Chapter 15 Draven #2
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Hades warns. “We’re not being watched right now, council scum, and I’ve got no qualms about fucking you up.”
“Don’t do that sort of thing in my presence. I’d hate to have to witness such pathetic displays of posturing,” Maeve says.
Her face has paled, and her scent shifts—sharp, bitter, wrong—but I can’t decipher the meaning yet.
“Let’s get back to Helen. Are you seriously upset with me for talking to my aunt?” Lucifer asks.
“You practically fucked her,” Hades taunts. “Oh, Auntie Hel, you know how much I’ve missed you. Let me steal you away from—”
Lucifer launches himself at Hadrian, and Maeve freezes in place. The acidic, sharp stench of her fear burns my nose, and my chest tightens painfully.
“That’s enough,” I snarl, grabbing the back of Luc’s shirt and hauling him off Hadrian.
He doesn’t fight my hold. He could shift—could escape from me if he wanted—but he lets me drag him back like he knows better.
“If you two don’t stop this, I’ll snap the pair of you in half and feed you to Maeve’s enemies for dinner,” I hiss. “Lucifer, if you can’t take it, stop dishing it out. Hadrian, you know damn well your cousin could do real damage if he wanted to, so don’t taunt him.”
Maeve is still pale, but the relief on her face warms something deep in my chest and eases the knot of tension strangling me since we walked in.
Julian gapes at me like a fish out of water. “How the fuck did you manage that?”
“Because I am a powerful shifter who has the respect of these idiots,” I say. Then I let my eyes flick to him, sharp and cold. I can’t help my own jab because I do not like the pegasus. “Unlike you, who seems to do nothing but cause trouble.”
“I didn’t come here for him.” My little angel’s lie is so obvious even the walls could hear it, but thankfully, nobody calls her on it.
Lucifer’s jaw flexes. “I’m sorry you feel like I’ve betrayed you, princess. I never… I never meant to keep something from you.”
“You didn’t keep something from me,” she says bitterly. “You lied—by omission, fine, but you still knew what you were doing.”
She’s angry. Hurt.
Betrayed.
I feel my ursarix surge towards her emotions like he wants to take them from her by force. We would rip the pain out with claws if that would help her.
We’d fix everything. My ursarix and I would burn down worlds so she never has to lift a hand.
My dominance pours out, no matter how hard I try to contain the energy, and Maeve’s the only one unaffected. Lucifer’s eyes darken, and I know he’s feeling the pressure to fix it.
“Helen and I… she’s the only person who has ever cared about me. If it wasn’t for her, I have no idea where I’d be right now. She’s the reason I got out of this place—out of the fucking family.”
He looks wrecked. I get it. Hurting your mate—being the cause of their pain—destroys something inside you that doesn’t grow back.
Silence takes over the room, and Maeve’s eyes narrow. But she’s listening.
There’s still hope for him just yet.
“She warned me what was coming. She helped me plan. Helped me leave. She organised everything so all I had to do was find the courage to just go.”
He swallows roughly, and I fight the urge to bring him in for a hug.
He’s my mate’s mate. My kin. My… well, he’d be an integral part of my sloth, if I ever wanted one.
“She risked everything to help me. Her mating. Her safety.” He drags his shaking hand through his hair, blowing out a slow breath. “She’s kept in contact, too. Helping me where she can. Slipping me information where she can. She might not be blood, but she’s proven that she’s family.”
Maeve’s expression cracks, and she looks down at her hands so that we don’t notice.
Silly girl—I could never miss anything concerning her.
Her salty tears hit the air, and they anger my bear so much his snarls cause my chest to vibrate.
I turn slightly so she doesn’t see the way it guts me.
We all stay quiet. This is their moment. Not ours.
But if he crosses the line, I’ll tear him apart.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispers. Her voice is husky with her pain.
“Because you hated them, and for good reason,” he says softly. “I hate the fucking lot of them. Nothing I said was a lie. And I’ve never really talked about Helen’s help before, so it… continued.
“I should’ve warned you when I knew we’d be seeing her. I should’ve told you the truth. I’m sorry, pretty princess.”
Maeve shrugs, still refusing to look at us. “I get it. Thanks for… sharing.”
“Well, now that we’re done with the dramatics, can we get onto what is actually important?” Torin demands.
I don’t know who this fucking prick thinks he is, but I’m done with it.
“You and me. Outside. Now,” I command, nodding towards the door we came through.
“Oh, don’t leave on our account, Daddy,” Lucifer whines, and it’s only the sound of Maeve giggling that keeps me from crushing his throat right there.
Fucker.
He knows she’s the only thing keeping him alive. Unlike every sane person in the world, Lucifer is thrilled by that prospect.
