Page 16 of Protected By the Fae King

“No, don’t!” she snapped, but as her lips parted, I reached for her hand again and yanked her toward the door as the guests continued to gawk at us, speechlessly. I managed to get her out of earshot before the others could hear her objections.

“Stop it!” Elix barked, trying to twist her hand out of mine, but I anticipated her action this time and held her firmly. She came to a dead stop instead, thrusting her arm fully back and forcing me to stop outside of the ballroom. “What the hell are you doing?!”

Without a word, I turned to her and seized her in one arm, throwing her over my shoulder as she coughed and gasped, dumbfounded but stalled by my action. It took her several seconds to recover before she reacted.

“PUT ME DOWN!” she hollered, beating against my back and trying to kick at my chest, but I held her legs in place, my stride even as my guards followed behind me. “JACE, WHAT THE FUCK?”

“Lower your voice!” I hissed at her, not slowing my stride nor giving into her request. I couldn’t be sure if the guards were following, but I trusted their discretion in this matter well enough.

“Why?!” she fired back. “You already made a scene!”

She had a point there. I had to do something about the party guests and the mayor’s son.

“Put me down!” Elix yelled again, hitting my back, but her ineffectual fists were more a massage against my very tense muscles than pain.

“Alpha,” Llyodiver mumbled from behind me, answering my question whether we had been followed.

I half turned to acknowledge him.

“What should I do about the guests?” the head of the Royal Guards wanted to know. “They’re in a bit of a state in there right now.”

I continued my stride as I answered his question. “I want them all out of here. Now.”

“And the mayor’s son?” Llyodiver pressed to be clear.

I considered the matter very carefully.

No actual harm had come to Elix, and there were political considerations. I’d probably taught the kid a lifelong lesson. No meant no.

“Send him a healer and then throw him out. I don’t give a shit how he gets home,” I snapped. “I’ll be paying him and his father a visit later on. He can count on that.”

Llyodiver snapped his fingers, and the other guards fell into line, moving to obey my instructions as Elix continued to fight feebly against me, but I didn’t alter my steps as I ascended to my suites, forsaking the elevator this time with her on my back.

“You’re not my bodyguard!” Elix wailed. “I didn’t ask you to do any of that!”

“You weren’t doing a very good job of protecting yourself, either,” I retorted, continuing up the stairs.

“PUT ME?—”

“STOP IT!” I roared, cutting her off, and she fell silent. “Be grateful I stopped it when I did. It could have been so much worse than it was.”

I realized then that my pulse was racing in my ears, and I couldn’t get it to slow, even when I finally set Elix down in front of my suite to throw the doors open and gently shove her through.

“Get in there,” I ordered her. “We’re going to have a little talk, whether you like it or not.”

Chapter 6

Elix

Flustered and humiliated, I considered running off. I had lost a shoe in the whole fiasco, somewhere between Jace picking me up and the fight to get him to put me down. I’d never been so embarrassed in my whole life.

But where was I going to go? Back to my room? He would just come and get me. Out of the palace and back home? Saint would just march me back to my gilded prison, and how would I even explain what happened? Saint would blame me for even going to the party in the first place.

I had no choice but to sit there and listen to whatever Jace was about to dish out to me.

The door to his chambers closed behind me, leaving his remaining guards outside, and I stood near the threshold, ready to make a break for it as Jace ran his hand through his hair. His muscles rippled through his shirt, and I forced myself to look away.

“What a mess,” he muttered, shaking his head.

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