He was suddenly next to me.
“No,” I whispered, my voice shaking as I shrank away from him. My heart pounded as I felt shelves at my back. My eyes searched his as he placed his hand on the shelf next to me. “Please. Don’t hurt me.”
His lips quirked as if amused by the idea. “Now, pet, if I wanted to hurt you, I would have just let Runa do that. But I have another plan for you.”
I pressed my back into the shelves, not caring about the pain as they dug into my skin. My breath came in sharp, uneven bursts. Aodh toyed with my hair before he placed his other hand on the shelf, caging me in. Tears gathered in my eyes.
“Briar,” he murmured as he pressed his body into mine, pinning me in place.
“No.” I shuddered at the way he said my name, the feel of his body that made my blood run cold.
“Don’t worry, Briar,” he continued, his voice low, intimate. “I have no plans to hurt you.” His gaze dropped to my lips. “My brother should have kept you. Someone as gorgeous as you…”
His fingers trailed down the side of my face. He brushed my hair behind my ear, his touch slow, deliberate, as if savoring the moment. Then his fingers traced lower, brushing against my neck.
“Lorcan never should have let you leave,” he murmured. “Never should have let you get away.”
My skin crawled at his touch. Every muscle in my body locked up as I struggled to move, to breathe. I tried to pull away from his hand, but my head only met his other arm.
His fingers hovered over the pulse in my throat. My breath caught as I glimpsed a fang as he leaned into me. “Look at you,” he breathed into my ear. “Such a perfect human. How did he ever let you go?”
My heart thundered against my ribs. I glanced around, searching for a way out, for anything I could use to escape. But there was nothing.
His voice filled with mock sympathy. “Lorcan is a fool. One who will learn in time that he should always keep a beautiful woman at his side, not send her away.”
His fingers tangled in my hair, his hand resting on the nape of my neck. I tried to shrink back into the shelves, desperate to escape him. His touch remained gentle, but it was all the more terrifying because of it.
“Now, pet,” he whispered, “we both know I can do anything I want right now, so don’t fight.” I could feel the movement of the air against my lips as he spoke.
I swallowed hard, but my throat was dry. I had gone from one predator to another.
His eyes drifted closed.
My stomach twisted, and I braced myself. Any second now, I would feel his lips—cold and unyielding. I squeezed my eyes shut, my pulse hammering in my ears. But nothing came.
Lorcan
Aiden flew across the room and hit the wall, small bits of plaster crumbling around him. I didn’t care. I’d have someone deal with it later.
He had touched Briar—my Briar. My fingers curled tight, knuckles white and aching, the tips of my fangs cutting into my lip. If she had wanted it, I would walk away, but from the smell of her fear and the terror on her face… How dare my brother do this, of all things?
I heard a gasp from Briar and glanced at her, Rory’s arms around her. I would go to her in a minute. For now, I needed to teach my brother a lesson.
Aiden pulled his knees to his chest like they moved through molasses, lifting his eyes to mine. They were empty pits, noglimmer of the smug arrogance—just hunger, raw and endless. “Come to save your mate?”
I flew at him, feeling as though I’d gained wings.
“Lorcan!” Briar screamed somewhere behind me. Her voice, cracked and rough with panic, barely found me through my rage. As I reached Aiden, I kicked him square in the chest, my fangs exposed. He hadn’t expected me to keep going, and his back hit the wall again.
This time, he didn’t move slowly, springing to his feet. “Oh, the protective one, are we? Maybe you shouldn’t have chased her away.”
His words were a sharp and clean knife because they were true, but it wasn’t enough. “The only reason I did was because of you,” I spat at my younger brother. “Because you have to have everything. Because nothing is ever enough for you.”
His smile stretched too wide, his chest heaving with the weight of his own self-importance, raising his voice. “Because Iammore than you. More than all of you combined.”
The words slammed into me as I fought to contain a dark smile. He really didn’t know we all carried the same power.
“You are nothing,” I said coldly. “Nothing more than an egotistical, insolent child who believes the world should bow to him in a way it was never meant to.”
