Page 108 of Rapture's Edge (Night Prowler 3)
“Your trousers,” the Alpha repeated icily, staring in open disapproval at his red-faced wife. Clearly this was not how he envisioned this meeting going. “Now.”
Seething, the viscount unbuckled his expensive-looking black pants, slid them over his legs, and handed them over. Leander tossed them at D, who caught them and put them on.
They were inches too short, the thighs inches too tight, but he managed to stuff himself into them and zip them up. The waist was too large and sagged down around his hips. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared with hooded eyes at the back of the Queen’s head.
He casually drawled, “All in, m’lady.”
Eliana fought the sudden, insane urge to laugh. Leander, however, did not appear to find any of this in any way funny. He watched D with the laser-like intensity of a predator contemplating a meal.
The Queen turned to face him again, her composure regained. “As the viscount so helpfully pointed out, you’ve broken quite a few of our most sacred laws.”
D said nothing.
“But Eliana has broken them all.”
“Your laws aren’t ours,” D said, steel in his voice. “And she is guilty of nothing except putting her trust in the wrong place.”
The Queen appeared unimpressed. “Even if what you say is true, that kind of misplaced trust has its price. Especially when it results in the death of innocent people.” Her voice darkened. “Especially when it means we will be hunted even more fiercely than before. Everything will change now, for the worse. There must be proper punishment.”
D stepped forward with a low snarl, and Leander did, too. The two of them squared off on either side of the Queen, who, judging by her expression, was more irritated than alarmed.
“By all means, Warrior, go ahead and try to intimidate me. But when I Shift into a dragon and eat you, it will be too late to regret your mistake.”
D looked at her a moment. Then, very quietly he said, “Dragon?”
Leander snapped, “Big as this room, you bloody oaf. So choose your words carefully, and show some respect.”
The Queen smiled sweetly. “Or maybe a Kodiak bear, so I don’t damage the frescoes again.” She glanced at the high, vaulted ceiling above, and D followed her gaze, as did Eliana.
There among the pastel clouds and feasting gods and dancing cherubs painted on the ceiling were long, deep gouges and cracks, and three craters where the plaster had been crushed and torn away as if something had smashed into it. Something big.
At D’s look of incredulity, she shrugged. “Learning how to fly is a nightmare, let me tell you. I should never have attempted it indoors.”
D said between gritted teeth, “Celian said you were reasonable, but now I can see he was wrong.”
“Oh, on the contrary! In fact, I have a very reasonable proposition for you.”
His jaw worked. With a livid, threatening glance at Leander, he said, “Which is?”
The Queen’s sweet, sweet smile never wavered. “Give your life in her stead, and we will let her live.”
This shocked the entire room, even Leander, whose head whipped around as he stared in confusion at his wife. But no one was more shocked than Eliana, who leapt to her feet.
“No!” she shouted. “He was only trying to protect me—”
“Well, someone has to pay,” said the Queen, drolly. “I’m sorry, but it’s one of our oldest laws. A traitor’s life is forfeit. So either he dies for you, or—”
“Yes,” said Eliana, instantly comprehending. “I will die for him.”
The Queen gave her the oddest of smiles then. Feral and eerie and satisfied, as if she’d just won a bet with herself.
D shouted, “No!”
Leander moved in front of the Queen, and he and D snarled at each other, crouching, readying themselves to spring. She said to Eliana, fiercely, “You will take the punishment he has earned by his own acts of disobedience?”
“Yes.”
“And you will not resist in any way? You will allow us to proceed as we wish?” She lifted a hand toward the draped machine in the corner.
