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I glanced over at the Lycan and cocked an eyebrow as I could see his chest pumping up and down, his anger tangible. I knew he wanted Matteo’s throat ripped out. I could, and I wholly empathized… or as much as a sociopath like me could.
But there was a tightening in the back of my neck that said something was off. This all seemed a little too… easy. A traitor all but being given to us without any real proof except James and his word?
I looked over at the vampire in question, and he was eyeballing Matteo, the sound of him grinding his molars loud. I’d known James for a hell of a long time. He was a loyal, good soldier. Then again, I could probably say the same about Matteo. But I had no reason to believe James would lie, and then again, shit had gone down with the Assembly when we went after them, after they’d taken Cian’s mate and Odhran.
Things had gone upside down. Shit had been up in the air, so mistakes had been made.
“It’s my fooking right tae take his life,” Odhran snarled and moved a menacing step toward me. “Ye think ye can actually keep that from me?” He bared his teeth, his canines hella long and sharp.
I grinned and showed off my own, the ones that were bigger, longer… fucking sharper. “Watch it, Lycan.”
Odhran’s chest rose and fell even harder, faster, and I could see he was trying to keep all his fucking self-control.
“If it was yer mate, ye think ye’d let the fooker who could have led ye tae her go free?” He took a step closer, and I saw the flickering power of his wolf push forward. He was going to shift. He wanted to. The wolf wanted to tear Matteo’s throat out.
But at the sound of my female in danger, of someone daring to even think of taking her from me in the hypothetical, had all amusement fading in me. I straightened to my full six-foot-seven height. My soldiers took a step back—smart fuckers—as I advanced on Odhran.
But I chuckled low, not wanting any of these males to know I’d found my mate. Until I claimed her, had her, and could protect her, I didn’t want anyone to know about her. She was a weakness. She was my weakness.
“I’m the killer. The psycho,” I ground out slowly. “I’m the kind of male who shouldn’t ever have a mate, wolf.” I held my hands out, palms up. “Can you imagine a female being my Coveted One?” I chuckled, which had the other vampires in the room laughing a little uneasily. “Nah, I’d likely drain her dry within a week of finding her.” Saying those words was all wrong, churning like acid in my veins. I’d never hurt her. And even if I wanted to gorge myself on the blood that filled her body, be drunk off it, I’d never put her in danger, even if I was that danger.
I took another step closer, my grin still in place.
“I’ll never have a mate, not when I have my insanity to keep me company.”
I had to give the Lycan and his creed credit—the wolves didn’t fear easily. And when I stopped right in front of him and let him see who and what kind of male I was, how the rumors about how psychotic I was were as real as they came, I was doing my best not to tear his head from his neck just for speaking about my mate.
“This is my house, Odhran,” I said low and deep. “You play by my rules. Yeah?” I phrased it like a question, but we both knew it wasn’t one. “Matteo lives until I can figure out what the fuck is going on. The fucker can’t even speak to tell me what went down, and although I trust James”—as much as I fucking trusted anyone, which wasn’t much—“I want Matteo to heal enough that I hear all of it. You feel me, wolf?”
Odhran was still, silent, his wolf right there at the surface. He didn’t answer, but I’d give him a pass on that disrespect. He was too wound up, and I could only imagine how fucking unstable he was after decades of not having his mate by his side.
Hell, I’d just found my female, and not having her by my side right now felt like a fucking eternity had already passed.
So yeah, Odhran got a little bit of grace, but not much, ’cause I wasn’t a benevolent ruler. I was a sociopath that thought about the end game that benefited me.
I grinned and turned, wanting to clean up and go to my female. Kayla. Fuck, even thinking her name had my cock jerking, reminding me the bastard wanted buried deep in her tight little body. And she would be so tight, because I had one big fucking cock… and she’d take all of me. I’d make sure of it.
But right when I was about to leave, I felt the rippling in the air, the thick, pressing heat filling the room.
Motherfucker, I thought just as I turned around and watched as Odhran looked at me and all but said fuck you before he shifted into his big damn Lycan and lunged at Matteo.
My soldiers were about to attack, but I held my hand up, stopping them.
He was a vicious animal as he tore the limbs from Matteo’s body, tossing them away and going for his torso next. It was a grisly display of strength and power, of aggression and bloodlust from a feral creature. The vampiric side of me appreciated the sight, but being the ruler of my kind made me grow fucking irritated that the bastard hadn’t listened.
And when Odhran had finished decimating Matteo, blood and gore, body parts strewn around the room, I turned fully around and crossed my arms over my chest. The wolf faced off with me, blood covering his fur, the fucker as big as a damn Clydesdale horse. I knew if he’d been in his human form, the bastard would have been smiling at me.
I shook my head and said low, keeping my voice even, “You stupid fucking wolf.” I tipped my chin to Kane and watched as my cousin lifted his arm, pointed the barrel of the gun at Odhran, and shot the Lycan.
6
Kayla
“He asked about you.”
What did it say that when I heard Sasha say those four words, the person I instantly thought about was the mystery mountain of a man from the club the other night?
My body reacted right away. Heart racing, breathing increasing, face feeling flushed, and every erogenous zone coming alive.
