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“I would like to go home,” Meg stated plainly.
“Alas, that is the one thing I cannot give you. I assure you that you will be treated with the utmost respect while we await your husbands.” Roan took a long breath. “And after the inevitable happens, please know that I will personally ensure your safety. I believe my employer intends to leave you on your own, but I will not allow that to happen.”
“Inevitable?” Meg asked, glancing Dante’s way.
Dante shrugged. “When they execute Beck and Ci.”
Meg laughed, her chest bouncing a little with the effort. She had little tears dripping from the corners of her eyes. Dante had to admit, it was a little funny. Even if they’d brought a small army with them, he didn’t see how this Roan fellow was going to take down Beck Finn.
Dante knew something the rest of the world didn’t know yet. Beck and Cian had come into their powers several months ago. Beck Finn had been born the greatest warrior of his generation. Now he was also a storm lord. With the flick of his hand, he could call on the power of a hurricane. His cousin didn’t have perfect command over his powers yet, but Dante knew he could handle a band of mercenaries.
Meg bit her bottom lip and nodded. “I am very grateful to you, sir. I would rather not have to watch my beloved husbands being executed, if you don’t mind.”
Roan stared down at her and seemed to come to some decision. “I can see I’ve upset you. I apologize, but it is necessary. Trade must flow between our nations.”
His hand came out. It almost touched Meg’s hair.
“Hey,” Dante said. “Her husbands aren’t dead yet, Roan. You have no fucking right.”
The mercenary pulled his hand back immediately. His face was blankly polite. “Of course. I am terribly sorry.”
“Show me your fangs, asshole,” Dante said. He had a very nasty suspicion. If it was true, it might be very bad for Meg—and it might be a tool to use.
Roan growled a little, baring his teeth. It was just as Dante suspected. Roan’s fangs were curved and thin. Unlike a peasant’s, Roan’s fangs were meant to feed, but not kill. Those fangs told Dante everything.
“How the hell did a royal end up as a mercenary?”
Now those blank eyes went black and cold. “Even a royal can fall, Mr. Dellacourt. I believe you’re about to find that out for yourself. I will protect the consort. She is merely a pawn in this game. But you, I will allow my employer to slaughter as he sees fit. You’re everything that is wrong with our system.”
The mercenary got to one knee. He patted it, and Kaja walked obediently to him. His hands slipped into the wolf’s fur.
Now Dante really wanted to slit the fucker’s throat. Dante could see that even in wolf form, Kaja had a slight glow. In human form, she practically had a halo, but in wolf form it was slightly muted. Dante knew to look for it. He doubted that Roan would notice it. It was better that he didn’t. The vampire was obviously hungry for a consort.
The mercenary didn’t move his hands. “I’ll take care of this one, too, Mr. Dellacourt. I have a weakness for the beautiful creatures of this world.”
He stood and walked from the tent, Kaja following.
Though it made him crazy, Dante understood. Kaja could learn a lot in this form. She could figure out what they were planning. She could learn what weapons they had. She could get a lay of the land.
She could run away from him. She could decide that he wasn’t worth the trouble. She could decide that Roan would take better care of her.
Damn it, he wanted to kill that fucker.
“Dante.” Meg pulled him from his fantasy about taking the very fit Simon Roan apart with his bare hands. “What the hell is going on? Why is my captor being so very nice to me even as he talks about killing my husbands?”
“He’s a royal,” Dante replied. If Simon Roan got a look at Kaja in human form, he just might fall at her feet. “You haven’t spent a lot of time in vampire society. Royals treat consorts like they were made of gold.”
“You don’t.”
He shrugged. “Only with you, sweetheart. You’re like my sister now. I don’t treat my sister very well.”
It was true. Ever since the instant he’d seen Kaja, Meg had kind of faded to the background. She was where she should be, relegated to the role of a loved relative.
Kaja had followed Roan.
“She’s playing a game, Dante.” Meg was looking at him with sympathetic eyes.
Was he that transparent? “I know that.”
