Chapter 181: PAIGE 015

He shook his head again and again. “Not unless we want to die.”

“He handled my hanging up on him well. I’m sure he’d be okay with me telling him he’s not welcome.”

“Question is, do we need to know what he wants to say?” Nate said.

I bit my bottom lip as I thought about it. Whatever he wanted to tell me couldn’t be said over the phone. But if Lucifer came here, I was more worried about my men and people. Yet, if I did tell him no, it could mean we’d be worse off.

Groaning, I slapped the desk. “He’ll have to come, and whatever he has to say or do, we’ll need to be ready,” I said.

Nate snorted. “There’s no getting ready for Lucifer. He could kill with a blink of his eyes.”

“I meant the castle.” I hadn’t, but it made me sound like I knew what I was saying. Ignoring Nate’s obnoxious snort, I glanced at Felnick. “Speak with Gregory. Let him, and only him for now, know who will be coming and how many he’s bringing with him.”

He bowed, saying, “Yes, my queen.” Then he rushed out the door, closing it behind him.

“Have any of you dealt with Lucifer before?”

“Never,” Thorn said.

Alex shook his head.

Asher glanced at Nate, who sighed. “Neither of us have met him personally, but we’ve heard stories about him.”

“Like what?” I asked, pulling out the chair at my desk and sitting in it. Alex took a chair opposite me. Nate leaned against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. When Thorn sat on the corner of my desk, my eyes didn’t stray from his butt… only it wasn’t the time to admire or want to see it naked. Asher moved around my desk and sat in the chair beside Alex. His knowing look said I’d been caught checking out Thorn. Even Alex was blushing and smiling slightly. Nate rolled his eyes at me, but I caught his lips twitching. However, he thinned them and gave me a pointed look.

Right. It wasn’t the time.

Just as my eyes strayed toward Thorn’s rump, Nate sighed. I swung my gaze back to him as he started speaking. “We’ve heard tales of Lucifer never wanting to venture far from the underworld, yet he’s willing to because he wants to meet you. We know he’s a hard ruler, but like in all domains, people like to test things. He’s ruthless, a womanizer, and you wouldn’t want to be on his bad side.”

Asher added, “He’s feared by many. Even the council.”

“Do you think he was the one who sent the demons after me in the first place?”

Thorn shook his head. “We can’t be certain, but it’s something we need to consider, especially with him coming here.”

His cell phone rang. He quickly answered while I asked, “But wouldn’t he have authority over all of them? So, it has to be him.”

“There are millions of demons,” Asher said, and I shuddered at the thought, “and being so many, there are ones who will do as they please. Lucifer is one man, after all. He can’t keep an eye on everything. Demons are corrupt beings; they would do anything to gain power. So many seek more power to try and overthrow Lucifer.”

“It would be good to believe Satan can be an ally,” Alex murmured.

“There’s nothing we can do about it now,” Thorn said, ending the call he’d been on. “All we can do is wait. We have other matters to deal with for now.”

I hated when he was right. “Selma. No one’s found her yet?”

Thorn shook his head, his lips pressing into a thin line of worry. “That call was from my brethren. Unfortunately, she’s disappeared.”

“But can they tell if she’s left the community altogether?” I asked.

His brows dipped, and I already knew it was more bad news. “They followed her trail. She’s out of our area.”

Dammit. I wanted a different answer.

Selma, a vampire who looked all of sixteen but was probably thousands of years old, had been on the Barrett-Odin bandwagon and, like them, hadn’t wanted change to happen within the community. Somehow she’d escaped. Perhaps she’d been smart enough to know they would give her up, so she’d gone into hiding before I could get my hands on her. I had no doubt her involvement meant she played a big part in the attack on Ezra.

And all because they didn’t want people to love who they wanted and, of course, they didn’t approve that my mates were not of my own kind. They looked down on shifters especially, thought of them as lowly beings. It came as no surprise that they despised me making a shifter my adviser or how I intended to let different races work together.

They were old, I was new, and the change had to happen.

I wasn’t the only one who thought my decision would be for the better.

Alma, the former queen’s seer, and now mine, had seen how my bringing in these changes would better our community. I believed it also.

Of course, not a day went by that I didn’t freak out about being thrust into the role of queen.

Even right then I felt like a fraud.

I would have given so much to be back in my small apartment with Ezra at my side. I’d work, see my family, hunt… all with Ezra.

But then I wouldn’t have my men.

I wouldn’t have bossy and scary Asher, my vampire. Angry and annoying Nate, my shifter. Sweet and smart Alex, my mage. Cunning and fierce Thorn, my ghoul.

My life wouldn’t have been complete without them in it.

Even when loss still stung me.

Love rolled over me, causing my fears and worries to recede inside me. I glanced up to Thorn as he stood from the desk and walked my way. When I scooted my chair back, he took my hand and dragged me up, wrapping his arms around my shoulders.

“Things will get easier,” he promised.

Hands touched my waist, and a chest pressed into my back. Asher. “Eventually, you’ll be too bored with nothing happening.”

Resting my head on Thorn’s shoulder, I shook it. “I doubt I could ever be bored.” I couldn’t ever be, not when I had my mates. They grounded me. I glanced at my glowering Nate and to my softly smiling Alex.

“She gets into too much trouble for things to be easy,” Na

te commented.

I shot him the middle finger.