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“Loyal to a fucking fault,” Ajax rumbled.
Talon nodded in agreement.
They all said the same thing, and yet I couldn’t shake the oily feeling of distrust I had around him. Because he’s marrying your mate. Fine, maybe it was just jealousy. And maybe I wanted to chop off every part of his pedigreed little body that had touched Avianna.
Definitely jealousy.
“There’s one other thing,” Ransom said slowly, getting our attention. “This evening, as Olivia broke fast in the Domum, there were several aristocrats wearing a pin on their lapels or gowns.” His brow furrowed. “It was the Deveraux seal.”
“Fuck,” Lachlan muttered.
Loyalties were being decided, sides being taken in a conflict that was only rumored. How bad would it get if Avianna saved herself and backed out of the agreement?
“Honestly, I thought James was dead all these years,” Benedict chimed in. “Now he’s back from the dead for a few months and already undermining the court. Kind of wish he’d just stayed dead.”
“And his claim with him,” Ransom agreed.
Alek clenched his jaw. “But he didn’t. This match between Samuel and Avi is…”
Wrong. Disastrous. Heinous.
“It’s not what I wanted for her, and it’s nothing I would have forced her into. Not even hundreds of years ago. But I have to admire her bravery.” His fists clenched on top of the table. “And I have to respect her choice.” He glanced around the room, his eyes landing on me. “We all do.”
Avi and I would have to reject the bond. It was the only way either of us could remain sane while she married another.
The talk turned to ferreting out the Sons’ new headquarters. The vampire slayers had been on the move, always just ahead of us, and our civilians were paying the price. I’d hoped the meeting would end with an assignment, an assassination meted out by Conclave, or any excuse to use my blade for the good of our species, but I was the only one not given a task for the evening.
Because I was already assigned to Avianna.
We filed out of the war room, each heading off toward our missions.
“I think I need to feed before I head out,” Ajax said, scratching his beard as we made it to the living room of the royal residence. “Feel like joining me, Hawke? Looks like you’ve taken to feeding again, thank God.”
The taste of Avi’s blood filled my memory, and my fangs descended. But something else happened, too, making me pause. I’d always been able to sense Avianna as long as she was within a hundred yards or so, so the fact that I knew she was upstairs in her room wasn’t a shocker. But now there was a…thread tugging at me, golden and shimmering in my mind, stretching across the space between us. Connecting us.
Taste her. Claim her.
I’d managed to suck down an entire bag of O neg yesterday—mostly thanks to the blood Avi had given me days ago. At least that’s what I thought. I wasn’t exactly sure what the mating bond rules were after you’d fed from your mate, and I wasn’t fucking asking Ajax.
But I craved the taste of her. Longing and sharp, slicing need cut through my resolve and concentration. Maybe Samuel would be the first male between her thighs—my hands curled into fists at the thought—but I’d been the first at her throat. I wanted that again.
“You know, I think I will feed.” I shot Ajax a grin that made him blink, and then I wended straight upstairs so no one could follow me.
I knocked on her door and waited.
She appeared, a small look of surprise on her elfin face as she knotted the silk tie of her dressing robe around her. Even now, in the privacy of her bedroom, she wore those gloves.
“Why so surprised to see me?” Damn, just the scent of her had my mouth watering.
“Maybe because you’ve avoided me like the plague for the last few days?” She tilted that stubborn chin of hers and stared me down. I fucking loved that about her. The rest of the females—hell, the world, might have shied away from me, not Avi. She knew exactly how fucked up I was, and instead of running from the darkness of my soul, she called to it, soothed it.
“I’ve been outside your room or in your line of sight for every waking hour.” Pretty sure I’d worn holes in the carpet from pacing outside her bedroom door, where she continued to lock herself away with scrolls upon scrolls.
“You know exactly what I mean.” She folded her arms under her breasts, making them rise against the neckline of her robe.
Air left my lungs at the sight of those perfect globes. Get some control, you’re not starving anymore. No, but I was still hungry, and only for Avianna. Need shot down my spine, my cock hardening. My entire body was on board with the whole claim her, taste her routine that my instincts wouldn’t stop clamoring about.
