AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But the people won’t see you as strong. They will see him as a blood traitor.”
“You looked into me. You know I’m not a vampire.” Vin forced the words out through his teeth, and the anger in them echoed around us.
“You’re close enough. To them, it won’t matter what you are.” Rafael matched his tone and inflection.
He was right, of course, but I wouldn’t be the one to tell him because it didn’t matter. It wouldn’t change my course. I stayed out of the conversation entirely, letting them work it out.
“Do you want him dead?”
“I would like to assume neither of us wants him dead.”
“They’ll kill him. They’ll wait until you’re gone for a few hours, and they will drag him out and gut him. They’ll spill his blood on the earth and won’t even give him the death rights. They will banish him to walk the lands and protect us from the afterlife for his grievances. You won’t be able to stop it.” As Raf spoke, his eyes changed to black, and his nails formed into claws. He’d always had a harder time holding his wolf back.
“Death? Seems excessive.” Vin’s attention dropped to the places my brother half changed to his animal.
I hoped he knew the severity of the line we’d crossed into.
“We may tolerate any sexuality anyone prefers, but if an alpha can’t or won’t produce heirs, then he is useless. He’s not strengthening us. He’s fucking us for the next generation.”
“Barbaric, but I guess I wouldn’t expect less from rules meant to help animals survive.” Vin backed off, taking a spot at my side, defusing some tensions.
Raf’s upper lip pulled, but he got his wolf under control. His eyes flicked between us. “These people are rooted in tradition. It’s the only thing that’s kept them alive. Made worse by what you are.”
My wolf prickled at his words, but the human side of my brain agreed with him.
“I have more control over what I am than he does and less control over what we are to one another.” Vin took my hand.
I couldn’t mask the smile at his gesture. We were in this together.
“So you’d rather lose him forever than let him fuck some female that doesn’t matter?”
Vin snarled, exposing his fangs. “No one is touching him again. I’ll kill them.”
“No, you’ll get himkilled.” Raf turned away from us.
“So be it,” I said in a tone ending the conversation. I wasn’t going to argue with my brother when I’d decided. “Decide which side you’ll stand with. If it brings my death, then it is what the fates have willed.”
TWENTY
VINKETTIN
Iwas still reeling from the direction Dominic had gone with his brother. When he’d said we needed to talk, I’d thought he meant about the trade in wolf blood, not the quickening.Things were about to get ugly, and I didn’t like the idea of getting between them in a fight, but no one, and I mean no one, got to lay a hand on my mate. Not even his brother.
“You need to reconsider. Think of what you are doing to our family. To the pack. You may very well start a civil fucking war, and the last thing we need while we are fighting a battle on two fronts is to create unrest at home.” Raf’s voice was barely more than a snarl.
They both were seconds away from shifting and tearing the house apart in their argument.
“You need to leave,” I said sternly, but without raising my voice.
My tone must have conveyed the seriousness I felt because both of them turned on me.
“What do you possibly think gives you the right to demand anything of me?” Raf took a step toward me, fingernails turning black as they half-shifted into claws.
If this bastard ruined my shirt, I would be quite unimpressed. I lifted my chin, keeping my expression lazy because I refused to give him even the slightest indication he got to me on any level. I’d never give any but Dominic the satisfaction of such a thing.
“I am his mate. Therefore, by your own doctrine, I am above you in rank, am I not?” I’d been holding onto the card since I’d begun my research into their ways. I knew I’d need it, eventually.
“You are not his mate by our fucking laws, and you know it.” Rafael grabbed the neck of my shirt, yanking to expose my throat to make his point.
