Page 49 of Death Warden
He grinds his teeth and looks away. “I owe Dax.”
“You owe it to Adi and to yourself. Dax will understand.”
He looks at me, a tumult of emotions swirling in his eyes. “No. No, he won’t. Adi is the child he wanted. The one he used me to replace. He gave me everything but his name, and that…that tells me that despite his love, despite him calling me son, I was never good enough to be. If I take his daughter from him, he’ll never forgive me. And I can’t repay his kindness with that kind of betrayal.”
He has it so twisted that my head hurts. I need to explain to him that a fated mate bond can’t be ignored. It can’t be pushed aside, it can’t—
“You coming?” Wendall pops his head out of the meeting room.
“Yeah.” Spectre breaks eye contact with me and follows Wendall into the room.
Curo places a hand on my shoulder. “I’m glad you know. Now you can keep your tongue in your mouth around Adi.” He slips past me.
Fuck, have I been that obvious? I take a breath and center myself. Adi was never an option. My fate is Chrissy, at least until one of us finds our true mate.
Hellhounds take their seats as I enter the room. As club secretary it’s my job to take notes and keep a record of what’s said.
I park my ass at the laptop set up in the corner.
Usually, Spectre would be running this tribunal. As VP, the duty falls on him in Dax’s absence, but Spectre is a party involved in the incident, so as Sergeant at Arms, Curo is next in command and heads up the meeting.
I scan the faces that will decide Rafe’s fate. Wendall, Curo’s second; Hex and Ruby, part of the enforcement team working directly beneath Curo; Odi, our treasurer; and Warren, our wise one, keeping us true to the hellhound ways.
Rafe, the accused, sits in the corner holding a bloody rag to his swollen face. The knowledge of what he would have done to Adi if Spectre hadn’t stopped him makes my hands ball into fists.
If Spectre hadn’t sensed her danger, if he wasn’t her mate, then Adi…I want to tear Rafe’s head off.
But we have protocol, and it must be followed.
Curo slams a gavel down and everyone quiets. “Okay, the case is simple enough. Old Rafe over here was caught trying to force himself on the prez’s daughter.”
Rafe’s head snaps up and his eyes widen. “What the fuck?” His tone is garbled because his mouth is still healing from Spectre’s punches. “She’s Dax’s pup?” He looks about the room. “I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have touched her otherwise.”
“It doesn’t matter whose pup she is,” Warren, our wise one, says. “We don’t abuse our females.”
“Groupies aren’t hellhounds. I thought she was one of them.”
My chest rattles in anger and I tamp down on it, forcing my fingers to type up his words.
“So because she’s not a hellhound you thought it was okay to try to violate her?” Curo asks.
Rafe has a trapped look and then his eyes narrow. “She wanted it. She asked for it.”
Spectre is out of his seat and across the room in an instant. He hauls Rafe out of his seat and slams him into the wall over and over to punctuate his sentence. “You. Filthy. Lying. Fuck.”
Odi and Warren grab hold of Spectre. “Let him go. Spectre, you have to let him go.”
Spectre releases Rafe with a snarl and reluctantly backs away.
The room quiets and everyone reclaims their seats.
“I was there,” Curo states. “You were forcing yourself on her. She was yelling for you to let go.”
“I thought it was a game. Some girls like it rough, they like to play-act and—”
The door bursts open and Bobby flies into the room, his stocky frame vibrating with lethal intent.
Rafe lets out a squeak and then his head rocks back on his neck with the force of Bobby’s punch, but the roadie isn’t done. He winds back for a second blow.
