Page 100 of Bonds of Hate

“Truly remarkable craftsmanship,” Leopold declares. “Do a circuit, dear one. Let everyone see the detail. I cannot believe no one else has thought to create such a lovely tribute to our house.”

Maya gives no indication that being the focal point creates any anxiety for her. She warmly returns the greeting of each prince with a murmured word and demure smile, appropriate now that she has already greeted the king. She stops for a moment next to each of prince. The distance she keeps from them is close enough to allow inspection of the design without being improper.

But even though every second of this interaction is exactly what propriety demands, I’m barely able to keep my annoyance in check. None of them touch her, but the hungry stares I don’t miss make my blood boil.

Xavier actually reaches out to touch the golden threads, but Maya smoothly sidesteps his grasp with a tinkling laugh that makes it seem accidental.

Maybe I’ll bite off those fingers.

My father’s booming voice fills the chamber. “Well, now that we’ve all had a proper look, please take your seat so we can begin.”

Maya starts toward the empty chair beside me. I don’t question the impulse that has me snagging her wrist to pull her into my lap instead. She tenses for just a moment before melting against my chest, as if this was what she had planned from the beginning.

Perfectly trained little beast that she is.

I wrap an arm around her waist, keeping her firmly in place. Mine. The message couldn’t be clearer if I’d shouted it.

If the raised eyebrows and knowing smiles we receive discomfit her, her placid smile gives nothing away.

Leopold opens the official discussion by requestingan update on troops deployed to the outer reaches. I listen with half an ear as I settle my Omega closer in my lap.

The comfortable weight of her is a distraction. It’s hard not to hold her personally responsible for that. She has distracted me from the very moment she arrived and not in a way I appreciate.

But I’m also pleased with her and maybe feeling something similar to guilt over what occurred at the gala. Pushing her away too hard only results in her falling into the arms of one of my pack brothers.

My gaze shifts over her face. She focuses her attention on the king, giving the impression of hanging on his every word when she can’t possibly give even half a shit about troop movements in disputed territory along our eastern border.

It’s almost a shame that she’ll never have a true place of influence in court. Given her natural instincts combined with the intensive training of the Enclave, she might be the most perfect political animal that I’ve ever met.

I wonder what it would take to truly knock her off balance.

Maya doesn’t react when my hand slips under the table to slide along the outside of her thigh.

I hold her tighter when she stiffens in my lap with a softly murmured order. “Behave.”

My hand settles between her thighs. Under the shelter of the table, with the conversations of the most powerful men in Melilla buzzing all around us, my fingers slip under the crotch of her silk panties to stroke the swollen bundle of nerves there.

Her breath catches, and she stiffens. I smirk to myself.

She wanted to parade herself in front of the king and my brothers, and now she’s here. She can act like this isn’t precisely what she knew would happen, that I wouldn’t be compelled to stake my claim.

If I can’t bite my mark into her flesh like nature intended, then this is the next best thing.

We have no future. Her position here has to be temporary. She will never be my perfect little Omega princess, but I don’t have to care about that right now.

I continue to play her body like an instrument, stoking the slow flame of pleasure that tenses her muscles and forces her to exhale in soundless sighs.

My thumb strokes in a firm circle around her clit. Her knees naturally shift apart and fall to the outside of my thighs, the shameless display hidden by the voluminous fall of her skirt and table edge.

Maya doesn’t make a sound. She keeps her unwavering gaze fixed on Nikolai as he gives a mind-numbing summary of the supply lines being negatively impacted by insurgent attacks. Her upper body remains stiffly upright, with the sharp rise and fall of her chest as the only sign I’m about to shatter her to pieces.

Her ability to remain stoic is impressive. I’m almost proud. But the perverse part of me wants to drive her over the edge so completely that no one here ever forgets the spectacle, regardless of the consequences.

This has always been the challenge with her. The warring impulses to shove her away and clutch her tight enough to crawl inside her are impossible to reconcile.

But no part of me hesitates to do this.

I curl the tip of one finger inside her tight, slickchannel, mindful of her virgin tightness, and stroke her where her body truly begs for attention. Finally, I have the satisfaction of hearing a gasp past her lips. One that I’ll happily teach her to stifle in the future. For now, I’ll take what I can get.

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