Page 107 of House of Mages and Raven

What had Lucifer done that he had such a bad rep in the mortal realm?

“Hurt me, then.” I lashed out to grab her, needing to touch her, needing to let her feel how hard my cock was for her.

My little devil zoomed away in a flash. Before she vanished between the white trees, the wind blew her scent to my nose. My nostrils flared, then it felt like a hammer was ramming into my chest and crashing into my heart.

There was another male’s scent on her, so strong that I gagged.

I couldn’t fucking believe it!

Fucking believe it!My dragon came online, fuming. He’d scented the same.The fae heir poached our mate. You know what to do.

The scent on Barbie was unmistakably Rowan’s. That motherfucker had fucked my female, and now his stench was all over her.

My true mate had let another male inside her.

Hadn’t I sated her while she was in heat? Why would she still seek out the comfort from another male? Wasn’t I enough for her? My eyes burned. My nostrils flared. She’d done it out of spite for me.

I saw red.

Rowan had fucked my mate, my true mate. For that, he would not breathe again.

Pain seared my veins. Thunder boomed and rumbled across my head, my reason vanishing, until all I heard was my dragon’s roars of demands for vengeance—which I welcomed, because I’d need the fuel of his rage to kill the fae heir, who was like a brother to me.

But he’d touched what was mine, and that was unforgivable.

You should never have left our female unguarded. You shouldn’t have dallied with your false mate!my dragon bellowed.Kill the fae and reclaim what’s ours.

He was the last dragon of the royal bloodline. All he’d ever wanted was to claim Barbie and have her bear his young, so the primal beast would have a chance to start his dynasty. We’d come to blows over that, but one thing we both agreed on—we must eliminate the fae prince, my brother, and reclaim our mate.

With a storm raging in my blood and lightning flashing in my fingertips, I strode out of the Windsong Woods with single-minded purpose as I hunted down Rowan. My dragon and I wouldn’t rest until we had slain and toasted the fae heir.

For our mate, we’d break the truce and start the war of the houses.

35

Barbie

Idug my nose into the pillow and swatted at a cold hand that yanked my curls. I hadn’t slept much, so I wasn’t going to give up this nap. It still pissed me off that I’d had to resurface because Killian was leading the entire school to look for me. Why did that asshole even bother if I was truly gone?

“Wake up, Barbie! Wake the fuck up!” my familiar bellowed in my ear. With unbelievable strength, he hauled the pillow from underneath my face.

I rolled to sit up and glared at him. Over my hostility, he turned to his phantom form. Was his face paler than usual? Maybe I should be less unfriendly, but who liked to be woken up?

“It’s an emergency,” he exclaimed.

“It’s always an emergency, and the world hasn’t ended,” I said, throwing myself back on bed, ready to continue my nap.

“This is a life-and-death emergency, Barbie!” Pucker shouted at me. “Have a heart. Prince Killian and Prince Rowan entered a death duel.”

“What?” I sat up again, squinting at the ghost guardian while running a hand over my messy curls that felt like a vermin’s nest. “Run by me again?”

“Prince Killian and Prince Rowan are in the middle of a blood duel as we speak.” Pucker tried to pronounce every word clearly. “Only one will survive, or probably both will die.”

It was like icy water poured on my head, expelling the sleepiness and fog in my brain. Sy woke up too and shot to her feet.

“Why?” I stared hard at my familiar, my heart pounding. “Why would they do something so foolish?”

“You know why.” Pucker sighed in exasperation. “They’re fighting over you and Sy. They don’t know about you two sharing the same goddess body, so they both believed that the other man slept with their woman.”

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