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“For now,” Daemon says with a frown. I can tell he doesn’t like this resolution but is obliging my request to not murder for me.

“Can we go back to bed now?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says, softening his tone. “Let’s go home.”

Chapter Seven

Callum

WhenwegotLilithback, she fell asleep within minutes of lying down in Kael’s bed. We all snuck out so we could go to the living room and talk. So much has happened in the last day that I’m not sure what to think of it all, but I know that I trust Lilith.

Watching her almost die was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. It felt like my heart was breaking in two, watching her be in so much pain. We all did our best to keep it together for her, but it broke all of us. We could feel our bond with her trying to break as she was bleeding; the harder she fought through with her spell, the harder it tried to fall apart. When she started glowing, it was like a breath of fresh air. We didn’t, and still don’t know what the fuck that was, but I am certain she broke the curse.

We need to learn more about the curse and this prophecy soon. I think the library will hold a lot of those answers. It’s like it was waiting for her to reveal itself. Even then, we had to mate to see it for ourselves.

“I want to rip that fucker to pieces,” Daemon says as he paces the living room. It’s weird seeing him like this. He’s usually the calmest when he gets stressed out.

“I know,” I say simply.

“How are you calm?” he snaps at me.

“How are you not?” I ask. “She asked us, as nicely as her bratty little ass can, to chill out, and she’s right. We can’t charge in there like uncivilized beasts, or it could create major problems.”

“Fuck, man,” he sighs. He stops walking and sighs again. “I am just so angry. I’m angry that she doesn’t see the problem, and it took her dead mother to tell her before she questioned it. She still doesn’t see the problem with Zypher having more than thirty-five men fuck her back-to-back. She didn’t even blink at the fact that just days ago, she was raped by two entire packs for hours on end. If she wasn’t a witch, it would have killed her. She thought that someone face-fucking her was consensual because she did what she had to do to get him off of her. How fucking traumatized is this woman that none of this bothers her?”

“She said it herself,” Kael says. “This is our fault. We stood by and let the fox shifters get treated like shit. We are done allowing maidens. No one gets used as a fucking sex slave anymore. I refuse to play into that goddamn curse anymore. We will automatically remove the maidens from their posts. We help the fox shifters get set up independently, and we even figure out who is getting what jobs. We stay on everyone’s ass, and we make an example of anyone who disobeys us. The only ones who I see having an issue are the wolves. Maybe the lions. The dragons, panthers, and bears will follow our lead, no matter what. The hellhounds will likely split, but there are not many of them here, though.”

“This woman is going to be a handful,” Daemon says.

“You’re only saying that because you’re not used to people bucking up to you,” I laugh.

“She is so little and fiery,” he says with a smirk.

“She’ll make a good queen,” Kael says after a minute.

“Even if she is a witch?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.

“So… I think I may have been a bit dramatic about that,” he says. “I fed into that stereotype without a second thought. When she healed my arm… It showed me that I’ve been judging the whole lot for what one coven did. I knew I was, but it took way too long for me to see how wrong that was.”

“We just need to fix this shit. I won’t lie, I want to do this for her, but she is right. The fox shifters don’t deserve this. I don’t know how they are linked to the dark witches, but I think they are victims in this just as much as we are. Knowing that Lilith was also cursed proves that not all witches are bad.”

“We need to find out who the witches are before anyone finds out about Lilith,” Daemon says. “We can’t protect them if we don’t know who they are.”

“I think that’s something we will need Lilith to handle. They won’t accept us unless they know she does,” I say. “For now, we handle removing Morwen, we pull all the maidens, and we announce Lilith as the new queen. Lilith needs to work on her magic, so she’s going to need time in that library. It would help her a lot if we could find an experienced witch to help her, but there is no way any of them are coming forward to help us, and we can’t announce why we need them until we know we can trust them.”

“Yeah. Let’s just focus on Zypher and Morwen first thing in the morning. We need to get Lilith more clothes. She has hardly anything, but we can have stuff brought here. I can bring her home and take her to the library tomorrow while you two do what you need to do,” Kael says.

“You are going to break her first, aren’t you?” I ask, chuckling.

“Fuck yeah,” he laughs heartily. “I’m going to bend her little ass over one of those tables tomorrow and fuck her while she reads aloud to me.”

“Why do I feel like she’ll like that?” Daemon asks.

“Because our girl is freakier than even she realizes,” I say, smirking.

Chapter Eight

Lilith