Page 135 of Vampire Kings Box Set

“Don’t feel bad. It is literally impossible to have any other agenda than Maddox’s and not be beaten within an inch of your life.”

Henry’s fists tightened at his sides. “I don’t feel bad. I feel tricked and trapped.”

“I can't believe I’m going to say this. You can trust Maddox. If he’s got you here, there’s reason for it.”

“Is that why you ran away and shacked up with Ivan?”

“I didn’t shack up with anyone. I got tired of what you’re already tired of,” Lorien said. “Except it’s worse for me. I get treated like a son. And Maddox is a hell of a father.”

Henry grabbed a beer from the refrigerator and cracked it, sitting next to Lorien. “Really thought I’d be out of here by now.”

“Yeah. That’s how he gets you.”

Henry threw the beer back. “There’s nothing stopping me from just walking out that fucking door.”

“Nothing?” Lorien said the word with a questioning tone. “Nothing at all?”

Henry glanced over at him with a rough glare that clearly did not originate from anything Lorien had said or done. It was a classic case of redirection, and Lorien was right in the path of Henry’s latent aggression.

“You should be careful, vampire. I need to work a lot of frustration out.”

“I’m very hard to break,” Lorien smiled with wicked anticipation. The situation was tense, but he was used to that. He thrilled to the way Henry looked right now, sitting there absolutely simmering with masculine menace.

“You don't know what you’re playing with. Or who,” Henry growled, finishing the rest of his beer in a very long swig. He crushed the can in his big muscular hand and left it sitting on the counter. Lorien picked it up and swept it into the recycling pail beneath.

“That goes for the both of us, doesn’t it?”

Henry looked back at him with new interest in his eyes. “True,” he admitted.

Lorien was doing the last thing he ever thought he’d do in Maddox’s house again: enjoy himself. Henry changed the energy, even if he didn’t change Mad at all. There was a particular intimacy in the rough wolf’s gaze that kept drawing Lorien.

He knew it was a dangerous game. Henry was an alpha, and he was probably desperate to dominate someone, anyone, to feel like himself again. Lorien was putting himself in harm’s way just to experience a little of this energy.

“Stop looking so smug.”

“I think that’s just my face,” Lorien said.

Henry snorted into his now empty beer. “You’re lucky you’re funny.”

“Sir, I am absolutely charming,” Lorien declared with confidence.

Henry’s eyes flashed. He stood up to Lorien, just as he had that time outside the Library with that same aggressive energy that delighted Lorien. “You’re arrogant. You walk around as if you think you’re above everything. You’re slippery. I don’t know who or what you’re loyal to. And now you tell me you’re the son of the vampire I’d like to fucking kill.”

A lesser creature might have been threatened by the animal intensity of Henry’s feral growls, coming as they did less than an inch from his nose.

“You want to stake Maddox? Or you want to impale me?”

Henry snarled, reached out, and grasped Lorien’s hair with both hands. Lorien found himself dragged into a rough kiss, the taste of man and wolf and beer and dominance invading his pristine vampire mouth. It had been a very, very long time since Lorien had kissed, or rather, been kissed. Especially with this level of intensity. This was a kiss that not only sought to dominate but to possess. Lorien let himself flow with it. He had no interest in resisting Henry. He wanted to drink this wolf in, to feel his essence deep inside.

When Henry let him go, he was panting. “You need to get out of here.”

“I do not,” Lorien disagreed.

“You do. I’m not just going to fuck you. I’m going to…” His words trailed off into a growling snarl.

Lorien understood perfectly. He was going to become the whipping boy for Maddox and for Will, both of whom deserved lashings for various reasons, both of whom had avoided them for other various reasons.

“Use me,” Lorien said softly. “Do what you must.”