All Hail (Queen Crow, #1)

by J. Bree

“Do you ever wear normal clothes? Like, shirts and sweatpants? You always look like you’re about to have dinner with a diplomat when shit goes down.”

“These are normal clothes for people who aren’t Mounty street urchins. You might want to raise your bar because I’m not lowering mine.”

“I’m sure you could give any royal a run for their money in the manners department… and shoes.” I refuse to preen under the assessment but I can’t deny that it’s nice to have someone notice the care and effort I put into my appearance.

I shouldn’t think about that because it just makes me upset to think about how no one will appreciate the effort I’m going into tonight… well, no one will want to rip the dress off of me but at least I’ll have them all fearing for their lives.

I startle away from him. “A child? You think I’m being a child about the man that I have loved and craved and longed for just giving up on me and for what? For some misguided sense of self-sacrifice?”

“I don’t want a man who will give me up the second things get hard.

I can count on one hand the amount of times he’s hugged me, I have enough fingers to tally up the times he’s brushed my hand with his own, so I’m not expecting him to grab me and stop me from leaving. I’m certainly not expecting his hand to clamp down on my neck, spinning me around and forcing me into his arms before I even realize he’s touching me. His hand stays on my neck, holding me still as he leans down with fire in his eyes and breathes the words against my lips.

“I killed for you long before your brother did. I was bleeding out the buyers your father auctioned you off to before you made it to middle school. You think I walked into the Game clean? My hands were dripping with the blood of men who wanted to destroy you, Avery.

Don’t you ever tell me I gave you up, I have never given you up. I’ve tried to give you a good life, if you d...

No more coming to meetings with the Butcher draped all over you, no more dancing in the Bay with the Stag. You have my full attentio...

That’s not what I want anymore. I do want him… but I’m not going to give up Aodhan for him. I’m not going to stop being who I am just to have him.

“It’s too late, Atticus. You should’ve taken me when you had the chance.”

He might have lied to me but I’ve always known who he is at his core. I’m safe with him.

Too fucking safe, too protected, too far removed from the real world by his obsessive need to keep me breathing. I don’t want safe anymore.

He sees it too, finally looks into my eyes and sees the real shift that’s happened between us. I think that scares him a little. I think he was always so sure of me and that bubble that both he and Ash put me in that he nev...

I still want him. Just as bad as I’ve always wanted him. I guess I’m going to be doomed to be in love with a man who can’t give me what I want, no matter how hard I try to plead with him to accept who I am.

You think I don’t know you love him? You think that shit will scare me off? Queenie, nothing affects you and me except you and me. He’s not going to ruin this for us, get that through that gorgeous head of yours.”

I clear my throat carefully and play around on my phone as I answer him. “You slept in my bed, I can wear your color today if I want to.”

“I’m not worried about me flirting, Queenie, but I’m irresistible. What if she falls for my good Irish charms and I get killed for it?” He whispers, and I roll my eyes at him but when I glance up at him he’s grinning at me, teasing.

He’s so completely different to Atticus that it doesn’t actually feel all that wrong to be standing here holding his hand while my heart is still torn open from my childhood love.

Odie once told me he’s meticulous about never going home to her dirty and he’ll always have a long shower before he’ll so much as hold her hand after a bloody night of work.

How the fuck someone like her might be interested in someone like me… fucking confusing but I’m not a man to let a good thing go and she might just be the fucking best thing.

“He’s not my keeper. I listen to what he says about my safety but he doesn’t ever have a say on what I wear. He knows it and you better know it too.” His smirk gets wider and his eyes finally land on mine as he grabs my hand and tugs me over to him until I’m straddling his lap. “Why would I complain? I get to see you in this and that’s something I’m not fucking around with.”

Am I going to have to make it happen for myself? Am I going to have to sit him down and explain exactly what I want just to get a chance at it? Christ. I don’t have time in my life for that.

What the hell is it about this woman that has everyone running scared? I’m the danger here, not this fucking flirty bitch with sub-par fashion choices and a murky past at best.

I’m Joseph Beaumont’s daughter. I am the descendant of Russian royalty and I have the ear of the Wolf herself, what the hell does she have?

She tilts her head and nods, staring at Atticus with a hunger that pisses me off even if he ignores it entirely. Why is she looking at him like that if she’s very clearly in bed with his disgusting father and, very possibly, his brother too?

also for the first time I’m pissed my best friend is dating my brother because I need her but I can’t risk him coming home and seeing something.

“I became the Crow for you, Avery. None of this will be worth it if anything happens to you.”

“Avery, do not walk out that door.” Atticus snarls down the line, none of his usual cold calm to be heard.