Page 37 of Blood Bought

Sometimes, I was sure he just liked the sound of his own voice.

“I can hear you, Ris.”

I grinned over at Kellian even though I was still annoyed at him for what he interrupted yesterday.“He can’t. All he hears is himself.”

I let my mind drift back to that lunch with Adalind even though I knew Kell was still in my thoughts, and felt my entire mood shift. She did that a lot, lifted my mood or drop-kicked it to the ground when I didn’t expect it. It was frustrating and new and fucking... intoxicating. I couldn’t get enough of her.

“I’m still here.”

“I know,”I rolled my eyes at him, but since he was there...“What is it about her that makes me want to be someone different? Someone that she’d actually want to touch her.”

“Do you really need me to answer that?”he asked, pinching his brows slightly.“You know exactly what it is.”

“No, I don’t. This doesn’t have anything to do with anything that happened before she got here. It all changed when I saw her again. I didn’t give a shit before then.”I knew I wasn’t making sense, especially to someone like Kell who knew everything about Adalind and I and had his own theories.“Whatever, has Sloane been good to you two?”

“You want to talk about Sloane right now?”he asked, raising his eyebrows without looking at me.“Yeah, she’s been fine. Addy would be better, but someone keeps terrifying the sweetness out of her.”

“You remember what I said about touching Adalind?”

“That you’d cut off my hands, yeah. I remember. But I have to say, you’re giving mixed signals here, Ris. You say you don’t care, you won’t just take her for yourself, and yet you nearly murdered me, your oldest friend, when I mentioned loosening her up a little bit for you.”

I growled, I couldn’t fucking help it and suddenly every pair of eyes was on me. “Carry on,” I said through gritted teeth, needing to get a handle on myself before I broke another table that was older than I was.

“See? Mixed signals. Are you still going to sit there and tell me with a straight face that you don’t believe the pr—”

Suddenly, Kellian’s voice was utterly and completely drowned out by Adalind’s. After weeks of silence, I could hear her clearly — moaning my fucking name like a prayer.

I turned my head to listen more, the air leaving my lungs entirely at how relaxed and beautiful she sounded, it went straight to my cock.“Miss Silk,”I reached out, forgetting about Kell and everyone else in that damn room.“Are you finally enjoying the friend I had special-ordered for you?”

“Yes,”she gasped.“It’s better than my fingers ever have been.”

“Not better than my fingers would be,”I challenged, smiling promisingly into the void because she was too far away to see.

“Hush. Don’t ruin this for me, Alaris. I’m almost th—”she moaned, all breathy and needy —“there.”

I fought the urge to run to her right then.“Not yet,”I hissed, fangs nearly popping out at the mere thought of her orgasming without me. Suddenly I hated that toy. It was touching the place I’d been dying to touch since the day she arrived, the one place I would murder even my own father for touching.

“Alaris!”I could hear the desperation in her tone, the hitched breaths, the unspoken plea.“Why not?”

“Fuck!” I stood, not giving a shit about anything else. I’d been bitched at for the two meetings I’d simply walked out of without a word and was trying to avoid that again, but my father could bitch all he wanted. She needed me as much as I needed her. “Adalind is calling to me.”

“Sit down,” my father snapped. “I’ve had enough of her pulling you away from your duties when you’re not even feeding from her. Either sit or I’ll be sending her to Draterion where Kalon can have her.”

My entire world narrowed to that moment, and for the briefest of seconds, I imagined killing him right there. I imagined it vividly, violently, and I imagined it loud enough for him and everyone in that room to see.

He stood, bracing his hands on the table and leaning forward with a challenge in his eyes. “Go ahead, Son. Try.”

“I’m stronger than you now, old man. She’s already marked to be mine. Killing you is my right for threatening her.”

“Not yet, it isn’t,” he leveled. “The marked have certain rights, yes, but you do not have the authority to kill me for threatening her until you’ve followed through. Until then, your Alphas — I — have the right to punish you as I see fit, even if that includes handing her off to someone else. Your duty is still to your territory.”

“Just give her to me,” Ciro said. “A couple of hours in my bed and she’ll forget all about Alaris.”

In a blink, I had Ciro pinned to the ground by his throat, my fangs five seconds away from ripping out his jugular for even placing that image into my mind. “You’re not an Alpha, and I won’t hesitate to rip you limb from limb, Ciro. If you evenlookat her —”

“Claim her, then,” he growled, shoving me off of him. “Stop being a bitch about it and take her so the rest of us don’t have to sit here and listen to your pathetic fucking thoughts about her. ‘Oh, woe is me,’” he mocked, contorting his face into something even uglier than normal. “‘I’m Alaris and my bloodwhore doesn’t love me.’” He scoffed, fixing his shirt and taking a seat again as my blood boiled and I could feel the beast inside me taking over. “Get over yourself.”

“Enough!” my father boomed. “Everyone out. All of you. This has turned into a disaster yet again, and I have business elsewhere. Alaris... I will deal with you later.”

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