Page 73 of Lamb

It urged me forward.

I just wanted it to be over. Please, let it be—

A train slammed into my chest. Air ejected from my lungs, the metal tearing from my throat, my shoulder and arm screaming as it was lashed far from my torso. The needle flung from my fingers, disappearing into who knew where?

A hand snapped around my neck, crushing my windpipe as my body was lifted weightlessly into the air before the wall struck my back, my skull cracking against the hard concrete.

I could not even mutter a single syllable of his name as I processed the face I recognised. The face of the man choking the life out of me with pure, unadulterated rage.

“LAMB!” Mint bellowed from across the room.

I doubted I had ever seen anything more than a trickle of true emotion on Lamb’s face, but as I saw him now, emotion was all I could see.

“How could you?” Lamb growled, his iron arm vibrating against my throat as darkness danced around the corners ofmy vision. I wrapped my own hands tightly around his wrist, fighting, struggling for even an inch of room to breathe, but Lamb gave up none.

His brief words were enough time for Mint to barrel across the room. He slammed into Lamb’s side, the slender man bound to go down against the wide bulk of Mint’s body. Lamb did not even allow an atom of space, as he not only held still but managed to throw Mint straight over his back, slamming him down into the side table and lamp as they shattered into a million pieces.

“Your life belongs to me,” Lamb growled, dark, burnt eyes on me, furious and consuming. Whatever little breath I had was stolen by that look. That look that threatened to consume the earth in its entirety. “If you try anything stupid like that again, I’ll chain you down and make it so you can’t even shit without my permission.”

“LAMB!” Mint roared again, this time going for his arm.

I saw the struggle between the narrowing dark of my vision and could faintly feel the shake of his arm pinning me against the wall slacken. Darkness touched me for a moment, and I floated in it.

Until the ground came up against me without warning, my legs crumpling beneath my body, oxygen flooding back into my lungs. My chest screamed in agony, my throat struggling to relax as I fought to draw in each painful breath.

I heard a slam behind me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mint on the floor once again, his body slumped against the broken armchair he had been relaxing in a few hours prior.

“You were supposed to be watching her,” Lamb growled, his voice no longer a raging bellow but a deep, threatening rumble.

Mint stiffened against the debris, and I turned to get a better look. His mouth tightened into a harsh line, but he didn’t argue.His heckles were up, his shoulders bunched as he picked himself off the floor, ready for the fight.

Mint’s green eyes flickered to mine with a flash of concern before turning back to Lamb, who stood between us like an unmovable wall. “I need to treat her.” Mint gestured over to me with a flick of his chin, his eyes never leaving Lamb.

Lamb glanced back to me, cataloguing and scanning every inch of my body like he always did. Something in him relinquished its hold, and I could see the fight settle to a simmer beneath the surface. His shoulders slackened, and he hesitantly stepped aside.

Mint moved carefully around him, giving him a wide berth as he made his way over to me. Once in front of me, his back turned to his brother, his focus fell onto my neck, scanning the blood still dripping down my skin. Then he poked and prodded at the tender marks that would blacken and add to my collection of nasty bruises over the next few hours.

During his examination, I watched Lamb stalk to the other side of the room, posting up within a dark shadow in the corner.

He never left me alone again.

Chapter Twenty

LAMB

Ihad never experienced loss.

Throughout my life, it was natural to see people come and go, and when they had, I hadn’t mourned them. My own parents had grown distant from me over the years, and though I couldn’t sympathize with their struggles, I understood why. It was hard to love a child as warped and lacking as I was.

Even when Nobel had passed, who had been next in line as president, I had only adjusted my plans. I had plotted revenge and dealt justice for our younger member and changed prospective presidents to his brother, Hunter. It was a shame to lose him, but I hadn’t felt the level of grief that my brothers’ had, nor the loss that they had suffered.

So, when I saw the needle pressed into Ash’s neck, her vacant features, and the blood trickling over her pale white skin, I hadn’t expected the explosion of emotion. The rapid, overwhelming despair that had burnt into an explosive white rage had shocked me to my core.

My fingers had wrapped over her throat, ready to murder her myself for trying to take her life, and it was illogical and confusing, but at the same time, it was instinct. A pure,unstoppable instinct that knew if I couldn’t have her, nobody could.

I had guessed something dangerous was brewing beneath the surface, but I hadn’t thought it would be able to control me like it had. I thought I’d be able to manage, assess, and act regarding the best possible results like I always had.

That was no longer an option.

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