"Was that necessary?" Rose asked her mate, listening to his blow by blow description of his physical altercation with Adrian.

"Absolutely!" Dimitri growled. He'd been reserved and played second fiddle to Abe for far too long in avenging what Adrian and his actions had done to his woman. He'd waited years to give Adrian the slap down he'd well and truly earned! Smiling as he thought about it, nothing would make Dimitri feel bad about what he'd done.

"You're looking very happy with yourself, Comrade," Rose teased, smiling at her husband.

"I am happy!" he replied with a grin. "I will always defend you!"

"I know you will," Rose cooed. It had been one hell of a day! Between the Royal Council coup, and the behind-the-scenes work Rose and Pavel had undertaken, everyone was exhausted! Now Dimitri and Abe had returned to the townhouse at Court, Rose wanted to cuddle up in bed with her man and recharge. "Are we likely to be interrupted?"

Dimitri shrugged. It was the big unknown. Guardians always sided with their charges—that's what being a Guardian meant! But, for the first time in living memory, Guardians were tasked with choosing between their charges and their race! In the Royal Council chamber, no one had stood against Croft and his crew. The best of the best, Croft had recruited numerous Alpha and other high-ranking and quality Guardians such as Janine Hathaway. Had it been low ranked Guardians, people may have felt differently—but seeing the crème de la crème side with Croft had been a defining moment for many of those present. No Guardian wanted to go up against the highest in their world—especially when almost every role model had committed to the new order!

"I don't know… So far no one has openly opposed the Royal detention. But we'd be stupid to assume they won't." Dimitri did not need to spell it out. Given time, Royal Moroi would press their Guardians to fight to free the Council members. There was a very real reason Pavel and Croft had sent their loved ones away while the situation played out. If he'd been able to, Dimitri would have done likewise. But there was no extricating Rose from this situation. "However, thirty loyal guards are securing the house tonight," Dimitri added, wanting to reassure his wife.

"So, we're safe enough, for now?" Rose teased her mate, her voice lilting.

"Babe—you're always safe with me," Dimitri growled, pushing his wife back onto their bed and distracting her with hot, punishing kisses. Divesting their clothes quickly, Dimitri wasted no time in licking, sucking and biting Rose everywhere he could. "I love you, baby," he moaned as he rolled them into position. They both liked it when he was in charge, so Rose gave no objection when he moved her where he wanted.

"I love you, too!" Rose groaned, wiggling her cleft against Dimitri's thick, long, and hard erection. She wasn't surprised he was ready. Dimitri always wanted her when worried or insecure. The last few months had seen them both anxious about what could or would happen at Court. Now they had started the revolution, they needed one another more than ever!

"Baba wants us downstairs for a meeting in a few hours," Rose mentioned reluctantly.

"That still gives us time," Dimitri declared, nipping Rose's clavicle as he penetrated her tight pussy.

"I love you!" Rose squealed, thrilled by the pleasure Dimitri had inflicted on her. It was amazing each and every time!

"I love you, too," Dimitri groaned, pulling Rose's legs up over his shoulders before fucking her long and deep. He held out as long as he could before his knot formed, filling his mate completely. Smiling, Dimitri let go, groaning in pleasure while his mate screamed his name during her release.


"I want to see her," Christian demanded the next morning, glaring at those charged with ensuring his safety. Damon glanced at his mate, Laura. He could understand their charge's concern. Two days after their wedding, Vasilisa's incarceration was obviously distressing to Christian. Unable to find out much the night before, they'd spent an uneasy evening and were now determined to find out what was happening.

"We'll take you to Princess Dragomir as soon as possible," Damon replied in his most soothing voice. By the sound of it, the entire Moroi government had gone to hell in a handbasket, but he'd do his best to get Christian to see his bride.

"Not Lissa! If she's arrested, there's not much I can do for her until I know more. I want to see Rose. She has something to do with this; I know she does! How she could fuck over her best friend like this I don't understand—but I intend to find out."

Eddie, Mason, Meredith, and Celeste stared at one another uneasily. What Christian was saying was correct. Rose was clearly involved in this, at least peripherally. If someone knew what was going on it would be Belikov, nee Hathaway, or her father.

"I want to see her immediately! I need to know what's happening!" Christian shouted.

Eddie and Mason locked eyes. Before Rose had declared Omega and left Court, they'd been her best Dhampir friends. If anyone could secure an audience with her, it would be one of them.

