Chapter Six

Brax POV

It doesn’t even take Kai a full second to react.

He lunges forward, grabs Raine by the waist, and rips her off me. Her back slams into the wall with a sickening thud.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” he roars.

Rage explodes through me. I’m off the table in a blur, slamming Kai into the opposite wall hard enough to crack the plaster. My forearm pins him by the throat as my fangs rip through my gums.

“Touch her again and I’ll fucking kill you,” I snarl, voice distorted by the partial shift.

“He’s a vampire hybrid?!” Vane’s growl is pure fury.

Before any of them can move, one of the guys behind him shoves forward and grabs me. I don’t fight him, I stay locked on Kai, fangs fully extended.

“She’s my fucking fiancée,” Kai spits, eyes blazing with possessive anger. He reaches out and yanks a thin silver chain from around Raine’s neck, holding it up. A mating ring, intricate, ancient-looking, clearly symbolic, dangles from his fingers.

My stomach drops. My eyes snap to Raine. She’s staring at me, wide-eyed and frozen.

The guy gripping my arm suddenly shifts his weight. I catch the flash of a blade, obsidian-black with a glowing red tip. Before he can drive it into my side, Raine moves like lightning. She shoves the man back with both hands.

“Stop!”

“You knew?” Vane snarls, stepping closer, betrayal thick in his voice.

“Yes, I knew!” Raine snaps. “And he hasn’t hurt me. This is my fucking shop, my business! Now back the hell off!”

She whips around and glares at me, chest heaving. “Release him. Now.”

I hold Kai’s throat for another dangerous second, then slowly loosen my grip and step back. My fangs refuse to retract, still throbbing with the need to tear into him.

Kai rubs his throat, glaring daggers at me. “What’s your fucking issue, hybrid?”

I almost tell him the truth, that she’s my mate, that the bond is already singing in my blood, but I catch the raw panic in Raine’s eyes and bite it back.

Instead, I lean in close, voice low and lethal.

“Never touch a woman like that again. I don’t care what your reason is or who the fuck she is to you. Touch her like that one more time and I’ll rip your dirty throat out and paint the walls with it.”

Kai swallows hard, his hand still pressed to his neck. For the first time, real fear flickers across his face.

“Father needs to know about this.” Vane looks at her.

“Go ahead, tell him. Do you think I care? I’m an outcast, Vane, I always fucking was and I always will be. This is my life, my business. I get to choose who I tattoo, and he hadn’t touched me, or hurt me.”

“We’re not leaving,” Kai snaps and leans against a unit. “And don’t you fucking dare straddle him again. You’re the future Luna and have your legs wrapped around the enemy!”

I want to say she did far more than that, but stop myself. Axel walks through and grabs a folding chair, putting it up, he slams it down. “You can sit there, then there’s no need for her to fucking kneel over you.”

Cain moves to the broken chair and begins to fix it. I sit down, not even bothering. I watch Vane and Axel settle as well, eyes on me.

Raine moves, she kneels on the floor so she can be low enough. No, that’s not fucking right. I turn and glare at them. “You’re going to let your sister, your future fucking Luna kneel on the floor like some mutt slave?” I snarl.

“Better her kneeling on the floor like a slave than over you like a whore.” My body tenses and she glares at me. Clenching my fists, I stay still. I could kill them all so fucking easily, they have no fucking idea, none, at all.

She works quietly, doing the tattoo. I don’t like this. I don’t like that they control her so much, that they would make her kneel on the floor like some slave.

Do they know she’s a witch? It would explain why they protect her so fiercely and why her mother hates her so much. I look at Kai and he glares at me. His neck is bruised from where I gripped him.

I should have killed him, ripped out his throat there and then. That though would be proving them right.

That would be showing them I’m a monster, despite the fact I’m not. We were handed the title so we made it work for us, we’re not monsters, not in the sense they believe. Not in the way they tell stories to pups to scare them from us.

The tension in the room doesn’t settle at all. She’s my mate, how do I work this? She’s set to marry Kai, and that fucking ring around her neck is a warning to all wolves she’s taken, she’s always promised to someone else.

If he claims her, I’ll slaughter the entire pack and take her back.

Right now I can’t do anything, I need to speak with her alone but her brothers and friend aren’t going to leave. So I’ll have to find a way to get to her, to speak to her and sort this.

She’s mine, whether she wants to accept it or not. Our wolves won’t let us ignore this bond.

“You need to finish,” Vane snaps and she turns glaring at him.

“I don’t need to do anything!”

“Venom,” Axel mutters. “We’re trying to protect you.”

“You think I need protecting from this idiot?” She gestures to me. Damn, she’s fiery. “I’ve destroyed men stronger, and I can easily destroy him. I need protecting from mother, but no one stands up there, do they?”

“She has her reasons.” Vane looks at her.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot, a whore’s child,” she snaps, and turns back to the tattoo. “I’ll finish when I want.”

“Venom, come on,” Cain looks at her. “You know being late won’t help things.”

She pauses her movements. “Fine, give me two minutes to finish this section.” She continues on and I wonder what is happening. She mentioned she was busy, hence I came early.

A minute later she pulls back and wipes it, then covers it. “When are you coming back for more doing?”

“When are you free?” I ask.

“Tonight, about six?”

“Not tonight,” Kai snaps. “Engagement announcement.”

She hums. “Tomorrow morning? Say nine?”

“Can’t do nine, we’re in meetings and you can’t be left alone,” Vane says.

“Are you done?” She stands up. “He’s coming at nine, don’t like it, send a beta or two.”

Standing, I grab my shirt and slip it on. “See you in the morning.”

I plan to see her sooner than that.