“No, stop!” Flower’s voice rang out, and she stumbled down the short set of top steps before we could reach the half-landing.
Then, she turned to us, raising her hand, looking like some kind of angel sent from above, only naked and dripping heat from her cunt. “Stop!”
“Where’s Dublin?” Sea asked behind me.
“Why isn’t he knotted balls deep inside ye?” I demanded, my frustration near to boiling over.
“Because I let him go!” she snapped. Her eyes blazed with defiance. “It was the rightthing to do.”
Therightthing? I clenched my fists so hard I thought I’d draw blood.
She didn’t get it.
Her life, everything, depended on her mating with the last king. “The right thing is to mate with Dublin,” I growled. “Otherwise, yer heat won’t break.”
“Wild, we need to check the back of the house,” Sea cut in, urgency crackling in his voice. “There’s probably a set of servant stairs — he’s making a run for it.”
Flower shouted down at us. “No! You need to let him go!”
“Flower…” I started, but she was having none of it.
“What are you gonna say?” she snapped, swinging her fierce gaze from Sea to me. “That now that I’m mated to you, I should start acting like a toxic monster, too?”
I’d muted my bond, but her disgust came through all the same — sharp and bitter as bile rising in the throat. “I won’t take away someone else’s choices the way you took away mine, Wild.”
Her words cut deeper than any blade. And in that moment, I realized I didn’t have to wait for her to come out of her heat thrall to know the truth about her feelings toward me.
She hated my fucking guts. Still.
But it didn’t matter.
“Get to his car before he does. He’ll need it to make his escape,” I barked at Sea, my teeth grinding. “I’ll handle our mate.”
Sea darted for the door, but Flower cried after him, “No, Sea, don’t! This isn’t what he wants —”
She was so busy defending the City Kingthatshe didn’t even see him coming.
Dublin crashed into her like a fuckin’ freight train, pinning her to the wall with a kiss so fierce it rattled every last antique plate on the landing.
No words were exchanged. No explanations.
Dublin just dropped the pants he’d pulled on after she untied him, hitched her onto his waist, and drove into her with a hard bang against the wall.
Then he roared into her mouth like some manner of beast and immediately emptied inside her.
I knew for a fact Dublin hadn’t saved himself for her like Sea had, but his load was just as intense. Soon, his seed was dripping from where he had her pinned to the wall.
Then, Flower screamed, her light-brown thighs clenching tight around his waist as she released, too.
The sight of them tangled together stirred a witch’s cauldron of emotions inside me — rage and jealousy clashed with the primal relief of an ancient prophecy finally being fulfilled.
“Thank you!” she cried out in a broken sob.
“I’m sorry,” Dublin whispered, his voice rough and hoarse. “I tried… I tried to leave… to stop myself.”
“I know. It’s okay.” She peppered his face with kisses, her voice soft and sweet. “Thank you.Thank you.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, kissing his way down her neck.
