“Good,” I replied boldly.
She threw her head back and laughed as she spun me right back into his arms. His fingers gripped my hips as if he’d been waiting.
The next song dropped with a beat so dirty it was practically obscene. Rune moved with a smooth, predatory grace, hands never leaving my hips. He pressed against me, guiding my movements as we rolled together in time with the rhythm.
“You’re trying to kill me,” I gasped.
“Not yet,” he whispered, lips brushing my ear. “But I’m close.”
I arched into him instinctively, heat flaring low in my belly. My body responded before my brain could keep up. I wanted more. I wantedeverything.
His hands tightened.
“We need to get out of here,” he said, voice rough now. He wove his fingers through mine and dragged me through the throngs of people grinding and dancing around us.
Exhilaration filled my chest as freedom beat through my veins.Finally.
Until Babette stepped into our path. She wore a slinky red number that hung off her body in a more obscene way than the music pulsing through the speakers. The sounds around us seemed to fade as she smirked. She brushed her hair over her shoulder as her eyes bounced between us and our hands clasped together.
“Isn’t this cute?” She sneered.
Rune let out a sigh. “What can I do for you, Babette?”
The corner of her lip lifted as she ignored him and honed in her focus on me. “How does it feel?”
I knew what was coming, but I answered anyway. “What?”
“Having my sloppy seconds?”
It was like everything slammed into slow motion with her words. All of the dancing seemed to stop as people watched the exchange curiously, and I could have sworn the DJ intentionally turned the music down.
Nosy bastards.
This was the last thing I wanted to do. All I wanted to do was get lost in Rune and stir up those feelings he’d ignited within me like before. But now we were having to deal with this…
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “This isn’t the time nor the place.”
She leaned in as her eyes sparkled. “How does it feel to know that he actually wanted me andchoseme? But you are here because of an agreement. He only wants you because of what you can give him.”
All of the blood seemed to drain from my face. How did she know this was arranged?
Her feline-like smile only continued to stretch across her face. “He let me in his office,” she rolled her eyes as if this was a no-brainer. “I saw the marriage contract on his desk. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.”
“Babette,” Rune’s voice cut through the static of my brain, and I blinked. “That’s enough.”
“Is it? Don’t you think the coven would love to know why Ms. Maple is here? Everyone has wondered since the beginning why on earth you would want an outsider.”
Rune squared his shoulders, and relief hummed through me. “Maple is here because Iwanther here. Maple is here because she is an asset to our coven. No, I didn’t send for her, but I see now that the ancestors knew what they were doing when they called her here. Sheishere to help our coven and to stop what’s happening with the wolves, but there’s so much more to her than that. She’s funny, smart, and hardheaded. She’s exactly what this coven, and I have been missing.” He stepped in close so the rest of the coven couldn’t hear what he said next. “
Her mouth gaped open like a fish as he wrapped his fingers around mine and shouldered us past her. His mother waited on the other side with a triumphant gleam in her eyes.
Babette wasa pest I’d been looking to squash for a long time. She put on a good show, and if she hadn’t been such a jealous creature and so manipulative while we were together, I probably would have married her. She was a powerful diviner witch, but she just couldn’t see past her own ego. She was selfish, catty, and petty. Not a single one of those traits needed to belong to the future Voodoo Queen.
She was fun and the sex wasn’t bad, but the rest of her was poison. I was glad I saw it before it was too late. Hearing the nasty things she said to Maple made me see red like neverbefore. I couldn’t believe she had the nerve to try to sway the coven against me in such a manner. I should have known better.
“Rune,” my mother’s voice was commanding through the space, though she smiled. It was enough to stop Babette in her tracks, but keep everyone else placated. She was happy with my response but not thrilled with Babette’s presence. If Babette continued to live in the compound after this, I would be shocked. The rest of her family already lived in the Quarter; she didn’t have to stay here. The only reason she had was because of me. Her family was in attendance tonight, and I wondered if it was their gazes I could feel piercing the side of my face. “May we speak?”
I dipped my head. “Of course, Mother.”
