I lessened the pressure of my foot on the gas as I entered the black, crumpled countryside, half-built over the years on the other end of my empire. The air smelled different here, staler and rank with sewage.Ernest has let this all go to shit,I thought angrily.Like his great-grandfather, he had no business sense, only one of greed. He wanted fortune and lusted for anything that moved, but unlike Gabriel, he had no actual way of maintaining it. Gabriel had had me, at least. Ernest had no one.Or had Gabriel ever had business sense? I had been much younger then, too. Perhaps I had been misled by Gabriel’s charisma as well. It was harder to remember now, with all the years that had passed.The crumbling compound was upon me, and I killed the lights, dropping my feet to the ground to walk the motorcycle toward the low wall of the area. A low din of voices met my ears, but no one was wiser about my arrival. Ernest’s guards were half drunk on whatever crappy moonshine they bootlegged amo
I swallowed, looking around at the destruction I’d created in my own space. I was losing it. Truly. My life was unraveling, and it wasn’t about to get better if I continued to ignore what was really eating at me.“No,” I answered flatly. “I wasn’t attacked.”“You did this?” She didn’t bother to hide her dismay. “Why?”I inhaled deeply.“I… I don’t know. The insurance isn’t going to pay out, and… I…”I pursed my lips.“That girl has you spun into a tornado,” Virgil accused me, her body still curled into a ball. I extended a hand to help her up, and she begrudgingly accepted it now that she saw I was no danger to her or anyone else. “You haven’t been right since she showed up here.”“I know,” I agreed. “And I need to do something about it.”Virgil smoothed out the front of her A-line skirt and primped her dark hair lightly, struggling to regain her own stoic expression, but I could see I had shaken her to the core. She maintained a safe distance from me, and I gave her space, my heart s
Who knew what he was capable of?“I’ve come to take you to a much better environment,” he declared. “With less than a week before our nuptials, it’s high time that you see what awaits you in my palace, don’t you think?”I couldn’t help myself. I snorted loudly.“Your palace?” I repeated. “Is that what you call your shit house?”Ernest’s smile froze, and he pushed his face closer toward me.“You forget yourself, girlie,” he hissed, spit hitting my face. “I am your one true sire, your lord and master. You would do well to remember what I can do to you if I stop liking you and your friend so much. What will happen if my patience with you runs thin?”“I will pay you but let us go?” Agnes interjected, trying to end our face-off.Ernest turned his weasel face toward her, eyes brightening at her quivering question.“I don’t want your payment anymore,I want you both anyways,I want to show you what kind of life waits for you. Gather whatever things you have. You’re moving into the palace.”I n
“They are both pretty,” Ernest chortled. “I’d be tempted to take your advice, Eugene. But this pretty girlie just needs a bit of taming, don’t you, Selina?” He looked at me as if I were going to answer him, and I scoffed, turning my eyes toward my full plate. The smell of food wafted into my nostrils, and I should have been starving enough to devour it whole, but the two disturbing males in my purview were enough to quash my appetite entirely. I pushed the plate away from me and sat back, ignoring the eggs and crisp bacon calling out to me. How long had it been since I’d eaten any protein? It made me think of the mouth-watering sandwich that Virgil had fed me that first night at Jeff’s’ place, and more anger flooded my veins. “I need to use the washroom,” I declared, standing suddenly. I waited for a rush of guards to surround me, but to my mild surprise, Ernest nodded without so much as raising his eyes. “Alanah will show you where to go.” Immediately, the same tired house serv
“What are you doing here, Jeff? The Covale City limits are that way.”I shifted back into my wolf form, and I smirked through my snout, licking my chops as I fell back onto my haunches, exposing the ripple of my underbelly.Agnes winced and withdrew, but Selina’s eyes blazed with interest. Her breath held as she waited for me to make my next move. All around me, the pack circled, biding their time until I offered my next command.“Unlike some, Ernest, I’m not restricted to confines,” I taunted him telepathically. “My empire is far-flung.”“That must be nice!” Ernest whiplashed, baring his teeth.He was fighting the urge to shift himself, and I dared him with my eyes.Do it! Give me a reason to tear you limb from limb!“You’re on my property,” he spat. “You have no business here.”“They are my business,” I said, nodding at the girls and the kid. “both girls are my employee.”Ernest scoffed dubiously and looked toward the old man, but he had mysteriously vanished.“Eugene?” he called ou
Ernest guard had a gun pointed at us! Jeff had come busting through like some white knight. But why now? What had changed? Did this mean that he had feelings for me? That we were going to stay with him?I refused to get my hopes up. I’d done that too many times now and been disappointed.“Let’s leave her to rest,” Atlas said,he took my son from me. “He needs some rest” he said and walked out of the room with my son in his hands.He led us into one of the bedroom, he places my son in the bed. I sat beside him,place my palm on his forehead.“ At last we are free “ I whispered and kiss him on his forehead.We walk out and shot the door, we climbed down the stairs and walk into the livingroom.Jeff turned in the opposite direction of the kitchen, and I had little choice but to follow after him. Not that I minded watching his firm ass in the pants that fit perfectly around the snug curve of his hips. I thought about how close I’d come to tasting what was inside there, and a gush of warmth
I waited for that voice of reason to come back and scream warnings, but if it did, I didn’t hear it. I was far too involved in the succulence of Selina’s flesh to notice anything except her growing moans of pleasure, the flimsy garments she had been wearing falling to the wood floor as the fireplace crackled behind us. She lay naked at my fingertips, beads of sweat dotting her perfect form, my tongue lapping out to taste each droplet along her perfect, slender curves. Her flesh lit up my mouth, popping against my lips to ignite me, leading me lower, deeper over the lines of her breasts. My hands worked effortlessly against the thin material of her shirt, peeling it away to reveal pink, hard nipples, ripe for my taking. “Oh, gods,” Selina moaned, her tone a purr, the sound only fueling my desire. I latched onto her, sucking intensely as she yanked me deeper against her, my hardness growing uncomfortable as I ground against her leg. Pulling up, I stared into those massive, bleary eye
I didn’t know what to make of that information. Either the fae in Ernest’s camp thought they were helping me by keeping her weak, or they also needed to be dealt with. Everyone who had harmed Selina would face their justice. Three days after they arrived, the first inkling of my wrongdoing reared its ugly head. Virgil didn’t have to say a word after she found me in one of my casinos, the Pink Eagle. I read it all over her face. “What happened?” I demanded, leaping out of my office chair. “Is it Selina?” She shook her head. “Someone set fire to The Azure.” I blinked, the words not computing at first. “What?” “It’s definitely arson, and the insurance company isn’t going to like this, Jeff.” “Ernest!” I growled, pounding a fist against the desk. “It wasn’t Ernest,” Jeff sighed. “The perpetrator was caught. He has no ties to Forny.” “Who is it?” She shrugged, but before she could speak another word, Petyr appeared. He and Virgil had come to work with me at the Pink Eagle while t