Page 166 of Primal Bonds

Adric couldn’t help grinning. “The woman has balls.”

Jace snorted. “I swear, she’s going to give me gray hairs. I don’t know what he’d have done to her if I hadn’t been there. But as soon as she saw my cat, she went back inside.”

“This is why you need to move Evie and Kyler to Baltimore. The three of you are too isolated up there.”

“You think I don’t know that? But I promised Kyler he could finish high school in Grace Harbor.”

Adric scowled, but gave a curt nod. A promise was a promise.

“Anyway, the night fae announced he was the prince’s envoy, tossed me the message and disappeared back into whatever slimy hole he crawled out of. Here.” Jace handed over an unsealed black envelope. “Read it for yourself.”

Adric removed a sheet of paper the same coal black as the envelope. On it was a message inscribed in silver ink.

Prince Langdon requests the pleasure of a meeting with Lord Adric at his earliest convenience. The envoy will return for your response at midnight.

He crumpled the paper and tossed it on the coffee table. “All right. I’ll meet with him.”

“No fucking way,” Jace returned. “You can’t. What if he asks you straight out who killed Tyrus?”

Adric speared his fingers through his spiked-up hair. Langdon couldn’t find who’d killed his son. The Darktime would look like a warm-up compared to what he’d bring down on the clan.

He met his friend’s eyes. “Then I’ll have to lie, won’t I?”

Jace squeezed his nape. “A lie like that would be like taking a knife to the gut.”

“I’ve survived worse.”

“As your lieutenant—and friend—I’d advise against it.”

“You got a better idea?”

His friend’s dark brows lowered. “No, damn you.”

They’d been over this already. They’d known it was only a matter of time before Langdon tracked his son to Baltimore and demanded answers.

“That’s what I thought.” Adric’s smile was thin. “Sending an envoy to your mate’s house was just the start. The prince probably knows the location of every single one of our dens. If I ignore this or go into hiding, he’ll go after the clan. I knew this was coming, Jace. Ever since Marjani stuck a knife into his fucking psycho of a son.”

Chapter 11

Marjani stared into space, listening to Fane breath.

She hated Corban. She was here to kill him.

The prick deserved to be in a cage, and she knew damn well if their positions were reversed, he wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. The man should’ve been a serpent, not a wolf.

It did something to you, to know your own cousin had been behind the plot to drug and rape you. Oh, Corban had kept his hands clean so that he could swear to Adric he hadn’t touched her—but he’d masterminded her kidnapping by a small den of half-insane river fada. The den had also kidnapped Tiago do Rio, the Rock Run alpha’s youngest brother, in an attempt to set her clan against his, the local river fada. If things had gone as planned, both alphas would’ve been dead, leaving Corban as the Baltimore alpha and the Rock Run fada in disarray.

Somehow Tiago had fought back, even though he’d been drugged himself, and saved them both. But not before the men had had her…

It was her cougar who had kept her sane by stepping in and taking control.

Corban deserved to die—a slow, miserable death. So why couldn’t she stop thinking about him, locked in that iron cage and gradually going mad?

Uncle Leron had been right. She was weak.

You’re soft. His harsh voice rang in her ears. A female, and a scrawny one at that. You’ll do whatever I fucking say, understand?

Leron had been a wolf shifter, tall and powerfully built. She’d stared up at him, defiant but hollow with fear. Leron rarely beat her like he did his three sons and Adric, but the threat was always there.

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