“Speak of her like that again and I slice your fucking tongue out,” I warn, just as mad at myself as I am at him right now.
“Who the fuck are you?” he grunts before spitting a glob of blood at my feet.
I grip his throat, leaning in close as I increase the pressure. “Your worst nightmare.” It’s a promise, a vow I wasn’t aware I wanted but fully intend to keep.
Rion is beside me a moment later, hand on my shoulder, and I take the hint, releasing the asshole as I step back, wiping a hand down my face in defeat.
I’ve fallen to pussy.
I play the game for me. I make moves to ensuremysurvival. No one else’s. Sometimes, not even my friends, but now? I’m delusional. With a new focus, I can feel my priorities shifting, and I can’t say I like it.
Rion takes my role in gripping Warren by the throat, but he has the pleasure of unleashing his claws and grazing them over his skin as he does more damage than I did. “Now, tell me how she got the scars on her back.” His bite knocks the wind from me as I blink at them.
Scars on her back? What the hell is he talking about? I rack my brain, recalling the two times I’ve been between that girl’s thighs.
The first time in the showers at The Sanctum… she kept her back to the wall the entire time before I crowded her space against it… fuck. Her taste lingers on my tongue at the memory. The second, we didn’t even bother to take our helmets off, let alone our clothes.
I’ve never seen her back. Not once. And now I need to see it more than I need the air I breathe.
Instinctively, I take a step toward the door, but a hand lands on my shoulder before I can make any progress. Thorne. He shakes his head.
“Not now.”
I want to push him off and make a run for it,but there’s a tiny part of me that knows he’s right. I don’t like it, but he is. My nostrils flare as I grunt and turn back to the commotion as Warren cackles.
“She got what she deserved.”
“Andwhatdid she deserve?” Surprisingly, Rion’s voice remains calm, almost subdued, but the tension rippling from him is ready to snap. I can sense it.
“To be reminded who is in charge,” Warren grunts, and Rion cocks his head.
“You?”
The motherfucker runs his tongue over his bloody lip with a gleeful smile. “Who else?”
“I’m going to make you pay for the pain you caused her,” Rion promises, releasing his hold as he rolls his shoulders.
“Do your worst. I’d do it all again. I had so much fun,” Warren goads, and I’m sure once upon a time that tactic might have worked for him, but he’s in a different world now. Not just the supernatural one, but ours.
A roar echoes around the room as Rion shifts in the blink of an eye, revealing his wolf a moment later. I watch with delight as Warren’s eyes widen in disbelief as he blinks at my friend before his scream ricochets off the walls around us.
I take a step back, just in time to avoid the sprayof blood, reveling in the pained cries that rip from Warren’s throat. Adrenaline rushes through me as I let my rage rise to the surface, ready to join my friend in eradicating this man, when shadows dance along the floor, making me pause.
Thorne never really gets involved, not like this. I don’t understand. Rion whimpers a moment later, blinded by Thorne’s magic. “Get out of here before you go too far and end the torture he deserves.”
My eyes widen in surprise as my rage dissolves and my thirst for blood grows muted. He’s serious. Usually, he’s eager to get it over with, but this feels different.
It’s her.
She’s got us all twisted around her finger. The way we’re all under her spell I could swear she’s a witch, but I know that’s not true. I’ve seen her in action. And felt it too.
To my utter disbelief, Rion rears back and snarls, low and promising, before racing for the door without a backward glance.
Running my tongue over my teeth, I watch as Thorne’s magic slowly retracts. “Are you going to heal him?”
“In a minute,” he murmurs, watching intensely as Warren writhes in pain.
“We’re fucked,” I breathe, and Thorne scoffs.
