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

had been announced. “I’m going to wring her neck,” Astrid had said with cold practicality. The lion had been both amused and concerned. Amused because it was furious too and concerned because it knew she would do it. Right and wrong were subjective in Astrid’s mind. They always had been. Right was the way she felt. Her hatred of Chanelle trumped everything else.

Knowing that no matter how much noise I made, the Nephilim wouldn’t let me near her, had infuriated the lion. A three-hour run in the savannah had only just blunted my killing instinct. All of it fell to pieces as soon as Sophie had come close enough for me to scent her.

Mental shackles drew around the lion that fought with razor-sharp claws to be let free to take her. Agitated beyond reason, I knew for certain there was something wrong with both of us. There was no doubt that I wanted her. But this frustrated, angry need that stripped away my control until I hung by the thinnest shred of sanity wasn’t normal.

Not without the mating link. But there was no sign of the link to be had. The only explanation then was that I was slowly bleeding into vicious obsession. It was why I couldn’t allow myself to sleep in the same house as her. Leaving her with Charles had been the best option. But every night I found myself creeping home, getting closer and closer until I had to fight to stay away.

It was unhealthy at best, and given time, it would become fatal. I had two choices: drown myself in her, something I couldn’t do without Sophie meeting me halfway, or cutting myself off from her completely. Something I couldn’t for the life of me even contemplate. The alternative, the more probable outcome, was going rogue.

The lion snapped fangs at me, drawing me back from the brink, because the sound of voices outside was rising.

It hardly took any concentration to hear their voices clearly. Anastasia wasn’t doing anything to quiet her words, and Sophie’s heartbeat was too erratic to hide her emotions. Gold crept across my sight.

“Stacey’s leash is too long,” Noah had warned me. “She’s not thinking objectively. If she strikes, I’m going to have to hit back.” It had been said matter-of-factly just this afternoon. The lion had stalked him in my mind, its ears pulled back, lips quivering as it tried to determine whether this sudden change of heart had anything to do with a precise interest in Sophie. That’s how far gone I was. I’d set Noah to guard Sophie for a reason.

Noah had zero romantic interest in women. He had even less interest in Sophie, who represented a dark smudge in his childhood. And yet he’d stood there to attention, his posture uncompromising, as he’d announced that he would hurt Anastasia to protect Sophie if need be.

“Beat it,” I heard Anastasia say from outside. “You’ve got no right to be here.”

“I need to speak to Max.” Sophie’s voice quivered. Not from fear but something else that had the lion rising to attention. She hardly ever lost her temper. Not truly. It was a trait she’d had imprinted on her in the compound before she’d even learned to walk.

“Are you as stupid as you look?” Anastasia said. “We don’t need you sniffing around complicating things.”

Noah was right. Anastasia needed to be reined in.

I could almost hear Sophie swallowing back the retort. “Can I leave him a message?” Clever girl. As inner circle, Anastasia was obligated to be a conduit between the alpha and the civilians. If she wasn’t going to let Sophie in, then she had to pass on the message.

Anastasia’s laugh was serrated. “Why would I do that? Do you imagine you’re pack or something? Just because you’ve fooled the children and the submissives into thinking you’re not a threat doesn’t–”

“Which is it?” Sophie said, her voice taking on an edge of steel that had my hairs rising. “Either I’m a threat or a weakling. Pick one.”

Something snapped. I crept closer, the world becoming bathed in red.

But Anastasia wasn’t stupid, either. Her dominant nature demanded that she push, but at the end of the day, she didn’t have a leg to stand on. We’d been together too long for it to count as a genuine claim. And as much as it goaded me, Sophie hadn’t provoked Anastasia in any way.

“You’re a poison,” Anastasia said. “One that needs to be carved out before it destroys our way of life.” The threat was there, hidden beneath a thin veneer of arrogance. Its sharpness was like a blade that cut me to the quick.

When had this happened? Anastasia could be caustic when she felt cornered, but the girl I knew wasn’t vindictive like this. The lion’s lips pulled back. It opened up a thread that lived inside my heart. A fluctuating thread of yellow-gold that was stretched to the point of snapping but currently led nowhere. The pack link.

Last time I’d seen him, Dad was a shadow of himself. Thin and wheezing, he struggled to breathe, let alone speak. The change had almost broken me. It made Charles tear up the obstacle course for twelve hours straight until he was so tired he couldn’t put one foot in front of the other. It was one of the reasons why Dani wasn’t at home anymore. Just like that fear lived in me, winding tighter with every breath, I knew it was doing the same to Anastasia. Her mother was clan alpha of the leopards. Only one thing could strip away all reason and control like this: fear.

Knowing its name didn’t change anything. If Anastasia touched Sophie, I would end it tonight.

“I understand why you don’t like me,” Sophie said. Both sides of me wanted to shake her. “All I want to do is speak to Max.”

“Why? So you can dangle yourself in front of him while playing hard to get?”

Thanks Stacey, I thought. But I can look after myself. Fury buried its hook in