Page 32 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

My door opens without anyone knocking, and I let out a low growl as I turn from the fire, fourth drink in hand, to see who’s invaded my privacy, my rage about to be unleashed on whomever the unfortunate trespasser turns out to be. But the words still on my tongue when I see her.

She’s wearing the blue velveteen tracksuit she wore in the first days of our marriage, when my cousin was charged with helping her choose clothes for her grand tour of all the contestants. When I still thought she’d been placed in The Games by Spider.

I swallow hard at the memory of tearing down those pants and spanking her on the ballroom floor. And of what had followed after. And I can’t help but wonder if, even then, she was under my brother’s thrall and sleeping with my best friend. Even then, and it guts me.

I clear my throat and look away from her beautiful, intense gaze.

“Angelina.”

“Falcon.”

She nods her head, her eyes drifting to the couch before the fire, and I indicate with my hand for her to sit, my throat thick at the sight of her, the smell of her.

It’s been so long since we were alone together in a confined space, just being in her presence is unnerving — there’s so much to say, so much to know.

‘Where to even begin? Why has she come so soon? I need time. Time to process, time to investigate, time to think.’

But she gives me none of that.

“I came to ask you to forgive Jag.”

Snorting, I turn back to the fireplace, my anger so raw, rage so close to the surface, that I fear the outcome if I look at her. She’s not here for me; she’s here for him.

“Of course you did.”

“It’s not like that,” she says quietly. “If he’s the one who killed Viper I owe him my life, and you owe him your title.”

“I owe him?” I turn back to her, my lip curled in derision at the very thought. “Owe him for what? For cuckolding me and killing my brother? Do you think me so blind, Wife ? For once, just tell the truth. You came to ask clemency for his crime because you love him.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she snaps. “It’s not because I love him, or want him, or ever wanted him.

I was under a thrall and forced to sleep with him, Falcon.

I want forgiveness for him because it’s the least I can do to make up for what I did to him.

I seduced him and made him believe I loved him when all along I knew it was a lie. ”

‘So many lies. But where do they begin? Where do they end?’

I grit my teeth. It’s too soon. I can’t have this conversation yet. I’ll kill her.

“You need to leave. Now is not the time,” I spit through gritted teeth.

“Now is the perfect time, before you do something stupid…”

“Stupid?” I shake my head, the words shooting from my lips like venom.

“Stupid like marry a human on a game show? Or stupid like trusting my best friend with my wife? Or perhaps stupid like ever listening to my mother when she suggested vampires could have feelings for humans? Which variance of stupid do you think I might like to try next, Angelina? Is there any left you believe me incapable of?”

“Falcon, please. I know you’re probably reeling from…”

“Probably?” I snarl, hurling my glass at the door and shattering the vessel into a million crystal pieces.

She flinches and pales, but stands her ground.

“Definitely then,” she shakes her head. “It’s a lot to take in, I know. But I need your assurance…”

“You’ll get nothing from me.”

“Well that will be a turn-up for the books,” she retorts.

I narrow my eyes at her and turn to pour myself a new drink to try and control myself, my hands shaking in rage.

For a long minute there’s silence, only the drumming of her heart filling the room.

“Is that all you have to say to me?” She eventually whispers. “After everything I’ve suffered? Everything I’ve endured these past years? Can’t you even believe for a second that I was under your brother’s thrall?”

I close my eyes, but keep my back to her.

“I accept what you say as truth in this regard. Mother says it’s so. Wolf pointed me in the direction of a note that also corroborates this.”

‘And makes it clear you want to play no part in my life.’

“Then you can’t blame Jag for killing Viper,” she rushes on, “he did it to free you too, Falcon.”

“Jaguar is not your concern,” I growl, spinning back to face her and clenching my teeth as she opens her mouth to beg for his life, yet again. “If Viper is dead…”

“He is.”

I nod.

“If Viper is dead, as you claim, and if Jag is the one who killed him, then Jag must answer for that.”

