Page 31 of Sound
“I do not have other females in this house. And I do not gnaw on anything. I am not an animal,” Étienne says through clenched teeth, and I glare at him. “You are my mate. I told you this.”
The other two are choking or coughing to cover up the laughter coming out of them in bursts, but new dread spreads through me. They can find humor in my situation all they want, but I will not go quietly from one prison to another. Unlike with Seraphina, I’m going to give these jerks so much hell they’ll kick me out of here, prisoner or not.
“Like hell I am.”
Looking around, I see a fist-sized crystal ornament under the large vase on the low round table to my right. Snatching it, I cock my hand back and throw it right at his head, but unfortunately, he ducks and it shatters on the wall behind the one with the scar. For some reason, the word mate sounded very romantic the first time he said it, but now something ominous follows when it leaves his mouth. Or I’m scared out of my mind and hurt from them calling me a monster, but I don’t care.
“I will not be spreading my legs to have your vampire babies.” Reaching for another of the ornaments, I chuck that one too. “Do you even have babies or will bats be ripping through my stomach to get out like in that alien movie? Oh my God! Will I be laying eggs? Its eggs, isn’t it? Knowing my luck, it’ll be giant ones like an emu or something.”
I keep throwing stuff at him, all plans for escaping forgotten at the thought of giant eggs coming out from my poor vagina. The other two are now bent over and full on laughing with tears streaming down their faces, but I can’t stop what I’m doing. When I run out of smaller things to throw at him, my arms strain when I lift the huge vase. I wobble around and wince from the stinging in my feet—which I completely forgot are even hurt—and I drop it on his legs. He watches me unmoving with an incredulous look on his face. It shatters too, water sloshing over both our feet as flowers fly all over the floor. With my eyes locked on his, I pant like I just ran a marathon, the sound of the vase breaking echoing and bouncing off the walls in the deathly-silent room.
“That vase belonged to our father,” Lucien says from somewhere in the room, shock apparent in his tone as if he has just watched me kill a puppy. “Étienne, I don’t think she did that on purpose …”
“I do not care about the fucking vase! Out!” Without looking away from me, he roars, and I jump a foot off the floor at the loud shout.
“Brother …” The one with the scar lifts off the chair, but Étienne glares at him until he nods once with an apologetic look thrown my way. “You’ll be fine, little female.” Neither I, nor him, believe those words.
Étienne looks ready to rip me limb from limb.
“I’m not leaving until you calm down,” Lucien snaps stubbornly.
“Very well.” The sigh coming from me when Étienne answers evenly is short lived.
My shriek makes the other two flinch when I’m lifted over a shoulder, my ass sticking up in the air. My hands grab fistfuls of Étienne’s shirt when vertigo makes bile rise in my throat, and my head swivels wildly as I look for something I can grab to hit him with until he puts me down. Nothing is within reach as he strides outside the room with purposeful steps. The last thing I see is Lucien’s face, but he isn’t scared for me. He isn’t even angry. No, he is grinning like he knows something I don’t.
That scares me more than anything else in this whole nightmare.
25
Étienne
Ican’t decide if I want to kiss her or strangle her. The female is purposely pushing all my buttons to snap the tight control I have on my primal instincts, which are screaming at me to make her fully mine. Having Melody’s body so close to me with her scent of blooming roses mingling with that unique one that is all her fills my nostrils and clouds my mind.
My feet beat a harsh rhythm on the wooden floors as I carry her to my rooms where I will keep her until she sees reason—a reason that will not take her away from me. All my well-thought plans go out the window the moment my eyes land on her, and I never think twice whether forging the bond between us is happening too soon. Or if she needed more time to come to terms with it. If she leaves me now …
I refuse to think of the consequences.
“Put me down you big oaf!” Her small fists thump on my back and kidneys while I flinch my hips left and right to avoid her kicking feet going straight for my groin. “I’m going to bite you if you don’t put me down.” She hisses because she’s enraged, though I admit my cock stiffens at the idea of her flat teeth on my skin.
I can’t hide my groan.
Melody stiffens in my arms.
“Nope!” The last letter makes her lips pop, and I feel the sound through my whole body. “No biting. There will be no biting, you crazy idiot. Who gets turned on by biting, huh?” More punches land on my back. “Vampires, that’s who Melody, you dumbass,” my mate mutters angrily to herself, not slowing down her attempt to use me as a punching bag. “Just so we are clear, there will be no biting. Now put me down. Right now!”
My hand lands on her round ass—which is way too close to my face and making it impossible not to smell her—with a resounding slap. Her excitement blooms even when she turns as stiff as a board, and I stumble at the top of the stairs, my fangs finally punching out of my gums with a vengeance.
The female will be the death of me, no music needed.
“Did you just spank me?” Shock, embarrassment, and rage are pitching her voice high, and I can’t wipe the smirk off my face fast enough. Melody lifts her upper body as high as she can and sees it.
All hell breaks loose.
My mate turns into a wild, angry cat, her tiny hands curled into claws as she swipes her blunt short nails at me anywhere she can reach. Her body turns boneless and she almost slips from my grip when she wiggles violently, bringing her into my arms instead of over my shoulder. Her beautiful doll-like face is bright red, but the glare she gives me will make any human male run as fast as he can. Too bad for my mate I’m neither human nor a coward. Reaching my rooms, I shoulder my way inside, closing the door with a kick of my foot before I drop her on my bed. She grunts once and scurries up the mattress all the way to the headboard while I stand watching her.
“Being a mate doesn’t make you a broodmare.” Folding my arms across my chest, I stare at her evenly until she stops trying to mold with the headboard.
“Oh yeah? Then what does it make me, huh?”
