Page 104 of Alpha Power

Maddox rolled his eyes. "It's identical to all your others, relax."

"Come on, Muscles," Zamorra pouted, batting her lashes. "You don't gotta tell me everything, just the juicy stuff."

"No."

"What if I promise not to bug you anymore? Well, for like a couple days."

Surprise flashed on Roman's face and then he narrowed his eyes accusingly. "No more incessant chattering, no more stealing my boots and no more calling me Muscles. My name is Roman."

"First I can do. Second ain't me, and third... I can't promise but I'll try."

Roman frowned. "If you're not taking my boots, who is?"

A light caress on the outside of her neck made Zamorra jolt. Of course it would be the pixie. "No more stealing your boots," she reaffirmed. She would talk with Navi later.

Tiny teeth cut into her skin and she hissed. "Navi!"

The pixie appeared on her shoulder with an innocent look on her face. Yeah, Zamorra wasn't falling for that.

"We've talked about this. No biting," Zamorra reprimanded.

Navi smiled cheekily and Roman glared at the pixie.

"If one more pair of my shoes go missing, I'll rip your wings off in your sleep," he threatened, picking up one of the empty serving platters. He gripped it tightly and tore the circular piece of metal in two.

Navi widened her eyes in fear and vanished instantly from sight.

Rolling her eyes, Zamorra pointed her fork. "Now that you're done threatening someone who's literally a million times smaller than you, can you tell me what happened between Luther and Leilani now?"

"Ooo here we go." Void rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Time for the goss."

A look of unease crossed the vampire’s face. "I do not like to gossip."

"Don't think of it as gossiping then. Just state the facts," Zamorra replied.

"State the facts," Roman repeated, pursuing his lips. "Okay," he nodded. "I can do that." He cleared his throat and looked into her eyes. "They were together for 1037 years-"

Zamorra's mouth dropped open in shock.

"One night, roughly a quincentenary ago-"

"What's a quin-quin-" she growled and waved a hand "whatever that word is."

"Quincentenary. And it's 500 years. Now, shush," Void whispered.

"They were kidnapped by a sleuth of polar bear shifters while on a mission for their maker in Prague. Leilani somehow managed to find a way to escape her silver cuffs but instead of helping Luther get out of his, she ran. Left him to fend for himself."

That bitch! No wonder Luther had major trust issues. To have someone you had been with for over a thousand years just ditch you like that would fuck anyone up.

It made her wonder how their maker, Zvetari, felt about it all. From what Luther told her, he valued loyalty above anything else. Abandoning someone like that was definitely not loyal.

"After Leilani escaped, Luther was constantly moved. His location changed almost daily, which made it much more difficult to try and save him. After a few weeks his maker eventually tracked down where he was being held and we mounted a rescue."

Pain and sadness flashed in Roman's eyes as he stared off into the distance, his fists clenched and face hard as stone. There was so much emotion on his face that, for a moment, it totally threw her. She didn't think the big brute had feelings, as bad as that sounded.

"In all my years of servitude, I have never encountered such a sadistic form of torture before. They had him suspended by the roof with nothing but a thick, silver chain wrapped around his body. His arms and legs were gnawed off completely, right down to the bone, like he had been feasted on by a group of savage beasts. The shifters wanted to see how long his limbs would take to grow back."

Zamorra gasped in shock. Even Void, who had made it very clear on several different occasions that he held no love for the ancient vampire, looked mortified by Roman's story.

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