Page 114 of Claim of Blood
The soft click of the hidden door broke his thoughts. Lander froze mid-step, cursing his distraction. He hadn’t heard Adam’s approach, too caught in his own head.
Adam’s scent hit him first.
Sex. Leo.
The mingled aroma coiled low in Lander’s gut, warm and demanding. His body’s response was immediate, a traitorous heat unfurling beneath his skin.
He turned slowly. Adam stood in the doorway that connected their rooms, wearing only black sweatpants that rode low on his hips. Even in the dim light, the lean muscle of his torso absorbed the shadows. His dark eyes held Lander’s, unblinking.
“What do you want?” Lander asked, hating the rough edge to his voice.
Adam stepped into the room, bare feet silent against the hardwood floor. “That’s what I came to ask you.” His voice was calm, measured. “I just spent two hours with Leo.”
“Congratulations.”
“It was satisfying.” Adam moved closer. “But incomplete.”
Lander backed up a step before he could stop himself. “How is that my problem?”
“I felt something pulling me here.” Adam’s gaze remained steady. “To you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lander’s heart betrayed him, picking up speed.
“Don’t you?” Adam advanced, his movements deliberate.
Lander couldn’t meet his eyes.
“Why can’t you look at me, Lander?”
“Fuck you.” The words scraped raw from his throat.
Adam’s head tilted slightly. “You’re angry. Why?”
“Because none of this makes sense!” Lander’s control snapped. He shoved Adam hard, palms connecting with the solid wall of his chest. “I don’t want this. Any of it.”
Understanding flickered across Adam’s face. Then he moved—a blur of motion ending with Lander’s back slamming into the wall, Adam’s body pinning him there.
Lander lashed out. His knee jerked up, aiming for Adam’s groin. Adam shifted, the blow landing on his thigh with a meaty thud. As Adam reached to control his arms, Lander wrenched to the side, muscles burning as he tore his right arm free.
Lander’s elbow cracked into Adam’s cheekbone with a nauseating crunch. Blood sprayed hot across his collarbone—metallic, wet, marking him like war paint. Pain shot up his arm from the force of it, but Adam only grinned, teeth red and shining.
In the next instant, Adam’s hand clamped around Lander’s throat. The grip tightened with supernatural strength, cutting off breath and sound in one brutal squeeze. Lander’s eyes went wide with shock. Before he could lift a hand to resist, Adam used that hold to lift him and slam him down.
The floor caught Lander’s spine with bruising force. His lungs collapsed in on themselves. For a second, he couldn’t breathe—couldn’t even think—just saw stars as the ceiling tilted above him.
“That all you have?” Adam taunted, blood still streaming between his teeth, his mouth slick and crimson.
Lander bucked beneath him like a wild animal, every muscle snapping with violent intent. With a twist and a heave, he rolled them. For one brief, victorious heartbeat, he was on top, his hands pinning Adam’s shoulders to the floor.
Adam laughed up at him, the sound wet and savage. “Better.”
The laugh made Lander’s stomach twist. Not from fear, but from the realization that Adam was enjoying this. And worse… so was he.
Adam moved with the deadly precision of a predator who’d had millennia to perfect his craft. His knee drove into the soft space between Lander’s ribs, the impact punching the air from his lungs. As Lander’s body instinctively folded inward, Adam’s hand shot up to grip his throat, fingers digging into flesh as he used the hold to hurl Lander sideways.
Lander’s body crashed into the console table near the door with bone-rattling force. The antique exploded beneath him, wood splitting like gunfire, splinters biting deep into his back and arms as the edge carved a cruel groove across his spine. Air tore from his lungs in a ragged gasp as he landed hard on the floorboards, dazed, limbs sprawled like a broken marionette.
For a second, everything stuttered—breath, sound, thought—replaced by white-hot pain and the copper tang of blood flooding his mouth. Then instinct surged back. He rolled to his side, adrenaline drowning agony, and clawed his way upright.
