a little bad that it was the first time I thought about Jax since then but he didn't seem to mind. Colton on the other hand, his jaw was so tense, I was slightly worried he would break his teeth. His hands fisted by his side, I think he wanted to punch the wall again.
"You just don't go up against an alpha wolf Riplyn! There's a reason he is alpha. Only a wolf with equal strength goes up against a wolf like that. Fuck! When are you going to let us protect you, how can we trust you if you just keep running into battles without using your head? Fuck!" He punched the wall again. I kinda felt sorry for the wall.
"do you think Declan lived for as long as he has by not thinking shit through? Do you really think a bunch of shifters could actually catch him if he didn't want to be caught? When Riplyn? When are you going to stop being so stupid? And use your fucking head?" He roared at me. Well, that fucking stung. And I didn't know what to say to that. He was right, just like Arrin had said to me before. I moved my eyes over to Arrin, he looked back at me and raised his brown eyebrows, he knew I what I was thinking. He had told me the same the thing, of course, in a nicer way.
I sighed and rubbed my eyes, "you're right." I whispered. "I'm sorry."
"Oh well, in that case, you're forgiven for almost dying and leaving us all alone for the rest of our lives." Colton growled, then he spun around on his heel and walked out of the hut, slamming the door so hard, the little hut shook. And then the tears really did come, a nasty sob rolled out of chest and I fell against the bed and buried my head in the furs that smelled like my wolves.
Arms wrapped around me and pulled me close. Collin, I could smell him too.
"Sh, it's alright." He whispered to me. I shook my head, all I was capable of doing was hurting colton. When would I learn? Why didn't I trust them? He and Arrin had said the same thing, trust us to protect you, to help you. Why couldn't i do that? Why was I fighting them? What was my problem?
Collin continued to try and calm me down but I felt and reheard every one of Colton's words, it was a punch in the gut. He was right, Arrin was right, trust. I needed to trust them and until I did that, would they ever completely trust me?