Chapter 40 You do know me
Chapter 40 You do know me
T
wo fucking weeks.
For two weeks she vanished from breakfast time until the late evening, and I lost her every time. There hadn’t been a thaw between us, but my mark was healing all the same.
This surprised me, because short of sleeping in the same bed, we were worlds apart. She was hiding something from me. Whenever I found him, I’d eat him alive.
Maleene walked into the light of the bonfire, dancing to the music playing over the speakers. She hadn’t come to the previous week’s party, and she usually wasn’t back at this time. Her leather-clad ass swayed back and forth to the beat.
That was when I noticed Phio’s eyes locked onto her too, with a filthy grin on his stupid face and eying her like she was a meal. I growled in warning, but I wasn’t sure he’d hear me over the bass. That grin lazily looked up from my mate’s ass to land on me. He walked over, unafraid and unbothered by the glares I sent him. The bastard was only this cocky because we were on land. He wouldn’t be that arrogant in the sea.
“Beasts who abandon their mate don’t get to growl at me.” A sharp warning turned his eyes to daggers despite his smile.
“You know the laws,” I reminded him. I could kill him for openly lusting after what was mine. Beasts like him and me were who put these rules in place to begin with.
“Don’t fuck with anyone else’s mate.” He nodded, but his eyes remained anything but agreeable. “Protect your mate like the gift from the gods that they are.” That last part was whispered with a dangerous bass rumbling in his chest. “When you don’t properly care for your mate, you don’t deserve that respect. If you won’t protect your mate, someone else will.”
I growled, and he roared in response. I hated to think it, but his threat was more impressive than mine. Louder, meant to project across the land that no motherfucker could challenge this Cretaceous titan. There wasn’t much during his time that could take him down.
He shifted so fast. Unfortunately for me, shifting would make me weaker. My humanoid form was small compared to the dinosaur, but I wouldn’t go down like a coward. I squared my shoulders and prepared for the fight of my life.
“Enough,” Mal commanded with the voice of the ocean behind it, as she stomped over. “Now, Phio.”
“Are you sneaking off to meet him?” I asked, glaring at the rapidly shrinking spino as he turned back into a man.
“Yeah,” she sneered at me. “Because I can withstand another man's touch. I should let him kill you so I can be done with this.” She pointed at the broken mark peeking through under her low-cut top. “But that would traumatize the children. So knock it off.”
“I didn’t start this. He came up to me,” I snarled at her and she just hissed.
“Don’t try me, Kam.” He grinned, that predatory gleam still in his eyes. “It does nothing but benefit my agenda to wipe you off the earth.”
If he defeated me, he could mark over me. He’d prove his dominance and override my claim. When Maleene didn’t argue with his words, I tasted bile in my throat. After all these years of watching my blind spot and covering my weaknesses, she made no effort to defend me.
I followed her when she walked away. “You really would let him kill me.”
She whirled around and her eyes glowed like a maelstrom at sea. “You almost killed me. Every breath has tortured me for decades. You… betrayed me.”
“So you think being a paramour for him would be better than being worshiped as a mate?” It didn’t make sense. It was a downgrade package.
Paramours were placeholders. Sometimes we loved those placeholders, but they didn’t hold a candle to the devotion of a mate.
I’d have never tolerated half the shit Maleene had done from a paramour. “If it gives me freedom. If it takes away the pain. The constant
throbbing…” She gritted her teeth. “I don’t belong to myself. I’m questioned for every step I take when you’re the one who left.” An accusing finger threatened to take my eye out. She swallowed and I could see what she didn’t say. The loneliness and fear. The emotional agony. The cold nights. As if I hadn’t experienced it too.
I tried to grab her wrist, and she jerked away, cradling her arm like I would hurt her. “Don’t make me believe you’ll be here forever.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“Bitch, where do you think I’ll go? I got out of jail and went right to your psychotic ass so you could jerk me around until your temper tantrum was settled. Do you think I’d let anyone else do that? Huh?”
“Temper tantrum?” Her eyes went wide. “Fuck you, Kam.”
She stomped into the compound, and I stood outside to take a few breaths. The Spino lurked in the shadow watching us. When I got upstairs, she was gone. I searched the whole complex and couldn’t even find a recent scent. I sat on the couch, arms crossed, and waited.
Until the sun was back up and my instincts crawled. It was like prison all over again. The worst part of that stupid fucking cell wasn’t the fact I couldn’t move. It wasn’t the chains. Or the complete darkness. It was knowing that my mate wasn’t under my protective fin. I couldn’t save her. That’d I’d royally fucked up.
I searched the entire property short of knocking on everyone’s door. “Have you seen Maleene?” I asked someone who passed me as I returned to the compound.
“No.” The young beast eyed me with disdain, but I ignored him and went back to the apartment. She still hadn’t come back.
A growl rumbled deep in my chest. This bitch.
I dug through drawers and boxes in the house, trying to get a lock on anyone she regularly spent time with. Cassia wouldn’t tell me shit, so there was no point in asking her. It wasn’t like I could press her for any information. Balthazar didn’t let anyone fuck with his daughter. That was how stupid beasts died.
No notes. No paperwork. Nothing. I trashed the place in my search, not giving a fuck that Maleene would ream my ass for messing up the house.
I went to my knees to look under my bed and found a shoe box. When I opened it, there was nothing more than trinkets, but the scent caught my attention. Phio. I could see Maleene keeping diamonds or something of financial value. Everything here was worthless. Which meant it had emotional value, and that thought made my stomach turn sour.
I tossed the box to the side before I burned it or something. I would bet my last dollar that was where she was. What was it about him?
Of all the fuckers to latch on to, it had to be the one I had a history with, going back to nearly the beginning of time. We respected each other, but we weren’t friends. Back when it was a matter of looking out for you and yours, we did shitty things to each other. We dusted it all off, because that’s how things were back then. Eat or be eaten.
But why him?