Zedediah
My shoes hit the ground beneath me hard as I pace down the hall trying to get to Catarina’s room. “Zedediah! Wait!” I hear Melinda’s whiny voice follow after me, but I’m not in the mood to deal with her.
My feet stop in their tracks when I round the corner and notice Luke sitting on the bench rebandaging his arm. “What happened?”
“Your dad’s newest obsession bit me.”
I grab him by the collar, lifting him up. “What the fuck did you do to her?” I pull my arm back before punching him in the nose. Blood gushes from the split skin, dripping down my elbow.
I hear a sound leave him, knocking the air in his lungs free. I lean in so close our noses are touching. “Do not make me ask you again!”
“Damn it, Zed, nothing, fuck. What’d you punch me for?” I push his back against the wall.
“Why would she bite you? Why would you be touching her? Why were you even close enough to touch her?”
He chuckles. “Brady’s right. You’ve got a thing for her.” I punch him again, this time one of my knuckles split. He yells as best he can, “For fuck’s sake, Zed! Fenris demanded to see her. He sent Brady to retrieve her. I followed him. She ran, so I grabbed her.”
“If I find out you hurt her, I’ll kill you. I’ll fucking kill you.” I’m picking him up by his collar when I’m interrupted.
“Zed, wait!” I hear that annoying voice again. I release Luke, spinning around to meet her. “Oh… oh my god, what happened?” Her hands are covering her mouth. The fucking dramatics.
I stalk toward her, pressing against her. “I told you to keep an eye on Catarina. Why was Brady after her? Why did she run from him?”
I hear Luke’s broken voice through the wet, stopped-up sound coming from behind me. “You—you told her to watch over Catarina?” He lets out a light chuckle before making a phlegmy sound.
I spin around. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“She’s who handed Catarina over to Brady. She helped drag her to Fenris.” My face grows hot and I turn to see Melinda cower into herself.
“He… he knew you told me to watch her… he said if I helped him… god would see my faithfulness and he’d ask for us to be paired.”
“Excuse me?”
“Fenris… H-He was going to ask god?—”
“It was a rhetorical question, I heard you the first fucking time.” My bloody hand gropes her chin, bringing it up as I back her into the wall, and she winces in pain. “God could drag you to the altar and demand I marry you, and I would still choose eternal flames.”
Tears spill over her eyes, but I’m not done. “You could be the last desperate whore left breathing and I wouldn’t fucking touch you, do you understand?” Her head bobs with frantic nods, but I demand to hear an answer. “I can’t hear your brain rattle.” I break my words apart, making certain she can hear me. “Do. You. Understand?”
Her voice is shaky. “Yes.”
I snap, “Yes, what?”
She sniffles. “Yes, sir.”
Tapping my fingers against her cheek, I lean over to whisper in her ear, “If I catch you even looking in Catarina’s direction… I will cut you into twelve pieces, as the Levite did his concubine, and feed you to the pigs.” I shove her head away and turn around, listening to her pathetic sobs behind me, but they disappear when I’m met by those big green eyes.
I look at Catarina, her eyes are red-rimmed like she’s been crying. Those pouty lips are pressed tightly together. I watch her body language. It’s telling me she wants to hate me, she’s forcing herself to, but something in her won’t let her. I see the conflict behind her eyes, and a smile tugs at the corner of my lips. The poor thing is caught between anger and something softer. We both know what she just witnessed, but pride is a hell of a thing, and she has more of it than this entire place combined—and that’s including Fenris.
That glint in her eyes calls to me—like a hymn only I can hear. She hasn’t realized it yet, but she was made to kneel at my altar.
I take a step in her direction; she pauses before mirroring my movement in the opposite direction, stepping back. But she halts when I take another step. Her pretty green eyes stay fixed on me as if she’s daring me to close the distance, so I do. I take another, shrinking the space between us. Her feet trip over one another before she catches her balance, but her eyes never leave mine.
There’s very little space between us now, so I whisper, filling the quiet, “Don’t go soft on me now. I liked it better when you looked like you wanted to stab me.” Nothing moves except for her eyes that are now in tiny slits as she bores holes through me. “You know…” I let time and space stretch as I continue to close in on her. “There’s something about the way you glare at me that makes it hard to tell if you want to kill me.” I take another step. “Or ride me.”
She stands her ground, but I watch her shoulders tense. Then, out of left field, she lets out a laugh. “I’m sorry, you’re joking, right? You can’t handle either one. But, nice try.” Something light flutters in my stomach, and I grin. There it is—there she is. He didn’t break her.
She crosses her arms, gazing up at me, and I feel the blood rushing to the base of my dick as it starts to stiffen. I take another step, daring her to make the next move.
