Page 12 of Taste of Danger

“Huh?” Arion wrinkled his nose, feeling just as confused as Jax appeared. “What are you talking about, Elvine? When did I look at you as a monster?”

Jax slid his finger under her chin, coaxing her to look at them. “Answer him, sweetheart.”

She crossed her arms and pressed her lips together.

“Don’t be stubborn, Mrs. Pouty,” Jax said with a soft growl. “Tell us or I’ll take you back in the bedroom and put you over my knee.”

Holy hell. Arion really wished Jax would stop putting those images in his head. Now he saw his mate sitting on the bed, butt naked, his erection sticking straight up as Elvine’s luscious, naked body lay draped across Jax’s muscular thighs.

“When I killed those two vampires coming after us,” she finally said with attitude. “He saw me repeatedly hitting them with bolts, shouted at me to stop, then called me cruel!”

She tried to turn away, but Arion caught her delicate arm to stop her from fleeing. “I didn’t mean it, Elvine, I swear.” He said it a little too panicky. “They deserved what you did to them, but you also triggered a few memories.”

He let her arm go, afraid his grip would leave a bruise. The last thing he wanted to do was harm her pretty skin.

Jax sighed. “All right. We’re going to our bedroom and hash all this out. I don’t want any hard feelings or guilt stewing between us.”

“Now he’s Mr. Bossy Pants,” she said to Arion, as if exasperated with their mate. “I’ll hold him down, and you can spank him.”

“Me?” Arion’s eyebrows shot to his hairline. “I’m not spanking a six-foot-five, muscular wolf shifter. He’d squash me.”

Jax leaned in, swiping the tip of his tongue over Arion’s earlobe. “As long as we’re all naked, both of you can spank me.” Arion could have sworn he heard Jax purr. “But you have to kiss and lick my red ass afterward. And, by the way, the only squashing will be my cock sinking into either your ass or her pussy.”

Both Arion and Elvine stood there speechless.

Jax straightened and headed toward his bedroom. “Now, let’s go hash out these bad feelings so we can get to the carnal ones, my pretties.”

Arion glanced at Elvine. She turned and looked at him.

“I swear I didn’t know he was this…” She tapped her chin, as if trying to find the right word.

“Horny, arousing, sexually outspoken?” Arion suggested.

“All of the above,” Jax hollered from his bedroom. “Now get your sexy asses in here.”

Elvine’s full lips curled into a sly grin, her green eyes flashing with playful mischief. “Which one of us is going to spank Mr. Bossy Pants first?”

She was just… Damn. Arion had no idea how he’d gotten so lucky with such stunning mates. “Rock, papers, scissors?”

Her laughter rang like sweet chimes in his ears. “Let’s keep acting shocked to see how far he’ll go. It’s kind of fun making him work for it.”

Who was acting? He was genuinely shocked by the bold and electrifying words. And deep down, he couldn’t deny how aroused it made him.

Elvine grabbed his hand and used him as her personal tug toy once again, much to his secret delight. She could lead him wherever she pleased, and he would willingly follow.

Chapter Four

Jax whipped his shirt off and tossed it into the hamper by his closet. Chewing on his lower lip, he thought about Elvine’s and Arion’s memories. While the vampires had been more vivid than Jax would have liked, Elvine’s had been shrouded in mystery.

Even though he’d been denied most of her visual memories, he’d felt the fear and anger overflowing from them. Jax had assumed she was a quirky little fairy with a fiery personality. That was what had drawn him to her.

But he’d only seen what Elvine wanted everyone to see while hiding what was under the surface.

There wasn’t anything hidden as far as Arion went. Jax closed his eyes, his insides quivering with rage. Whoever the person was, they’d used Arion for sex, had called Jax’s pumpkin their “pet,” and demeaned him while using his body for his own pleasure.

Then, some other son of a bitch would hunt Arion down afterward and drag Jax’s mate into a dark underground room. The stranger would torture Arion until the little vampire begged for death. He’d used a razor-sharp claw or something similar to it. Jax couldn’t really tell what the object had been. He just knew it was the item that had left so many scars over Arion’s body.

And it had gone on for a fucking decade.

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