Page 90 of Brandy Snap: Part One

I blinked slowly at her, my brain trying to catch up with her insane comment.

“I’m surprised you managed to hit me when I’m so dirty,” I choked out, turning to face her, wincing at the pain in my neck.

Considering how she treated Kai, it shouldn’t rattle me that she thought that way.

But it was how she shook her left hand, sneering as one alpha stepped forward to offer her a handkerchief that got me.

She wiped the four golden rings on her fingers, the impure thing that had touched her son. I doubt she would believe me if I told her what had actually happened.

“Trust me, that was as unpleasant for you as it was for me,” she sighed.

The room was silent except for the ticking clock on the wall behind me and my wheezing breath.

“Anyway.” She spun on her pointed heel and walked back towards my sofa. “Sit down. I didn’t come here to chat. I have an offer for you.”

The rage that was already threatening to tear free flared like petrol on a fire as I watched her sit casually, like slapping a woman in her own nest was an everyday thing.

Zania said that I was a taint, but there were strange alphas poisoning my nest with their scents, and I wanted to cry at how powerless it made me.

“Why the hell do you think I’m going to do anything you say?” I snapped.

Before I could reply, snarls ripped the alphas and I flinched back.

“I said sit.” Zania adjusted herself, patting the cushion next to her.

Every part of my body was screaming, and I refused to do anything she told me to.

“This ismynest,” I growled.

“Oh, I see.” Her lips spread into a sardonic smile. “That explains why your little room is so garish. All these trinkets and fluff.” She scowled. “It’s exactly like Kai’s. Completely immature, yet wholly appropriate.”

I whimpered again, unable to hold myself back as she sliced into my heart. With one sentence it was like she had broken the love I poured into my nest.

“Really, my son has some nerve. To think he would attempt to trick me like this. As if he would scent match with someone so far beneath him. Did you honestly believe I’d fall for any nonsense about bonding with you?”

I couldn’t shout. If I did, it felt like she would win. Just like when she’d grabbed my hair, she was looking for a reaction.

“Now,sit,” Zania said, forcing her sick aura on me like she had fired an arrow straight into my chest.

I jerked, familiar bile shooting up from my stomach. The energy I’d experienced last time made me nauseous, but in my nest, where she absolutely didn’t belong, it was disgusting. It felt like sewage oozing through my veins.

“I said I’m fine,” I replied as I focused on breathing.

Zania scowled at me, but I was more focused on the orange lamp beside her. If I darted forward, I could grab it in time to smash it over her head. It was a hefty china piece, but light enough for me to lift. As soon as I had images of the glass embedded in her skin, I shook my head.

That wasn’t me. I wasn’t violent. I did everything I couldnotto hurt people. I didn’t know if it was instincts, or if I’d connected to the fury that Kai had poured into me since our bite.

“Very well.” She nodded. “It’s high time you learnt your place. Not only did you speak back to me in front of others, but you had the gall to drag Caspian and Sin away from the party to layer them with your awful scent.”

She shouldn’t be calling my scent awful when she smelled like a care home. I didn’t even know it was possible for scents to show what a terrible person someone was, but she managed it.

“So how much will it take for you to stay away from my son and his pack?”

I blinked at her as I rubbed my bleeding cheek again.

“Excuse me?” I asked. Even the smallest word stung.

It was another moment of shock as I realised what was happening.

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