Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
“You can take more, can’t you, love?”
“Wolf.” The word is carefully neutral, Malachi watching us both closely. I can’t decide if he’s trying to encourage the other man or deter him.
Wolf grins, flashing fang. When we first met, I thought it was a lack of control that causes him to do that. Now I know that it’s just pure Wolf. He wants to flash fang so he does. It’s as simple as that. He cups my breasts, dragging his fingers through the blood coating my skin. “Don’t play so restrained, Malachi. We both know you’d like nothing better than to spend a month straight with her on your cock, filling her up over and over again until you plant a babe in her womb.” He lowers his voice, speaking as if intent on seduction. “It makes you crazy that I’m fucking her, doesn’t it? That I might be the one to father the child that makes her heir.”
“That’s enough.”
“Is it?” Wolf lightly pinches my nipples. “Malachi, so calm and collected and in control.” He laughs. “What a liar you are. She might believe you, but I know the truth.”
Tension winds around us, tighter and tighter and having nothing to do with sex. No, there’s the threat of violence on the air. “That’s enough,” I say, echoing Malachi’s words.
“Would you kill me to get her to yourself?” Wolf hasn’t stopped touching me, but all his attention is on the other vampire. I might as well be a cup of tea he’s using to keep his hands busy. “Would you betray our history for her?”
Malachi hasn’t moved. It doesn’t seem like he’s even breathing. “Would you?”
Just like that, the tension bleeds out of Wolf and he grins. “Time will tell, won’t it?”
My desire has gone up in smoke, leaving only ashes in its wake. Bond or not, I am a fucking person and they’re talking over my head like I’m a toy they’re not inclined to share. “Let me go.” I grab Wolf’s wrists and pry his hands off my breasts. He lets me, which is just as well. I’m not sure what I’d do if he kept touching me while I’m this angry. “I’m done.”
“Mina—”
“No.” I struggle to my feet and point at Malachi. “I don’t want to talk to you, either. I’m going to take a shower and then I’m going to bed. Alone.” I make it one step before my anger gets the best of me. “I don’t know if you need to fight or fuck your way to the end of this conversation, but you obviously don’t need me here for it. Goodnight.”
Neither of them say a word as I stalk out of the room. Of course they don’t. I’m not required for this pissing match. I’m not required for anything important.
Except, oh yeah, I’m the reason we were able to break the blood ward keeping Malachi trapped in that house for decades.
And my damned womb is going to be the thing that unseats my father and allows them to finally stop being hunted by him and his people.
None of that matters, though. Bond or not, I’m still not convinced they see me as more than a tool for their endgame. Even Malachi betrays that when he gets like this, snarling and snapping over me like I’m a piece of meat in his possession.
No one gives a shit what I want.
Chapter 3
I stalk into the room that I’ve claimed as my own. Most nights, Malachi shares it. Wolf’s here more than half of the time, too. Not Rylan. Never Rylan. He alone doesn’t seem to have a use for me, which should irritate me, but right now it’s almost a relief.
Almost as if my thoughts summoned him, the curtains billow out from the window and then he’s there, a dark silhouette against the full moon in the shadows of the room. The shadows clothe him well enough, but I know he’s naked. He always is after shifting back to human.
I stop short, planting my feet against the nearly overwhelming need to go to him. To run my hands up his bare chest and rub as much of my skin against his as I can manage. To take him into my body and ride until we’re both sweaty and sated.
It’s the bond. I know it’s the bond.
The feeling in my chest isn’t a tug any longer. It’s a riptide, and I’m losing ground. I stagger forward a step. “What are you doing here?”
“I…couldn’t stay away.” He sounds like he’s speaking through gritted teeth. “I tried.”
My body takes me another step closer to him. It’s like something else resides within my skin. A force I can’t fight; I don’t even know how to try. I grab the footboard of the bed. “Leave. I don’t…” The surge in my chest gets stronger. “I can’t control this.”