“So, did it work? Did they grow up loyal to their sectors or whatever? Wouldn’t that cause a problem when they had to get back together?”
Rolf chuckled and lowered his hands to massage my shoulders. “Yes, it worked. Too well. The brothers refused to reunite. Their allegiances and prejudices firmly in place, as the VSS wanted.”
“So what happened? They get along fine now.” I’d meet Lev several times, but knew from my conversations with Leah that her men were a united force, just as mine appeared to be.
“Leah happened. She united the three Kings, just as you have united Gunnar, Erik and me”
“You’re each from a different sector?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.” Understanding dawned. Leah, Earth girl Leah, had united an entire planet by forcing her mates to learn how to get along. And then… “Allayna. The baby.”
“The one true Queen of Viken.” Rolf dipped my head gently, rinsing the soap from the long strands with slow, relaxing strokes.
I closed my eyes and pictured that cute little pixie with her red hair and bright blue eyes. “She’s not even one yet.”
“She is the future of our planet. The three Kings grew up in the sectors. And, as the Kings are loyal to their people, the sectors are loyal to them. Allayna is their daughter, the one all the sectors recognize as the true heir. They might refuse one of the three Kings, but none would refuse her. She is adored and revered in every sector.”
“So, they have to kill her.”
“We believe that is their goal, yes.”
“So they intended to transport Leah and her baby to the wilds instead of me?”
Rolf nodded. “Yes.”
“But how did it work, how did I get sent there instead?”
“We’re not sure. A transport glitch. The Kings have entire teams of engineers working on answering that very question.”
I opened my eyes and looked up into his face, meeting his gaze. “I’m not thrilled about someone trying to kill me, but I’m glad it happened.”
Rolf’s jaw clenched. “Glad?”
“If their transport plans had worked, Leah would have died protecting her baby. I…I can’t think about how awful that would have been.”
Rolf just made a weird guttural sound as a reply and released me. I righted myself and ran my hands over my hair to get the excess water out.
“So Gunnar and I will go to this place…Club Trinity, and find the man who wanted to kill Leah.”
Rolf reached for a washcloth and I stared at the way the water sluiced off his broad shoulders and down over his flat nipples. “No, love. Erik is meeting with the Kings. Gunnar’s already gone.”
“Gone?”
Nodding, he picked up the soap I’d been using and rubbed it over the washcloth. I breathed in the scent of vanilla. Did they have vanilla on Viken?
“Give me your arm.”
I lifted it in the air and he took my hand as he ran the bubbly washcloth up and down. If he wanted to do this as he gave me answers, I wasn’t going to complain. I’d never been washed by anyone before, at least not since I was a baby, and it was pretty darn nice.
“You’re doing this to distract me,” I fake grumbled.
Rolf switched arms.
“I can do both. Clean you, so Erik and I can make you dirty again, and give you the answers to your questions.”
That, I could live with.