He didn’t take nearly as long to sign as I did, and before I knew it we were walking into the hall as casually as if I just put in an offer on a home, not a loveless future.
“I’m grateful things are coming together so easily,” Samuel said, dipping his head slightly toward me as we stood in the hall.
“I am as well,” I said, and truly, I was grateful that he’d agreed to all my terms, the most important of which being that he used every resource and ability he possessed to not only stop Saint’s plans, but glean information on the Sons and stop them as well.
“I must be going, but I look forward to seeing you soon.” Samuel reached for my gloved hand, gently bringing it up to his lips. “You are free to do whatever and whoever you please until our betrothal is official,” he said, planting a kiss right over the mating mark he couldn’t see beneath the fabric. “As am I,” he continued, releasing my hand. “I hope you use your time wisely, because once I lay claim to you, no one else will ever be allowed to touch you and live.” Samuel said the threat so casually and with such charm and grace that I barely registered it until he was walking through the residence and out the main doors.
“Preening peacock,” Hawke grumbled, standing so close to me I could feel the heat from his body. The memory of his mouth on mine, his fangs in my neck, scorched red hot down the very center of me, a wave of desire fluttering up to the surface of my soul.
Hawke groaned as if he could scent it on me, and I didn’t even have the energy to be embarrassed. Why should I hide what I want when I’d just signed my entire future away in order to save them all?
“Hawke, would you mind…” I turned to ask him if he would mind feeding me, the hunger weakening my already exhausted body and mind, but he was no longer there. And I wanted to punch him in his deliciously handsome face. Wanted to beat his muscular chest until I shook loose the ice around his heart. The wall keeping me from him and him from me.
We only had three weeks left.
A blink in the eternity of our lifespans.
And I wanted to live before I was packed up and shipped off to die.
7
Hawke
That fucking prick put his mouth on her.
Fine, it wasn’t exactly her. She had gloves on, for shit’s sake, but still. He’d lifted her hand and done the pretentious knuckle kiss like the aristocratic asshole he was.
If he hadn’t kidnapped her with his twin, terrorized her, and somehow addled her brain into thinking that she was the perfect sacrificial lamb for the slaughter, I might have conceded to think he was the perfect male for her. Maybe.
He had that whole, expensive prince charming look. Perfectly tailored suits. Perfectly appropriate manners. He had the audacity to walk into our compound after he’d kidnapped Avianna and the privilege of knowing he’d come out unscathed. He was the most logical choice for her husband—politically savvy and physically powerful enough to protect her.
Once I lay claim to you, no one else will ever be allowed to touch you and live.
This was really happening. Someone else was going to lay claim to my mate.
I flipped my dagger, end over end, imagining that it was already stained with his blood. She wasn’t his to claim. She was mine. The first time he removed her glove, he’d know the truth. Theirs could be an…agreeable union, as most marriages were within our kind, but he could never claim her the way I could—as a mate.
The way I refused to.
She didn’t want it, and I didn’t blame her. Sure, her reasoning was as selfless as she was—her marriage would secure Alek’s throne. But there had been a second in her bedroom, when she’d first removed her glove, where the longing in her eyes had said something else entirely.
My instincts roared at me, and I kept them caged for her own good. Alek may have brought me into the fold as an Assassin, but I was the first lowborn bastard to hold the title. Three hundred years ago, I would have been forbidden from ever laying eyes on Avianna, let alone touching her.
Kissing her.
Feeding from her throat.
Even now, the power in her blood surged through my veins, my muscles, returning my health, my speed, and my strength. And kissing her? It had been an act of madness that I couldn’t bring myself to regret.
“Hawke?” Lachlan prompted.
I glanced around the table and found eight expectant pairs of eyes on me.
Right, Alek had asked a question.
“She signed the negotiation terms three days ago,” I said, leaning back in my seat in the war room, our steel-enforced bunker responsible for housing all of our surveillance systems. The monstrosity also served as a panic room—more like panic suite—in case the grounds were ever breached. There was no getting into this room without a biometric scanner, and Ransom had long since revoked the twins’ security privileges.