Eric shrugged. “I knew if I told you, you would go. I wasn’t willing to put you in danger.”
“And them?” she asked, body tensing, because she already knew his answer.
“I tried to convince them otherwise, but they aren’t my responsibility.”
Fury boiled under her skin, and rage flared in her vision. All the good feelings she had cultivated in, Xander’s office evaporated like hot steam.
With pointed steps, she made her way into Eric’s space.
He was bigger, and by far stronger than her, but he had the good sense to lean back at her advance.
“They are mine,” she said through gritted teeth, curling her hands at her sides, forcing them to stay there.
“Do you understand what that means?” she said, voice dangerously low.
Eric searched her face. “I?—”
But he was at a loss for words. The anger radiating off her clearly surprised him.
Adria tried to calm herself before she continued, “Eric, I am only going to say this once, but I expect you to remember it. What is mine is to be protected as me. AM. I. UNDERSTOOD?”
He froze under her glare. Maybe waiting to see if she would change her mind.
After a long moment, he said, “I understand.”
Before he could say anything else, Adria turned on her heels and stormed through the house.
There was one other person she needed to take her anger out on.
Her mother was in one of the kitchens when Adria found her.
“Why was Bryson asked to leave the compound?” Adria asked.
Her mother barely registered her appearance in the room. Instead, she continued to open and close cupboard doors.
“Mother,” Adria prompted.
“Yes, dear,” she said.
“Bryson, why did he leave?”
Her mother opened and closed another cabinet. “You already know why he left, or you wouldn’t be seeking me out. Members of the Nine take what they want. They don’t ask for it.”
When the next cupboard door opened, Adria’s hand reached out, holding it, preventing her mother from closing it.
“Looking for something?” Adria asked.
Sophia pulled at the door, and the two stared at each other in a silent stalemate. Eventually, her mother let the door loose from her grip and said, “Yes, as a matter of fact. I’m missing my ring.”
At Adria’s crazed look, she amended, “It is an old family heirloom, and I wanted you to have it.”
Adria shook her head. “Why would you allow my submissives to leave without telling me?”
Sophia stopped rummaging and gave Adria a stern look.
“Those are boys, not submissives, and they are anything but yours, dear. One of them is the Winters heir. A family that right now is actively working to take you down.”
Her mother put a hand on her hip. “Adria, I didn’t raise you to be this careless.”
