Page 24 of The Cursed Wolf King

“You called, my love?” he asked, the words dripping with sarcasm and arrogance, a wicked smile twisting his lips.

He sauntered closer, reaching for her arm and gripping it as though he were claiming his prize. Her face remained a mask, but I saw the flash of disgust as his fingers dug into her skin.

“I was looking for you everywhere, Eve,” Damian taunted. He spoke with a meanness that made my wolf bristle. He stepped closer, brushing her braid over her shoulder, false affection in every gesture. “You know I hate when I can’t find you. Thank goodness someone had seen the direction in which you’d wandered.”

Her name is Eve. Like the night sky, like the home of the Shadow Moon Goddess. Eve.

Eve didn’t respond. Her eye remained trained on me. Her breathing was shallow as that excuse for an alpha’s son dared to pant down her neck. I stepped forward, fists clenched at my sides, not sure what I was going to do, though my wolf was very clear in his ideas.

He whipped her. He’s a sick sadist and he dared to harm her.

Kill him.

Damian’s gaze snapped to me, and his lips curled into a smirk. “And what do we have here? The famous alpha of Orion, slumming it in the human city. Didn’t know you frequented these places, Logan.”

“Alpha?” Eve whispered.

“Did he not introduce himself to you, my sweetheart? I thought you were both already cozy, given the way his eyesburn with desire for you.” He clucked his tongue. “Daddy won’t like that one bit.”

That piece of shit was never going to get away with this. “Get your hand off her.”

His grip on her arm tightened and she winced, her teeth clenching as she tried to mask the pain. Damian chuckled, glancing down at her like she was a pet that had strayed.

“Oh, I don’t think so.” He reeked of possessiveness. “Eve is mine.”

Mine.

The word tore through me.

Mine.

My wolf surged forward, the need to rip him apart building with every heartbeat.

“That’s enough,” I growled, feeling my own control slipping as the tension in the room thickened.

Damian lifted his head, an eyebrow raised as he looked around, noticing that everyone in the café was looking our way. Supernaturals from every faction lined the walls, watching, some with curiosity, others with barely concealed alarm. They could sense what was coming.

Behind Damian, a woman slipped into the café, sandy-haired and slender, her face sharp and watching me with an unsettling intensity.

“Seems my future wife had some ideas about you, Logan,” Damian sneered. “Unfortunately, neutral ground doesn’t mean you get to play hero here. I’ll be taking my betrothed home now and will advise my father that you were a good little pup, not daring to touch what is ours.”

“She doesn’t belong to anyone,” I said. “I’ll see to that.”

Damian’s smirk deepened and he pulled Eve closer tohim. “Darling, don’t you think that sounds remarkably like achallenge?”

The muscles in my jaw tightened, and I forced myself to stay calm, but the edges of my vision were going dark. My wolf was beneath the surface, ready to break free, fangs salivating with the need to take him on.

“Let her go,” I said, ice running through my veins with every second I had to stand across from him. “Or this won’t end well for you.”

Damian laughed. “Let’s put that to the test.”

He released her and circled the middle of the café, winding between the tables as he spoke with formality, his demeanor laced with the arrogance of someone who’d never been challenged.

“In front of these witnesses, you, has-been Alpha Logan, will either watch me leave with my property at my side, or else I will take that as a challenge. We’ll fight shifted. Until one of us meets our end,” he announced, a smug satisfaction on his face that made my blood boil. “And it won’t be me.”

He grabbed at her arm again, and my instincts took over.

I was across the room, smacking his hand off her hard enough to make him stumble. Eve gasped, pressing her back against the wall as a nervous murmur rippled through the room. Chairs and bar stools scraped back, patrons hurrying to clear a space in the center of the café. Some supernaturals slipped out the door, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire. Glassware was pushed aside, tables shoved back, the air thickening as they waited for the inevitable.

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