"I don't believe it." Fear twists my guts. "He wouldn't do that."
Chloe grips my hand; her palms are cold. "You mean you thought our dad would treat us differently? You forget we are dominions. We are born to be bred."
"But Dad never treated us like dominions." I rub my other palm on my thigh. "He trained us to fight, to be independent, and take care of ourselves."
"Doesn’t change that nature intended us for just one purpose—" "—to be knotted by Leaders." My sound sounds hollow even to me.
She tosses her hair. "Oh, yes. So, you are going to do what? Stand up to the Vikings?"
I straighten my spine. "If needed."
"They are marauders. Berserkers. There are leaders, and then there are Vikings." Her chin trembles. She tries to tug her fingers from mine. I grip her hand tighter.
"So what? Ultimately, they are leaders, like any other. They think with their dicks. They smell Dominion pussy and lose all coherent thought—
I swagger up the grand hall in the stronghold. My booted legs echo on the wooden ground. Massive windows at the side let in the bluish-gray light of the day. The room is packed with leaders who belonged to Alter’s Council. I pass close to one of them, and he steps aside. When I turn to meet his look, he lowers his head. The stink of tension reinforces the air, and the hair on the nape of my neck rises. They are afraid of me. Good. I sense their look following me, yet not one of them tries to stop me. The losers have come to watch the entertainment for today, provided courtesy of me. A low chuckle rips out of me.I stride toward the platform at the front of the room.John moves forward as if to climb onto the dais alongside me.I raise a hand.He halts and wrinkles his forehead. “You know the protocol, Rocky.” His sound is cold. “As the interim second to Alter, I am supposed to introduce you to the Council and its associates.”
“Brother?” Cold sensing grips my chest. “I don’t have siblings.”“You are right, technically.” The stranger props his arms on his hips. “We are half-brothers.”My pulse thuds at my temples.There’s too much confidence in his gait, too much arrogance in his demeanor… He reminds me of… myself. I push away the thought almost as soon as it occurs. No, no way. He can’t have gone through what I have to get here. He isn’t my mother’s son, that’s for sure.Which only leaves one conclusion, and I had thought of it almost as soon as he had stalked up the hall, only I hadn’t wanted to believe it, not really.“Alter, the idiot, stuck his dick in almost every dominion who came his way.” I drum my fingers on my chest. Best to keep talking, until I figure out a plan. My mind races ahead. Alter is out. I am… was the only blood descend
“Boo!” I bare my teeth.The soldier cringes, and sweat beads his forehead.“Really, Z?” My second-in-command narrows his gaze.I raise my shoulders then let them drop. “Okay, a bit over the top.” But, cut me some slack, okay? I like to play with my prey.Besides, I have a flair for the dramatic, one of the few redeeming features I inherited from my bastard of a father. Except, oh, wait, I was the bastard in that relationship, given he’d never acknowledged me…not until I had my fingers around Golan’s neck and recognition had dawned in his eyes. Too late, Pater. Thirty years too late.The soldier’s skin is stretched so tight over his cheekbones that I expect it to crack any moment. The reek of piss stinks up the warehouse. The fool, clearly a beta by the way his shoulders are hunched, has wet himself.I yawn aloud. The sound of my jaws cracking seems to sn
I lift my chin, then farther up, then all the way up, to meet his gaze. To call the General massive is an understatement. He is a monster. A man-mountain, the biggest, most powerful leader I have ever seen.His blue eyes blaze at me.A ripple of fear mixed with something else—lust? Anticipation? — tightens my stomach.His face is all hard planes and dark angles. Long black hair flows to his shoulders. His lower lip is full, obscenely so. It should soften his looks; instead, it only heightens the sense of danger that clings to him like a rich coat.It’s the exact opposite of the faded vest that embraces his torso.His clothes strike a jarring note in the middle of the most prosperous pocket of this city, which is where we are, but it suits this leader. Declares exactly what he is: an asshole who doesn’t give a damn about anyone else.Who takes pleasure in surprising his friends and outwitting his enemies
The double doors swing open, and she races through, leaving behind the sugary scent of her slick. The spicy scent of her fear leaks into the air, laced with that spoor of the rain on cool dawn air that is so uniquely her.My cock throbs, straining against my pants. Adrenaline pumps through my blood. I walk after her, my pace leisurely, yet everything inside pushes me to hurry. Hurry. Go after her, claim her, take her.I’ve never felt such a powerful need as this to have an dominion. Never felt this overwhelming urge to shield her from the gaze of other leaders, to hide her from sight until I have had my way with her. I speed up my steps and walk out into the wilderness surrounding the warehouse.Ethan and Sol stand on either side of the doors, their gaze trained on the figure weaving through the trees.One of the other leaders breaks formation to run after her.“Stop.”He halts and, his shoulders
The leader of leaders had all but fucked me right here in the open, and I had let him.Not that it should come as a surprise, him trying to take me right here in the open without finesse. It’s exactly what I’d expect of a brute like him.But my response to him, the way I had opened my mouth, my legs…my heart…no, not that, not yet, but if I let him, he could get under my skin, and what am I thinking about?He’s treating me like I am a caged animal. To him I am another dominion he can drag off to his lair and rut and—my belly tightens—I want him to do it.I want him to reach down and place his lips where his hand had been between my legs. I need to feel his tongue thrust inside me, feel that thick shaft whose length had throbbed against my waist, fill me, take me, knot me. “Fuck.” I scream more to hear the sound of my own voice, so I can try to shake off this sexual haze that has gripped me. This need
Her gaze widens, and then her body begins to fall. My heart slams against my rib cage. I leap across the distance that covers us and, leaning over, grab at her hand. I close my fingers around her wrist.The weight of her body pulls me over the side. I hook my foot under the space at the bottom of the wall for leverage. She is not very heavy, yet my arm feels like it’s being pulled out of my socket. Sweat beads my forehead. Her body sways in the breeze. Her features tighten, and the color slides from her face. Still, she doesn’t scream, doesn’t panic. That surprises me and turns me on. She’s fucking strong, doesn’t scare easily, and I can’t wait to break her.It’s even more important that I save her.I strengthen my stance and then take a step back. Flexing my biceps, I heave her up. All the while, I hold her gaze. Those green eyes of hers stare at me; in their depths is a grim determination.She actually thought s
Bastard! He knows that pronouncement while not exactly a surprise is only going to alarm me, and that is his intention: to frighten me so that I’ll submit to him like a nice docile dominion. Well, he’s got that so wrong. I am not going down, not without a fight. The leader-hole can go screw himself if he thinks I am going to make this easy on him.He shrugs out of his vest, then places it over the chair near the bed.The arrogance of the brute! He turns his back on me. I bare my lips, then lean low to charge him.He tears off his tunic to reveal his naked back.My breath catches, and my thigh muscles freeze.Without his clothes, this leader is overpowering.I swallow, and my heart hammers.Nothing has prepared me for those shoulders that seem hewn out of stone. His biceps flex, and I don’t need to touch them to know they’ll be hard and ungiving, like the rest of that body he is so ca