Sekh nodded, his mouth quirked in a smug little grimace that made my blood boil. “You agree I’m stronger than Rik. I’m older. I’m bigger. I’ve been the fucking General of the All Seeing, Never Sleeping for thousands of years. Yet I’m expected to take orders from a young Blood not even triple digits old. I’m as hard and unyielding as the sphinx statue when she first Called me. No mercy. No forgiveness. If it was within my power, all her enemies would die before she had to lift her pinkie finger.
“Even better, I can feed her continuously. I carry the blood of three-thousand sphinxes for our queen, and her hunger is fucking immense as you well know.
“So let’s say she decides she wants me to sit behind her instead of Rik. She wants to feed on me all fucking day and night, always keeping her power revved up for anything. Her nails planted deep in my thighs. My heart. Like I fed her while she healed Thierry. Do you think Rik’s stepping down voluntarily from his position as alpha? Giving up his spot at her back? Or am I going to kill him to accomplish her goal?”
I opened my mouth. Closed it.
Rik would never give up his position at Shara’s back. Not voluntarily.
“He’s alpha because she wants him to be.” Sekh shrugged casually. “Now she’s changed her mind. She wants me. What the fuck are you going to do about it, warcat? Are you going to fly at me with your puny little claws and rumbly purr to protect your alpha? Or are you going to shut your fucking mouth while I feast and then take my seat at our queen’s back?”
I tried to think of something to say. Something witty. Flippant.
Rik would choke him. He’d stick in his craw. He’d rip his way out of the sphinx’s stomach. He’d crush him like a landslide and pound him to smithereens.
Something. Anything. To disguise the sick quake in the pit of my stomach.
Because the truth fucking sucked.
“Like I said, lie to yourself if that’s what makes you feel better,” Sekh said. “But don’t lie to me, and never fucking lie to her.”
“I love her,” I whispered, my voice quivering.
“Of course you love her. We all do. But you loved him first. For some, that’s the way it is. They don’t have the capacity to love like our queen. I wouldn’t fault you for loving him if you’d at least admit the truth to yourself.”
A hard hand dropped onto my nape, tightening with a punishing grip. I hadn’t even noticed Mehen walking closer. “You thinking about fucking the purr machine, motherfucker?”
Sekh let out a short, harsh laugh. “Be my guest, dragon. I’ll fuck anyone our queen wants me to, but if given the choice, I like my partners with a little more fight in them.”
“Me too.” Mehen smiled but I could feel the snarl building in his chest. “But then again, I fucked you already.”
As if this fucking conversation couldn’t get any worse, now I was caught in a pissing contest between two dicks who both thought his monster was bigger.
Sekh only smiled. “If that’s what you want to call it.”
Mehen shoved me reeling to the side, out of the line of fire. “Pretty fucking sure I had my cock drilled in your ass, motherfucker.”
“Pretty fucking sure I let you, motherfucker.” Sekh didn’t move or make any threatening sounds but his body loosened, the boneless stance of a feline locked in on his kill. “Pretty sure you fucking paid the price, too.”
“Sounds to me like someone wants me to fuck him up again.”
Sekh’s smile widened, a lazy, slow grin that chilled my blood. “You’re welcome to try.”
* * *
MEHEN
I didn’t know which pissed me off more.
The fact that he didn’t want to fuck Daire—taking away my excuse for wanting to break his fucking jaw.
Or the fact the motherfucker didn’t think I’d break his fucking jaw. And that was just the fucking foreplay.
I didn’t give a shit who Daire fucked. I just wanted to give the motherfucker as much shit as possible.
Rik’s bond thumped inside my skull like when he’d fucking slammed his fists into motherfucker for touching our queen. :I told you to work it out, not start a fight.:
Blistering indignation surged through my veins, though he wasn’t talking to me.