AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m surprised that Knox or one of the sentinels didn’t interfere.” This didn’t seem like something that they would overlook, given how protective they were of her.
“I made them promise not to step in, just as I’m sure you wouldn’t have wanted anyone to interfere in your business with Khloë.”
Touché.
“But I could see that they were close to breaking their promise. Then I overheard a damning phone call.” She absently rubbed at her thighs, her expression pinched. “Holt was talking to his Prime, telling him that he needed a little more time; that he would lure me to their lair and turn my loyalties. They wanted to ferret out all Knox’s secrets.”
Teague felt his jaw drop. “Son of a bitch. He planned to use you like that?” It was goddamn reflexive for a demon to prioritize their psi-mate. The mere idea of exploiting or fucking Larkin over should have gone against everything in Holt. “What did you do?”
“I confronted him. He swore he’d only said that stuff to his Prime to shut the guy up. As if that would have made it any better, considering it would have indicated that he didn’t care enough about me to speak up.” She gave a slow, disbelieving shake of the head. “I didn’t believe his excuse. We argued. Big time. He then said I shouldn’t have a problem revealing Knox’s secrets anyway, because my loyalty should be to Holt and only Holt.”
Teague felt his brows fly up. “This is coming from a guy who didn’t display one ounce of loyalty toward you? Jesus, he’s one hypocritical motherfucker.” Teague could honestly snap his neck and think nothing of it.
“I threw that very fact in his face. The argument got so heated that I walked away, saying we could talk the following day when we’d both calmed down. But when I went to his hotel room the next morning, I discovered that he’d checked out and gone home.” A sour, humorless smile plucked at her mouth. “No warning, no note, no goodbye text, nothing.”
“You are fucking kidding me,” Teague breathed.
“Nope. I think he thought I’d chase after him.”
Teague felt his face scrunch up. “Why would he think you’d even want to pursue him? He’d essentially turned his back on you.” Demons didn’t do that to their anchors. Ever. They were there for each other through thick and thin, no matter the situation. If there was a problem, they hashed it out and resolved it. They didn’t desert each other.
“But in his mind, he wasn’t the one being unreasonable. No, by insisting on a compromise, I was being selfish and unfair.”
The male was ungoddamnbelievable. “No wonder your demon despises him.”
“I used to loathe him just as much. I let the emotion go, refusing to cling to it, but I don’t want anything to do with him. Neither does my demon. We never will.”
“No one in their right mind would. It’s bad enough that he behaved the way he did. But for him to have just waltzed out of your life without a word as if you mean nothing, and then for him to later stroll back into it like he has every right . . . You deserve better in an anchor, Lark.”
“I do. I’m hoping he heads home without pushing this.”
“Do you think he will?”
“It’s possible. He walked away easily enough the first time.”
Well, consider Teague fully invested in making the Prime so jealous he couldn’t breathe with it. And if Holt reacted by trying to harm Larkin, Teague would help both her and her demon make him suffer.
Teague curled his arm around her shoulders and tugged her close.
She tensed. “I don’t—”
“Shut up. I’m comforting my girlfriend.”
“I’m not really your girlfriend.”
“Semantics.”
Larkin thought about pushing away from him. But . . . she didn’t want to. She instead found herself resting her head on his shoulder. Odd though it was, given his habit of testing her sanity, he was easy to be around.
Maybe it was because there were no mind games with him, no need to read between the lines, no façade to have to see past. That stuff could be tiring, not to mention irritating.
Teague had his secrets, but he didn’t present a false face to the world. What you saw was what you got.
He was so much the opposite of Holt. Direct. Frank. Trustworthy. Respected people’s loyalty to others. Didn’t have unfair expectations of people.
In that sense, Teague made a person feel that they didn’t need to have their guard up all the time. That they could relax. That, though he might push their buttons for fun, they were emotionally safe with him because he’d never deliberately hurt them.
Maybe that was why it had been so easy for her to tell him everything. Larkin was self-contained a lot of the time. Private things didn’t merely spill out of her—she tended to hold back with others. Revealing too much made her feel exposed.
