Page 76 of All Your Deadly Truths (The Filthy Duet #2)

Kairhyse

“ M -Mister?!” she nearly shouts.

I grumble because I meant what I said: I wasn’t done with her.

He probably felt the fear I just caused in her, and came running to protect her. Can I blame the feline? No—but that doesn’t mean I’m not irritated at his sudden reappearance.

“Xeraphine,” he continues, “I’ll explain everything, and I promise ? —”

“You aren’t a Shifter, right? I’ve never heard one of you talk in your animal form, but these days I wouldn’t be fucking surprised.” She grips my shirt because I haven’t allowed her to pull away from me. “I’ll kill you if you are, regardless of my feelings for you.”

“No. I’m your…” This time, he cuts himself off, and it’s because of the approaching footsteps from the forest.

My head jerks, fear coming and going in a flash as Desiray comes into view. She looks worse for wear—her tangled brown hair falls messily across her face, eyes bloodshot, and blood streaked from her neck to her stomach.

Damn these interruptions … and my cock. I’d been ready to fuck Xera to the point of her nearly coming and then deny her for the shit she pulled. However, my words ended up actually terrifying her. She would have never come close to an orgasm, no matter what I did.

There is no part of me that doesn’t enjoy making her cry with my pleasure, but this pain was different. It stemmed from her heart, and I’m not willing to hurt that. That is mine to protect over everything else.

“Desiray,” my little demon says, and I can hear the confusion in her tone. I, too, am feeling the same. This Shifter could’ ve ran to the closest town and we wouldn’t have even gone after her. At this point, she’s minuscule, so beyond what we need to worry about right now.

Her gaze meets Xera’s as she whimpers, “I didn’t leave, they took me. I’ll go back. I’m sorry…”

My girl’s heart picks up, but she doesn’t say anything.

“Run along,” I bark out the order. “Head south to?—”

“Why did you stay?” Xera cuts me off.

I look down at her. She has her gaze shifting between Mister and Desiray, stopping on the Shifter. I’m unable to make out her expression, but I can tell there’s some conflict going on.

As I move to watch her continue to approach us, I truly question her survival instinct. There is no point in keeping her alive, and why she thinks otherwise is a testament to her stupidity.

“I’m dead anyway.” She wraps her arms around her belly that has yet to begin to swell from the baby she carries. “I know he won’t believe anything I say.”

Xera then tears away from my grip, and takes the several strides to her.

“Please, just make it quick,” Desiray mumbles through her sobs.

I’m unsure what to expect. My girl’s been very unpredictable lately, and to be honest, that isn’t a bad thing. If I can’t figure out her next move, most likely everyone else will struggle to do the same.

When she grabs hold of the Shifter’s cheeks, squeezing and causing her lips to pout, I look down at Mister. He is pulling his gaze to me, and I have a silent conversation of my irritation with him.

As if he can hear my thoughts, he sits, and smugly tilts his head.

I narrow my eyes. “I’m telling her you licked her butt plug.”

“I’ll tell her you’d enjoy said toy up your ass.”

“I’ll put a collar on you.”

“As long as it matches the one you wear.”

Rolling my eyes, I look back to see Xera, who has her fingers pulling from Desiray’s mouth.

“Did he tell you what he did to me?”

“No,” she says, not blinking, and keeping her attention completely fixed on my little demon. “He never brought you up, though… I never see him but a few hours at night.”

“Then why are you with him?” she presses. “It isn’t like you don’t have enough power with the Ansford Hause.”

“Not everything is for power in our world.” Desiray swallows roughly. “It was asked of me, and as a woman—” She sniffles, and stops dead in her sentence.

I think we all know the reason. Xera doesn’t care, at least she never did before.

Not before her mother.

Not before everyone tried to make her theirs .

Stepping away and releasing the Shifter, Xera sighs. “Controlling assholes. I can’t even say men anymore. Not with my own cunt of a mother doing the same fucking thing.”

Desiray tightens her arms around her waist, looking past my girl, to me. I’m just as perplexed. “Yeah… my… father…”

“Tell me,” she demands.

“He told me for the betterment of our Hause, I had to. It’s a hierarchy thing. Hause Sidence controls the southern tip of Calysera. They are looking to do the same to all of the state. Build strong?—”

“I get it,” Xera huffs. “That isn’t my problem to fix. I won’t send you back. However, that” —she points down to Desiray’s stomach— “is a child of a rapist, murderer, and narcissist. How far along are you?”

“F-Five weeks…”

Xera shakes her head. “We have to leave, tonight, and will stop to get you something to take care of it.”

A gasp comes from the Shifter, and slowly, Xera towers over her. My girl’s only a few inches shy of six feet, and Desiray maybe reaches just a few past five. It’s funny to see her cower even smaller at the domination my little demon is exuding.

“His lineage dies when he does. Do I make myself so fucking clear , Desiray?”

“I… I’ll take it away. You’ll never see it, I swear?—”

“No!” Xera screams and I instinctually step toward her. “It is not a suggestion. You will take a more civilized way to rid your body of it or I will tear it from you. I’ll snuff out every-single-speck of his blood from this world, including this !”

By the shriek, I can only assume she’s making a point, I just can’t physically see what she’s doing to the girl.

“I’m allowing you to live, you will fucking do as I command. Do. You. Hear. Me?”

“Yes, yes… I will. I’m sorry…”

She turns to face me, holds my gaze for a split second, then shifts down to look at Mister. “You are a little shit, and you…” She tilts her head up, those silvern eyes of finding mine. “We can finish what we started after I find out why my cat can talk… Okay?”

Truthfully, I should demand the feline to fuck off so I can have her attention, but I understand. If my pet fish had started talking to me, I’d have dropped everything—including good pussy— to figure out what the fuck was going on.

“Fine, thirty minutes and then we are leaving. You and I, alone in the car. Mister rides with Sydni while we finish our conversation. Understand?”

Her eyes dilate. “Yes…”

“Desiray,” I call to her. “Let’s go.” With that, I leave my little demon to talk with her Familiar.