Lord Cato sucked in a sharp breath, a delayed reaction to the swiftness of the blow. He jerked his arm down and quickly turned his back to us, his shoulders hunching forward, and his entire body shuddering.
He gasped. “Jesus Christ.”
“Quit being a pussy.” King Belshazzar tossed the rib up into the air and caught it. “You know I did it clean and fast.”
“Stop trying to earn brownie points with my daughter.” His body quaked fiercely as he applied pressure to the wound. “Could you, at least, make me a woman out of that damned rib?”
I let out a trembling breath. Bel had behaved.
My soul mate laughed outright. “I’m not that almighty. Close. But not quite there.”Yet… He left unsaid, but I still heard it.
Apparently, so did Lord Cato. “Take your ego and my rib and get out.” He paused. “And kindly escort the queen outside with you, too.”
His back was still to us.
He wanted his privacy to deal with the pain.
I swiftly shot up to my feet. I babbled, “You should be proud. I didn’t need the trash can.”
Lord Cato snorted, and, almost too quietly to hear, he muttered, “Good. Because I might.”
Silently, I placed the trash can on top of his desk for easier access. “Thank you for your sacrifice, Lord Cato.”
He grunted, no words. Hereallywanted us gone.
King Belshazzar used his free, clean hand to guide me from the room, his heated palm pressed possessively against the small of my back. He leaned down and kissed the top of my head, whispering, “It’ll start to heal soon, little one. He’s old and powerful.”
I calmed my breathing, stating a fact to still my mind, “Lord Cato has had worse in his long career. He’ll be fine.”
Together, we walked into the royal cavern room where the Breaker and the men were already congregating—all supplies seemed to be in place, except for one. But Joshua was supposed to bring that.
Belshazzar slapped the rib down onto Kimber’s open palm. “There’s your bone. Enjoy it. It was cut freshly just for you.”
“This is…wet!” Kimber gagged in her throat, even managing the god-awful noises to go with the opened mouth motion. “Howfresh is this?”
“About seven minutes ago,” I answered in a bored tone. “Respect that rib, or I’ll cut yours out.”
Her gaping mouth opened even wider. “Do I want to know whose rib this is?”
“Lord Cato’s.” King Belshazzar smiled sweetly, blood still painting his hand red. “Is there an issue with that, Kimber?”
The Breaker’s face paled even further.
My eyes narrowed on hers. If she even tried to protest…
“No, there is not.” Aiko slid beside us, carefully removing the rib from her grasping hand. He touched his forehead to hers in quiet affection. “I’ll go wash this off for you.” The vampire kissed the tip of her nose and then sauntered across the room to wash my father’s rib.
Not weird at all.
Just a typical day during a war.
