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Chapter Forty
“And if it is?” Terrence’slips peeled back from his lips. “What are you going to do, Prime? Slaughter me like the animal you are?”
Zee laughed.
Terrence whipped his head around to stare at her, indignation stamped across his features. “You think this is funny. You’re one of his whores—”
Niko backhanded him.
It was almost casual, the way he delivered the blow, but the strike carried enough force that it knocked Terrence to the ground, enough force that it bloodied him—likely splitting the man’s inner cheek against his teeth, leaving the metallic scent of fresh blood to stain the air as he forced himself back upright.
Niko, as a Prime, had deadly strength, could have broken Ball’s neck if he hadn’t held back.
The human knew it, too. It was obvious in the way he glared at Niko with hate-filled eyes. Ball started to push upright, blood and spit dribbling from the cut on his mouth. On his cheek, there was a hint of a bruise already forming.
Niko grabbed the front of the man’s shirt and hauled him upright.
“Insult my mate again and I’ll start breaking bones,” Niko said. “I’ll begin by shattering the smallest ones in your body, too, work my way up to your femur. I’ll grind it into dust.”
“Savages,” Ball said. He swiped at the bloody spit dripping out of his mouth. “Nothing but savages.”
“You’re the one hunting down people who’ve never harmed you,” Analise snarled. “You used bombs, killing innocent people while you went after the old Prime.”
Boone touched her arm and she lapsed into silence, although fire burned in her eyes.
“Ball doesn’t think our kind is worth honor,” Niko said in a mocking voice. “That’s why he used a bomb. That’s why he didn’t bother to ensure there would be no other casualties when he struck at my father’s convoy—why he didn’t look to see if there would be innocent people killed... like the human family in the vehicle next to my father’s, including a mother with a newborn baby.”
Terrence’s mouth twisted. “There are always casualties in war. If the courts find me guilty—”
“Courts?” Boone cut him off. “You aren’t going to face a court, Ball. You killed a Prime. Your blood belongs to his son.”
Terrence stiffened, his eyes sliding to Niko, then away. “No. Therians can’t kill humans. That was established in the treaties.”
“You didn’t read through the treaties well,” Niko said, hunkering down in front of the man. “You must have stopped right at that part, because there are always exceptions to every rule. You all but admitted to planning and carrying out my father’s assassination. That’s an act of war under Therian law—and the Reformed Nations treaties acknowledged those laws. It’s the same as if one of us were to take out a human leader—we’d be subject to the human authorities. And you were stupid enough, arrogant enough to admit it before witnesses. You don’t get to go to court, Terrence. If I take you in, you’ll be slaughtered on sight to make amends for the lives you took, slaughtered by the law-keepers of the U.R.N. Or... I can do it myself.” Niko’s lips peeled back from his teeth in a mockery of a smile, his horrifying maw a nightmare even to other Therians. “What do you think my choice is?”
To his credit, Ball didn’t break, didn’t begin screaming with terror. He didn’t even let the fear he now felt to show. If it wasn’t for the change in his scent, Zee might have thought him to be unaffected.
Even when Niko rose and grabbed the human by the neck, hauling him up in a bruising grip, Ball glared at him in defiance.
Zee stepped forward and caught Niko’s free hand, the retractable claws extended to their full, deadly length. “Wait.”
Everybody stopped breathing. Even Niko was stunned as he turned his incredulous gaze on her.
“Why?” She didn’t shift her attention from Ball’s red face.
As he jerked at Niko’s restraining hand in an attempt to loosen that suffocating grip, he glared at Zee, dark eyes still full of an ugly, zealous hatred.
“He’s a hateful bigot who fears everything he doesn’t understand, Zee,” Niko said. “There is no why.”
“That’s not the question I’m asking. Let him breathe, Niko.” She didn’t look toward her lover, gaze locked on Ball’s face. She had her doubts about Niko’s reasoning—yes, this bastard was full of bate and bigotry, but his reasoning went deeper. Much, much deeper.
After several long, tension-filled seconds, Niko finally lowered Ball enough that the man’s toes find purchase on the loamy forest ground, easing the pressure on his throat. He squeezed once more, then shoved the stocky, muscular form of the human back against the tree. Hard.
With a growl, Niko spun away and began to pace back and forth, never straying far from where Zee stood.
Focusing on the human, she crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ll ask again. Why?”
“Why?” He gave her a smirk, eyes full of disdain. Then, eyes lighting with a delighted kind of menace, he sucked in a wet breath.
