Page 93 of Cursed Beasts

He stopped right in front of me, but I walked around him until he grabbed my arm, pulling me towards him. Once our skin touched, I felt a jolt of something similar to magic and Aeon immediately backed away, eyes darkening. I turned around to follow Caston.

“Zev, he is controlling her,” Aeon bellowed.

My mind was told to run, and my body obeyed. The closer I got to the gate the more I panicked. I couldn’t go home with him. If I did, I didn’t know what kind of fate waited for me there. I didn’t want to be a baby machine and I was worried about what would happen when he finally gave up on me. What would my family do to me?

I couldn’t leave Lucien either. He was my mate and if I was being honest, I couldn’t imagine life without him.

Tears streamed down my cheeks the closer I got to the gate until Lucien picked me up. I felt another jolt of power go through me and Lucien just held on tighter. He shuddered in pain as I felt another jolt flow through me. Lucien fell to his knees, grunting in pain. I felt sick to my stomach.

A roar sounded in the distance, and then Caston’s hold on me dissipated.

“Lucien,” I cried out, pushing him away to inspect him. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s ok,” he said, as he looked me up and down. “I’m sorry Kit Kat.”

“No,” I hugged him as I cried. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

“If you come back, I’ll make sure I rip you to fucking shreds.” Zev’s voice was lethal.

I looked behind me to see Caston on the other side of the gate looking at Lucien and me.

“I’ll be back Katarina, you better make sure you’re ready to grovel at my feet because I will punish you.” He looked deadly calm, and I shivered in fear. “I’ll be back fuckers. You better be ready.”

All of them growled at Caston as he got into a car. It slowly backed away, disappearing into the night. Zev turned around to look at me and I realized he was completely naked.

He was menacing, making me worry he was about to lash out at me, but he looked me up and down like he was checking that I was ok. When he looked at my neck, I realized he could see it.

He continued to stare until I felt Lucien still around me.

“You mated her?” Zev’s voice was calm, making me even more worried.

No one said anything but the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

“You mated a married woman?” He took a step closer to us and Aeon stepped next to us.

“I think we need to take a breather before we talk about this,” Aeon said in a calm voice, but a trickle of fear ran down my spine the more I studied Zev.

“What is there to talk about? He mated our enemy,” Zev snarled.

Lucien picked me up, standing me up and positioning himself in front of me.

“You mated a whore—”

Lucien shifted so fast that I didn’t even see a change. He launched himself at Zev, who had managed to shift before Lucien landed on him. A yelp made my heart pound, and I was worried about who had cried out in pain.

“Come on Kitten, let them work their issues out.” Aeon picked me up as I wrapped my legs around his torso. The sounds of snarling, growling and snapping made me really worry about how far they would let their fighting go.

Aeon turned around occasionally to make sure they did not follow us. The fight got so brutal that I had to close my eyes and hide my face in the crook of his neck, trying to control the nervous shaking. He rubbed my back as he climbed the stairs to my room.

Once he entered my room, he sat me down on my bed, staying in between my legs, studying me.

“I know—”

“Has he always hit you?” He was reading me like a book with his question, while he ran his thumb over my bottom lip, inspecting my face.

“No, that started just before I left.” I looked down.

“Was he the reason you didn’t want to go back?” He ran his hands up my thighs, like he was trying to soothe me.