Her breath came faster. She wet her lips and I realized she was aroused. She was responding to my primal need to kill anyone who laid a finger on her.
“Alexander,” she whispered, desire filling those beautiful eyes.
“Did he hurt you as badly as he did Mr. Poet?”
“Who?”
“The man who worked with you.”
“Raz. I don’t know, but probably not. Granny always supervised my punishments so I could heal within a couple days. I heard that Alexander hadn’t been supervised for Raz’s latest punishment.”
Her words died away, still watching me, no doubt seeing my struggle for control.
“He’ll die for what he did,” I ground out. “I’ll ensure it. And someday you can explain to me how you think it is okay to punish people for wanting free will. How you turned a blind eye to villagers not being allowed to leave because of a dangerous profession they were forced to take part in. How you’re so fucking naive that you think it’s okay for Granny to cage a village of people under the threat of pain using rules they were tricked into agreeing to. But that can wait. Right now, you need to get your fucking ass up and get dressed. We need to get underway.”
“First of all—” she started, her eyes dipping to the clothes that currently lay on her lap. “Wait, these are mine.”
“Well now, it seems youdohave powers of observation. I guess you just didn’t care what you and Granny were doing to your village. The dragons won’t spare you long.”
Her glare was now accusatory, holding up the garments. “Stop saying that. You’re twisting things.” She shook the clothes. “I mean that these were pulled from my cottage.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “They’ll fit you. You’re welcome.”
“You looked through my things?”
“Yes. I look forward to reading your journals.”
Her face paled. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Why? Afraid I’ll have proof of your lies?”
“I’m not lying,” she ground out, getting off the bed. The sheet pulled away and I refused to let my gaze wander from her eyes. “I have personal stuff in those journals. Private stuff.”
“You also have work stuff. Recipes. Procedures. I can only assume you’ll have organizational notes, people visiting the village you’ve talked to, things Granny said?—”
“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
“I don’t believe you. Get dressed. I’m leaving for a moment. If you run, you will be caught immediately. You’ll ride with Hadriel today. I don’t need you well, I need you barely alive. You’d be wise to remember that. I can make Alexander look like a puppy.”
She stood mute and rigid, a kindling of fear in her eyes. My gut pinched and I turned away. I hated even bluffing about hurting her. I hated the situation she continued to put me in. I hated her for making this all so fucking miserable. For makingmeso fucking miserable.
Today I’d stick her with a babysitter so that I could skim those journals and see if the packaging and organizational information was easy to come by. If it was—and I hoped to fuck that it was—I could stick her on a cart and ignore she even existed. If I kept her at an arm’s length, it wouldn’t be so easy to be affected by her.
If not . . .
I gritted my teeth.
If not, I’d need that truth elixir to pry the answers out of her. One way or another I would shed light on the entirety of Granny’s organization, including the parts we hadn’t yet uncovered. We needed to make sure, with one-hundred percent accuracy, that Aurelia was the only creator. It would also be nice to bring in any other co-conspirators to stand in judgment with her.
I would do as I’d promised and bring this drug-running operation to its fucking knees. The woman, my true mate or not, would not stand in my way. I wouldn’t, under any circumstances, lose my control around her again.
Chapter 12
Aurelia
“Knock, knock,” I heard at the closed tent flap. It sounded like the man from last night. Hadriel.
I remained silent, sitting in the lone chair in the tent where the table had been. The alpha must’ve cleared everything else away this morning while I was still asleep, drugged out on bliss and frustratingly, deliciously sated.
