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Moving my hair had exposed the cut of my bodice, a tasteful swell of exposed breast pale against the black material. Breasts that were not bound down tightly, but very much female andthere. It was there he leveled the full weight of his gaze, leaning closer, animal noises warning me to not so much as move.
Drinking me down, he took note of every sin.
I’d dared to appear as the woman I was before him, no uniform hiding my body. No tight bun securing my hair at my nape. Everything was in stark opposition to what was permitted.
Everything honest.
All of it forbidden.
The length of the skirt displayed strong, well-shaped legs. The shape of my waist highlighted where fabric nipped in. And my bare feet, dirty from a long run through city streets, were still dainty without boots to hide how I was formed.
When that weighty gaze came with all its judgment to rest on my pink-stained lips, I felt a powerful urge to wipe the lipstick off before he might have another reason to break my neck.
I could not be killed until I might advocate for my friend.
Fingers to my mouth, I smeared the pink wax, only to jump when he barked a savage, “Stop!”
Frozen, never having heard such a guttural tone, I could barely swallow.
“You’ve been keeping secrets, Cyderial!” the large stranger bellowed with laughter. “Oh, this is rich.”
The intruder was not addressed by my commanding officer, not until the man began to tease, “Two of her suitors, one ranked highly enough to access the list, are outside right now. The younger fellow is so smitten all he can do is keep asking for her name.”
The general’s eyes left me to cut a dangerous glance toward the loudmouthed giant.
I’d seen Cyderial angry over the years, but that whole-body vibration was new. A shaking rattle blending with the internal thump of his drum. A moment later, the wooden top of his desk snapped under his grip.
Wisely, I eased a step back.
The stranger stopped laughing long enough to rebuke his unwilling host. “You’re making her nervous.”
“Nervous? I should be putting her over my knee and beating some sense into her!”
The general was infamous for his cold-blooded composure. On rare occasion, he’d marginally raised his voice to me in the past, but I had never heard him rage. Not like this.
Never could I have imagined him capable of it.
Eyes wide, I took another step back, trying to find words. “I—"
The stranger stepped over my sorry attempt at speech as if anything I might say held no consequence. “Your little girl here had her talons at my carotid artery not an hour ago.” He lifted his chin to show the dried, crusted blood. “She drew blood. Swore she’d shred my throat to ribbons if I didn’t let my Maeve go.”
He’d had the nerve to say it as if the general should be impressed.
I was not about to allow the man who assaulted Maeve to spin the story in his favor. Turning on him, I snarled, “You had no right to touch her without permission! Maeve is not on the list!”
The amusement was back, darker in tone and full of malicious intent. With an audacious wink, the stranger said, “Do you really think one foolish miscreant can prevent a mate from taking what’s his?”
I could certainly try. He’d made her cry, now I was going to make him pay for it. “A man of honor would not behave the way you did. She’s terrified right now.”
That knocked the smirk right off his face. Hands in supplication before him, he said, “Maeve does not need to be frightened of me. Ever.”
Bullshit.
“Don’t say her name like you know her. My sister is special! She deserves to be treated with gentleness and respect.” Before the overly large one might interrupt me again, I turned my attention to the unmerciful general slowly distorting the shape of his cracking desk. “General Cyderial, everything was my fault. Maeve was only trying to stop me and would not have been there if—”
I had no idea hybrid males could sound like true vorec, but he hissed and drummed a pitch so awful I was very tempted to cover my ears. As he roared, wood splintered in his grip. The once beautiful piece of furniture snapped in half, and the general shoved the remaining bits out of his way, approaching at a measured, dangerous pace. “If you lie to me one more time….”
Petrified down to my bones, I only held my ground out of sheer inability to move, whispering, “She was only trying to help me.”
