Lilia’s POV
The door of the private room closed behind us.
I could feel Kael’s gaze move across the gash I’d left on the bald man’s face,and then settle on me.
I got to my feet and walked to him through the cluster of stiff-faced men, obedient.
I understood the arithmetic perfectly: compared with a pot-bellied drunk reeking of liquor, sitting closer to Kael was, for the moment at least, the safer bet.
I sat down at Kael’s side and rushed into my explanation.
“Kael, I didn’t know you were here. I honestly didn’t break in on purpose,it was him!” I pointed at Alex.
“He tried to touch me, he said he was going to…”
I crossed my arms over my chest and watched his face.
He stayed calm enough, lifting his glass and taking a slow sip.
“Marcus. Derek. Let him go. As for you,” His eyes came back to me.
“What would you like me to do?”
Alex jumped in before I could answer.
“Listen, you omega, my noticing you at all is a compliment, and you dare–”
Before he could finish, Marcus smiled at him.
“Alex. Do the terms we settled with your Alpha still stand, or not? I’d count my words carefully.”
Alex clenched his jaw and shut his mouth, though the malice in his eyes only sharpened.
I began to understand the shape of it.
Last night, Dax had his ear cut off on Kael’s order.
Their Alpha hadn’t gone to war over it,he’d sent Alex crawling here to apologize.
Alex every trace of his earlier servility vanished.
His tone turned openly impatient.
“I’ve taken a liking to this Omega, Kael. One word. Are you giving her to me or not?”
My stomach dropped.
I knew perfectly well that wanting me had nothing to do with it,he was hunting for his lost face.
He clearly wasn’t genuinely afraid of Kael.
I wasn’t delusional enough to think my weight in Kael’s eyes exceeded an entire negotiation.
Worse, I knew his secret,the executions.
This was a perfect opening.
He could dispose of the only witness, quietly, under the banner of “settling the incident.”
The more I thought, the more my hands shook.
Before I knew it I’d grabbed Kael’s solid forearm, shrinking toward him without meaning to.
I felt his eyes slide sideways to me, as if he’d spotted something amusing.
The next second his hand turned, closed around my wrist, and yanked me into his arms.
“Mm!”
I had no warning.
My face landed square against his chest,burning hot, hard as a wall.
The drink had loosened him; most of his shirt buttons were already undone, and my mouth, in the collision, pressed directly onto the hard lines of his chest, leaving behind a bright red print.
That fierce, possessive scent of his rolled over me all at once.
I tried to push myself upright, and his hand came up behind my head and pressed me right back down.
I froze in his arms, at a complete loss.
I could feel him lift his eyes to Alex.
The cold in that look was undisguised.
“You think you qualify?”
”Our sincerity, Alpha Kael, you’ve already seen.” Alex pressed his tongue against his teeth.
“But you’ve offered nothing in return.
Cooperation means mutual profit.
All I asked for is one Omega for a single night.
Don’t tell me you can’t bear to part with her.”
”Correct.”
I heard Kael laugh once.
He set his glass down on the table with a soft clink.
“I can’t bear to part with her.”
The words were mild, but the pressure of an Alpha rolled out beneath them, a net thrown over the entire room.
The air drew tight around us; one spark and the whole thing would go up.
An electronic trill,Alex’s phone. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
It cut through the suffocating standoff.
He glanced at the screen and answered, voice pitched low.
“Alpha Callum.”
Whatever came through the speaker, his face darkened further, until at last the words squeezed out from between his teeth.
“Understood. I understand. Rest assured.”
He hung up, waved his men back a step, then came forward, bent, and poured wine for Kael and himself.
He offered Kael’s glass up with both hands.
Kael gave him nothing,didn’t take it, didn’t speak.
Alex set the glass down, awkward, and forced out a smile.
“I was out of line, Kael.I apologize to you..”
He turned to leave.
“Stop.”
His man’s hand had just touched the door handle when Kael’s voice drifted out, lazy.
I followed Kael’s line of sight.
He was staring at Alex’s right hand,the hand that had lifted me off the floor and slammed me down,and his tone was as flat as if he were noting the weather.
“You can go.
The hand stays.”
”What is that supposed to mean?!”
Alex’s temper finally blew.
He spun around, finger jabbing at Kael, shouting.
“Who the hell do you think you are? This isn’t even your territory, I,”
A black blur crossed the room, too fast to follow.
Marcus and Derek were on him before the words finished, wrenching his right wrist up between them.
I flinched back instinctively and watched, unable to look away, as the flesh of Alex’s wrist split open under their claws.
Blood sheeted out, soaking his sleeve and dripping off his fingers.
The pain twisted his whole face into something hardly human; he staggered and would have fallen if the men behind him hadn’t caught him under the arms.
The thick smell of blood spread through the room, his ragged breathing, the broken thread of his screams.