‘But just whether Jag did do this, or Spider, or the fucking Free Men, who knows at this point? All this and more I need to find out. God, she smells so good…’

“But Viper held me under a thrall! You said it yourself that’s not in dispute.”

“It could be that he was forced to do so,” I shake my head as much to oppose what she’s said as to clear my thoughts. “We don’t know what the circumstances were. We can’t know now.”

“The circumstances? I’ll tell you the fucking circumstances.

He was working with Spider to take your title.

He bit me to help fast-track that. He and Spider wanted you to turn against me, and your best friend.

Hell, they even worked together using Giselle’s sister to try to kill your mother.

They were trying to take away everything and everyone you care for.

What part of any of that is difficult for you to understand? ”

I stare at her, frowning. She seems so sure of this union, and yet I have absolutely no proof in this regard, and neither does Wolf.

“There’s no evidence of any alliance between my brother and Spider. Unless there’s something you haven’t told Mother that might link the two, or you know of anyone else who can corroborate this treachery?”

For a second I see something in her eyes, something she wants to say, at least it appears that way, but she shakes her head and looks away quickly.

“It’s obvious…” she starts.

“No,” I shake my head, “it’s conjecture. Viper should have had the opportunity to speak to the claims made against him and clear his name, or seek help if he required it. Now we’ll never know. Now we only have Jag’s word.”

“A word you once trusted explicitly,” she says quietly.

“That was before he fucked my wife!”

“Falcon, please,” she shakes her head as I walk to the door and open it, gesturing for her to get out.

“His heart was always in the right place. He brought me back to you, for you, even though I begged him not to. He was prepared, even thinking the baby was his, to have no part in the child’s life.

He always cared for you first, put you first.”

“Yes,” I snarl. “He cared so much for me he would have had me raise his bastard as my heir. Clearly I’m misunderstanding something!”

‘She begged him not to return her to me? God, how she must loathe me.’

“That’s not what I was trying to say. It’s not…”

“Angelina,” I shake my head, my fangs running out. “Even the mention of his name makes me want to rip all before me into confetti. If you value your life. Leave now.”

“You know,” she snaps, rising from the chair and walking towards me, her face inches from mine, “I’m so used to death threats now, I’d almost welcome the release.

I know you’re planning on killing me to marry that insane royal bitch.

I know you don’t care that I was a fuck-robot for your brother for a year.

You don’t care that your son is asleep upstairs, your title safe, and you sure as fuck don’t care about me — but I know, deep down, that you do care about the man who fought by your side for centuries, who’s still fighting for you. ”

‘A fuck-robot? Oh, Christ, please don’t say my brother shared her bed too. Not that.’

Looking into her angry eyes, the words come out against my will as barely a whisper, the pain so deep inside me now, I can barely breathe as I await her answer.

“Did my brother rape you?”

“No,” she frowns, her eyes not leaving mine, “he raped animals. But he made me do a hell of a lot of other despicable things.”

I close my eyes for a second, so relieved I can’t even speak, but she either unknowingly or willfully chooses to misunderstand my expression.

“But that’s all you’re fixated on, isn’t it?” She hisses, shoving me in the chest with both hands. “Who’s been between my legs — who’s desecrated the Dragonspur honour by fucking your wife.”

“You are utterly ridiculous,” I snap, grabbing her hands and holding them tight in my own so she can’t strike me again.

“No, you are!” She shakes her head, attempting to pull her hands away. But her struggles only make me want to control her more, and I pull her tight against me.

“Let me go, you absolute…”

My lips crush down upon hers. It’s an automatic response, a move to silence more words of hate, to taste her, to wipe away any other lips that had explored that delectable mouth by claiming it once more as my own.

But she struggles against me. Moving one hand from hers to the back of her neck, I knot my hand in her thick curls and hold her still, but rather than continue to struggle, or submit, she freezes, every muscle in her body turning to stone.

Recognising that she’s not going to respond, that her body is signalling she loathes me just as her words had, I end the kiss and push her from me in disgust at myself, my weakness .

