naked, restrained to the wall. I sensed my pervy she-wolf’s disappointment over the injustice of Alex managing to stay clothed when Remy hadn’t.
Meanwhile, Kaleb was shifting uncomfortably in his seat, wincing with distress as his eyes darted back and forth between Alex up on the wall and Alcaeus defiling my neck. Guadalupe had taken my vacated seat beside him, and she was the one clapping and cackling rowdily, cheering Alcaeus on, pointing and catcalling at both Alex and Remy.
As my eyes found Kai, he paused in his texting to look up and address me directly. Only he didn’t speak aloud, he spoke inside my head. “ Do me a favor, Milena? ” he petitioned . “ Be sure to give them a really good scream, okay? ”
Scream? Huh?
Kai smiled broadly then and gave me the most hilarious imitation of an Alcaeus wink that managed to transform his entire countenance and distract me from further pondering his bizarre scream request.
Alcaeus turned so that I was directly facing Alex again. And then he stopped. No longer threatening, Alex had switched to begging and pleading with Alcaeus, arguing that I had a choice—of all perfectly maddening things, spewing crazy talk about how Alcaeus would never understand me the way he did, never suit me the way he would. Lecturing him on how dishonorable it would be of him to abuse his power over me, and begging him not to mark the only woman who could ever be his true mate in life.
Oh, good grief! What a lot of fuss and drama over a damn hickey. A fabulously pleasurable, titillating hickey, at that, but a hickey, nonetheless. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve sworn Alex almost looked to be on the verge of tears now. Was I missing something?
“ Only this, sweetheart,” Alcaeus crooned inside my head. Followed by, “ I’m sorry … ” as his teeth sank hard and fast into the vulnerable flesh at the juncture of my neck and shoulder, breaking cleanly through the skin to penetrate the layer of muscle that lay beneath.
My eyes bugged wide in shock. And boy did I scream!
I hadn’t a moment to process the reality of what had just happened though—much less acknowledge the certifiably insane fact that I’d just heard a wounded wolf howling inside my own head—because Alex’s face contorted in pure agony, and then he exploded.
He was a man supernaturally affixed to a wall one moment, and an enormous beast of a wolf the next. A beast of a wolf who was flying from the wall straight at me! I screamed again as Alcaeus abruptly relinquished my neck and tossed me through the air—halfway across the room into Kai’s awaiting arms.
What happened after that I couldn’t accurately say, but by the time I turned in Kai’s arms, there were two enormous wolves tearing apart Alcaeus’ living room. A naked Remy had fallen off the wall, and Guadalupe was frantically jumping up and down upon her chair, shouting in Portuguese at the wrestling wolves. Kaleb was in his Cujo form and pacing back and forth at the ready on the sidelines—looking just as awkward and unsure of what the fuck his role was supposed to be as he had while in his human form, I noted.
“No. Fucking. Way.” Kai muttered with a look of awe as the pure black wolf was sent crashing straight through a window.
The black wolf quickly returned through that same broken window to attack the black and grey wolf who had thrown him.
I knew Alex’s wolf was the black and grey one, so Alcaeus’ had to be the pure black. I didn’t relish seeing such violence, but I was too stunned and disoriented to voice that thought.
“Milena, they’ll be fine,” Kai assured. “Let me have a look at your neck, please?” Setting me down in Remy’s broken chair, he reverted to doctor mode, tilting my face away from the fight so that he could get a better view of Alcaeus’ handiwork.
Instinctively, my hand flew up to finger the wound first, as it occurred to me I definitely had to be bleeding. I felt a little dampness at the spot