Page 48 of The Queen's Serpent

I feel no shame or remorse for taking his fucking life, regardless of if he had been with me for years, a loyal soldier to my family. He saw an opportunity to deface that loyalty, and seek out a taste of what belonged to only me, and for that, the penalty was death. I hope he’s enjoying his entrance into hell, and his meeting with the devil. The monster lurking within me is beaming with pride at defending our mate.Did you, though, or did you punish her along with him?

I feel positive that my mind has finally succumbed to madness. A part of me irrevocably cracked when I saw Paulo touching Issy. When his hands were caressing skin that belonged to me, and his mouth was on lips that are mine, inhaling her air. The air I allow her to breathe.

A large, burly shape bursts through the thick fauna, followed by a few more, and they come to a grinding halt, the sounds of their heavy breaths grating on my already frazzled nerves. “I heard screaming! What has happened? Are we under attack?” Santiago’s panicked voice makes its way to my ears. It has me standing tall, a demonic warlord about to show them the darkness which resides within me, so that they understand that they should fear me. Everyone should fucking fear me, now that I have finally released my hold on the restraints that had me a prisoner.

“Santa mierda, Diego… what have you done?“ Santiago’s voice, filled with disbelief at the sight before him, breaks me from the spell that has me trapped in this fucked up insanity.

I haven’t heard him this panicked since the day one of the other cartels took my mother, as a way to punish us for reaching too high in the world of the underground. They sent her back in pieces to us, and none of us were ever the same.

The image of my mother with her large olive-toned green eyes wide open, staring sightlessly, and her mouth shaped in a scream, while the rest of her body was in pieces found in crates, enters my mind. Someone took her away from me, the only woman I had ever loved, and they destroyed her. I won’t allow that to happen a second time. No one is taking Issy.

My head slowly turns in his direction, the menacing look on my face forcing Santiago and the men with him to take a step back. I know what they’re seeing before them with disbelief. I’m covered in Paulo’s blood, the mask of rage is still on my face, and I can feel my eyes blazing with an inner fury, that has me sending out a message to all who are present that I’m long past the point of rationality. I bare my teeth at them, like a rabid wolf in warning to stay away from my mate.

“Mine, she is fucking mine, and I’ll destroy anyone who touches her, or thinks to fucking take her from me.”

“Jesucristo!“ One of the other men utters and takes another step back from us, putting more distance between the monster that lurks at the ready within me, and himself.Smart fucker, even though the beast begs to be released and give chase, calling for more blood to be spilled.One of the other men performs the sign of the cross, as if I were the devil standing before him, and moves as far away from me as he can, without turning his back on me.

“Paulo is… is he dead, Diego?” Santiago’s Adam’s apple bobs, and he tenses his frame, staring at the unhinged menace before him and trying not to show a hint of weakness, so as not to provoke me further.

I’m a monster who literally just snapped a man’s neck like it was nothing, and fucked Issy into the ground with that man’s blood as lube, and got fucking off on it, not to mention made her cum like a slut. My cock is still even now in a semi-hard state, just with the fresh memory of the sounds that escaped her, and how tightly she clenched around me.

Fuck, if anything, I dare any of these fools to make a move towards her, so that I can take their lives too, and bathe her in their blood. This time I’ll fuck all of her holes, and paint her from the top of her pretty head to her dainty little feet in nothing but red. She would look absolutely stunning, with only her sapphire blue eyes peeking out through all that crimson.

A whimper behind me has me snapping out of my depraved thoughts, and coming back to the here and now. “The fucker has gone to meet the devil, and if you try to make a move towards her, you will be joining him.”

A cascade of emotions crosses Santiago’s face, everything from fear to worry and disgust, before he nods his head at my words.“Déjanos, ahora!”He orders my men in a calm but forceful tone, giving them no option to argue, and out of the corner of my eye, I see them slinking away back into the vegetation.

His eyes never waver from holding my own, refusing to slide to Issy as if he knows how close I am to the edge, and how I could perceive that as a threat. “Is she hurt, Diego? She is covered in blood and trembling,jefe. She looks like she is mere moments from collapsing.”

His words have me tearing my gaze away from him, and the other three of my men disappearing from my sight, and staring at Issy. I take in her bloody state, but look closer and finally notice how pale she is. How her lips are pinched in pain and practically white, and her eyes are so large that they look ready to pop from her very skull. She’s swaying on her feet, attempting to keep herself standing, but about to lose the fight.

“Issy,” I move towards her, but before I can get my hand around her bicep, she collapses to the jungle floor in a dead faint, her eyes rolling to the back of her head as a wheeze of air escapes her lips. The thud her body makes with the impact destroys whatever was left of my hold on reality, and I dive to the ground, pulling her into my arms and cradling her into my body.

“Issy, fuck, baby. Please, baby, speak to me.”

My heart thunders in my chest, and my monster roars with fear as my breathing becomes restricted. I press my ear against her chest, begging the sound of her heart to calm my own.Thump, thump, thump, it beats strongly against my ear, and has the boulder of fear passing down my throat, until I can take a deep breath.Jesus, fuck.

“Jefe, please… we must get her back to the compound. We are not safe here out in the open, exposed like this. She is not safe here.“ His words register through my mind, and I also hear what he refuses to say out loud:she’s not safe with me, either.

I want to refuse him, to take her further into the jungle and hide her away from all those who would seek to part us, but as I stare down at her, worry fills me. She looks so fragile and frail. He had said she was unwell, that’s why I came looking for her in the first place, and found her with Paulo. Now I have just put her through more emotional and physical hell. What the fuck was I thinking?

You weren’t thinking. You let the monster control you, and he took full advantage to leave death in his wake. You could have killed her in the process.The whispered words penetrate my brain, and I cradle Issy to my chest, rise, and start moving toward the compound, Santiago putting space between the two of us in case I were to attack him.

“Diego, what about Paulo?” Santiago inquires.

I don’t even hesitate in my steps, because for all of Paulo’s previous loyalty, he betrayed me in the end. “Throw him furtherinto the jungle for the beasts to consume. He was a fucking traitor.”

From here on forward, anyone who even looks at Issy too long will meet the same fate, regardless of who they are. I hope the word of what happened here spreads amongst my men, so that they realize that even looking at her is a death wish, one that I will gladly grant.

Isabella Stratford is about to become the most prized and feared creature in the jungle, and I’m her gatekeeper; all who seek her should be prepared to perish at my hands.

Chapter twenty-six

Issy

“A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it,and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke.”

Vincent Van Gogh

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