The beast inside me was close to rising, and I breathed through my nose, trying to calm myself a little. The beast would scare Avie, but I didn’t release my grip.
“Over my fucking dead body will she be going anywhere with you.” I dropped my face closer so he could see the unhinged creature in my eyes. “She is my Soul Tie, and she’ll never, ever be your girlfriend.”
The silence pulsed around the room, just heavy breathing and low growls from my hounds. Lierick blinked up at me, and while he didn’t look scared, I could smell the undertone of fear coming from him.
He cleared his throat lightly. “Is this the part where we kiss?”
I pulled back a little, but didn’t let him go. “What?”
Lierick gave me a crooked grin. “Well, you’re straddling me, and your face is really close to mine. I thought we were about to have an enemies-to-lovers moment. You know, like in romance books?”
Blinking, I looked down at myself. I was straddling his hips, and I mean, if you ignored my hands around his throat, I was pretty sure I’d had Avie in the exact same position last night. I flexed my hands around his neck, and his eyebrows rose.
He grinned wider. “Jokes on you. I’m into this.”
I let go of his throat, like it was on fire. I stared down at him, then looked over at Vox and Avie. Vox was still staring daggers at Lierick, but Avie was watching us with an expression that was both amused, and also like she wanted to jump aboard this shitshow and take it for a ride.
I glared down at him once more before climbing back to my feet. Walking back to my Soul Tie, I bundled her into my arms and kissed her. It wasn’t soft or gentle. It was a claiming kiss. I kissed her like I needed to breathe through her. Lifting her, I groaned when she wrapped her legs around my waist and chased my lips with her own.
Her hands gripped the lengths of my hair and held them tight, and I hissed into her mouth, plunging my tongue between her teeth to twist with hers. She moaned, making my lips curlup with satisfaction. I would forsake all my responsibilities, if I could just stay in bed and make her moan like that for the rest of my days.
I walked her back toward a wall, ready to take this to the next level, when Vox cleared his throat. “Later, you two. We still have an audience.”
Lierick’s voice was like cold water on my libido. “Don’t stop on my account. I’ll enjoy the show.”
The growl rumbled up my throat again, and Avie’s hands scraped through my hair soothingly. “It’s okay. I’m yours. No one can ever take me from you.”
“They could try, but it’d be the last thing they ever did.” My tone was soft, but the words were for the two men behind me. I liked Vox—which still blew my mind a little—but if he ever tried to take Avie from me, I’d put him in the ground.
I was living up to the generalization the other Lines had about me and my people, that we were more mindless beasts then men, but I didn’t care.
With an enormous amount of willpower, I lowered Avie back to the ground and turned back to Lierick. “I will fucking end you.”
He smirked, cocking a haughty blond brow. “You could try.”
Avie’s hand on my arm stopped me from launching at him again. “Stop needling him,” she snapped at Lierick, who raised his hands placatingly, but I could still see the smug look on his face.
Vox huffed. “Agreed. Just know,” he said in a low, reasonable voice that spelled doom, “that if you make such a suggestion again, it won’t be just Hayle you have to worry about. I will fill your lungs with water as you sleep and throw you in the fucking Alutian Sea to feed the fish. Boellium will declare it a drowning and sweep it under the rug, so as not to anger my family. No onewill mourn you here. You can’t kill a man who doesn’t exist. Are we clear?”
Lierick rolled his eyes, and I really wanted to punch him in the face one more time. Maybe without the straddling.
“If you guys had let me finish before flying off the deep end, I was going to suggest that it be for public appearancesonly.I’d never suggest taking Avalon from you.” His tone did not match his words. The tone clearly said that if he thought she’d be open to the idea, he’d steal her tomorrow and take her to the far reaches of the country, away from us.
I wondered if I could get the hounds to take a few bites out of him.
Vox’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you need to talk to the Baron of the Eighth Line?”
Lierick licked his lower lip, sitting back down on the couch where I’d almost murdered him with my bare hands. I already regretted not doing it as he threaded his hands behind his head, like he was totally at ease. “I can’t set up a supply line without him. Others I can… encourage to look the other way, but almost all supplies will need to go through Eaglehoth, and through the woods around it, if we’re to keep it hidden from the First Line’s spies. It’s too many minds for me to influence, even with my impressive skills.”
Vox frowned. “So you’re going to waste your element of surprise on the Eighth Line?”
He shrugged. “Rumor would have it that he’s more sympathetic to our goals than loyal to the Baron of the First Line.” He looked between the three of us. “And theoretically, I wasted the element of surprise on you three.”
I raised an eyebrow, but couldn’t argue with him there. There had been a chance I could’ve sent Quarry flying to Hamor to inform my father the instant Lierick declared who he was.Vox could’ve informed the entire Dawn Army, who would have descended on Boemouthe like a plague of locusts.
“You need me, so don’t pretend like you did it out of the goodness of your own heart,” Avalon taunted, but a small smile curled her lips. “I don’t see why I can’t just travel with you to the Eaglehoth without pretending to be your girlfriend.”
He shrugged. “I need a reason for you to be there. It’s not like I can tell Zier Tarrin that there’s a prophecy you’ll change the face of Ebrus forever, and therefore have to travel with me because I don’t trust your safety to anyone else?—”
