“Exactlywhocalled you Anubis?”
He chuckled, forking another perfectly cut square of cooked meat into his mouth. “The humans who ruled the Nile. The Pharaoh's people. I went to your planet in search of what was left of my kin. I found them there… meddling.”
I covered my face with both hands, drawing in a deep, calming breath. It didn’t help much. I really couldn’t handle anymore fucking random ass revelations this year. It was all too much.
Aliens were real.
Jack was a fucking homicidal werewolf who is also an alien.
Aliens lived on Earth, who are also werewolves.
I missed my normal life sometimes. I really did. I was going to have to explain so much crap to my mother when I finally made it back to Earth. The lecture was going to be scathing. We Ramirez women were expert lecturers. My mother was going to start cussing in Spanish so fast I wouldn’t be able to keep up.
Dropping my hands from my face with a sharp exhale through my nose, I picked up my fork and knife in defeat and started eating. I almost screamed in pure frustrated rage the second the meat touched my tongue.
He’d cooked the meat just enough to warm it up for me. It was delicious.
Someone shoot me in the face and put me out of my misery.
Rathal sucked his teeth. “Too much?”
When I only stared at him in response, he tipped his chin with a shrug.
“Ah, well. I’m afraid there’s more, darling. You see, I have another goal. One I think you will have to agree to eventually.”
I sneered at him and took another bite, chewing exaggeratingly hard.
Rathal chuckled darkly. “Rage all you like but you will give in to me in the end.”
He picked up his glass goblet of black liquid, took a sip, and then swirled the drink around while he watched me eat.
“Marry me, Callisto Ramirez.”
I choked on my food, coughing and sputtering while he watched, his smile full of teeth.
I reached for my own goblet and took a desperate gulp of whatever the fuck was in it, not even tasting it as it went down.
“Over my dead fucking body you crazy sonofabitch,” I ground out, setting the glass down hard enough that the liquid sloshed over the sides.
His laughter just about sent me over the table, the knife for cutting my meat suddenly clutched in my fist without me remembering reaching for it.
“Oh, you will,” he purred, leaning forward, his eyes shining. “Because, if you want to get back to your little war and help your friends, you’ll need my help. I’m in all their surveillance drones. I’m deep in their systems. I know their supply routes, their back channels in and out of their planets. All the holes in the defense shields. I’m a fucking pirate, darling. I know how to bring them down.”
I sneered at him and pointed the knife at his face. “We have Anu. She can do all that and more. I don’t need you.”
“You’d think that wouldn’t you? The all powerful Anu, here to save the day. But people will still die while she’s busy stretching herself thin. She is a power and her reach is vast, but she is still only one person. How many soldiers are you and your gaggle of riffraff willing to sacrifice to give her time? I could save you the trouble. A two pronged approach to cyber warfare is better than one, is it not?”
Anger locked my spine straight, my shoulders tight with the suppressed urge to stab him in the eye. “Fuck you.”
Rathal threw his head back and laughed deep from his belly. It left his thick throat exposed. He caught me mid lunge, his hand wrapping around mine holding the knife. We stared at each other while the steady drop of spilled wine filled the silence.
“Careful, my prize, you’ll cut yourself.”
I threw my weight forward with as much strength as I could muster. Rathal’s other hand clutched my shoulder and stopped me dead. No matter how hard I strained, his relaxed face never twitched. His eyes shone and his smile remained fixed. He didn’t even do me the service of shaking a little under my onslaught. Goddamned aliens.
“If you want in my lap, you need only ask. All these dramatics are unnecessary.”
He jerked me forward before my screech of rage could reach full volume, pulling me all the way onto his lap, and wrapping his arms around me tightly to bring my struggles to pissed off wiggling.
