Page 24 of A Bond in Blood

His eyes barreled into my gaze with his last sentence, latching onto my hate.

“But there’s one among us who doesn’t deserve such freedoms.”

My stomach dropped and hushes filled the ballroom. I moved to run, when my body hit a solid wall of muscle and fur.

“Keep watching, princess,” Olen ordered, keeping me in place with his paws holding my gown against the dais.

Ulrich crossed the room in a flash, the blond of his hair like a streak of dark gold in the wind. His arms reached behind a large column and a shriek echoed across the space. He yanked the body of a fae man out of the shadows. A completely nude fae man, one who had obviously been too occupied to realize the king was speaking.

“Hello,Tristan,” Ulrich sneered.

Olen’s claws dug into the fabric of my gown, but even if I had wanted to, I couldn’t look away. Ulrich pulled the man upward to meet his eyes.

“My grace,” the man choked out.

My eyes stayed on his face but briefly, I glanced, watching the fae around Ulrich gawk and point at the man’s erection quickly disappearing.

Not surprising but still shocking that he’d been in the height of pleasure and was now a public spectacle.

Cold infiltrated the room while Ulrich kept the man in the air. I couldn’t stop myself from staring at the muscles in the king’s arm and wondered how in the Gods he kept a full man’s weight up for so long.

“How long?” Ulrich’s voice boomed.

“Your grace?” the man cried out.

“Do not lie to me,” Ulrich replied, somehow lifting the man’s body higher for the entirety of his court to see.

“My king,” Olen growled behind me. “Would you enlighten the court on this beast’s crimes?”

Ulrich’s gaze snapped to our direction and my body chilled. His expression, even behind the mask, was one of death. An emotionless predator determined to make his kill.

“Traitor,” was all that Ulrich snarled. The word warming the cold of the room.

Tristan struggled in Ulrich’s hand, his legs kicking frantically. “Please—” he choked out.

“It’s a shame you were caught,” Ulrich replied.

Tristan’s eyes filled with terror, sending me into a frenzy of equal terror. The man lost control of himself and my heart ached in empathy when he relieved himself on the ballroom floor. Disgusted screams and gags filled the room, but Ulrich only laughed.

My eyes turned back to Ulrich who was now whispering something to the whimpering man. Something that caused the fae to relieve himself once more before thesnapof his neck rang out across the ballroom. Instantly silencing the noises of disgust from Ulrich’s people.

The king tossed the body into his own filth before snapping his fingers and the music began again. Like it was all nothing. Like these monsters were so used to these kinds of acts of violence.

My body shook in place while the smaller creatures I now knew to be attendants gathered around the body, cleaning up the mess. Another followed beside Ulrich, offering him a bowl with what I assumed to be water and a towel to dry his hands.

Olen released his hold on me and I glanced down, realizing he’d somehow been dragging me to the seat beside Ulrich’s throne. Placing me near it like the object they both believed I was.

“How was that?” Ulrich asked.

I blinked, sitting slowly to try and prevent myself from falling down. He was speaking to me, but I couldn’t form the words to reply.

“Not entertaining?” Olen laughed.

My eyes darted between the two men. One staring at me with his elbow leaning on his throne, the other, a beast, admiring what I assumed to be people lost in their lust once more.

“We’re speaking to you,” Olen said without turning his eyes from the ballroom behind me.

“That was awful,” I managed to respond.

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