“Now, Torin,” I repeat when the lazy cunt doesn’t move.
The panther sighs like I’m inconveniencing him, but he obeys. I don’t have to tell the others to stay put—they wouldn’t dare follow anyway.
Not when I’m like this.
He leads us out into Maeve’s garden instead of the front, and I’m mildly surprised at how well he knows her home.
It’s a question for later, though.
Right now, I don’t care where we are as long as there are no witnesses.
Whatever makes smashing his face in easier to get away with.
“Problem, your highness?” Torin asks, leaning against Maeve’s wall like he owns it.
I sneer. “Your fucking attitude. I’ve had enough. She’s not yours to insult, Ashford.”
“Oh, is that it?” He lets out a low whistle, his green-gold eyes darkening. “You’re really this fucking jealous I’m taking her attention from you?”
I move before he’s even finished speaking, my forearm driving into his windpipe. His back hits the wall with a thud, and it’s by sheer luck that his head doesn’t slam into the bricks.
He chokes, but he doesn’t fight me.
Smart. If he tried, I’d make sure he never breathed right again.
Who needs a warning when an ending is even better for my rage.
“Obviously fucking not.” I press harder when his eyes flash amber like he’s thinking of shifting. I won’t let the cheeky bastard escape this.
“I’m furious that you think you’re entitled to speak to her that way.”
My chest heaves, and I breathe through the urge to tear his head off his shoulders.
It wouldn’t do Maeve any good to come back to a corpse in her garden.
Especially not when it would involve calling Adrian or one of his council pets.
It’ll have to wait until he next visits the pride.
“Whatever you think of her, she’s mine,” I growl.
I drop my arm, and he gasps in air like a dramatic fucking fish out of water.
The bruises already forming on his throat give me a sharp, ugly satisfaction, and I hope they don’t heal too fast.
“Does she know?” he rasps.
I shrug. I don’t know how to answer that without telling him more than I want to share.
She doesn’t want me. She can’t.
She’s better without me.
And she knows it.
“Really, Drav?”
“She’s rejected me. I’m fine with that,” I say. My ursarix hisses violently, and I have to block our connection.
He’s not outing us for any lies we tell today. I turn back around to face Torin so he can see how serious I am about this.
“But if you keep acting like this, I won’t be responsible for what happens next.”
“You don’t get it, man,” he says. “Everything I’ve heard of this girl… she’s the one who isn’t good enough for you.”
He kicks at a rock on the ground, and I watch it ricochet across the garden.
“Stop disrespecting her things,” I hiss.
“It’s a fucking rock,” he hisses back. “She’s fucking worthless, Draven. A pathetic ice princess crying about her problems when she’s got none.”
I whirl back around, but my voice stays calm—deadly calm—because it works so much better than shouting.
“Just because you can’t see the value of something, Torin, doesn’t make it worthless,” I say. “She’s survived more than anyone I’ve ever known, and she’s done it alone. If you say another word like that to her face, you’re done.”
And if I had my way, I’d pound that message into his skull. Over and over until the light leaves his eyes.
Maeve is mine to protect.
From danger. From men.
From the venomous words that tear into her fragile self-esteem.
She’s my mate.
Whether she ever wants me or not.
“How can you see past the bitterness?” Torin asks quietly. He sounds almost thoughtful.
The back door opens, and I freeze, rearing back to attack, before relaxing when I scent the familiar black cherry and ash.
“She’s wrecked, and we’ve got shit to go over,” Lucifer says without a hint of apology for interrupting us. His icy blue eyes glint in the harsh spring light, and I know he’s gutted that there’s no bloodshed.
“Can this beating wait until she’s napping?” He rocks back on his heels, and the unasked ‘so I can be there, too’ rings through the air.
“Oh, of course, we can pause for the privileged rich girl,” Torin snarls, pushing past me.
He dodges a kick from Lucifer on his way back inside, and the imp cackles as if it’s the funniest thing he’s ever seen.
“He’s a real delight,” Luc says dryly. “If we were anywhere else…”
“Trust me, I know,” I say, shaking my head.
But I hope my words stick somewhere in his arrogant skull so I don’t need to put my oldest friend in the ground.
I follow Lucifer back to the living room, arriving just in time to hear Hades ask Maeve about the forced therapy visit with Dr Jones.
“I’m not happy about seeing her,” Maeve says bitterly.
Torin’s sneer is impossible to miss, but we don’t call him out on it.
There’s no point.
He’s been warned about how to behave around my mate. If he steps over the line again, he won’t walk back from it.
On my own, he’d put up a good fight. Sure, I’d still kill him—my ursarix would insist on it—but I’m not alone anymore.