"I can call her," Mason suggested after a nod from Eddie. "She might not answer or tell me much, but I can try… We used to be close..."

"She was Lissa's best friend once too, and look how that turned out," Christian snapped. He was furious about Rose's betrayal of his wife.

"We don't know all the facts," Celeste murmured. Older than Christian, Lissa, Mason, Eddie, and Rose, she'd seen their friendships at St. Vladimir's—and how everything changed once Dimitri arrived and Rose declared. She could understand there were layers of loyalty, and how sometimes you had to lose something to gain more.

"Exactly! I want to know what's going on!" Christian growled, eventually agreeing to calm down and say nothing as Mason called Rose to enquire about the situation.


"So far everything is on track," an exhausted Croft said to Abe, Pavel, and Dimitri over breakfast. Dark bags under his eyes, anyone could see the new Head of the Moroi and Dhampir world had not slept well. It would be easy to assume it was concern about overthrowing their Monarch, or fear of a potential backlash from some Moroi, Dhampir, and Guardians. In fact, it was neither. Hans never slept well away from his wife. He missed Mirabelle dreadfully, and wouldn't rest comfortably until they were back curled together in a bed they shared. Pavel was similarly discomforted. He'd spoken at length to Karo before he'd succumbed to sleep a few hours before, but like Croft, he was sorely in need of his mate.

"So far, there has been no retaliation from the Royal families," Abe said. He was surprised—he'd expected resistance before now.

"Word on the ground is most Moroi are bunkering down, waiting to hear more about what's happening. Even the Royal families are happy enough their Council members are being well-cared for, so they're waiting to hear what's next," Croft replied.

"And how is what's next going?" Abe asked Pavel. The one to help Rose with the more pragmatic aspects of their revolution, he'd helped confirm the arrangements for their upcoming public rallies.

"All Guardians have been confirmed," he said, rattling off names of high-profile Guardians including Janine Hathaway, Art Schoenberg, Mitchell Erskine, Demyan Sokolov, Alberta Petrov, and Galina Kuznetsov. Highly regarded living legends within the Guardian world, they'd agreed to speak at the Court rallies in favor of a new system of government. The hope was that so many dedicated and respected professionals endorsing the new structure would encourage other Guardians and Dhampir to do likewise. "Rose also sent all the letters and brochures to print and then to be mail-merged. The first letters should start arriving tomorrow."

"How's she going?" Abe asked his son-in-law, referring to his daughter. He'd known Rose was conflicted about her involvement in the coup and how it would affect her long-term best friend.

"As well as can be expected," Dimitri said, his voice solemn. Rose was feeling guilty that Lissa was arrested and detained, especially given her vehement rejection of Tatiana's age decree proposal. Texts from her mother assuring her Lissa and Ariana were sharing a suite, and that the three of them had settled in to binge-watch 'Grace and Frankie' on Netflix had gone a long way to calm his wife's distress. "She feels horrible that Vasilisa was detained only two days after her wedding," Dimitri explained. "Rose feels it's a special time for newlyweds…"

Abe shrugged unapologetically.

"No one seemed too concerned when it was five Guardians downstairs listening to you and Rose on your wedding night," he replied, confirming something Dimitri had long suspected. The Alpha male raised an eyebrow at his father-in-law, all but challenging him to say more. Dimitri knew enough about the house in Baia and its acoustics to realize the Guardians had probably heard him and Roza make love repeatedly the night they became husband and wife. But even years later, it was not something he'd reveal to his mate. And if he knew what was good for him, neither would Abe.

"It's different for Dhampir," Dimitri sighed, hating that such a precious time between him and his mate had been overheard. No Moroi would ever be expected to accept such a gross invasion of their privacy.

"It shouldn't be," Pavel commented. "Isn't that the whole point of trying to find a new normal? A better normal?"

"That's why I'm fighting," Croft said, nodding at Pavel. "Dhampir means different, not lesser!"


To say Her Majesty, or Tatiana Ivashkov as she would now be known, was fuming was the understatement of the year. From the moment Guardians had escorted her from the Council chamber, she'd been treated courteously but not as a reigning Monarch. In fact, the Guardians and Dhampir palace stuff she'd encountered all seemed to take an inordinate amount of pleasure in referring to her as Ms. Ivashkov.

She'd insisted on being detained in her own quarters—confident that she had access to a telephone and a computer with Internet there. However, her captors had other ideas, taking her to a well-appointed but spartan guest suite somewhere on the second floor. It wasn't even near where the rest of the Royal Council were detained, as far as she could tell!

