The atmosphere around us goes arctic cold as each of the men stare at me.
“What do you mean, babe?” Camo asks, his voice showing his concern.
“Not your ‘babe,’” Thorin snaps.
“Shut it, you.” I elbow him.
“Delaney.” My name is a warning on his lips, but Thorin does not scare me, not in that way anyway.
Trying to inch away from the man holding me, he holds me firmly against him. It is nice to feel him there, but I know it is short-lived and like the sucker that I am, I take what he offers me.
“Like what Thorin did in front of me while at the club. Feeding and fucking club girls so I could see, so that he could hurt me.” My voice is barely a whisper once I am finished.
The men all swear, their anger evident in their tones. Thorin is vibrating with anger next to me. Tilting my head back to look up to him, I see he is watching Winger, and they seem to be having a silent conversation.
When none of the men speak for maybe a minute or two, they all just rage and plot in their heads, I know that I am ready to leave them to it.
“I am going home.” I sigh.
Thorin stills for a second. I expect him to speak, but he doesn’t, making me sigh. Stepping away from him, I collect my bag from Rush, who gives me a gentle smile, then he looks over my shoulder at Thorin before giving me his eyes again.
“I will follow you home.”
“Thanks, brother,” Winger calls as Rush helps me into my car. I ignore the growls coming from the stubborn vampire.
He hates the brothers helping me, yet he refuses to do it. He is fucking confusing as hell. I think the past few interactions I have had with him have made me more confused than in all the years I have known him.
I just want to go home and curl up in the comfort of my apartment, watch TV and eat ice cream while I read a book.
That is what I do after one more look at Thorin, who is watching me with a torn expression, which just adds to my confusion.
8
Thorin
It has been two days since Winger had the vision of Delaney being hurt.
When we got to the parking lot of the supermarket and I saw my woman on the ground, I almost lost my shit. My fangs dropped, ready to attack anyone who dared touch her.
Seeing her in pain, then her blood coating my fingertips, I fought everything in me to not taste her, because when I do, it will come from a place of pleasure and not hurt and fear.
My cock had jerked in my jeans, because being that close to her, and her blood smelling so sweet made me want to take her. I had to fight the urge to claim her in front of my brothers because I know my woman, and she would have cut my balls off for doing that in that moment.
The club and I have been hunting the vampires who hurt her and made threats against both her and me. Not only that, but it also seems that we have a rat in the club who is feeding information to the rogue vampires and helping them attack the club.
I think it is one of the club girls, so when this shit is over with, both Rush and I are going to go to work on them, finding out exactly who the hell turned their back on the club.
Winger sent me on a run with Camo, Cotton, and Halen to collect some two-thousand-year-old artifact from a goblin who’s hoarding powerful items that could cause a problem if all used at once. So we are going to go in and take some things that we know will do the club some good in the future.
The main thing we’re focused on locating is a locket that once belonged to a very powerful sorcerer back in the day; apparently some of her blood is locked inside. Also a bone from a cat that belonged to her and was used in the Salem Witch Trials.
The witches of Salem are a big deal, but most think they were just some unfortunate women and men who got caught up in men having some kind of religious power.
But they do not know the true depth of what happened here, back then— what was never discovered. You can be fucking sure that those women knew how to manipulate minds and get away with almost anything, while others were punished for simply knowing the truth.
“His cave is about five miles ahead. Are we riding right in, or walking?” Cotton comes through the coms.
“Walking. Maybe it will give Vin Diesel over here time to fucking cool off and clear his head.” He aims the dig at me, as I almost swiped him out thinking of Delaney.
