Page 85 of A Blackened Bond

Annex straightens himself, the guy on the ground covered in blood and beaten to a pulp. “Keep my woman’s name outta your mouth…or next time, I’ll rip your tongue out.” He twists around, glancing between Mal and Xander, a deranged grin pulling at his lips. “Picking a new chew toy, are we, Mal?”

Mal ignores it, honed in entirely on Xander, watching on as a tremor works its way into his clenched fists.

“Keep away from Micai,” Grits out Ezra, his tone a dark threat promising pain as his glare switches between Xander and the shaking blonde one. “Whatever happens in the future, whatever realisation you come to when your fantasy finally cracks…Know that it’s too late.” A feral grin stretches his cheeks. “She doesn’t want you. Youneverdeserved her to begin with.”

Annex chuckles darkly beside him, blood dripping down his fists as he leans an arm against Ezra’s shoulder.

“If you so much as glance in Red’s direction again, I’ll happily hunt you down and flay the skin from your bones. I’ll bleed every drop of blood from each and every pore and slice open every tendon and muscle, letting you healjustenough so you don’t die…” He leans forward, his demented grin stretching wider. “Only to rinse and repeat that shit until I get bored.” He smirks. “Which could take a while.”

“M-Micai is our friend.” Stutters the blonde, standing beside Xander. “We’ve never hurt her. She…” His brows pinch together, his gaze falling to the ground with a conflicted look flitting back and forth in his eyes before he meets our gaze again. “We would never hurt M.” His face twists up, a look of sadness coating his features as he opens his mouth again—

“Xander?” A soft female voice calls from behind them.

Xander turns toward her call like a beacon, the fear seeping from him almost instantly as he turns to meet her shocked gaze. “Seria?”

She rushes over, noticing the blonde standing there slightly frozen, and wraps her arm around him.

“Anders, are you okay?” she asks, her voice sickly sweet, leaning in toward him. A slow smile appears on his face, the conflicted frown from before gone in the blink of an eye as she smiles at him.

She turns back toward Xander, reaching for his hand before he wraps it around her waist.

“What’s happening here?” she calls, her gaze meeting each of us, shying away from Mallyn and Annex and staying on Ezra’s too long before she finds me. A strange glint forms in her eyes as she takes a step toward us, letting go of the boys around her.

“You’re Creed, right?” She tries to give me a smile, but the look slightly irritates me. I wasn’t sure why, but I didn’t like the feel of this one.

She takes another step forward, and Annex lets out a low growl, stopping her in her tracks.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding—”

“You seem to have a lot of those,” Ezra adds, cutting her off.

Seems my brother had met this one before and didn’t like her. Usually he didn’t display his hostility so openly, but he was blatantly glaring at the blonde right now.

“Save the excuses. We’re not interested in the bullshit. Just keep your distance. Or next time, I’ll let Annex hang you all from the top-level windows and slit you open.” Promises Ezra darkly.

My brows raise with myusuallylevel-headed brother’s threat.

“Why wait, brother? I can start now.” Annex whips out his blade, flicking it in the blonde’s direction.

She shrinks back, her gaze finally falling on the bloody body a few feet away. Her eyes narrow before widening. “Kane?”

She turns back toward Xander as he pulls her closer. “He’s okay…he’ll heal.”

I glance towardKane, noting the cuts ever-so-slowly mending on his forehead.

“But—but why?” She twists back toward me, her eyes almost pleading. “Whatever Micai has told you…” She shakes her head, tears forming in her eyes as she flickers them from Ezra to me. “I-I know Micai isn’t happy that the guys and I are together…Maybe she still has feelings, but…We’ve done nothing wrong, you can’t listen to—”

“Enough,” I bark, tired of her whiny voice and the bullshit falling from her thin lips. “You’re wasting my time with this shit.”

I glance toward Annex. “Next time you meet them…Make it quick and clean it up properly when you’re done.” I turn to each set of eyes on me, some turning away as I let some of my power lose. “You’re not worth our time. But if you piss one of my people off—for whatever reason—you’ll suffer the wrath of us all.”

Annex’s grin grows manically as the blonde’s mouth parts in surprise.

I quickly realise what it is that bothers me about her.

She’s fake.This was all a well-crafted show to her.

One well-wrapped in her ‘innocent’ persona. But if there’s anything I could smell easily, it was corruption andmanipulation. I had been with enough women to be able to tell when someone was playing a game or some type of rouse.And she stank of it.

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