Page 46 of Kingly Bitten

Usually, her blood sang to me.

But not right now.

Fuck.

I started pacing as Darius watched with an arched eyebrow. “She really pissed you off, didn’t she?”

“It’s so much more than that,” I snapped back at him, both my hands going to my hair now as I fought for self-control.

I don’t even know this woman.

She’s a means to an end.

She fucking thinks I’m defective.

I growled at that last thought, my desire to stomp back in there and show her just how wrong she was taking over my ability to process anything else.

But Darius stepped into my path, his expression hard. “She’s already helping Damien find the server farm. Let her work, then you can kill her.”

“Kill her?” I scoffed at the notion. “Oh, I’m not going to kill her. I’m going to fuck the disrespect right out of her. Then I’m going to feed from her until she begs me to stop. Or maybe I’ll do both at the same time.”

Darius grabbed my shoulder, but a resoundingdingcut off whatever he’d intended to say, and Ryder stepped into the hallway in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.

“I’m starting to think you all spend more time in this corridor than you do in your rooms,” he drawled as he approached. Willow walked along beside him with a toddler in her arms.

Seeing the small boy seemed to reset my mind. “Is that…?” Bright turquoise eyes lifted to mine, the color reminding me of his father’s irises. “You got him to shift.”

“He just needed a little coaxing,” Willow replied, her blonde hair styled in long, wavy lengths.

Like Lilith,I realized. “You’re up here for a photo shoot with Damien.”

“Yes,” Ryder confirmed. “Lilith hasn’t been seen for a few days, and unless you’ve changed your mind about super-announcing her death at the next Blood Alliance meeting, we need to take some candid images.”

“Can’t do that with a toddler in your arms,” Darius pointed out.

“No, that’s why we brought him up here. We need Juliet to babysit.” In typical Ryder fashion, he didn’t ask; he just demanded. And since we were all guests in his territory, I suppose he was within his rights to do so.

“Damien’s busy supervising Calina while she searches for the server farm holding all her research materials,” I said.

Ryder lifted a shoulder. “Then you can supervise her while he takes some photos.”

My teeth ground together at the prospect. Mostly because a part of me was relieved by the idea of sending Damien somewhere else and having Calina all to myself.

This has to be related to her blood.

She’d mentioned that Lilith had been possessive as well, but had linked that behavior to them sharing a bond. Maybe it wasn’t the link at all, just Calina.

Regardless, I found myself nodding in agreement to Ryder’s comment and saying, “I’ll take over.”

Because why wouldn’t I take over?

She was mine.

For now.

Temporarily.

Fuck.