After carefully checking Tatiana did not have a cell phone on her, they'd locked her in the room, interrupting her later in the evening for a meal and a feeder, doing likewise the next morning. Without a window, she didn't have the sun or moon to mark the passage of time, so she was grateful they'd allowed her a clock. There was a telephone port, but the handset had been removed, and when Tatiana opened the closet, she discovered several casual items of clothes from her own wardrobe hanging there for her use. It was a similar situation in the attached bathroom—a range of her preferred cosmetics and toiletries already in place, suggesting an alarming degree of pre-meditation.

Guardian Croft had not acted on the spur of the moment, Tatiana realized, and that made her situation even more diabolical. She'd hoped to have the age decree done, dusted, and in place before the Dhampir population objected. Instead, Croft had used it as an opportunity to overthrow the Royal Council and her position as Monarch! And it was clear Abe Mazur had something to do with it.

She'd made a grave error when she'd allowed Abe, his daughter, and her Alpha husband to disappear from Court. Tatiana thought Abe might let it go if she did, but she ought to have known better. Everything she understood about Zmey proved he left no debt uncollected and no slight unaddressed. This had been an inevitability from when Adrian first forced Rosemarie to Court, she now appreciated.

A knock at the door signaled it was lunchtime. Right at one o'clock. A Dhampir server who'd served her lunch every day for at least the last decade wheeled in a tray under the watchful eye of two Guardians. Both enormous, they were undoubtedly Alpha.

"Ahh, lunch! Thank you so much…" looking at the Dhampir, Tatiana raised her eyebrow, waiting for the woman to offer her name.

"Nadia, Ms. Ivashkov," the Dhampir said politely but without warmth. Tatiana's thought she might elicit help through the hospitality staff seemed unlikely. She waited for Nadia to step out of the suite before she addressed her Guardian captors.

"I don't know what they have promised what you, but I'm a very wealthy woman. Even outside the Royal treasury, I have millions of dollars to my name. If one of you could get me a cell phone, I'm able to pay you handsomely for it!"

One Guardian looked bored, the other seemed mildly tempted.

"Just think about it. A hundred thousand dollars! You'd be able to leave this world behind!" she coaxed, hopeful one of them would bite.

"Damn!" the interested Guardian said, pulling out his wallet and passing a fiver to his colleague. "I was sure she'd wait until after dinner to try!"

The other Guardian smirked, first at his guarding partner, then his former Queen.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Ivashkov. Our loyalty and dignity can't be bought. Enjoy your lunch. Knock on the inside of the door when you're done."


"I just enjoy the fact there's a show about older women where their relationship is the center of the plotline," Ariana commented. "Once you get to a certain age as a woman, you become almost invisible. You're defined through your relationships with other people rather than an entity in your own right."

Janine nodded, hearing the validity in what the Szelsky former Council Member said. Janine had shown Ariana and Lissa to a two-bedroom suite the previous day and sat with them while they settled in. The only two-person suite, like each of those prepared for the Council members the telephone had been removed, however, this one boasted a comfortable living area with a large screen television with Netflix. With little else to do, Ariana had suggested they watch some TV, the three eventually deciding on 'Grace and Frankie.' They'd watched half of the first season before Janine clocked off for the evening, but she was back today, and they were about to take up where they'd left off.

"I'd never thought of about that," Lissa said, regarding the Szelsky Princess.

"It's true," Janine confirmed. "You become someone's mother, grandmother, wife or employee, but the older you get the less anyone sees you."

Privately Liss couldn't imagine anyone overlooking Guardian Hathaway, living Dhampir legend and all-around bad-ass Guardian, but didn't voice those thoughts.

"So, will we have you with us all day?" Ariana asked Janine.

"Until just after one," she replied, navigating through the Netflix interface as she spoke. "The first rally is scheduled for this afternoon, and they have asked me to attend."

"Rally?" Lissa asked. So far, she'd heard nothing about what was planned in the wake of Tatiana being dethroned.

"Guardian Croft and the others are looking to change the Moroi/Dhampir constitution," Ariana explained. "They believe that the Monarch and the Royal Moroi families have too much power, and do not adequately represent the interests of all Moroi, Dhampir, and Guardians. They are proposing a model where every adult in our world gets to vote for a Representative Council, which will be chaired by an elected representative. If it passes, we'd no longer be a Monarchy."

