Page 5 of Hunted (Love and Revenge #5)

I didn’t bother trying to offer an opinion or calm their argument.

I saw the wisdom in what Robin was doing.

She wasn’t letting them all argue for the fun of it.

She was letting them vent. Letting them have a say, so they felt like they were at least trying to solve the problem.

So they’d feel heard. I reached my aura out to hers in quiet support.

Maybe if she checked the urge to go all alpha for a second, some of the pain would ebb.

But Robin was our dragon alpha princess. So, they only got a short time to vent. Then she spoke.

“Are you all quite done now?” she drawled, her husky voice snaking through the fading mutters and grumbles, as unconcerned as ever. Like this was the most boring conversation she’d ever had. Even though I could sense her pounding headache from across the room.

“Martina and Dusek are partially right. With one minor addition. If we look at the situation logically,” she said in that same calm, even tone, “it would make the most sense to simply kill Josh , so Acacia can’t spy on us or use him as leverage.

She still might tattle on us to the emperor, though, so we should probably just get rid of them both for good measure.

Although,” she said with a little pause, “Yukio is correct there—we wouldn’t be certain who would rise up to take over the syndicate vampires in Acacia’s place.

That could make things more difficult since we’d be working around an unknown player and it would mean even more moving parts and what-ifs. ”

There was a pause. A huff.

“Call her that again, snake,” Yukio said coldly, “and I’ll freeze your balls off,” clearly in response to something Sadavir had just signed to Robin.

I straightened my spine and opened myself further, letting more of my own innate magical nature wash over the room.

The last thing we needed was the two most powerful alphas in the city trying to murder each other in the living room, though I was really tempted to allow it just so I wouldn’t have to play peacekeeper anymore.

I was knew Robin just baiting Sadavir with her suggestion about killing Josh, and was taking great pleasure in his reaction. And Sadavir should know that too, and not rise to the bait. They were such children sometimes.

“That’s enough,” I said, letting just a thread of my magic slide outward. My voice wasn’t loud. It didn’t need to be.

Though I was always surprised when it happened, I knew everyone would defer to me.

It was an omega thing, apparently. At first I hadn’t believed it.

Hadn’t been comfortable accepting that all these powerful people were so attuned to me .

But here was the proof. I was starting to see why some alphas preferred to keep omegas bound to them and subservient, rather than letting them remain unattached with their freewill intact.

“Robin,” I said evenly, feeling like a mother scolding a couple of toddlers. “Please stop trying to get a rise out of Sadavir. He’s suffered enough without you poking your fingers into the wound.”

Robin sighed as if I had just taken all her fun away.

I almost smiled at her reaction. It was good to get a little glimpse of her usual personality, when I was beginning to get concerned about her losing herself.

But the tension in the room was giving me a headache too. And none of this was productive.

“Calm yourself, snake,” Robin drawled. “I only said that would be the logical thing to do.” Her husky voice was still calm, unaffected. “But clearly this court no longer functions with any sort of logic. We’re all heart, and emotions. It’s sickening, really.”

Colors and shadows shifted as she took a seat.

“As Yukio so aptly pointed out, we don’t need to actually honor the agreement with Acacia.

All we have to do is play along long enough to get what we need.

Acacia insists she can help us find where the emperor is currently hiding.

If that’s true, it will make our hunt for him that much easier.

And I’m hoping she can relay some of his weaknesses so we can face him better prepared.

” She huffed. “We were already going to kill him, so the agreement with her doesn’t really change anything, it’s just one more nose in our business.

But I’m well used to syndicate morons sniffing around court business.

If we can use this to our advantage, we will. ”

A rattle of ice in a glass, then she continued.

“Acacia will screw us over though, make no mistake. I think it’s glaringly obvious that her endgame is to insert herself as the new empress of the syndicate.

Once the emperor is dead, she won’t need us anymore.

If she’s smart, she’ll immediately kill us all once we’ve served our purpose.

It would make her look stronger and eliminate a massive threat to her continued existence. ”

I sighed. It wasn’t that I was surprised by any of this underhanded plotting.

