Page 10 of Married to the Devil

I clench my teeth in denial as he continues.

“This isn’t a takeover by might. The Leonids are shifters and have more unity than any territories you’ve claimed in the past. They require the stability of your mating to accept your sovereignty. Perhaps even an heir.”

Something sparks in my chest at that, and I stamp it out.

“It won’t come to that,” I say.

“Either way, we need her on our side to keep mutiny from happening. It’s not like you to discount an asset.”

Those who didn’t know Silas wouldn’t be able to read the concern in his features. Much of his emotion comes through the twitch of his eyebrows and the flare of the nostrils in his snout.

I’m behaving irrationally.

Fuck.

I can trust that she wants the power that she gained along with this revenge plot of hers. Perhaps that will be enough for her to overlook my actions…

Silas’s worry morphs into suspicion. “This wouldn’t have anything to do with her rejecting your proposal, would it?”

“That was years ago,” I try and scoff, but it doesn’t trick him.

We sit in silence for a moment as heat prickles the skin of my neck.

His eyes widen. “You’re unhinged.”

“She doubted my ability to obtain her revenge,” I snap.

“Which was logical since you were an upstart with an oversized ego. That ego is still oversized,” he mutters.

“You backed me.”

Silas rolls his eyes. “After you proved yourself. She didn’t even know you. You can’t hold that against her.”

Shouldn’twould be the more accurate term. The wisdom of that doesn’t dispel the distaste of her rejection any…or rather that she rejected me and accepted another.

The years we’ve kept tabs on her didn’t produce much reason for jealousy.

Not until recently.

“There’s another,” I growl. The register of the sound is nowhere near what I’d used with Stella. Those growls had scraped down deep in my chest, making my blood surge withneed in time with the arousal I’d lit in her. This sound is fueled by an emotion I hardly want to acknowledge. Jealousy.

Silas makes a sound of understanding. “Ah, Kalos’s man? I thought our alliance was going to be dead in the water.”

Barnes had not hidden his emotions well. Which is odd for his position. One does not come to be right-hand to a dragon without having a certain amount of discipline.

“It’s a wonder that he made the offer at all,” Silas continues. “Though I suppose they had little choice.”

I wouldn’t have made the offer. I’d have crushed the Leonids before giving away the woman I’d claimed no matter the Council’s response.

“She says they aren’t lovers,” I say. Which would explain why the demon had made the deal.

Silas tilts his head. “Do you believe her?”

I consider that. I don’tnotbelieve her. Not with her denials when her body bowed to my will. But whether they were physical lovers doesn’t matter in the realm of emotions.

There’s something between them?—

“You can’t kill him,” Silas says, breaking my train of thought. “Kalos is not an enemy we can afford.”

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