Page 91 of Bound to Three Fae Beasts

I hated that I was making excuses for myself.

“You are too soft. This sort of thing is going to get you killed,” I growled into her hair.

Azriel was quiet for a beat before she asked, “Are you going to kill me?”

I flinched before I could stop myself. “Why would I offer to pay for you to be my mistress if I was planning on killing you?”

“To keep me close. To stop your friends from developing more feelings for me. So that you could throw me from the tower and claim it was suicide because you broke up with me.” She shrugged in my arms. “There’s a lot of reasons. I read a book once—” She cut herself off and shook her head. “There’s a lot of reasons.”

I moved my hands to her shoulders and pushed her back. She released me, her expression guarded once more. Now that there was distance between us, my body cried out for more. It had been satisfied with the chaste embrace, but now? Now my cock stirred. It would be easy to walk her to the wall, to push her up against it and kiss her. It would be easy to reach under her skirt, tear away her underwear, and bring her to a slick orgasm before pushing into her.

It would be very easy, until I reminded myself that she probably wouldn’t let me. If she wouldn’t accept payment, it meant there was something else Jasper offered her. Based on what she had already told me, it was sheer comfort. I wasn’t the sort to give that.

Fuck me. This was exactly why I kept circling her when I should be striking. I wanted proof, yes, but I had enough to convince me. I should act decisively, instead of letting her hold me. I should simply kill her instead of indulging in these sexual fantasies. But the thing was, she seemed too genuine. Maybe she was one hell of an actress, but she just seemed to care.

Only a few days ago, I’d followed her to the crematory. I’d watched her collapse in grief. Maybe she’d known I was there and it was an act for my sake. Maybe.

Maybe she was reeling me in, slowly but surely.

Footsteps sounded. Familiar footsteps. I turned and put on my normal grin. “Over here, Jasper. Seb with you?”

Azriel jumped. She backed further from me, her cheeks turning a flaming red.

Jasper found us quickly. His eyes widened when they landed on Azriel, then he blanked out his emotions. It was a neat trick, but I still could see the tension in the way he held himself. “What’s going on here?”

“I was just trying to convince Miss Azriel to move into my dorm to be my mistress,” I answered breezily.

As expected, he stiffened and his eyes flashed.

“I’m not doing it,” Azriel spat, glaring at me. But she glanced at Jasper with a strange sort of desperation and her eyes darkened with lust. She shook her head and stepped back again. “I can’t deal with this anymore.”

She walked away.

Jasper watched her, then looked at me. “What are you doing, Gareth?”

I shrugged and grinned at him, even though my emotions were knotted up in my chest. “Just having a little fun. Let’s get back to the party, shall we?”

This had to end. I had to make my move. There was no room for compassion in this world of ours.

If I bent, what would that make me? If I didn’t avenge my mother, what sort of son was I? I was the most powerful fae in our generation, according to all the tests and trials I’d already been through. So how did one seemingly unremarkable girl make me feel so indecisive?

I had to find the absolute proof. The type of proof I could hand to the faculty and to my friends to end this. To end her.

Chapter 40 - Azriel

My body felt like it was on fire. The urge to go back to Gareth and take him up on his dangerous offer was powerful and infuriating. I didn’t believe he was genuine in wanting me as his mistress. But some part of me still wanted it. To have his strength around me, to see that cocky smirk of his as he touched and kissed me.

Seb had been efficient with his hands, Jasper masterful with his mouth and cock. How different would Gareth be?

Fortunately, I had a distraction that kept me from shame-spiraling into my unwanted desires (but are they really unwanted, Azriel? Or are you just trying to pretend like you don’t crave all three of them?) in the form of Headmaster Quincy. I was sneaking around to get back to my dorm when I saw him sneaking around to a secret passage. When he opened it, the representative of Court Manilow that had been here the other day stepped through.

“Hurry,” Quincy said as he slid a dark cloak around the woman’s shoulders. Though her face was still androgenous, she wore a dress today that showed her body was profoundly female. She must have been binding her breasts to get them flat before.

I hesitated, but Manilow was supposed to have left. What was their representative doing back here? Were they going to plot how to kill Freta again?

I concentrated and brought my invisibility forward, cloaking my presence, and followed them. The headmaster kept glancing around, but the Manilow representative strode forward with purpose. I hurried after them, willing my footsteps to be soundless. It wasn’t much later when the floating lights appeared over Quincy’s head. I checked over myself worriedly, but they didn’t notice me. Maybe I was invisible to the tracking spell like this, too?

The two of them went to Quincy’s office, and I just managed to slip in after them before Quincy shut the door. He locked it and let out a heavy breath.