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“Dove,” he growled out in that incredibly deep, impossibly rough voice, something else the hounds had in common. But Warrick’s was the roughest, as if he were more beast than man.

“Don’t call me that.” I ignored the way my belly flipped and pushed on. “Now tell your plaything to leave, I have something important to discuss with you.” Maybe I should tone down the attitude a few thousand notches, but for some reason, I was having serious trouble doing that. I guess I could have waited until he’d finished fucking whoever he had in there with him, and I didn’t want to think about why I insisted on busting in on his private party, but there was nothing to be done about either of those things now.

Warrick stared down at me, his gaze locked on mine. “Jag, we’re done here for now.” He didn’t break eye contact.

“Jag?” I said stupidly.

He nodded.

“I thought…I assumed, because Lothar said…” I bit my lip. Shut up.

“What did Lothar say?” Warrick asked, crossing his heavily muscled arms, causing the chunky silver rings he often wore, one a skull, another engraved with a language I didn’t recognize, to glint under the torchlight.

Jagger, Warrick’s lieutenant, strode up behind his alpha, and he didn’t look impressed.

My gaze slid back to Warrick. “He just…well, he implied…” Goddammit, my face was getting hot again.

“That I was fucking?”

I didn’t reply because I’d come down here all hot under the collar for reasons unknown and…god, he was loving this. “You can screw who you like, Warrick.”

His jaw hardened. “I know I can.”

Jagger slipped past without a word and walked away.

“Right.” My face grew even hotter.

We stood there, eyeing each other for long, overwhelming seconds, and my flight instincts were kicking in. “Well, are you going to let me in?” I asked, ignoring them completely.

He stepped back, making space for me to pass, and I entered his private quarters.

I looked around the big room. A massive bed, he’d made himself out of logs, that I was sure he’d torn out of the ground and split with his bare hands, sat against the far wall. There was also a fire burning in the hearth on the opposite wall and animal furs on the floor.

I’d woken up in that humongous bed after my last combat trial…with a sleeping, naked Warrick plastered against me—

The sound of female voices came through the door across the room. It opened to a staircase that led directly to the main room aboveground. I guess so he didn’t have to bring humans through the tunnels.

Someone knocked.

“Busy,” he barked.

“It’s Molly, can I come in?” a female voice called.

“No.”

Another knock. “It’s Diane, what about me?”

“Fuck off,” he said, his expression unchanged.

I snorted. “Seriously? Women stand outside that door and wait for you to let them in?”

He dipped his chin.

“That’s pathetic,” I said, way too bitterly. “And here I thought we had a ‘special bond,’” I said, adding air quotes. I had no idea why I was goading him. And yes, sarcasm was dripping from my voice, along with a good dose of bitterness.

“What do you want me to do, Willow? Sit around with my dick in my hand, drawing love hearts and listening to Coldplay while I wait for you?”

My mouth opened, closed. “No, of course not…”