In the bee kingdom, only the golden bees carry the queen lineage and can produce offspring for the hive. This generation has raised two queen candidates. Aside from the mysterious warrior killer bee Draven, the blue noble Orion possesses the finest bloodline and is the most likely to sire the next queen. Orion admires Aurelia and chooses to bond with her—but Aurelia gives birth to a brood of hideous hybrid bees and is executed.Reborn, Aurelia now knows the truth: her defeated and exiled sister Rosalind secretly learned a parasitic wasp’s forbidden art. Rosalind mated with hybrid bees, then swapped her own hybrid eggs for the noble eggs Aurelia laid. This time, Aurelia chooses Draven as her consort first, and with his support, she rises to become the most powerful queen of the new generation.
