“I can explain,” I muttered, attempting to divert the tension to myself and not the two shifters whose animals were prowling close to the surface.
“I can’t wait to hear this,” Dave drawled.
I needed to keep this to the bigger picture and not the fracturing of trust occurring. “We were attacked,” I started. Then I explained what had happened in the parking lot to a stunned and silent group of Serpents. “So you see, it was my only choice.”
“No,” Lucifer sighed. “It wasn’t.”
I opened my mouth to tell him about the hollowing out of the elementals and remind them about the harvested souls. A man I’d never seen before poofed into existence next to him andplaced a vaguely familiar scroll onto the table in front of the devil.
Lucifer frowned at me and then at the scroll. Wait. Was that my signature? I rose to my feet and squinted. “What is that?”
“The veil law that you signed during your first meeting.”
I scowled. There were a multitude of rules on that paper that I had broken. I folded my arms. “I already told you I’m out if I couldn’t tell my mate. You agreed.”
“We were coerced,” Lucifer snapped.
I snorted. “You couldn’t be coerced, Uncle. Those laws don’t apply to me, because while you are all Serpents, I’m the freaking apple. I don’t get the same choices as you, despite representing the free will you have tasked me with.”
The unfamiliar guy raised his silver eyes to me. “Huh. She has a point.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t encourage her,” Dave snapped.
“Why not?” Hudson growled. “You are an expert at bending loyalties when it suits you.”
“She needs to be bound until we figure out how much of a threat that is,” Dave said as he jerked his finger at the evidence of my crime still bleeding in the sky.
I grimaced. It looked bad. Wait, what? “Bound?” I snapped.
“You will do no such thing,” Sophia snarled. Oof, Aunt Sophia was in full Roberts mode. Everyone, take cover.
“It’s temporary,” Dave responded, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair. “And we aren’t even addressing the fact that she brought her mate into the sanctuary of the Serpents.”
A low growl rolled out of Hudson’s chest, deep and ancient, vibrating the ground beneath our feet. His body shifted subtly, power coiling, predator instincts rising to the surface.
I rubbed my temple. “I don’t have time for a time-out because of some perceived slight against me protecting theperson I love the most in this world by sneaking him into our secret meeting venue. Grow up. We have bigger problems—like my grandmother actively turning people into hollowed-out soldiers and harvesting souls.”
Dave opened his mouth. I shot him a warning look, but he ignored it. “Your problems start and end with the fuck-up you made,” Dave snapped. “And keeping you here until you get some perspective seems like the appropriate action.”
“Control,” I corrected. “You want to control me.” Just like everyone else did. It was the wrong thing to say when my agitated mate sat at my side seething at his best friend.
Hudson stood and flipped the table so high it spun in the air over Lucifer’s head. Harry was the only one who ducked. Ridiculous.
Dave, still in his seat, tilted his head. “You have a problem, Hudson? Because here, you are not my boss, my friend, or my Principal.”
“It’s clear I was never any of those things,” he growled. “But I will not tolerate talk of chaining my mate. You will have to go through me first.”
Sophia huffed as she collected her ball of wool and stuffed it up her sweater for safekeeping. Oh, that made so much sense.
Aira straightened her crimson dress. “Do we need to do this now? A shifter squabble is not an emergency, and I have guests.”
“Cora needs to remain here, whether by her own volition or ours,” Dave pushed.
You fucking idiot. Everyone else was trying to defuse the situation.
Hudson stepped fully in front of me, power rolling off him in feral waves. His stance was absolute, a line drawn without hesitation. “Try it.”
