“I called him a monster,” I tell him. “But he wanted you to see me like this. He wanted to enrage you, to make you feel helpless.”
“He succeeded,” Simon mutters, gently rubbing a healing salve into the scratched skin around my throat.
“What do either of you—or the resistance—know about Baphomet’s Prince?”
Simon quirks an eyebrow. “Nothing.”
Cassian shakes his head. “I haven’t heard of him. Why?”
“Rad believes his rightful place is at the Baphomet’s Prince’s side.”
“I’ll ask Detective Inspector Miller tonight,” Cassian tells me, hugging me closer. Saints, he’s so warm and powerful, so strong and solid. I shouldn’t feel safe after my lunch with Rad, and yet, in Cassian’s arms, I do.
I hear the garage door open on the floor below and then footsteps thundering up the stairs. “Where is she?” Ian demands, skidding into the living room.
He takes me, his chest heaving. His blue eyes are wild, glittering with violence. “You’re safe?”
“Rad slapped her,” Simon says carefully, stepping out of the way so Ian can see what remains of the mark after his careful attention.
Ian’s growl fills the room, and he shuts his eyes tightly. He balls his hands into fists, and I can see the fight that rages inside him. He wants to hurt and punish Rad. Just as Rad hurt and punished me. I reach for him, and he comes, dropping to his knees in front of me, taking my hands in his.
“What made you go?”
“I had no choice. Rad took advantage of my affinity and projected one of his thoughts at me. He would have killed one of the omega test subjects if I didn’t go with him.”
Cassian sets his chin on my shoulder, nuzzling my jaw and marking me with his scent. “Never again.”
“We have to kill the bastard,” Ian swears.
“We have tofindthe bastard,” Simon corrects him with a sigh as he collapses on the couch beside Cassian, curling into his alpha’s side.
“I could have done it today.”
“I nearly did,” Marcus mutters, taking the armchair across from us. “Juniper stopped me.”
“He has a new bodyguard, Blair. An affinitied omega who can blow things up with a thought. She’s the one that blew up that concrete block. All that was left was dust. Rad won’t hesitate to use her against you if you so much as approach him. He says she’s his insurance against you.”
“Every single one of us is willing to make that sacrifice for you,” Cassian murmurs, his lips brushing against my skin.
“We have to find another way. Even Rad knows how much losing one of you would destroy me. It’s one of his favorite threats.”
In halting words, I tell them about my time with Rad, how he staged the attack on campus to punish me, and how he’ll be visiting Rose Manor for Yule.
“You aren’t going home for Yule,” Ian states, staring me down as if expecting me to challenge him.
I do. “He threatened to tell my father about my involvement with the resistance if I don’t behave.” I don’t tell them that “behaving” involves leaving my bedroom door unlocked so Rad can defile and mate me. Not when they’re already this close to going into frenzy.
“We can protect you from your father,” Cassian says.
I hear the rumble of a motorcycle engine and then Luca’s footsteps on the stairs and brace myself for his fury. But it doesn’t come. He tosses the Baphomet mask he uses to spy on the Soldiers of Saint Aldous down onto the kitchen table and then slumps against it.
“We have a problem,” he says, running a tattooed hand through his long blond hair.
“A worse problem than Rad striking our omega?”
Luca jerks to attention. “He fucking what?”
Ian takes my chin in his hand and turns my face so Luca can see the small splotchy bruises along my cheekbone.
