It was the same as it had been when we were teens; all we had was one another. It was enough. It would always be enough.
Wrapped up in the pleasure of holding my mates, I almost didn’t hear it.
It took my brain a second to put the sounds together.
“Corvus, your captain’s services are needed to handle Aran,” Luka said, and the hair on my arms prickled.
I pulled away, and both my mates groaned.
Straightening my sweatshirt, I explained, “Luka said Arabella needs us.”
Before I’d finished speaking, Corvus was out of his chair, with flames trailing off his arms. Both my mates were shoving through the crowd, telling people to move.
I zeroed in on a familiar female voice in the room’s corner. It must have been a consequence of the slave brand, because I could always locate Arabella’s voice.
No matter how much outside noise distracted me.
I could always find her.
“You called for Corvus?” I asked as soon as I pushed through the crowd.
Her breath caught in the back of her throat, and men panted near her feet. I cocked my head to the side, unable to make sense of what I was hearing.
“Who are you?” Arabella asked, her words slurring together.
Rage broiled my blood as she made breathy chuckles. The little brat was insanely intoxicated.
Why could she never take care of herself? She needed keepers.
There was a whooshing noise as Corvus exploded into flames.
Intense heat poured off him.
The last time he’d burned so hot, we’d been battling in the wastelands before the sun god. He was seconds away from losing control, and I moved closer to try to calm him.
Arabella made a breathy sound of pleasure.
What the fuck?
I turned back to her slowly.
Orion’s lips moved against the shell of my ear as he whispered, “The two pathetic blue-haired men are on their knees at Arabella’s feet, groping her ass.”
I thought I’d known rage.
I hadn’t.
Not until this moment.
My hearing went silent as the sound of rushing blood filled my ears.
Then the other sounds came back with a roar.
This was ten times worse than the time we’d caught her with a nymph at the party. Now we knew that she’d just lost her virginity to John in the middle of the arena.
She was basically untouched.
She was innocent when it came to the ways of men.
Yet these fuckers thought they could touch her when she was intoxicated?
Any way you looked at it, it was clear they were taking advantage of her.
They’d waited until she was emotionally vulnerable.
Drunk.
They knew if they approached her in the daylight, she’d turn them down. They were fucking disgusting.
They would die.
“Get your hands off our girl,” Corvus snarled. My mate had come to the same conclusion.
Lately he’d been acting weird around Arabella. He’s stopped calling her slave and Orion said he’d started blushing when she spoke to him.
My Revered also said that he’d never seen our Ignis blush before.
I rubbed at my chest as a pang throbbed because I understood exactly where he was coming from.
Orion and I didn’t have to speak. We were always on the same page.
We lunged forward at the same time.
I zeroed in on the breathing of one of the dead fuckers, grabbed his neck, and chucked him across the room as Orion threw the other man.
They both yelped in pain.
It wasn’t enough.
Not even close.
It took me a second to realize that there was a fourth man breathing heavily beside my mates.
Luka was standing next to our slave.
No wonder he’d fooled everyone, even the inflection of his breaths was the same as his brother’s.
The only difference was that the tenor of his voice was slightly deeper. But he barely spoke, so I’d never noticed.
When I’d first discovered his deception, I’d been enraged like Corvus. However, unlike my hotheaded mate who needed to control every situation, I’d recognized that he must have his own reasons for secrecy.
He was a good soldier, and that was all that mattered.
I also liked him more than John because he wasn’t hanging all over our slave and touching her constantly like she belonged to him.
I tipped my head in his direction.
Thank the sun god he’d alerted us.
Bile filled my throat at the thought of what would have happened if he’d never said anything.
Would Arabella have fucked them in the dark while we sat across the room, oblivious?
I would have heard her eventually, but it could have been too late. Would the men have been inside her?
Caressing her while she was mindless?
Grinding my teeth together, I clenched my hands into the tightest fists possible.
Arabella said something, but I couldn’t hear her over the whooshing sensation intensifying in my ears.
“Keep her from debasing herself further,” I ordered Luka.
He made a noise of agreement and said, “The third commoner, lying on the floor in the middle of the crowd, was kissing her lips and grinding against her. He was touching her ass.”
Orion made a strangled sound in the back of his throat.
I nodded at him and turned.
Falling into step beside my mates, I cracked my neck back and forth. Years of training, living, and fighting together coalesced into this moment.
The three of us moved as a unit.
There was a fluttering sensation across my throat as my tattooed eye opened wide. I clenched my jaw, and it took every ounce of strength I possessed not to tip my head back and open all my eyes wide.
“They’re dead,” Orion said loudly.
Corvus burned hotter.
The music raged as bodies danced around us.
Three commoners moaned pitifully as they tried to stand up.
“Which one of you kissed her lips?” Corvus asked softly.
Listening to the man shift at my feet, I reached down and picked him up. I tightened my fingers until he choked and gurgled.
It wasn’t enough.
The man Orion had picked up pleaded, “Please, we didn’t mean to.” He moaned in pain as Orion crushed his balls.
“Answer or all three of you die,” Corvus ordered.
I loosened my choke hold.
“It wasn’t me,” the man in my hands said at the same time Orion’s commoner denied kissing her.
I smiled.
Orion and I moved in tandem.
I slammed my knee into my man’s crotch and let him collapse to his knees. He whimpered in pain. A whoosh blew against me harmlessly. “An air nymph, how pathetic,” I taunted.
I grabbed the sides of his head with both hands.
Twisted.
Snapped his head 360 degrees.
Bone crunched as Orion did the same.
There was a thud as two bodies dropped to the floor.
The music switched to a fast-paced song, and the students jumped in tandem.
The floor shook.
The man in Corvus’s hands whimpered, “If you let me go, I promise that when my friends heal, we won’t tell Lothaire what you did.”
The corner of my lips lifted.
Orion laughed loudly.
Students bumped into my back and sides as they jumped up and down and screamed lyrics.
Corvus snapped his fingers.
Heat exploded.
The commoner screamed as his two friends were incinerated into ashes in a matter of seconds.
Immortality.
Over.