“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry everything’s so messed up.”
“Me too,” I said, my voice rough as hell.
Several more minutes of silence filled the space. “If I could go back and change what happened…”
“But you can’t.”
And I could never forgive her or Lucifer for it.
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
Lothar
* * *
Sera crowded Roxy, and I could tell Rox was struggling not to punch the bitch in the throat. Instead she calmly handed Sera back the phone.
“What did Zenon say?” Sera snapped.
“His brothers want to meet with you before they commit to this. He said you can bring your demons if it makes you feel safer, but nothing moves forward until this meeting.”
Sera’s eyes were filled with excitement. “We’ve got them, haven’t we?” she said to Beelzebub. “The knights will join us. With them and the hounds, we can’t lose this.”
“I’ll need to talk to my brothers as well,” I said. “I’ll have to explain the situation. They won’t just follow me blindly.” I rattled my chains. “But I won’t do it, if this”—I held up my bound wrists—“is what’s in store for us. If you treat us with respect, we will be loyal to you, but if I show up to speak with them chained and guarded, there’s no way they’ll agree.”
Her cool gaze slid over me. “You’ll need to prove yourself to me, Lothar, if you want those chains removed.” She walked closer, not stopping until the points of her nipples brushed my chest. I had to force myself not to shudder in revulsion. She grabbed my jaw. Roxy’s chains rattled on the other side of the room, her growl of outrage making my stomach clench. Was her reaction real or for Sera’s benefit? “Will you kiss me, Lothar, to seal our deal? Will you prove to me that I’m more important to you than your pathetic little mate?”
I curled my lip, giving her a cocky smile, when all I wanted to do was shove her away. If I didn’t do this, she would send me with a guard, or she’d keep me here chained up when I needed to warn my brothers, so I did the only thing I could, I slid my hand up her spine and gripped the back of her neck, and instead of snapping it, like I wanted to—because the bitch wouldn’t die that easily—I leaned in and kissed her, hard.
Everything in me violently recoiled, utterly repulsed, but when I released her, looking down at her flushed face and her now red, puffy lips, I smirked at her heavy, lust-filled eyes. “That proof enough for you?”
“For now.” She licked her lips. “You always did know how to kiss a girl,” she said huskily.
The way she said that made it sound like I’d kissed her before, and I’d sure as fuck remember that horror if it’d happened. Had she seen me with Roxy? That didn’t seem right either. The way she said it implied the past, a past that she was part of. “You think so?” I said, not sure what to say, and not wanting to question her directly and risk pissing her off when I thought I might finally be winning her over.
“Oh, I never forgot. Memories of you kept me going long into my imprisonment.”
Memories of me? What the fuck was she talking about? Roxy made a pained sound, and I turned to her. All color had drained from her face. She was gripping a chair beside her, as if she was struggling to keep her feet under her. I searched her face, the wild look in her eyes. Was the mating bond affecting her the same as it was me? She had to know that kiss was bullshit. That I’d fucking hated every second of it.
“Feels like history repeating itself, huh, Rox?” Sera said and laughed, a cold grating sound that made my skin crawl, like it had last night, that same feeling coiling in my gut, the sense of wrongness.
No, Roxy’s reaction wasn’t just about the kiss, it was something else. That same flash of memory that I couldn’t hold on to burst through my mind, and the hair on the back of my neck lifted.
Sera grabbed my jaw and forced me to look at her again. “If you disappoint me, if you betray me, I will slaughter your entire pack, but I’ll make them watch as I disembowel their mates and their children, and anyone else they love first,” Sera said. “I have shown you but a fraction of the power I possess, and I will unleash it upon you and yours without question, if you fail me.” She slid her hand down my chest. “You have one hour. If you’re not back by then, or if I get even a whiff of deceit, Roxy will be the first to go, and mark my words, she will die screaming. Understand?”
Somehow I contained the fury burning inside me. “I understand.”
She waved a hand, and the silver manacles around my wrists, and the collar buckled around my throat, fell away, freeing me. “If you succeed, Lothar, there will be a prominent place for you in my court. You will sit at my side and know riches and glory like you’ve never imagined. I will reward you beyond your wildest dreams.” She lifted to her toes and pressed her lips to mine, then dug her nails into my shoulders. “You have my sacred word.” She smiled. “Now go.”
I nodded and strode for the door.
“And, Lothar?” she called before I could walk out.
“Bring the alpha back with you. I’ll need to hear it from his own lips.”
