Then why the hell would I touch him?! These were some weird rules. My palms were officially sweating.
“Madison Archer, stop it. You’re scaring her,” Brayden snapped at his sister.
When we reached the door, he raised his fist to knock and then turned to me. “I smell Silas. He’s probably already here.”
How the heck could he already be here? We’d just left him unconscious at the motel. I shook my head; I didn’t even want to know.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” Brayden said. I liked that he sounded so confident, but considering he lost his pack in a fight last year, I wasn’t feeling too great about his abilities to keep pack members right now.
Before I could retort, he knocked on the door.
They must have known we were coming, because the door opened seconds after the knock and a petite woman wearing a red silk suit and holding an iPad looked up at Brayden.
“Brayden Greywolf,” Brayden said to the woman. “I have a pack member dispute case with the Amarok.”
She nodded, tapping something on the iPad, and then stepped back so that we could come into the house.
Whoa. We entered the foyer, which opened up to a giant marble staircase and thirty-foot-high ceilings. The walls were plastered with a cool matte black wallpaper, and the marble was white but with black veins running through. It had a very masculine bachelor pad vibe going on.
Brayden cleared his throat and I snapped my gaze in his direction to see all three of them waiting on me to join them down the hallway.
Oops.
Scrambling to catch up, I followed the iPad woman and my fellow packmates—never thought I would say that—down the hall. We reached a set of double doors, and before the woman could knock, a deep rumbling voice came from inside.
“Enter!” the male voice boomed, and I might or might not have peed one drop. There was power in his voice, which was weird to admit or even think about, but the mere act of him giving the command caused me to step forward.
Maddy cast me a worried look, one which I returned, and then the doors opened.
I didn’t see anyone at first, which I was kind of glad for. We stepped into a giant room. It was rectangular, about forty feet long by twenty feet wide. The right half was full of empty rows of chairs, and when I stepped deeper in and looked to the left half, my knees weakened.
There at the end of the room was a giant desk on a platform like that of a judge. Sitting behind it was a behemoth of a man. He looked like John Cena and the Hulk had a baby. But it wasn’t his size that was scary. It was his eyes. He had a scar running from the tip of his forehead down his eyelid and to his cheek. The eye was completely gone, with a sunken hole left in its place. He wore a menacing scowl with pursed lips, and the tips of his ears were very slightly pointed. He looked about forty, with black hair that had a little grey streaked at the temples.
“Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, Amarok.” Brayden bowed his head slightly and Maddy yanked my hand, pulling me to the right to occupy the empty chairs with her.
I realized in that moment we were about to hear a court case of sorts and the Amarok was judge, jury, and executioner, like Brayden said.
Why was it so hard to breathe in here? It was like there was power sitting over my chest, pressing it down. Maddy looked to be struggling also, so I didn’t feel as worried that I was having some weird Amarok allergic reaction.
Just when I thought this couldn’t get any worse, Silas walked into the room. His lip had crusted blood on it and he was walking with a slight limp but otherwise looked okay. His gaze ran from my head, slowly down my body to my feet, and I felt sick.
Brayden gave him a warning growl and Silas turned, looking at the other alpha.
“Good to see you again, Brayden,” Silas said cheerily.
His tone was just condescending and annoying.
“Likewise,” Brayden growled.
“Cut the shit. I have an appointment in ten minutes,” the Amarok’s voice boomed from the back of the room, and again his speech had power. It made it even harder to breathe and I started to panic. “Who has claim on the girl?”
Could someone open a window?
“I bit her. She’s mine!” Silas said.
The Amarok looked at Silas. “You bit a human without permission? The Fae Lords will have your head if you go around admitting that.”
Silas swallowed. “No, sir, I bit her out of self-defense. She attacked me.”
