Chapter 55: ARE YOU FUCKING HER?
RYKER
The blood felt good on my skin.
That probably said something deeply fucked up about me but I had stopped pretending to be normal a long time ago, stopped caring what it meant that violence made me feel more alive than anything else except maybe Amaris’s hands on my body.
Oh, her hands on me and the way she moaned when I did nasty shit to her made me so alive.
I was looking forward to do things to her tonight she wouldn’t be able to walk properly for days. The thought of it was already making my cock so hard. She had that effect on me.
I stood under the shower watching red water circle the drain and thought about Commander Bruno’s throat tearing open under my jaws, about the way his eyes went wide with fear in those final seconds when he realized no one was coming to save him.
Good.
He deserved worse than a quick death for the years of abuse he inflicted on his wife, for every woman he degraded with his presence, for thinking he could talk to Amaris like she was nothing.
My wolf was satisfied, content in a way he had not been since we killed Victor three years ago. Or thought we killed him. Turns out even death was negotiable if you were clever enough and desperate enough.
The door to my room opened while I was still rinsing soap from my hair and I should have been alert, should have reached for one of the knives I kept scattered around for exactly these situations.
But my wolf had already scented who walked in.
Rowan.
I took my time finishing, letting him wait because making my brother uncomfortable was one of my few remaining pleasures in this fucked up family. I wrapped a towel around my waist and walked out to find him standing near my desk examining my dagger collection.
"It’s been a while since I saw you in here," I observed, running another towel through my wet hair.
Rowan did not look at me, his attention fixed on the blades laid out in careful rows. "Well, you don’t really stay here either. Mostly you were out partying or getting into some sort of trouble I needed to bail you out of."
He picked up one of the daggers, the one with the obsidian handle and silver blade that caught light in ways that made it look almost alive. He knew exactly which one it was, knew the story behind it without me having to say a word.
Victor’s dagger.
I took it off him after our fight, after I thought I had killed him and left his body to burn. A trophy, I heard serial killers had some of those.
It made me regret that I had not gotten any trophy off Commander Bruno today, the sudden urge to go back to the courtyard and scout for one hit me.
I guess I would just settle with having Amaris Storme tonight as that trophy.
"You have not been going on your rendezvous recently," Rowan continued, his thumb tracing the edge of the blade. "Well, except now you have started killing pack members."
I crossed the room and took the dagger from his hands, setting it back in its place with the others. "What do you want Rowan?"
He finally looked at me and his expression was that careful neutral thing he wore when he was about to ask something he already knew the answer to but needed confirmation anyway.
"I am going to ask you and I want honesty from you," Rowan started. "Are you sleeping with Amaris?"
The question sounded both stupid and funny at the same time. I had not expected it from him, I must say.
I weighed my options, calculated which version of the truth would serve me best.
Obviously not the actual truth, but how to play it was the real question because my twin somehow had this uncanny ability to see right through my bullshit.
Which was weird considering Rowan could not see through anyone else’s lies, could not read Lila’s manipulation or Cole’s secrets or our father’s carefully controlling tendencies.
Just mine.
"The fact that you kissed her," I drawled, leaning against my desk, "and then act all high and mighty about breaking the bond, now asking me if I am fucking her, is almost hilarious."
Rowan’s jaw tightened. "You know how the bond is, how it’s almost irresistible. This is me with so much control and I couldn’t stop myself from kissing her." He paused. "And then there’s you with no control at all."
I laughed because he actually believed that, actually thought I was the wild uncontrollable one while he was the picture of restraint and discipline.
Sometimes I wonder if my brother thinks I was like others, I had seen Rowan in his wild days, when he was totally out of control. Before he decided he wanted to be Alpha and started acting all calm and collected. Thinking about it maybe that was why he attracted a lady like Lila.
You sure do attract your kind.
"You still manage to keep the moral high ground facade," I shot back, "even when you are clearly not the saint you portray yourself to be."
"Are you fucking her?" Rowan pressed, his voice harder now. "You haven’t answered me."
He was digressing which was smart of him. He knew I was trying to stray off the topic and he was trying to stray off me calling him out of his bullshit.
I smirked. "No. Not yet."
Rowan almost sighed in relief and I watched that tension bleed out of his shoulders, watching him believe the lie because he wanted to believe it.
"Are you concerned because she is to be mated to our dad," I asked, pushing off the desk to move closer, "or because you want her for yourself?"
Rowan stared at me like I had just suggested something obscene. "What kind of stupid question is that? Obviously because she is mated to our dad. That is why I have been insisting we reject her."
Liar. What a liar.
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