I swallow, glancing away.
I didn’t tell him everything about the night I was arrested, nor have I mentioned that Memnon and I are soul mates.
Memnon’s magic wraps around Kane’s body and rips the shifter off me, throwing him against a nearby tree. Kane hits it with a grunt. Before he can move away from the tree trunk, the sorcerer’s power pins him to it.
Memnon strides forward, murder in his eyes. He looks like he’s going to rip the shifter’s spine out through his chest. “If it’s not the lycanthrope who thought to touch what’s mine.”
Memnon, I am not a piece of meat to fight over.
Of course you’re not, he says smoothly down our bond. You are the reason for my existence. But I will fight over you.
“Do you remember what I told you when I saw you last?” Memnon says, stepping in close to the bound lycanthrope.
While he speaks, Memnon’s power brushes against me, wrapping around my midsection and slipping beneath my back. I think it’s supposed to be a reassuring caress, but the sensation of his magic against my overstimulated skin has me gasping.
Whoever made that brew should be arrested. This amount of arousal feels criminal.
Memnon continues, “I said that if you ever touched Selene again, I would cut off your dick and feed it to you. And what have I found here? You touching my unwilling fiancée.”
A low growl starts up in the shifter’s throat. “Unwilling? You want to talk about unwilling? You stalked Selene and broke into her room. You threatened to hurt me to get her to do your will. And now you’d have me believe she’s engaged to you?” He laughs in Memnon’s face. Kane’s eyes move to mine. “Tell me you willingly agreed to that.”
I don’t know how Kane so easily sees through this farce of an engagement.
The sorcerer’s magic is gathering; I can see the agitated ends of it lashing around him like whips, and I know he’s about to do something awful.
“Memnon, don’t hurt him,” I gasp out.
My mate doesn’t so much as flinch at the order, but his magic rapidly descends back into his body until the night air is entirely clear of it. Knowing all that violent magic is now bottled up inside the sorcerer unnerves the shit out of me.
When Memnon glances over his shoulder at me, the corner of his mouth curving up, I can tell my order doesn’t matter. He has something else up his sleeve.
“I’m guessing Selene hasn’t told you about our past?” The sorcerer faces Kane again. “Our love stretches back two thousand years. My soul mate and I have endured horrors you cannot imagine to get to this moment. You wish to compete with that, wolf?”
“I think I have a helluva lot more chance than a tool like you,” Kane says.
Memnon steps in close, his form towering over the shifter’s. “Is that right? Because I thought I heard her say fuck no to your offer—but maybe my ears are just ba—”
Kane’s fist swings out, hitting Memnon square in the cheek, and the sorcerer’s head snaps to the side.
Aw fuck.
Memnon stays in that position for an extra moment. When he straightens, a little line of blood drips down from the corner of his mouth. The sorcerer smiles, the expression tugging on his scar and making him look malevolent.
“Foolish little pup. Thinking of stealing people’s mates.”
Kane hits him again.
Memnon groans, stumbling back. The shifter lunges for him, taking the sorcerer to the ground. Kane’s fist slams into the sorcerer’s face again and again. And Memnon just takes it, not even bothering to protect himself from the hits.
“Kane, stop!”
Kane lifts his head and growls in response, the alpha in him chafing against my order. He does, however, lower his fist, his chest rising and falling with his exertion.
Beneath him, Memnon’s face is a bloody mess. The sight of it causes a bolt of sheer terror to course through me.
I’m all right, little witch, he says. Healing it already.
“Why isn’t he fighting back?” Kane says, his eyes focused on Memnon. “I know this motherfucker loves to.”
I really do, Memnon says down our bond. My soul mate sounds more than a little self-satisfied, despite the fact that he just had the crap beaten out of him.
Tentatively, I move toward the two. Arousal is still soaking my panties, and honestly, the fighting did nothing but deepen the ache.
“Because I told him not to,” I say to the shifter. Of its own accord, my magic slips ahead and presses itself against Memnon’s wounds. It ignores Kane’s bloody knuckles entirely. “But if you keep hitting him, I’ll let him have at you, and, Kane,” I say softly, “you don’t want that.”
The lycan looks between us. “So he listens to you now?” he asks me, getting off Memnon.
The sorcerer sits up and wipes away what blood my magic hasn’t already cleaned from his face, then rests his arm on a bended knee.
Memnon leans back a little, a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Are you going to tell him or should I?” he asks me, oddly gleeful for a man who just took several hits to the face.
“Memnon,” I caution. Why must this entire conversation happen while I am blazingly drunk and in desperate need of an orgasm?
“What is he talking about, Selene?” Kane asks. I can see his wolf staring at me from the backs of his eyes.
Hell’s spells.
My stomach churns as I admit, “Memnon is bound to me.”
Uncertainty flickers in his eyes. “You mean through your…bond?”
“The soul mate bond doesn’t compel me to do anything,” Memnon says. “The one we made a few nights ago, however…”
It finally registers. “You bound him?” Kane says to me, horrified.
My stomach twists. I became a friend of the pack in the first place because I stopped a binding spell from happening. To suddenly now have one myself doesn’t look good.
Kane stares at me like he’s never seen me before. Like maybe I am the bad guy.
Memnon stands up, stepping in front of me. “Don’t look at her like that,” he says, menace back in his voice.
“Why would you do such a thing?” Kane says, ignoring Memnon entirely.
Memnon answers anyway. “I asked it of her. I am earning back the trust I broke.”
Kane looks from Memnon to me, aghast. I cannot tell what is running through the lycan’s mind, but Goddess, I am too drunk to adequately address it anyway.
Another wave of desire washes though me, and a soft moan slips out.
Ugh. And horny. Crone’s cane, but I’m far, far too horny to be having this conversation.
Kane’s nostril’s flare, and his eyes fully shift, and Memnon glances back at me with an arched eyebrow, and fuck, everybody is very aware that I’m one throbbing erogenous zone.
“Well,” I say, inclining my head a little. “It has been lovely, Kane. We will chat again soon. Memnon and I are leaving right now,” I say, directing this last bit to the sorcerer.
Memnon immediately moves toward me with a possessive glint in his eye.
Kane’s gaze searches mine. “Selene…”
I hear the hurt in his voice, and it guts me.
I didn’t intend for any of this. Not the confrontation, not the meeting with Kane, not even the arousal. It’s still my fault, but I hadn’t wanted it all to play out so messily.
The shifter’s attention moves to my soul mate, and his pain transforms into anger. “How does it feel to be forced to do another’s bidding?” Kane calls out.