Chapter Nine #6
Lyall scoffed. “And you’re even protecting that thing, too? My gods, Tristan, what the fuck happened to you? How could you possibly sink any lower?”
I poked my head out from behind him. “Hey, guys, why don’t you back off? You saw just like everyone else that Ronin put us under a spell.”
Lyall turned a curled lip on me. “Don’t bother with your tricks, demon. Everyone knows that demonic compulsion breaks under an unbendable will, so...” He drifted to Tristan, the corner of his curled lip slightly drifting up. “What does that say of yours?”
Oh, I thought, expression hardening. He’s enjoying this.
“Of course, you’re weak.” Lyall spat at Tristan’s feet. “You let a vampire defile you, and then you let that disgusting, diseased-ridden thing make you its pet and dildo— Seriously, who’s ever even fucking seen warts that big?!”
I flushed hot, but Tristan didn’t. Gazing up at him, he didn’t have the slightest reaction to the taunts of his fellow wolf. To be honest, he looked kind of bored.
No, it was slowly dawning on me that the only reason Tristan was standing there putting up with Lyall’s bullshit, was because he was focused on getting me out and away from them safely.
Shame filled me to the brim. This was the guy I was worried about?
The man who sat next to me in the mess hall when everyone else ran away from Ronin?
The man who stopped Ravenscar’s fae guard from beating me into paste the first day?
The man who was ready to tear down the gates of hell and hunt any and every man who tried to neg me?
The man who was hit with a lust spell, and still asked for my consent before having sex with me?
This is the guy I’m worried might have my sister locked up against her will?
“No,” I whispered. “Not you.”
I didn’t have proof, and I definitely didn’t have Sabrina’s agreement, but I’d gotten this far by trusting my instincts. I wasn’t going to give up on them now that I’d made the first ever friend in hell.
“But you know what?” Lyall crowed, throwing out his hands as he backed up. “As revolting as your little show was, it solved a problem for us.”
“A problem?” Tristan’s brows crumpled. “What are you talking about?”
Lyall was really fricking smiling then. “I’m talking about this.”
Lyall didn’t move, but a tall, dark-haired alpha behind him did. The guy held out his phone, and played the video of me and Tristan banging on the desk in all our glory.
I cringed. Actually, it was only half the glory since that video showed Tristan having sex with a hideous, three-toothed, hairy-warted green beast.
Ugh. No wonder no one was hooting, hollering, or paying much attention to us having sex. This has to be the biggest boner-killer of a sex tape ever made.
“Disgusting, isn’t it?” Lyall said. “The alpha mothers will be saying the same thing when we send this to them.”
“What?” Tristan came alive. “No, don’t!”
“Why not?” I wanted to punch that smirk in. “Is it because you know that even if you manage to scrape together another pack filled with rejects and losers, it won’t even matter because once our treasured women see you fucking this, they’ll never let you fuck them.”
“Cut the shit, Lyall,” Tristan growled, surging forward and swiping at the phone.
It was snapped back and out of his reach in the nick of time.
“You cut the shit, No-Name.” Lyall snapped his fingers and they all held up their phones. The video was clear on every screen. “So, here’s how it’s going to go. If you don’t want the alpha mothers to see this, you’ll face us all in a fight to the death.
“Each of us,” he gritted, “one by one, until one of us succeeds in killing you.” Lyall lifted his chin. “If you take us all out, no one will dare deny that you deserve to be welcomed back into the pack. But if you die, you’ll go down as the worthless, demon-fucking leech food you are. Deal?”
“Deal?” I shrieked. “No deal! What is wrong with you? You can’t—!”
“Deal,” Tristan said.
“Wait, no!” I shot in front of him. “You can’t do this. You did nothing to deserve—”
“It’s done, Charlie.” Tristan scooped me squealing into his arms. “I’ve agreed to your fucking terms, brother—”
My heart stopped. Brother?
“Now get out of my way.”
Lyall swept to the side, grandly gesturing and grinning away—ever the irritating fool.
“And just so we’re clear,” Lyall said, stopping Tristan just short of the door. “By one by one, I mean one after the other. Tomorrow night. No breaks. No mercy. Until you’re dead.”
Tristan whisked me away before I started shouting.
“TRISTAN?”
Tristan laid me in my bed and drew the covers to my chin. Sabrina slithered up onto the bed next to me, getting comfortable.
Bending down, he brushed the barest, lightest kiss across my forehead—an act so intimate, it made me blush harder than what we got up to in Somnus’s class.
He turned to go.
“Wait, let’s talk—”
“Charlie.” Something in his voice stopped me in my tracks. “I probably won’t see you again after tomorrow, so I just want to say...” Meeting my eyes over his shoulder, he smiled. “I’m glad it was you.”
He was gone and out the door before I found my voice to reply.