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The woman’s gaze seemed to flicker with something other than disdain. Respect, perhaps? “You would risk your life for a demon hybrid you barely know?”
She would risk it for Alexei and the people he loved even if she wasn’t one of them. Because she loved him whether or not he could return her feelings. The realization staggered her, making her sway and speeding her pulse until it pounded like a drum in her ears, but she couldn’t show weakness in front of Yulia. No, she needed the woman’s helpnow.
“Will you help me or not?” she asked. “The locator spell contains a slow-acting poison.” The bad news that her brother’s girlfriend had shared over the phone. “If Kyle dies from the potion or the Order’s experiments, we lose our chance to save him.”Come on.
A horrible crash came from upstairs.
“Something tells me I will regret this,” Yulia said, opening the door to the SUV where Tai waited inside. “Get in.”
ChapterEighteen
Alexei wanted to strangle his best friend. From the moment he’d seen Eddie’s wings and fuckin’ tail wrapped around Joelle, he’d lost his eternal restraint on his control. Only having her there kept him from slipping the leash on his magic. He couldn’t hurt her, but he could for damn sure take out his rage on the man who’d made a move on his mate. He would show his traitorous guard and former friend just how big of a mistake the man had made for holding her the way Alexei wanted to.
The way he’d denied himself.
Had denied her.
Had denied them both.
No more. As soon as he conquered his anger by beating a lesson into Eddie blow by blow, he would hunt down Joelle and beg her to accept him as a mate. Or lock her up and seduce her until she did. Either way worked for him. She would belong to him no matter what it took.
“Why’d you go after her?” he asked, slamming Eddie into the wall.
“You disavowed her as a mate. She’s fair game.”
“The hell she is.”
“You don’t get to reject her and then keep others from claiming her.”
Visions of Joelle with Eddie—letting him taste her, screw her—flooded Alexei’s mind so that the torturous nightmares overtook him. Her giving someone else those little sighs and whimpers, showing another how she writhed as she came. They were all he could see, all he could hear. He shoved at the other man, pushing him through the wooden sparring dummies and into a block wall. “Never. Touch. Her.”
“I will if she agrees to become mine.” Eddie punched him in the face, the smack of skin on skin deafening before the ringing in his ears took over.
The copper tang of blood filled his mouth, coated his tongue. Rage rolled through him, igniting the blood in his veins. Letting his wings carry him backward to stop his fall, he went for Eddie’s throat. Now, the man couldn’t keep spewing blasphemies about wanting to claim Joelle for himself. Maybe strangling him until he begged for a breath would make him think the next time he wanted to talk about stealing his woman.
“She’s mine,” Alexei said. “If you ever forget that fact, I’ll finish this, friends or not.”
Eddie wrapped that deadly barbed tail of his around Alexei’s thighs and yanked—hard. There was a reason the man was his lieutenant, his right hand in every battle. Between the binding that knocked him off balance and the force of the pull, Alexei went to the ground in a devastating smash that broke the mats and sent flecks of foam and rubber flying.
“She belongs to no one,” Eddie told him.
Alexei heard the truth in the man’s words. He hadn’t claimed his mate as he should. No, he’d let feelings like fear and kindness get in the way of taking what the fates had given him. “But she will. We’re done here.” He got to his feet, wiped the dust off his dress slacks.
“Joelle’s—”
Cutting off Eddie’s words and allowing his true royal strength into the fight, he tossed the man across the room. “Iamyour prince. I own you. You’re mine to command. Best remember that.” He wiped the blood from his mouth, the red stark against his white dress shirt and gold cuff links. So much for the stain-proof accusations Joelle had made.
Where had she gone? He needed to find her, to explain what an idiot he’d been. She would be angry about his fight with Eddie when she’d told him to stop it. Dinner wouldn’t be enough of a grovel to make up for this level of broken trust and faith. Not after what she must’ve thought with Yulia’s comments upstairs. He would need to lavish her with new books, indulge her in whatever she wanted, and kiss her all the way into his bed so he could bring her to climax over and over until she forgave him, craved him, maybe even loved him back.
“My prince.” Roman, one of his most trusted officers, rushed into the room. He wouldn’t interrupt unless there was an emergency. “Kyle has gone to the Order.”
“What?” Alexei’s mind narrowed with the focus and precision of a general creating a battle strategy. “How do you know this?”
“They sent a lock of his mother’s hair, her earring, and part of her pinky finger with a painted nail.”
“Gods, the poor woman.” A widow of one of their noble followers. A human who should’ve been protected. The kingdom had failed her.Hehad failed her. “Kyle must have gone out of his mind.”
Eddie’s curse from beside him echoed his own thoughts. “What do we do?” his best friend asked, as if their fight hadn’t happened.