Just disappointed, I suppose. I’d had my rose-colored glasses ripped off well before now.

But still, I wished the world wasn’t quite so awful and that, for once, people and situations could just be exactly what they seemed to be at first glance.

Dusek’s dark energy curled and twisted, moving a bit closer to where I sat.

I reached out a hand and dragged my fingers through the shadows, shuddering at the fear that skittered over me, but wanting to greet him, regardless.

The cool kiss of his dark aura made my breath hitch, but I easily reminded myself that there was hardly any difference at all between fear and breathless exhilaration.

The shiver that followed was tinged with something more than simple fear.

If only Dusek wasn’t so convinced that he was a monster. ...

Sadavir hissed, startling me out of my distracted thoughts.

Goddess. There were far more important things going on here.

I tried to do a mental calculation to figure out if my next heat might be creeping up on me already and addling my brain.

But Sanka spoke, translating Sadavir’s words aloud for my benefit, and I dropped that line of thinking.

“I want to keep Josh safe from that monster, but there is more than just Josh’s life at risk here.

There are worse things than death. This alliance is the only reason Acacia hasn’t taken him back by force.

If we anger her or try to kill her and fail, she can call him to her using the maker’s bond.

I will not have him become a slave to that monster. Never again.”

“Josh would agree,” Martina said, her tone of voice dry.

“But he wouldn’t tell us to hesitate on his behalf.

I bet he’d look at things more logically.

He wouldn’t want to endanger the rest of the court by trying to save his own ass.

” She scoffed. “I’ve been a vampire slave.

Trust me. He’d be better off executed by us, or dying from our killing Acacia, than risking life as a slave.

” She snorted. “I bet if he was here, he’d tell us to end him right now and take her bargaining chip away.

He may be annoyingly nice. But he’s not an idiot. ”

Sadavir didn’t like that, of course. But he couldn’t exactly say for sure that she was wrong.

That was the part that gnawed at me. Here we were, talking about Josh’s future, discussing him like he was nothing more than an obstacle or a possession, and he didn’t even get a say.

We could ask him what he thought we should do.

But then again, I was pretty sure I knew how he’d respond.

Ever since he was turned into a vampire, he had been utterly hollow.

Like someone had scraped out his insides and left nothing but a shell.

The last time I saw him, he barely spoke with me. His aura had felt paper-thin, but jagged, both... worn and sharply dangerous all at once. He had shied away when I tried to touch him. As if he would cut me. I knew the others sensed it too. But none of us knew what to do for him.

Across the room, Queen Cat gave a little chirp. “ Talking, talking, talking. Why are my silly human subjects so constantly churned up?” She demanded. Though I was the only one who understood her.

There was a huff of laughter and someone snorted.

She just jumped right up onto Robin’s lap like she owns the place, Cicely informed me via mind speak, his thoughts full of humor. Your pets are brave.

Interesting. Robin didn’t usually tolerate the cat very well. I secretly thought it was because they were too much alike—they both thought they were in charge and wanted to be the center of attention at all times.

The entire room paused as we waited for Robin to react. But Robin didn’t toss the cat off or make a disdainful comment. That, more than anything, confirmed my worst fear. She was cracking.

Always so dramatic, Cicely informed me. Though I wasn’t sure if he meant me, Robin, or Queen Cat. Maybe all three.

“Ruya, darling,” Robin said in a deceptively soft tone of voice. “I think your animals need to see a vet. They seem to have acquired some kind of brain parasite that has robbed them of any sense of self-preservation. This is the second time I’ve been assaulted by one of your strays.”

I opened my mouth to tell her not to start a war with the cat—one she wouldn’t win.

But there was a flutter of wings, and a dark blur divebombed from the ceiling before I could speak.

Cicely narrated to me mentally, explaining that Vlad had just dropped a small, dead lizard onto the tablet Yukio held in his lap.

Yukio sighed, and the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees with his displeasure. Then the moment passed, a tiny bit of the weight lifting from the room.