"And you knew about this?" Lissa asked. "That this was planned?"

"Yes. My cousin Myron is a constitutional lawyer, so he helped plan, and the Szelsky family council voted to support Guardian Croft when the time came. With the age decree vote yesterday, and everyone in town for your wedding, I suspected it would happen then." Ariana had known for sure, but didn't want to offend Vasilisa by letting on her wedding had provided the perfect opportunity for this to happen. While young, and comparatively politically naïve, Liss could read between the lines.

"Did everyone know what was going down except me?" A small v-shaped crease formed between her eyebrows as she considered that unhappy possibility. Yes, she had been busy preparing for her nuptials, but she took her position on the Royal Council seriously, and she'd not even heard the age decree was being considered until yesterday.

"Not everyone. Although Tatiana no doubt worded up the more conservative Council members in advance to make sure she had enough votes for the decree to pass," Janine replied. It was what Tatiana did. Anyone who thought the Royal Council was balanced or impartial was an idiot!

"Did Rose know? About Guardian Croft and the plans?" Lissa asked.

"Yes. Ibrahim has been involved in the plot to overthrow Tatiana since its inception. Rosemarie and Dimitri have been working on aspects of the plan. We only found out about the age decree proposal a few weeks ago," Janine watched her daughter's best friend carefully as she processed that information. "I know she's been anxious about how this might affect you."

Lissa said nothing, too busy trying to wrap her head around the new information.

"I'm really am sorry—I know this can't be how you hoped to spend your honeymoon," Janine added, not wanting to apologize on Rose's behalf, but still wanting to acknowledge the poor timing.

"No, it isn't," Lissa replied quietly, taking the remote control from Janine's hand and starting the next 'Grace and Frankie' episode, stalling any further talk.


"They've arrested my son and my aunt!" Nathan snapped in fury at the Ivashkov family council meeting.

"We understand your anger," Rufus said, frustrated that Nathan was incapable of thinking strategically. This wasn't about individuals. If the whispers he'd heard were to be believed, Croft and Mazur were planning a whole new system of government—one which did not favor the twelve Royal Moroi families. Tatiana being overthrown was disastrous in the short term for the Ivashkov family, but dismantling the entire Moroi/Dhampir system of governance was potentially far worse. As for Adrian? Well out of sight, out of mind as far as Rufus was concerned. The boy humiliated the family with his blatant boozing and whoring, and he could stay imprisoned until they resolved all this, as far as the second most senior Ivashkov was concerned.

"They might mistreat him," Adrian's mother Daniella chimed in, fretting about her only child.

"I'm sure he's fine," Rufus replied, "but I'll see if I can get you in to see him as soon as possible," he said, to shut their pair of them up more than anything else.

"I overheard one of my Guardians telling my Dhampir housekeeper there is a rally today," Ioana Ivashkov volunteered. "In the outdoor amphitheater." The biggest space at Court, it was a multi-level space built into the side of a hill overlooking the largest of the Guardian sporting fields. It could incorporate most of Court if necessary.

"Did they say what time?" Rufus asked, an idea coming to him.

"I'm pretty sure it's at two," Ioana's husband Josef replied.

"If everyone is at the rally, there'll be fewer people guarding Her Majesty and the other Council members. If we can get a few of the other families on board, we have a good chance of being able to recover our Council members while everyone is distracted."


Janine checked her watch. The relief shift, and lunch, was due any moment now, so she could dress and prepare for the two o'clock public rally. Expecting the Royal families to use the rally as an opportunity to free their Council members, Abe had allocated his most loyal, and skilled, Guardians to guard Tatiana and the other captives while they were otherwise occupied.

Right on one, there was a knock at the door. The Dhampir domestic staff bringing in a small luncheon for Ariana and Vasilisa. There was a large Dhampir meal there, too—but Janine knew that was not for her. Just after the server left, there was another knock at the door. Gesturing the two Royal Moroi not to rise from the table and interrupt their meal, Janine moved to the door. "Thank you for relieving me. I really need to prepare for the rally."

As if on cue, the Court-wide PA system sparked into life, Guardian Croft's voice announcing a Court-wide congregation at the outdoor amphitheater at 2:00 am.

"I'll be going now," Janine said, turning to nod to Lissa and Ariana.

"Looks like I'm just in time for lunch," the new guard said.

"Yes. Take a seat, Rose. I thought I'd be seeing you soon," Lissa replied.