“Is my mother fucking a Krave?” Gabriel asked her, keeping his voice terrifyingly low. Then, suddenly, his mood seemed to change. His eyes moved over her face. He pressed his body closer. His voice dropped until it was like a purr. “You can tell me. I’m to be your husband after all, my pretty little bride. We will have no secrets.”
A little shard of icy fear seemed to stab down her throat.
She tried to swallow, the sound audible between them.
“Tell me!” he snapped, a lock of his dark hair falling over his eyes as his sour breath drifted across her cheek. For someone so handsome, he hid his cruelty well. Just like her aunt.
Maybe they are perfect for each other, she couldn’t help but think.
“I told you,” she said, hating the way her voice trembled. “She just came to talk about the wedding. About—about the flowers! Which ones I preferred and—”
Valerie saw the exact moment when he grew frustrated with her and his patience ended. She saw it snap in his eyes and his hand darted out, quicker than expected, just as she heard a loud boom, something splintering across the ground.
Valerie had been hit enough times by Madame Allegria that she wasn’t surprised by the sharp flash of pain, the blooming heat across her face. Except Gabriel hadn’t slapped her. It was his fist that had connected with her temple and bright white spots seemed to dance in her vision afterwards, her hands coming up to ward off any further blows.
That was when she heard it.
A strange, trilling growl that seemed to echo through the alleyway.
Belatedly, she realized the loud boom she’d heard had been the door to the brothel. Part of it, as heavy as it was, was lying on the pathway. Splintered. Broken. Half of it was off its hinges.
And standing on the threshold was Dravka.
An enraged Dravka, with fury in his gaze.
Valerie barely had time to cry out before he lunged for Gabriel.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rage and hatred like he’d never known seemed to choke him. Even losing his father and sister hadn’t felt like this. There had been grief there, an overwhelming depression combined with his helpless anger, but it hadn’t felt likethis.
But the moment that Dravka had seen the human male strike Valerie, the moment he heard the thick, sickening thud of it landed across her temple, a place he’d kissed the night before, that rage snapped and lashed at him, like a whip across his back.
He didn’t remember lunging for him. He didn’t remember tackling him to the ground.
But before he knew it, the human male was underneath him, looking up at him with fear and bewilderment and perhaps a little bit of disgust.
So this was Gabriel Larchmont.
Dravka unleashed that fury, finding its channel, and his fist connected with the human’s face, that same sickening thud echoing through the alleyway. Dravka didn’t feel the dull ache from the bones compressing in his hand. He hit him again, a growl rising in his throat.
This male dared to harm his female!
“Get thefuckoff of me!” Gabriel cried out, his nose leaking red blood, his tone nasally, bucking underneath him. Like he could squirm his little body out from underneath a Keriv’i. As if he was stronger than a Keriv’i.
Gabriel’s fist caught Dravka across the jaw in his flailing and Dravka responded with two more punches across his cheeks, quick and clean.
There was a strange rushing in his ears. All he could see was Valerie, pressed against a wall, her hands coming up to defend herself, her back hunching.
And I wasn’t there to protect her, he thought.
He bellowed, trying to tear that memory from his mind.
But I’mvaukinghere now, he finished, three more rapid punches falling across Gabriel’s face, his whole being seeming to lock in on him.
This male had hurt his mate, his female! The one he loved! He would have hisvaukingblood. He wouldn’t be satisfied—he wouldn’trest—until it coated the entire path leading up to the brothel. A warning to others. To never come nearhisfemale. To never think about harming her, touching her.
No one would everdare—
