The Darkest Wolves - A.K. Koonce Page 0,32

down the straight line of his nose to glare properly at me.

“I saved you. I. Saved. You. You can say thank you now.”

“Thank you?!” My voice shakes so hard I nearly choke on it.

“Yeah. You’re fuckin’ welcome.”

Oh no, he didn’t.

My palms land on the smooth panes of his chest, and I shove him with all the strength I possess. He stumbles back, but he recovers fast, and he reacts even faster. Strong arms wrap around me like a vise, and my hair flings over my face as he spins me until my back is against his front. He holds my arms crisscrossed against my breasts, and I’m seething from the manhandling he seems to think he’s entitled to do.

Why do they hold me like this? All of them constantly spin me around like a princess, just wrap me into submission.

My foot lifts, but I quickly realize he’s wearing boots, and the pain there won’t be enough.

So my head flings back in the matter of half a second. Pain sears through my skull as I crack that blow against his perfect little nose.

“Fucckk,” he hisses like a sweet secret against the back of my neck. “Why do you hate my nose? Why? Fuck, Cersia!”

Fuck indeed.

“Okay, let’s calm down.” Avian stands, and though Roman is still cursing, he hasn’t released me yet either.

Impressive.

“She’s right,” Avian draws every ounce of my attention, and I look up at him through a tangle of hair hanging in my face. “Don’t put yourself in the Prince’s way again, Rome.” The intensity in the shifter’s gaze is as daunting as it is worried.

He’s worried about me as well as Roman.

“You can’t protect everyone, Av,” Roman grinds those words out, his hold on me wrapping around me in more of a touch of comfort rather than aggression.

Is he…is he hugging me right now?

What. The. Fuck.

“And if you don’t watch your step, you’ll be as cursed as the witch.” The ominous darkness that clings to Avian’s low-spoken warning crawls over my skin.

“The Night Witch is cursed?” It doesn’t occur to me that I’m still having this conversation while Roman snuggles me from behind like I’m the slut puppy’s favorite chew toy.

“She’s…exiled from hell.” Avian looks from Roman to me and then back again, and I can tell there’s so much more they can’t say. “That’s not the point. The point is, Roman’s going to stop playing hero before he gets his throat slit.”

“He wouldn’t kill me. He enjoys watching me suffer. But he’d gladly have you kill me just to watch you suffer. You gonna do that for your Prince? You gonna take my life?” Roman snaps back with cruelty cutting into his every word.

A scent of rage stings the air, and in a flash of dark magic, Avian’s chest collides with mine. His hand reaches high, and he grips the other man’s neck so fast I don’t realize what’s happened until Roman and myself are both pinned against the wall.

“Don’t talk to me like you talk to them. Don’t parade around your little I don’t give a fuck attitude like you do for the rest of this kingdom.” Avian seethes the words out with his face just inches from mine, his anger breathing down Roman’s throat.

While I stand between the two men and try not to make a sound.

But I can’t help it.

I can’t fucking help the gasp that slides from my lips.

Because during the heat of their threats, both of the cocks grow hard against me. Roman’s presses along the curve of my ass while Avian’s thickness grinds into my stomach.

And yet neither of them acknowledges the lust I feel washing through all three of us with me at the center of it all like a boat caught within the reckless waves of a riptide. Drown me in these waters. Let me die here in the rushing current of these beautiful emotions.

Avian senses it first. I don’t know how. I’ll never understand his intuition.

His lips part, and then his head dips down, and he’s focused on me. His hand that’s not around Roman’s neck drops to my hip. A line forms between his dark brows as he seems to consider the way my skin feels beneath the back and forth drifting of his thumb.

Is he testing himself? Testing me? Or is he…trying to make some kind of decision?

Whatever it is, his mind seems to decide sooner rather than later.

Ever so slowly, he leans closer. His nose skims along mine as the warmth of his breath sears over