Snarls swiftly followed.
Then liquid suddenly splattered across my face, making me gasp.
Warm. Wet. Sticky.
Blood, I recognized.Oh, God…
The world spun as someone—Cam—grabbed me by the waist and phased me elsewhere in the room.
Stay down,he demanded, releasing me.
I almost protested, mostly out of confusion, but something crashed over my head in the next instant, forcing me to remain.
Trembles traversed my spine as angry noises filled the room, words spewing in foreign tongues, accusations seeming to fly, and a very pissed-off Cane bellowing, “Quiet!”
“No,” someone replied. “I’m fucking done beingquiet.” A low, rumbling sound caressed those words, betraying the identity to my senses.Lycan.
Jenkins,Cam confirmed.
Jenkins howled,I reiterated, the reality of that statement sending ice down my spine.He just told all the lycans where we are in the compound.
“You’ve spent twelve decades leashing and controlling my kind,” he grated out. “Your reign ends today, Cane.”
My lips parted.Jenkins isn’t Team Cane.
No. It seems he’s Team Lycan,Cam replied.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” Cane demanded. “I’ve given you everything you’ve asked for, and you dare attack a royal? A fellow leader?”
Ayaz,I heard in Cam’s mind. That’d been the source of blood splatter.
“I granted you every privilege,” Cane went on. “Andthisis how you thank me?”
“Ipaidfor your version of a privilege by giving you members of my pack. What did these royals do to earn theirprivileges?” Jenkins demanded.
“They’ve supported my rule. Upheld the Blood Alliance. Kept my secrets.” Cane’s exasperation was a stifling presence in the room, one that seemed to create an undercurrent of palpable tension.
“As did I,” Jenkins returned. “Yet I also had to give up lycan lives. Watch you belittle them. Listen as you referred to my species asmutts.”
“We all make sacrifices for greatness,” Cane told him.
“You mean lycans make sacrifices for vampire greatness,” Jenkins countered.
“So you make a point by throwing a tantrum and attacking a royal?” Cane demanded.
“No,” Jenkins replied. “I’m going to make a point by killing one.”
A crack disturbed the air, the abrupt sound followed by a loud thud.
Cam’s mind told me what he’d just seen, yet I could barely believe it. Primarily because it was too insane to even imagine.
Thecrackhad been Robyn’s neck.
Thethudhad been her head falling to the floor.
The lycan had just ripped her apart in a blink, his claws easily slicing through her skin, and his strengthsnappingher bones as though they were brittle shards.
“And I’m about to kill another one,” Jenkins growled.
