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“I told you!” Will burst out, appearing behind Maddox like the nosy little whelp he was. “Henry and Lorien. Lorien and Henry.”
“Quiet, boy.”
“He and I had a disagreement last night,” Henry explained. “I’ve checked the house for him. Can’t find him. I’m worried I’ve sent him off into some lair.”
“I wouldn’t worry about Lorien,” Maddox said.
“Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe you should. I think I scared him,” Henry added.
Maddox laughed. “I can assure you, you didn’t scare him. Lorien doesn’t scare. He gets angry. He schemes and he plots and he pouts, but he wouldn’t run scared.”
At that moment, Lorien walked in the door with a cut of meat under his arm. He tossed it on the kitchen counter. “Breakfast,” he said.
Maddox gave Henry a pointed look. Henry gave a shrug back.
“You okay?” Henry asked Lorien.
Lorien gave his usual smile. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be? Now, eat up, fresh human, yum yum.”
“Someone you killed?” Henry asked.
“Oh god, who cares,” Will sighed.
Henry glowered at Will. “I’ve tried to end your father for less. You turned him in for less. I care. We can’t kill people. It’s wrong. So wrong, someone carved it into a rock once.”
“I carved Ed loves butts into a rock once. Didn’t make it true.”
“It’s cruelty free,” Lorien said. “And it’s going to go to waste if you don’t eat up.”
“I’ll cook,” Maddox declared, ending discussion on the matter.
“About last night…” Henry got Lorien alone after Maddox and Will had gone out. Lorien was doing the dishes, his sleeves rolled up so they wouldn’t get sudsy and wet. Henry had watched him for a few minutes, drinking in the man’s elegance. There was something very special about Lorien. Something he regretted hurting.
“Oh, that was silly, wasn’t it?” Lorien gave a light, carefree laugh.
“No. It wasn’t silly. I think I hurt you.”
“Hardly.”
“Lorien…” Henry lowered his tone.
“Henry…” Lorien remained cool and collected, too impassive to be truly affected by anything Henry was saying. It was like trying to have a conversation with the emotional equivalent of a store mannequin.
“I know I scared you last night. I saw it in your eyes.”
“I am not afraid of you, wolf,” Lorien laughed as if the idea was so ludicrous he couldn’t take it.
Henry grabbed Lorien away from the sink, dragged him out of the kitchen, and slammed him back against the concrete wall, one powerful hand fisted in the front of Lorien’s shirt. “Don’t lie to me.”
Lorien’s green eyes glinted with hidden emotion. “Get your hands off me, wolf.”
“You can have my hands, or you can have my teeth.”
For a moment, there was a look of such pure violence in Lorien’s eyes Henry almost let him go, but it faded as quickly as it had come. There was a true monster inside this prince, one that kept itself very well hidden.
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” Henry insisted. “Something I want to know.”
“There’s really not.”
