Bloodline Alchemy: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Academy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 6), Lan Chan [free ebook reader for android TXT] 📗

Unlatching myself from Rebecca, I turned my back on him and walked out of the throne room. He could threaten me as much as he liked. When it came down to it, I would always bet on my best friend.

2

Max

Anastasia leaned over the desk to hand me the perimeter sentry ledger. Her ample chest strained against the white cotton of her T-shirt. She held the spine of the book in place, deliberately brushing the tips of her elegant fingers against mine, before smirking and finally letting go.

“Stacey,” I warned in a tone that cut her smile off at its knees. The lion in my mind bared its teeth, mouth opening to give a silent roar of rage. Holding tightly to its reins, I gritted my jaw and injected a hint of amusement into my voice to soften the budding snarl.

Blue-eyed, long-limbed, and brimming with unabashed sensuality, she was everything an alpha shifter should have wanted. It wasn’t her fault that the beast at the primordial heart of me grew murderous at the scent of her. At the hint of any woman trying to stake a claim on something it had wholeheartedly given away to another.

As she retracted into a languid lean on her chair, my gaze lingered on her almond-milk skin and sun-kissed white-gold hair. Without warning, my claws began to prick out. The lion raged just beneath the surface of my thoughts. For too long it had been caught in the thrall of ochre-brown skin brimming with warm pink undertones as though lit by some internal fire. The sting of rejection was still a festering wound.

If she were human, Anastasia would have brushed it off as a catch in my throat. The flash of liquid amber in her eyes told me her leopard caught everything. Her hackles rose.

The tips of her plump lips quivered to reveal canines gone delicately sharp. “You need to take the edge off, boss,” she cooed. “It’s not like we haven’t done it before. You know it would be good.”

The lion lunged, wanting to rip out her throat. Curling my left fist, I leaned my chin onto it. As if that tiny gesture would suffice in holding the beast at bay. It was an effort to keep the gravel out of my voice. “Don’t start.”

Too much dominance. She blinked rapidly. For a second, her jaw clamped shut, her shoulders hunching in imitation of the surprised cat flinching in her mind. The fine hairs on her arms raised as her skin became flecked with goose bumps. The first hint of apprehension mixed with a budding arousal hit my nose. She rubbed gingerly at her arms. Her voice was throaty when she said, “Dammit, Max!”

How the hell was this my fault? Yet the guilt began to pummel at the cage I’d erected around the lion in my heart. It tempered the rage, making the beast sit back on its haunches, growling softly.

Anastasia white-knuckled the desk. The creak of wood was almost deafening to shifter ears. “You can’t just keep rolling around like death prowling,” she said. “At best, it’s unsettling to the submissives. At worst...” Her words trailed off in a low purring. For goodness’ sake!

“In case you hadn’t noticed,” I bit out, “we’re at war. I don’t have time to play nice with the submissives and younglings.”

“It’s not them you should be playing nice with.”

Flipping the ledger open, I broke eye contact. “I don’t remember asking for your opinion.”

A snort. “Let’s call it a public service.”

“Let’s focus on what we’re meant to be here for.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, sprawling on the desk in a move that she knew would scatter her honeydew-and-lilac scent across the room.

Years ago, when I’d had rocks in my brain and my blood was pumped full of adolescent arrogance, I’d gone there. And over a dozen other places with a handful of pretty young girls from the Reserve and the outlying packs. Until Kai had to shit on everything with his too-serious determination.

“Is that who you want to be when the Hell dimension comes for us?” he’d said while rolling his eyes at the latest girl hanging off my arm.

“Aww, get that stick out of your butt, Pendragon,” Ari had laughed. And then Kai put Ari on his ass. As well as the dozen shifters who came to Ari’s defence. And half the bloody Reserve until Durin had grabbed Kai by the scruff of the neck and marched him back to Seraphina.

Thinking of him made the lion inside me lie down on its stomach, place its head on its front paws, and utter a forlorn whine. Six months. Even with Seraphina’s considerable resources, it had been six months without a hint of him.

A crack snapped me from my reverie. I’d punctured holes in the tabletop. Flexing to disperse the tension, I had just glanced down at next month’s roster when the tabletop mirror beeped.

Gwen’s apologetic expression appeared a second later. “Sorry to interrupt but we’ve got a bit of a situation out here.” The vicious growl that rent the air behind her had my recently retracted claws slicing out again.

“Don’t you even say it,” I huffed.

She winced but said a lot of shit I didn’t want to hear anyway. “He’s knocked out four of the guards. One of them is pretty seriously injured. You’re really going to have to punish him this time.”

Counting dead lion brats in my head, I tried to find a measure of calm. “Bring the little shit in.”

Ten minutes later, the little shit stood in front of me, no longer little but more of a shit than all of the stupid juveniles in the Reserve combined. Anastasia couldn’t hide her amusement as Charles stared straight ahead, his arms locked in front of him, and that ridiculous demon blade strapped to his back in its harness. When he glanced at her, his lips pulled up into a knowing smile, the edge of it steeped in cruel mocking.

“Worn him down yet?”