Page 80 of Cryptic Dreams
“I most likely won’t be introduced to Atticus or Drusilla until after the meeting and even that depends on how things play out. Because I’m your mate, I won’t bow or curtsey to anyone, especially your parents, but if for some reason our paths cross prior to things getting started, it’s ok to nod slightly and return a handshake.”
“Not that I like the idea of either of them touching you in any way, but yes. A quick, though firm shake of the hand is acceptable. Eye contact is imperative. Do not speak unless directly spoken to, do not make small talk. Atticus despises it and would much rather get to the point of any conversation, especially one he initiates. Keep your answers short, sweet, and vague.” Wraith nods to a few males standing right outside the door and dips his head toward mine. “And if for some reason they are able to make the connection between you and—”
“Avoid it the best I can.” My stomach twists at that.
My mate is confident that most of the Counsel members won’t remember my parents at all, and considering they were killed in a very public mass execution along with about thirty other members of the Purists over sixty years ago, he’s probably right. But he also said Hans is one that takes joy from those kinds of scenarios and may even have a running list of victims. Apparently he did back in their homeland and went as far as to take souvenirs from each punishment he carried out.
Here’s hoping that stopped once they migrated because if I find out that sick son of a bitch has something that belonged to my mom and dad…
“God, how I love the way your rage travels through our bond,” Wraith whispers as he nips the shell of my ear before he straightens up. “And those thoughts? So dark and delicious I could just throw you down on the High Elder’s throne and eat your sweet little cu—”
“Wraith, darling!”
My mate groans but my hackles raise immediately at the shrill voice full of unmistakable lust that greets us—or should I say greets Wraith?—the second we walk through the door.
A female with fiery orange hair, muted green eyes and a monstrous rack all but mows me over as she steps up to Wraith with an evil expression on her face. Her hair is twisted up in some kind of knot that looks more like a helmet based on the amount of spray in it, her face covered with enough makeup to be considered a protective layer and her dress—if you can call it that—is even more revealing than mine. And considering I’m wearing the one that Wraith very publicly jerked off to, that is definitely saying something.
Blue and cream, the same blue and cream that every other Counsel member is required to wear because they’re Atticus’s colors, stretches across her chest in a way that has the fabric practically see through, the thin strip covering little more than her nipples. Nipples that are very hard and a little lopsided by the looks of it. The sheer cloth almost touches beneath her breasts before it turns into slightly wider stripe down to her sides to her hips, bony hips at the end of a waist that looks like it’s spent too much time in a corset—andnotthe good kind Wraith ordered for me. The kind that are meant to bind and change one’s physical appearance. Which of course makes total sense since the rest of this stupid female’s gown is basically a loincloth barely hiding what is probably a gross hoo-ha, before falling to a pair of spiked heels that would put her close to my height if I wasn’t wearing a pair myself.
Bitch has probably been passed around the Counsel a time or two hundred judging by her appearance. Might be the only way she earned herself a seat. And now she hasmy matein her sights, but if she thinks for one second she’s going to lay one bony finger on Wraith she has another thing coming.
“God, you are so fucking sexy when you’re jealous.”Wraith’s voice in my head makes my belly flutter. “Morgana.” He nods to the female as she curtseys. “I’d like to—”
“Darling, you haven’t been to the nest inweeks,” Morgana whines. “I’ve missed you so. We all have. It’s just not the same without your handsome face brightening the place up.”
My nails bite into my mate’s arm through the fabric of both my glove and his jacket, my blood pressure spiking to dangerous levels.
What I wouldn’t give to pull my gloves off and claw out this bitch’s eyes, maybe dig through all that makeup until I start shredding skin.
Wraith barely covers his chuckle by clearing his throat. “Morgana, I’d like to introduce you—”
“I was so worried about you, darling. Worried that whatever monster got to the rest of us managed to get to you too,” she talks over him, shaking her head with the phoniest look of concern I’ve ever seen. “And after finding your room in such astatetoo…”Morgana continues flapping her gums but my thoughts are elsewhere.
Especially when I catch the disgusting scent of what I’m assuming is this female’s arousal creeping into the space around us. Arousal over what my mate’s room looked like almost two months ago after he left and never looked back, and it has my eye twitching as well as some very stabby thoughts taking shape in my mind.
“I swear to god, if you tell me you have slept with this horrible female, I might just have to strangle you.”
“Never.”Wraith stifles a gag. “I have never, ever experimented with any member of the Counsel or my father’s court. Ever.”
“You better not have. I know your history and I can live with it, but if you ever even considered bedding someone as vile as—”
“First of all, I told you that yours is one of three pussies I have ever had wrapped around my cock.”
Something he did tell me and I still find hard to believe. I really can’t imagine someone that is nearly fifteen hundred years old only ever sleeping with two other females in the traditional sense, the rest in the face or ass because it didn’tfeel right. Granted, they were both his steady submissives at various points, a regular thing for Wraith for at least a couple hundred years each in addition to whoever else he played with, but still.
“Secondly, I have always opposed my father and his reign, even when he was king because he has never had our people’s interests at heart. Nor does he actually have a heart. If I decided to play with someone that was in favor of him or how he rules, then I’d have to cut my dick off at the root and serve it up to him with a white flag of surrender.”
“Gross.”I grimace.
He chuckles. “Indeed. And also disappointing because Excalibur happens to be my favorite body part, especially when he can get up close and personal with all ofyourbody parts.”
I blush, but my tension eases a bit.
“Third, Morgana is Hans’s chosen mate and as you so correctly thought, she has been passed around the Counsel hundreds and hundreds of times over the years. How does the saying go? Like throwing a sausage into the Grand Canyon?”
“Something like that.”I barely stop my giggle as I turn my face his shoulder.
“And finally, the only reason that truly matters, you are my mate, Zephyr. Whatever or whoever came before you means nothing simply because you mean everything. I have never had anything to do with Morgana or anyone else here outside of these daft meetings, but even if I had, they would be nothing more than a small insignificant part of my history becauseyou, my gentle breeze, are my present and my future.”
