I could taste the hunger in her for the power of my throne and I hesitated short of agreeing to this madness. Was I really going to grant this creature a throne?
Her hand snapped out and she locked my balls firmly in her grasp, a hiss escaping me as she glared into my eyes and despite the way my grip on her throat tightened, she didn’t so much as flinch.
“I am owed an Acrux King,” she warned, her eyes crazed and alight with wicked promises. “But if you won’t make me your queen then I can just rip your manhood clean from your body and claim one of your sons instead. Rip, tear, pull, crush. So choose wisely, Daddy. For I am already a princess of the shadows, and I won’t be denied what I am owed a second time.”
I grunted in discomfort as she failed to remove her hand and jerked a nod of acceptance.
“I will make you my queen,” I agreed and a smile lit her deadly lips as she released me like nothing had even happened. “But first we need to tighten our control over the kingdom.”
Her gaze roamed over me as I squeezed her throat firmly and finally, she nodded, the shadows receding so that I could breathe a little easier, seeing I had her under my command once more.
“As you wish, My King. Let’s get started then.”
I’ d stayed up late into the night, hoping the sound of Darius’s arrival would carry to me, but instead my ears only picked up faraway farts and the grunts of someone having sex a few doors down. Could have used a silencing bubble for the sake of the Vampires in the place, but did they? No fucking siree.
Eventually I’d fallen into exhaustion, holding onto Darcy and hating Seth with every atom in my body for ruining my night with her. Echoes of the battle kept clinging to me, holding me tight until I was suffocated by the horror of it all over again. I replayed Clara dying in my arms until it was scored into the inside of my skull. But I focused on the peace that found her as she left this world and reminded myself she was somewhere better now. And in a way, I really had saved her in the end, just not how I’d imagined. Her soul was free of Lavinia and no more torment would find her beyond the Veil. My sister was resting at long last, and for that I had to be grateful.
I stirred from a restless sleep and refused to open my eyes as I drew Darcy back against me, wondering if I could steal her away somewhere within these caverns to seize this girl as mine before she ever slipped from my grasp again.
I nuzzled into the hair brushing against my cheek, but frowned at the masculine scent carrying from it, wondering if it was those washalilies that lingered on her, and wanting to brand her with my own scent instead. My arms tightened on her and as I crawled deeper out of the haze of sleep, I realised she didn’t feel right at all. She was too muscular, too large, and as my eyes snapped open and a growl rippled along my throat, I knew I’d be starting this day with a gruesome murder.
“Capella!” I barked, launching him away from me across the room and he slammed into the wall with a yelp, hitting the floor butt fucking naked as he scrambled to regain his senses.
“You broke my thucking nothe.” He held a hand up to heal it as it pissed blood down onto his bare chest and I shot out of bed in a blur, tearing forward to finish the job of beating the hell out of him, but slamming into an air shield instead as he cast it between us.
“What the fuck were you doing in our bed?!” I snapped. “And where the hell is Blue?” I jerked around, hunting for her, but it was just me and the mutt. Which meant there’d be no witnesses when I ripped his spinal cord out and stuffed it up his ass.
“It was cold over there.” Seth pointed at his own bed. “And there was a chilly breeze blowing in under the door.”
“You’re an air Elemental,” I spat, stalking back and forth in front of his shield as I heaved breaths in and out, hungry for a fight.
“Yeah and I’m a Werewolf!” He got to his feet, wiping away the blood from his now healed nose on the back of his hand. “I need snuggles. Without snuggles, I get cold and lonely. And Darcy went to get breakfast, so your bear arms were going to waste, and I snuck in for a little hug time. I don’t see what the big deal is.” He grabbed some sweatpants from the floor, yanking them on.
“I don’t snuggle,” I snapped.
“Liar,” he scoffed. “You snuggle with Darcy and Darius all the time. But where’s my snuggles, Lance? Where’s. My. Snuggles?”
“You’re fucking insane,” I hissed and he let out a whimper, stepping toward me with his eyes going all large and dog like. As if that would ever work on me.