She reels a little before righting herself, her face a picture of righteous indignation, her beautiful eyes flashing steel.

“How dare you!”

I push my hands into my pockets and exhibit an air of nonchalance that I don’t feel at all.

My heart is hammering at her proximity and aching at her rejection.

I honestly don’t know why I did it. I just wanted to be close to her, to feel her once more in my arms, to taste her sweet lips and feel her hot breath on my face. I just want her, despite it all.

“I dare because you are mine to do with as I wish,” I shrug, “but obviously it’s other lips you crave, perhaps have always craved.”

“Ugh!” She exclaims, throwing her hands into the air.

“I don’t honestly know what I ever saw in you.

You’re so petty, and such a fucking hypocrite.

While I was being forced to suck off your brother and sleep with someone else, you were gleefully bed-hopping between Spider’s wife, your other mistresses, and now some goddamned vampire princess.

All along in my heart I was loyal, but you accused me of being a spy, you beat me, you abused me, you bit me.

As far as I can see you deserve no loyalty, because you sure as fuck don’t give it to anyone else! ”

“My loyalty is above question,” I snap. “You understand nothing if you believe I’d trade my brother for a snake who’d abuse my trust and hospitality the way Jag did.

You had an excuse, or so it would seem, although we’ll never know the how and why of it.

Jaguar had none. I trusted him and he betrayed that trust, end of story. ”

“Jag looked after me. He saved me when you and your brother were treating me like shit. I’d be dead now if it wasn’t for him — and need I remind you that you sent him to me, time and again when you were too weak, or distracted by other pussy, or raging like a madman, to face me yourself.”

“More fool me,” I snap.

Despite my retort, the truth of her words batters me like fists, one after the other.

Deep down I can’t deny any of her accusations, and it’s not lost on me that Mother is right.

The old Angie, full of fire and intelligence and challenge, is back.

Clearly she had been in a thrall this whole time and I’d been blind to it.

And if the child upstairs is, as she claims, my son, then getting to the bottom of her accusations against Viper and of Jag and Spider’s roles has never been more important.

But I can’t do it with her here, throwing past mistakes into my face, making me doubt and hate myself.

Making me want to put her over my knee and thrash her into lustful submission. I need time to think.

Throwing my shoulders back and raising my chin, I point to the door.

“You’ve said enough.”

She steps close and pins me with her eyes.

“I’ve barely begun.”

I stiffen at her renewed proximity, noticing for the first time the bite marks on her neck.

Just as of old, I feel the need to protect this woman before me.

The instant rage I feel knowing her perfect skin was marred, that she was assaulted yet again under my roof, under my protection, is indescribable.

No matter that she rages against me, hates me, I’m drawn to her, always have been, and she’s mine to protect.

Instinctively, I reach out. She flinches, but doesn’t step back as I place my fingertip on one of the marks, the puncture wound still raw and red around the edges.

Her scent, natural and sweet and forbidden, hits my nostrils, tinged with the trace of blood and milk.

Mother had said the Princess attempted to harm her, but I’d thought little of it since then, knowing if it was serious Angie would be dead.

Revna is not known for playing around. I’d been so blindsided by Viper’s death that I’d put this issue aside for attention another day.

But if she bit Angie it was more than jealous threats that she’d intended.

And after tonight, it’s very clear why. She doesn’t hold a candle to my wife.

‘I will fuck you up for this, Revna.’

For a second, a long second, I want to lean in and kiss the marks away. I want to hold my wife, the first human woman I’ve ever loved, the first woman I’ve ever truly loved, and beg her forgiveness. I want to promise I’ll avenge her, that no other will ever hold her in thrall or bite her again.

‘But she’s made it clear, in thrall and out, that she despises me. She cares only for Jag.’

“The Princess will not go unpunished for biting you,” I murmur as I gain control of my warring emotions and meet her hard gaze.

“I’m sure the spanking couldn’t be bestowed upon a more grateful recipient,” she spits, before turning on her heel and stalking from the room.