Page 4 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

I lean back into the jet’s seat, my fingers leaving holes in the leather upholstery where I’ve unwittingly gripped the armrests too tightly.

The pain I feel right now is indescribable.

I know someone who felt a pain like this once, felt it for hundreds of years. I had no idea how carrying such a burden must have felt.

I do now.

But I owe that someone no apology for making light of their agony.

That someone is the cause of my heartache today.

That someone who was gone from my estate by the time I left my wife and the baby in my suites, thank Christ, and whom I hope never to see again.

That someone who should have known better than to take away the object of my affection, my angel , knowing how that felt.

Even as I think this, the ache intensifies. Twin knives are lodged in my heart, and both thrust by those I’d loved and trusted.

My phone rings and I snigger at the caller ID.

“Et tu, Brutus?”

“Falcon, please.”

“You’ve got a fucking nerve.”

“Please, hear me out. Something’s not right.”

“You’re damned straight something’s not right. You fucked my wife and cuckolded me as you supped on my food and revelled in my hospitality, all the while calling me brother .”

“It’s your brother I want to talk to you about…”

“Enough! My brother was the only one brave enough to reveal what was going on under my nose. He always hated you, Jag, and now I know why.”

“You don’t mean that…”

I lower my voice to a deadly whisper.

“I vow by the power in my blood, the honour in my veins, that if I ever see you again, Viscount Jaguar Speardon of Versailles Province, I will end you.”

I hear his sharp intake of breath at my vow. Once made and witnessed it’s binding and ends only with the death of either of the participants, or in rare circumstances if revoked in front of the monarch, at their discretion and with consequences.

But I have no intention of revoking it. If I see him again, I will kill him.

Throwing my phone aside, I nod to the stewardess to come forward, every muscle in my body tensed for violence.

“On your knees,” I growl to her.