Page 32 of Blood Oath
But now, their choices affect Maven. Anything that affects her interests me.
“Hey, Sierra,” he grunts but doesn’t look away from Maven’s door.
“Gods, what a wild past couple of days, huh? I can’t believe the Seeking is already over. Feels like we were talking about it while laying in your bed just yesterday,” she says in a sultry tone, eye fucking Decimus and moving closer. “Hard to believe that was three weeks ago. I haven’t seen you much since then. In fact, I’m starting to feel used and neglected in this relationship.”
At first, I’m sure Decimus will showcase his typical charm and smooth things over with her. But his inner dragon must be in a particularly shitty mood today because instead, he shoots her a warning look.
“The hell are you talking about? We hooked up once, and you fucked my friend Grayson the morning after, right after you set my room on fire and claimed it was from me getting overly passionate. And from what I’ve heard, you’ve been getting plenty of attention from unmatched legacies. So cut the manipulation shit and scram.”
I grin to myself at the way her jaw drops in outrage. She looks both insulted and out of her depth. If Decimus wasn’t insufferably egotistical most of the time, he might have earned a smidge of my respect with how efficiently he called her out.
Sierra recovers and brushes off his words, stepping even closer to him. “It’s true, we were never exclusive, but that’s because we wanted to see what would happen at the Seeking. And now that we know…”
She lifts onto her tiptoes, throws her arms around his neck, and plasters her mouth over his.
A ferocious snarl rips out of Decimus as he shoves her away, his lips curled in disgust and fury.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
She stammers, trying to save face as she reaches up to trace her fingers over his shoulders. “You seem pent up. Let me help.”
“I’m mated,” he snarls, batting her hands away. “Get lost.”
It’s a big deal for a shifter to declare himself mated. I applaud him in Limbo.
Sierra’s eyes widen before she throws her head back in a laugh. “Yeah, right. You don’t have a mating mark. Besides, there’s no way you’re actually mated to that frumpy, pathetic b?—”
Before she can finish signing her death warrant with those words, I materialize and step forward, lowering my face to her level so she can see just how much she does not want to fuck with either of us right now.
“Choose your next words very carefully. Insulting our girl will end with your body found in a ditch.” Then I smile thinly. “Or parts of it, at least.”
The color drains from her face, and she makes a choking sound before scrambling out of the hall without another word to either of us. It’s always entertaining to me how strongly people react based only on what they know of one’s reputation.
Though I suppose in my case, my reputation is fairly accurate.
Decimus swears at me. “How long have you been following me, you creepy fuck?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I’m only here for her.”
He scowls but turns back to Maven’s door, calling through it. “Boo? My dragon is seriously about to break this damn door down to see if you’re here or not. This is your last warning. Speak now or forever hold your peace.”
Wait. Does he not know whether she’s here?
Is our keeper missing?
I want to pass through her wall and check for myself, but the dreamcatchers would rip me apart. I can feel their burn even from where I’m standing. Damn that blood fae and his insistence that Maven keep her privacy.
Fuck privacy. I need to know where she is.
Which is why I reach out and touch Decimus’s arm to send a jolt of my power through him. If he were asleep, it would flood him with all manner of disturbing parasomnia that would send him spiraling into mind-melting madness, trapping him in an inescapable nightmare. But for the waking, it’s merely akin to an overdose of adrenaline.
It has the exact outcome I hoped for, with him unleashing a draconic snarl and smashing his shoulder through Maven’s thick mahogany door.
Whatever protective magic wards she left on it were on it apparently weren’t very strong, which sours my mood further. I dislike the idea that anyone could’ve burst in on her as we just did. While Decimus is gripping his head, trying to clear out the lingering haze of mindless violence, I peek past him into the room.
My darling obsession isn’t here.
Damn them all to hell.
