“No,” he growled, as if he could read my thoughts.
Everyone in the room looked confused.
I swallowed hard, stepping up to kiss his cheek. “Sawyer, I can get you thousands more warriors.”
He grabbed the sides of my face, peering into my eyes. I saw so much emotion there. Anger, agony, possession. “Not in a million fucking years, Demi,” he growled.
“How?” Eugene’s voice came from behind me and I stepped back from Sawyer.
“Paladins. They are over ten thousand strong. I can ask for warriors and they will give them to me.”
Eugene looked impressed. “Do it. With those kind of numbers we could actually have a chance to win this thing.”
Sawyer spun on Eugene. “The Paladin don’t have phones and I have an ankle bracelet on. That means she would have to go there alone.NO.”
His eyes went yellow and I waited for Eugene to lower his head in submission.
He didn’t.
Eugene shouted, “Son, if we don’t secure these walls, we are looking at total annihilation within two days,andthey’ll steal your fiancé and drain her blood!”
The veins in Sawyer’s neck bulged. “Or they find her on her way to the Paladin lands and just drain her there!”
I cleared my throat. “No one is draining anyone, okay. I can handle myself! I’ll go and be right back. I will meet you at the school with thousands more men by morning,” I declared.
If I really was the Paladin alpha, then they would come with me and help me out, right?
Sawyer shook his head. “No.”
There was a finality in his voice, and I could hear his teeth clamp together and nearly crack as his jaw set.
I sighed. “Trust me.I’ll be right back.”
He needed to see reason or my parents and everyone we cared about were going to get killed.
“No,” he growled again, and this time alpha power lashed into the room wildly.
“We have to put our people first, Sawyer. Before our own needs.” I stepped closer to him.
“No.” This time it was a whimper. With a sigh, I slipped his dad’s ring off my thumb and then I stepped forward and placed it on his ring finger.
“I’m going to be back by morning, with warriors, and we’re going to win and get married.”
He clamped down on my fingers, a sob forming in his throat.
I didn’t want to do this to him. He’d just lost his father and he was vulnerable, but the north gate had already been breached. Soon it would be the east and the south, and what about when the vampires recruited the Ithaki? We were no match for the entirety of Magic City.
I looked to Walsh and Eugene, who’d been watching our passionate display from the sidelines.
They knew what this look was and they both nodded.
I nodded back.
They rushed forward and pulled his hands behind him, pinning him back as I stepped away from him. His eyes went wide at the betrayal.
“I’ll be right back,” I told him, heading for the door. “We’re going to win this fucking war.”
Then I did the hardest thing I’d ever done. I ran down the hall and left him there screaming my name.
