Bite Marks (The Lycans 5)

Yet despite the world fading away as I let go and moved to the beat of the music, I still felt that intense sensation of being watched.

2

Adryan

I let the smile slip off my face as my office door closed and the wolf and his human mate left. Keeping up the facade that I gave a fuck was taxing, exhausting. There was a single knock on the door, and I knew it was Kane and Sebastian. I grunted for my cousins to enter before I turned away and walked back to the window that overlooked my domain.

The door swung open, and I sensed the two massive males step inside, not bothering to close the door.

“Everything go well with the Lycan?” Kane asked, and I mumbled my affirmation. I continued to stare out at the crush of humans and curled my lip.

“The other wolf has been asking about dealing with the Shepherds we captured,” Sebastian was the one to say.

I turned around then and inclined my head. “So give him a few of the bastards. What he wants.” I held my hands out, palms upward. “Let him tear them up. What the fuck do I care if a few humans get destroyed?”

Kane furrowed his brow. “Okay, but can I ask why the hell you’re giving the wolves anything? Seems like a gift to me, and although the truce between our two kinds is there, it's fucking thin at best.”

I didn’t hold back the low sound of warning that spilled from me. “That may be, but have you forgotten my sister, your cousin, is mated to Banner, the Scottish Lycan king?” The growl was thick in my voice. “You forget that as much as we may not like their kind, I have nephews and a niece who are half-wolf, and I’d die protecting them.” I bared my teeth. “So a war—even if you two fuckers may want some bloodshed—isn’t going to happen. Got it?”

Sebastian, the stoic fucker that he was, didn’t speak, just kept his hands clasped behind his back as he inclined his head.

“Like you don’t want a bloody fight as well,” Kane muttered. “Like you aren’t hard up to kill.” I kept still, quiet, as he kept talking out of his ass. “I saw the fearsome brutality toward those human Assembly fuckers on the road. I could smell how you got off on it, Cousin.”

I was in front of Kane the next instant, my hand wrapped around his throat, his body lifted up and off the ground as I pressed him against the wall and brought my face close to his. I kept my expression even, my voice matching the cold brutality I was known for.

“You forget because you’re family and I’ve been lenient with you, but I’m in charge, Kane.” I stared him in the eyes, and although all who were in this position would cower before me, Kane kept his face a blank mask. “I can’t control what you think, Cousin, but family or not, you'd do well to keep your thoughts to yourself, you feel me?” I tightened my hand on his throat to drive the point home, watching his face redden, his lips darken from lack of oxygen. And still he stared at me, not moving or fighting me.

I was off him a second later, his body sliding down the wall before he caught himself. He sucked in a ragged breath and rubbed at his thickly muscled neck. “Yeah, I feel you,” he finally muttered in a strained voice as he continued to rub his throat.

I looked at Sebastian—a year younger than Kane, yet the two could have been twins. Sebastian, ever the stone wall where emotions were concerned, smirked. I didn't have to tell them to get the fuck out. They left a second later, closing the door behind them and leaving me with my foul-ass mood still in place.

I walked back over to my desk, reached out and grabbed a watermelon Jolly Rancher from the skull bowl, and opened the little fucker before popping the candy in my mouth. I moved toward the window and stared down at the humans for long moments, my mind drifting to nothingness, this rare moment where shit wasn’t hitting the fan, a precious gift I latched onto.

I thought about Cian and his mate, about my sister, Luna, her Lycan mate, and their four hybrid children. Two had already found their Linked Mates, the term Lycans had for finding their fated ones. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that I’d ever be gifted my female. My Coveted One. I was too much of a killer, and my emotional capacity was fucking zero. I wouldn't be able to cherish a female who was deemed by fate as mine and mine alone.

But I was curious about such a thing, a connection two people in the Otherworld had. I’d watched Cian with his mate, saw the way he looked at her, that protectiveness and the possession in his eyes. He didn't care who saw. In fact, I was pretty sure he wanted others to see and know, to fucking feel that she was his.