Mockery is a reflection

Mockery is a reflection
SENECA VEYLOR'S POV

The next sound in the hallway wasn't a growl or a word, it was the impact of my fist against Malrik's jaw.

I covered the distance between us in a single, feral lunge. I didn't care that he was my brother, blood or subordinate. He was a thief, and the sight of Riley clinging to him was a wound that required immediate, brutal stitching.

The force of the blow ripped Malrik's head sideways. He staggered, the weight of Riley nearly throwing his balance, but his grip remained locked. 

He didn't drop her.

"What the fuck, Seneca?!" Malrik bellowed, his voice muffled by the sudden rush of blood in his mouth.

Two words, strained. "DROP. HER."

"Are you insane? She's hurt! She's—"

I didn't let him finish. I grabbed the front of his blood-drenched jersey, the fabric twisting tightly in my fingers. 

"Before I tear your fucking arms off, PUT. HER. DOWN.”

Riley let out a frightened sound, finally lifting her head from Malrik's shoulder, her eyes wide and wet with tears. And that was when I noticed the blood running down a gash in her forehead. 

The tremor in my fingers increased, and so did my grasp against Malrik’s jersey. 

I'd known that Orion's breeder had attacked her the moment I stepped in through the door. What I didn’t realize was that the attack left her bleeding, that it was serious. 

I didn't want to imagine Riley, in all her frailness, being bashed headfirst into the ground. 

But my jealousy consumed me and I wanted her in my arms. 

Not Malrik’s. 

The way he held her was so intimate, so gentle….

Kaeleth wanted his hands off, and I wanted his arms plucked out of their sockets entirely. 

“How did you know where to find her?” I panted. “HOW THE HELL DID YOU JUST GO… right to her?”

The realisation that he had found her before me wasn’t much of a problem now that I wondered how. The bracelet had led me straight to her, how had Malrik known where to look first? 

They were two logical answers, he had his eyes on her the entire game. 

Two… 

I didn’t want to think of it. 

The thought that…

“HOW DID YOU FIND HER?” I roared, shaking too much to control. 

“I followed the scream, man!” 

I shook my head. 

Wrong answer.  

“You heard one scream in a sea of thousands?” 

Malrik shifted Riley's weight, his eyes never leaving mine, daring me to take the next violent step. 

He still hadn't let her go.

“I heard hers—”

“—How?” 

“What the hell kind of stupid question is that?"

"You were gone the second you hit me. You didn't pause for a scream. You knew. You had to have known some way.” 

Riley whimpered, pushing weakly against Malrik's chest, trying to get to the floor but he held on.

"She's safe," Malrik countered. "And I got to her first because my head wasn't full of a self-congratulatory firework show. That’s all that matters, no?"

I shook my head aggressively. 

He seethed, “Then what would you have me fucking say?”

"That you’ve been watching her..." 

He grinned till his bloodied teeth were on display. The smug, filthy bastard looked genuinely pleased by the accusation, like I’d just stroked his ego and his dick.

I continued, "...waiting for a chance to put your hands on her." 

"You're pathetic," he said hoarsely, shifting her weight, making sure I saw how easily she rested against him. "You think I'm going to risk a pack challenge over an injured girl clinging to me for dear life? Stop being a jealous cunt. Now, take your breeder and go. I'm not fighting you with her bleeding out on my jersey."

I shoved him back and he nearly staggered off his feet. 

The argument was over. 

The words should have ended it. They didn’t.

Malrik was right about one thing — I wasn’t going to let this slide. Not because he’d gotten to her first. Because a worthless human—Orion’s breeder—had thought she could make a play and walk away clean.

I didn’t back down. 

I never backed down.

I knew Orion had set his breeder up against mine, and I wanted him to pay for it. Not her. She was just a pawn, and he was most likely the mastermind behind the plan. 

You don’t touch something I claim and get to laugh about it. You don’t send your breeder out to harm and think I won’t come for blood. 

And Malrik should know to steer clear of what was mine. That had been established before we even became demon lords. ONE BROTHER’S PROPERTY IS OUT OF REACH FOR ANOTHER. 

NOT TO BE TOUCHED. 

NOT TO BE HARMED. 

But, in this case. it was Riley I needed to remind who she belonged to. 

Which was immediate, I stepped in to take her, but before I could even wrap my arms around her, she stumbled down from Malrik hold and swayed on her feet. 

I reached out to grab her, but Malrik did first. 

His hand shot out, I smacked it away, leaned in and and scooped her up myself.

She stiffened instantly in my arms, as if she wanted to fight me, then after a few seconds she relaxed, looking everywhere but at my eyes. 

Kaeleth rumbled under my skin like a caged thing. He wanted teeth and blood and to dig a claim into Riley so deep she could never forget it. I kept the dragon under a lid of control because I needed plans, not impulses on what to do next. 

I’d start with the guards who failed her and end with Orion. 

Riley was still shaking in my arms when my eyes landed on his breeder again. 

As if on cue, Malrik was already there and crouching down slowly. He grabbed a fistful of her hair, and yanked her head back, revealing a nasty burn on the side of her face.

“She attacked me first!” she sobbed, cheeks beet-red, “I swear, look at my arm. She attacked me first. It was all self defense. I didn’t mean to—”

Malrik snorted. “You didn’t mean to?”

“She came at me—”

Malrik hummed, eyes lazy. “That so? Because I walked in right on time," he said, almost conversationally. “You had her head right up like this—” he mimicked the motion, pulling her back just enough to make her gasp.

“—and then you smashed her face into the floor. Like this.”

The last thing I heard as I turned to walk away was Orion’s breeder screams bouncing off the walls of the hallways as her head went straight into the tiles.