cheeks as he mouthed words Chase couldn’t hear.
As if in slow motion, Ethan’s eyes closed and he slumped to the ground. Chase scrambled to his
feet, slipping in the damp grass. Rage erupted in his chest as the realization hit. He lunged at Damian,
aiming for his neck, but Damian only laughed and stepped aside as Chase stumbled to his knees, his
head throbbing and blood running down his forehead and blinding him.
“Chase!” someone yelled from behind, a voice that barely cut through the ringing in his ears.
Strong arms grabbed him from behind and pulled him away. He fought whoever held him,
struggling to get away, to get back to Ethan, whose lifeless body was a mere shadow in the moonlight.
Damian laughed and motioned to the men beside him. They dragged Ethan’s body away by his
feet, his arms stretched out behind him.
“No!” Chase screamed, fighting against whoever was pulling him away. “Ethan!”
He almost got away, but two other sets of arms grabbed him and pulled him back. He dug his
heels into the wet grass, but whoever held him was much stronger than Chase. Especially as his
vision grew dark and his body went numb.
“Ethan!” he screamed again. The last thing he saw before everything turned black was Ethan’s
limp body disappearing into the trees.
“Don’t let Sabrina see him,” Damian said as the men dragged Ethan’s lifeless body into the woods.
He pressed his lips together for a moment. He couldn’t risk waking something unwanted inside of her.
He had to keep the beast tamed.
The despair on Chase’s face was satisfying, though. Deeply satisfying. He would love to hoist his
trophy up on a pole and share it with the world, but he couldn’t risk Sabrina seeing it.
He headed back to his pavilion, a smile playing on his lips. Chase had now lost the two people
closest to him. Perhaps after the Gathering was over, he would let the man watch him kill his mother
and brothers. It would serve him right after trying to take Sabrina from him. Although his mother was
an attractive woman. Maybe Damian would take her as a lover. There were always worse things than
death.
As the sun rose, his head of security returned. “We lost them, my lord.”
“What do you mean?” Damian asked, tilting his head.
The man stammered and shifted on his feet. Damian had hired them, not for his own protection,
but to keep control of the crowds. That, and to watch over anyone who dissented. “My men followed