“That’s an exaggeration,” I say.
“Nope,” he tells me. “Those men would murder anyone who looked at you the wrong way!”
Chapter Nine
Dray
We’re all waiting for our little mate when she returns from dinner with her friends.
“Everything okay?” Beaufort asks, his gaze sweeping up and down her form like he expects to find another wound from a lightning strike.
“Absolutely fine. We had a very nice dinner.”
Fly scoffs. “If you like soggy vegetables and overcooked meat.”
“Sounds delicious,” I say, grinning.
“Did the soldiers give you any trouble?” Thorne asks next.
“No, of course not.”
“No. But there was some trouble from the ex-boyfriend,” Fly chips in, eyes flicking to the Kitten who scowls at him with all her might.
“Ex-boyfriend?” Thorne says.
“Nothing happened,” Kitten mutters. “Nothing I couldn’t handle anyway.”
“Stanley,” Beaufort says, frowning. “The one that gave you the black eye?”
“It was nothing,” she repeats.
“Yeah. The one that gave her the black eye,” her friend continues. “The hot ex-boyfriend with a propensity for violence – particularly aimed at those weaker than him.”
“What happened?” I say, the wolf stirring inside me, my shadows darkening. “I’m going to go ahead and guess it wasn’t nothing.” Little Kitten glares at me. I ignore her, peering straight over her head to direct my next words at Fly instead. “What did that fucker do?”
“Threatened her.”
“Yeah,” Briony says. “He threatened me, and I threatened him right back – and gave him a taste of what I could do. He won’t be a problem anymore. So just leave it, okay? I don’t want anything more to do with Stanley. He’s not worth our time or our energy.”
I stare at her silently.
“Did you hear me?” she says. “Just leave it alone.”
“Can’t promise that,” I mutter.
“Well, I’m asking you to,” I say. “Promise you’ll leave him alone.”
The three of us look at her.
Finally, Thorne, the stupid fucker, says, “We promise.” I’m hoping he at least had the good sense to cross his damn fingers behind his back.
Little Kitten nods, kisses Fly on the cheek, and tells us she’s going to bed.
We wait until she’s disappeared up the staircase before we speak.
“Seems like I’m going to be giving our friend Stanley another visit,” I say. “Seems he didn’t get the message last time.”
I half expect Thorne to argue with me. After all, he just promised Briony we wouldn’t touch the dude. However, I can feel the anger brewing within Thorne’s magic, and I can see it in his dark eyes too.
