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"I'd be a fool for not asking," the naked, fiery leader said, taking a step forward. I got the sense she was looking right at me, even if her eyes were concealed in flames. "There's absolutely no chance of you marrying my son?"
"Nope. Zero chance. High probability of my mates murdering him if you keep asking, though." I stroked Taj's chest, lingering a little too long this time. He snorted, completely onto me.
"What aboutme?"the leader blurted. "I'd be honoured to marry you."
"Ah. You're um—I don't—"
Joseph chuckled as I fumbled my words. I shot him a glare.
"You're very sweet," I told the fiery lady, "but I never really acquired a taste for pussy, you know?"
I'd never tried it, but I never felt the inclination. Shame; I had half a band of women in love with me right now. I could've had a harem of mates the size of a mini-army.
You've got five; don't get greedy,Dev chided.And mates don't work like that; the bond only snaps into place if the connection is there. Otherwise, every person you'd looked in the eye would be your mate.
I'd been wondering about that, actually.
"Anyway, gotta go!" I said quickly, heat crawling up my face as the woman kept her attention on me. "See you later!"
"We live to serve," she purred as we moved forward, the Umber folks falling over themselves to clear a space for us.
I didn't say anything until we were a good distance away, and then I looked at Joseph with wide eyes. "Am I losing my mind, or did they just volunteer to be our castle concubines?"
Taj snorted, his chest shaking. "Just this once, you're not losing your mind. Congrats, Lina. You're the queen of rebels, beasts, and whores."
As a rebel, beast, and whore myself, I was pretty damn happy with that.
* * *
I was right;I didn't need knives. I pointed that out to Taj, sticking my tongue out as we slammed the door to the pretty, palatial home behind us. The people inside were either cowering under tables, pissing themselves in corners, or bleeding on the ground.Job well done.
"Don't be so smug," Taj muttered, his hand flashing out to nip my side.
I shrieked, jumping away. "Joseph, he pinched me."
Joseph was too busy looking at the aggressively pink rug I'd rolled up and stashed under my arm. He hadn't told me why his fingers were sore; I hadn't listened when he told me to put the rug back where I found it. We were at an impasse.
And besides, the bastards in that pretty palace had abandoned my beautiful, kind, loving, perfect X. I'd owed them a visit for weeks—andI only punchedoneof them in the throat and broke another's face. I'd shown remarkable restraint and maturity. I was so proud of me.
And now those bastards rued the day they ever made X feel unworthy and unwanted.
"I still think we should have killed them," Taj commented, reaching out to snatch the rolled rug from me and resting it on his shoulder.
"If we kill them, X might get upset," Joseph pointed out, a furrow between his eyes. "He's been through enough."
"Yes, he has," I agreed fiercely. "Oh! Did we decide on a victim yet?"
We'd put our heads together to find a way to cheer X up when his trauma got really bad, and decided a joint-murder was the way to go. Ark and Dev were doing the planning, Taj and I would stalk them, X could do the painstaking process of making the wings, and Joseph would get to devour their soul—and provide moral support. Joseph was a total boss at moral support.
"I think we should narrow it down to two and let X decide," Joseph said, turning his dark face up to the sun. I hadn't seen the half-skull on his face since the day at the funfair, which I hoped was a sign he was calmer and happier. Could be just the sex ban messing with us, though.9
"I like it," Taj agreed, kicking a rock across the stupidly long gravel driveway where X's so-called family lived. Should we have thrown rocks through their windows? Damn, why didn’t I think of that before? I looked at the pink rug to soothe myself. Rolled out, it was a giant flamingo, and I loved it.
"I still think we should choose the lawyer," I muttered.
"Because he defended a man who ran over a hedgehog?" Joseph asked, linking his fingers with mine.
"Yes!" I exploded, clenching my fist in the air."Andhe made antisemitic comments on Twitter,andhe has three mistresses. If X doesn't kill him, I will."
