Page 122 of Pretty Little Prey
“She doesn’t appear to be forced into staying with him,” Sly commented, sounding disappointed about the fact. “She seems to…like Daxton.”
“Then, we share her,” Kobe grunted, barely stopping himself from searching the palace for his mate. The werewolf would do anything to be close to her.
“You kill the king, you start a war,” Nikolai warned Bastille in as quiet a voice as possible. Only Bastille, who sat beside him, could hear it. “Think of the prophecy. If you can’t share, you lose her.”
He knew he wassupposedto share her. But the idea of watching Daxton’s hands move over her body…
Bastille’s fingernails bit into the flesh of his palms as his deadly fangs sharpened in his mouth. There was no way he could share her with the man he had grown to despise.
Each of the Dark Ones sat, stiff, in their seats. Until she entered.
The moment the grand doors opened, and Luna strode inside on Daxton’s arm, the Dark Ones’ necks craned to watch her glide into the dining hall in her stunning emerald green dress. In her presence, their shoulders sank back and the pressure in their chests eased.There she is. Nice and safe.
And inhumanly beautiful.
Bastille had mostly seen her in loose-fitting men’s clothes and a dirty, ripped maid’s uniform. This was something else entirely.
The porcelain of her skin behind the silky green gown glowed along with the bun and soft tendril curls of her platinum hair. Red colored her lips, making Bastille want to slam his mouth to hers in a kiss that might convince her not to marry the dragon.
She took their breath away. A collective unit of smitten and stunned predator shifters. So beautiful and delicate and regal in her gown. Soon to be queen of their enemies.
She strode in with her head held high, her gaze on Daxton and Daxton alone. It made Bastille’s murder senses tingle.
Please forgive me, lovely, Bastille thought to himself as she walked by them without a glance. Was she still angry about them turning her into a vampire? How was she going to feel once Bastille killed her new husband?
His hands clenched into fists in his lap. He wanted her walking tohimin that dress. Pledging her loyalty, her heart, tohim.
Not the dragon, Luna. Anyone but the dragon.
Bastille looked over at Daxton’s mother—the woman who raised him and banished him—but she actively avoided his gaze as she stared at the front of the room.She does not wish to see her “failure” of a son. The “bad seed” she had hoped to tame.
Those words she had screamed at him when she told him to never come back, “Monster! I should have never stopped him.” Meaning she would prefer Bastille had died along with his parents, at the hands of Daxton’s father.
All because he was a basilisk shifter.
How were they treating Luna as a vampire?
Unable to hold himself back any longer, Kobe shot up from the table and rushed to Luna’s side.
“Shit,” the others cursed and jumped up to follow him.
Daxton kept a comforting hand on Luna’s lower back as they walked to the royal table for breakfast with the castle’s guests. But she began to sweat as she passed Bastille and his men.
Last night, Daxton had spoken to her about her desire for Sly, and she had admitted to him that she experienced desire for…several of the men.How did I end up here?She was not some kind of femme fatale. Daxton, Bastille, Kobe, Sly, and Nikolai.I crave all of them. Her hormones ruled her when they were around, and now she did not even have the excuse of being a prey surrounded by overwhelming alpha predator pheromones.
There was something aboutthem. Yearning, lonely, misunderstood, twisted, dominating, doting. All of their traits seemed to blend together into everything Luna needed. Everything she related to and desired and…Can I truly turn to putty in the hands of so many predator shifters?
Her vampiric hearing picked up on the heavy steps of multiple men walking up behind her and Daxton. Anxious sweat slicked the back of her neck. She believed they would not hurt her, but they might hurt Daxton. And she liked Daxton.
In contrast, Daxton made Luna feel calm and comforted, like she could be utterly herself and always be cared for and protected. She literally committed murder in front of the man, and he waved it off. Meanwhile, Bastille made her blood run hot. He made her feel fiery and violent. And passionate. There was something about that dangerous-looking, tattooed man that called to her.
She stole a glance over her shoulder. Kobe quickly moved to her, weaving around various tables, through the dining hall. Meanwhile, the others followed him. Bastille appeared murderous, his jaw in a permanent lock as he scowled at the hand Daxton had on her back.
The Dark Ones lookedgood. Gone was the casual dark clothing the four men had worn in their time in the woods. They were each heartbreaking in their own suits—because they were in a castle? Trying to show up the well-dressed Daxton?
The four men appeared sleek and proper but just as dangerous. The first two buttons of Bastille’s black dress shirt were undone, revealing a peek of his tattooed chest.
Devastating.
