Page 94 of Veradel
“Saskia,” Arad purrs, his eyes roving over me, ignoring Lucan completely. “How lovely of you to finally join us.”
Shifting so quickly my bones feel as if they’re going to snap, I stand on two human feet.
“Let them go.”
My voice rumbles through the ground, walls, and thrones. It vibrates the very air with the intensity of its command, strong enough to bend any werewolf to my will.
But Arad is not a werewolf. A smile twitches at the corner of his lips.
“Say please. Then I’ll consider it.”
Bullshit. I know it’s fucking bullshit, but then he presses his knife deeper into Vivian’s neck, and a small bead of blood begins to sprout from the indent.
“Please,” I hiss through my canines as Merrick shouts Vivian’s name.
“Hmm,” Arad hums, swiping the tip of his finger through Vivian’s trail of blood, making her suck in a breath. “Werewolf blood does taste disgusting, doesn’t it? And I’m afraid you don’t soundsincere enough.”
That’s when Kyra, held hostage by the First Guardian, breaks into a wail.
“Gabriel! Do something! This isn’t what we—”
The First Guardian, despite looking as if he’s as ancient and crusty as the earth itself, gives her a nick with his knife, and she falls silent with a whimper.
Gabriel twitches toward her, seems to rethink, and then catches my eye.I told yourolls off me in fiery waves, and he must understand, because he actually flinches. His shoulders hunch, his head bowing in the slightest tilt of submission before his eyebrows tighten and he turns to Arad.
“You said you wouldn’t hurt the rest of the pack.”
“Did I?” Arad presses a hand against his heart. “I seem to remember promising you the only werewolf I’d getridof is their current alpha. Which means I get tokeepthe rest.”
Gabriel’s face goes wan, his fingers still twitching, and my inner Monster begs me to explode. But one wrong move could send any of those blades into the flesh of my pack members, and that’s unacceptable. I have to control my bones and teeth and claws—play this game carefully.
“What do you want?” I grit out. “Name your price.”
I half expect him to tell me to surrender myself, and I know deep down that I’d do it. If the only way to get Saskia and the pack out of here safely is to offer my own neck, I’d do so in less than a heartbeat. But it’s not me that his eyes slide to. It’s…
“Her,” he says immediately, pupils grazing over Saskia so heavily I want to rip them from their sockets. “I wanther.”
My anger is like a flash flood raging through my core, a fire igniting my limbs, until my vision goes red. I should have predicted this. He’salwayswanted her, from the moment he approached her during the last Choosing and he realized how defiant she really is. But he doesn’t want Saskia the person, I know. He wants Saskia the object. The prize. The win.
So I cock my head, about to tell him over my dead fucking body, when Saskia herself breathes out a single word that reverberates through the throne room.
“Okay.”
“No,” I say immediately, grabbing her arm when she moves to take a step forward. “You’re not giving yourself up.” I try to fill my voice with an alpha’s warning, so that she knows this isn’t negotiable. The last thing we need is to be arguing in front of these parasites.
“Lucan.” Her lip curls up, revealing her fangs. “Let me go.”
“No.”Never.I wish I was in my werewolf form so that I could impale her brain with that word. Make her see reason. Still, she tries to jerk away, and I tighten my grip on her arm.
“Lucan, stop. You’rehurtingme.”
I release my hold like she shocked me, horrified to find large fingermarks purpling her skin. Arad releases a chuckle from across the room.
“Well, isn’tthisa turn of events? Looks like you can’t get her to obey, either, Monster, but I’ll tell you what. If you stand for freedom as much as you say you do, why don’t you let her choose? You… or me.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. As every eye flits to me—ranging from the amber of my pack mates to the crimson of the vampires to the varying shades of green, blue, and brown of the human sentries—I know that Arad has me backed into a corner. At this point, the only thing I can do to stop Saskia from giving herself up is physically restrain her.
Which I will. Iwill. That’s what Monsters do.
