Page 48 of Wedlock (Vampire Bachelor Games #3)

“What the fuck are you doing here?

Jag shakes his head, his eyes sorrowful, and steps back from the bars as I slam my body against them to reach him. I’d dearly like to throttle the bastard, and Wolf, because as sure as shit he’s behind this visit.

“I came to offer my services,” he says quietly, “such as they are.”

“I’ve made a vow. You’re dead to me.”

“The vow wasn’t witnessed or lodged with the Court,” Jag shrugs, “it can be withdrawn as easily and hastily as it was made.”

“I didn’t make it in haste,” I snarl. “And I don’t withdraw it. You came to gloat because you feel safe at the moment with me here, exactly as you want me, unable to rip your throat out to avenge my honour and my brother.”

“Falcon…”

“I don’t want to hear it. You fucked my wife, you betrayed me as surely as if you’d stabbed me in the back with a silver blade. The answer for such treachery is death, no less.”

“I came at the behest of Wolf and your mother,” Jag sighs. “They say you need help finding witnesses to clear your name, and there’s the small matter of another child, a bastard.”

“Don’t judge me, you prick,” I growl, “and I don’t need your help.”

“I’m not judging,” he snorts, “and yes, you do. I’ll find the baby, but first I’ll find someone who can corroborate your story. If you’ll do me the courtesy of telling me exactly what happened.”

“Get Wolf to explain,” I snap, turning my back to him, fists clenched. “I can’t stand the sight of you.”

“Sounds familiar,” Jag retorts, “isn’t that what you said about your wife a year ago?”

“You’d dare to go there?” I hiss, swinging back to face him.

“Sure,” he shrugs. “Sooner or later we have to, and given your temper, it might be best that you’re behind bars when we do. So let’s get to it. You hated her guts, you bit her, you wanted to kill her. You were planning on marrying Sophie and having her son become your heir. You did not want Angie.”

“She was still my wife! MINE .”

“She was a woman who needed protection from a suspicious madman who wouldn’t see reason, who couldn’t see the truth, no matter how often it was presented to him. I protected her.”

“You fucked her. No wonder you kept urging me not to kill her and supplant her with Sophie. You were between her sheets and legs the entire time.”

“It was just a few weeks.”

“A few weeks? Oh, that’s OK then, by all means feel free to stick your cock into any woman of mine when you feel like a short conjugal vacation, brother .”

Even as I snarl this, I can’t help but feel relieved. He’d corroborated what Angie had said. The boy set to inherit my title was indeed mine. But it doesn’t make the bitter pill of knowing my best friend screwed my wife any easier to swallow.

Jag clears his throat.

“I was wrong to sleep with Angie. I freely admit that, and I’ve apologised to her for my part. But what difference does it make, Falcon? I was what she needed at the time. She doesn’t need me now. You do.”

“The difference is that she was under a thrall, Jaguar. You were not.”

He sighs and shakes his head.

“Was I not?”

I grit my teeth and meet his steady gaze.

“Loving her is not the same thing. Falling for Angie is the easiest thing in the world. You were trusted, you were my brother , yet you betrayed me.”

“Yes,” he nods, meeting my gaze unwaveringly, “but not before you betrayed her. She had no one, and I was trusted to be her jailer, her confidante, her emissary. Thrust together with her so often, it’s no wonder I should develop feelings for her.

Yes, she was under a thrall, and I was duped into believing her feelings for me were real, but mine for her were real enough.

Did I betray you? Yes. Did I want to tell you?

Also yes. But she, you and I, we were all played by your half-brother, Falcon.

Destroying our friendship is exactly what he planned, and you vowing to kill me is giving him just what he wanted. ”

“YOU gave him that,” I snarl. “Enough! I want you gone. I need to try and get myself out of this mire of shit, and I need to know I’m surrounded by those loyal to me. You no longer fall under that description.”

“I fear very few do,” he says quietly. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t kill Viper, more’s the pity — Asumpta did. I hadn’t planned to reveal this, and had she done it out of loyalty to your house, I would not have. But more information has come to light.”

I stare at him through the bars. I don’t want to believe him, but I hear the ring of truth in his words.

Viper was killed by someone he knew, that much had been clear given there was no sign of a struggle.

The kill was quick and clean, an execution more than a murder. And Sophie had said a woman killed him.

“You need to know that Asumpta was aware all along that Angie was under Viper’s thrall.

She and Viper were both working with Spider to undermine you,” Jag goes on.

“She’s on the run now,” he shrugs, “if I can find her I might be able to wring out a confession and prove Spider murdered Sophie, and reveal his plot against you and yours. But I’m not lifting a finger until you revoke your vow. ”

I stare at him, visions of his broad shoulders heaving over my wife, of his professions of love as he’d thrust inside her warm body swimming before my eyes.

“Never!”