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The shifter female draws in a deep breath and screams.
The sound breaks the small eternity of stunned silence in the room and my father shoves her off his lap. She must already be weak, because she unceremoniously thumps to the ground. He shreds the bottom half of his shirt and wraps it around his wound.
“Son,” he says fondly as if I hadn’t just removed his hand, “it’s been too long.”
Royce chuckles from his place by the window. He’s leaning against it with his arms crossed as he basks in the blood and violence. Kor is watching us over his steepled fingers, but I sense the tension in his body as if he’s ready to act.
Royce starts to laugh in earnest. He would have made a good vampire. He’s just like the rest of them amused by gore and cruelty.
He slowly claps as he pushes away from the window. “If that’s how your family greets you, Zane, I don’t want to meet your mate.”
I have a feeling that Royce knows my father’s mate is dead. The way Zane goes still pleases me more than my action of dismembering him.
The hand will grow back, but his pride? That’s something that’ll take longer to regenerate.
As if my father has been reminded I’m the reason he no longer has a mate, his smirk dies before floundering into a scowl. He’s turned his back on Royce and now approaches me until we’re nose to nose.
He looks even younger than I do, with blond hair, blue eyes, and a lean frame. He’s taller than me by a few inches and he’s maintained the intimidating sense of power I always feared growing up.
I feel like a teenager again when he lightly slaps me on my cheek with his remaining hand. “Jasper, my boy. Now that that’s out of your system, let’s celebrate our reunion, hmm?” He gestures to the whimpering female behind him. “I know you’re spoiled by the life of a mercenary in Lapland, but here, fresh shifter blood is a rarity. It would be disrespectful to waste my gift.”
I have no intention of sampling hisgift.
A creak sounds as Kor stands from his chair. He calmly walks over to the weak female and places a hand on her head. She shrinks into herself at his touch, but she seems to fear him less than the other two men in the room.
Wise girl. “Jasper isn’t familiar with our ways, Zane,” Kor says. “May I suggest she stays here and I’ll warm Jasper up to the idea?”
I raise a brow, but I have learned Kor’s tic by now that shows when he’s lying.
His tic is that he has none at all. He’s completely calm and believable.
My father barks a laugh. “Fine. Brotherly bonding, is it? Can’t say I understand. I never had a brother.” He snaps his fingers. “She’s yours.”
Kor nods. “I’ll restrain her in Jasper’s bedroom.” He glances at my father. “Be good while I’m gone. I’ll be right back.”
With that, Kor drags the crying female away. My father chuckles as if her terror greatly amuses him.
He’ll restrain her, and probably scare the poor girl to death, but he won’t touch her. I imagine he knows how to help her escape, but he has a part to play while we still have an audience.
I remain silent when I’m left alone with Royce and Zane, two males I very much want to behead.
My fingers tighten around the hilt of my blade as the girl’s screams heighten, and then are muffled.
“Relax, boy,” my father says as he taps my cheek again, then finally backs off. He goes to Zy’s bar and pours himself a drink. “You can fuck out your anger on my gift when we’re done here. For now, Kornelius is right. We have business to attend to.”
I came here to support Kor against our father and Royce. It felt wrong to leave him alone, especially when I made the decision to trust Zyran to protect Issy.
A warmth flutters inside of me wondering what she might be doing right now. Would she give in to the fate bond with my brother?
I’m not sure how I feel about that.
With my father leering down at me, all I want is to wrap Ishara in protection, no matter what form that takes. Zyran is a powerful vampire, and one that would protect her with his life.
Ifeltthat from him. He had told the truth when he’d talked about waiting for his fated mate. Sure, he’d been a playboy like Issy said, but that didn’t mean much to him. It was all practice in his head.
And now he wants to share all he learned with his new mate. He wants to introduce her to all the pleasure he can offer, and for that, I’m happy. I don’t know the full extent of Issy’s past, but from what little I heard, it had been a dark one.
She deserves everything.
