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I gritted my teeth, holding his gaze and blinking as innocently as I could.

“Compelled? What do you mean?” My effort to sound nonchalant didn’t work out.

The corner of his lips twitched. “Interesting. Very interesting.”

Acting ignorant wasn’t working. I swung my head side to side, but none of my vampires were in sight. Shit. Fuck.

“It’s really not,” I said, forced.

He leaned close and his nose flared again. Shit, he was sniffing me now?

“Your scent . . .” he hummed and closed his eyes. A few seconds passed. He opened them. His eyes had dilated.

“Would you like to switch to my Coven?” His fangs flashed. “I’m sure I can come to an agreement with the Crimson Sires.”

“No, thank you.” The words came out sounding like a jumble.

He took another step closer.

“If you change your mind.” He handed me a black card. His name was embossed in gold font across the front and on the back was a number. I gawked, limply holding the card.

I couldn’t address the madness of the statement because cheering swelled. Whirling around, I shoved the card into my bra. Vampires huddled closer, making it difficult for me to see.

THIRTY-THREE

asher

Jax wove through the crowd,through the hall, and toward the staircase. I hurried to catch up, but had to keep a reasonable pace to not call attention to myself. I could have turned invisible, but too many eyes were on me already. It would make more sense for me to head to the feeding stations upstairs. The onlookers wouldn’t know I was attempting to catch up to Jax before he let his temper shove its dick down our throat.

He was hot on Charles’s heels, chasing him down. I could only fucking imagine what Charles had been running his mouth about to set Jax off.

I reached the base of the stairs and zoomed up. Jax hadn’t grabbed Charles yet. Just in fucking time. Picking up speed I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. He rounded with a hiss, and I flicked his forehead.

He shut up.

“We don’t want to start a fucking feud, Jaxon,” I hissed. “You kill or maim the fucker, he’s going to go crying to his Sire, and once that happens, one of our allies turns their back on us.”

“You should have heard the repulsive?—”

“Don’t even tell me.” I put my hand up. “Think of Pet.”

“I was thinking of her.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What did he say about her?”

“About who?” Ren appeared at my side, gaze flickering from me to Jax.

“You’re not with Catalina?” I stared at Ren, horrified.

“I left you with her.” Ren’s eyes slitted.

I groaned. I felt like I hung onto my control by a thread. We were foolish creatures, struggling to keep our temper more than our human.

“Keep this one out of trouble.” I poked Ren. “Look at what kind of responsible pussy you’re turning me into.” I sneered at my brother and turned on my heel.

If Catalina’s safety didn’t depend on our behavior, I would have been wreaking all the havoc. Now look at me, behaving like fucking Tobias.

No one could know the grip she had on us, and for that, she needed to stay out of touching range from other vampires. Charles made a comment about her earlier and I’d been close to losing it on him.