time, he’d see what everyone else assumed about my kind: Rafe would experience a dragon unhinged.
“Elijah, I didn’t mean—”
But I was already gone, shooting up and beelining for Deimos—who still had his fucking arm around my mate. Rafe stayed at the table, perhaps waiting to see the situation unfold from a distance; while we both ascribed to the don’t-make-waves philosophy, we were willing to draw arms for each other.
True to form, maenad Constance was there in a heartbeat to block my path as her gang leader worked his magic on the new arrival. Amazonian in size, olive-skinned and pink-haired, the woman was straight-up batty. Deimos had promised Rafe and me a blowjob each if we joined his crew, like her mouth on our dicks was a perk that came with letting him order us around. Back then we’d refused, but not everyone could go six months with nothing but their hand to get off with. Her charms had worked on Avery and Blake, at the very least.
Statuesque as she was, I shouldered around her, physically stronger than some psychotic worshipper of an old Greek god, and marched right up to Deimos’s usual table. He’d already sat the witch down on one of the stools, and he leaned over her, whispering in her ear with a wicked smile—
“Deimos,” I barked, fighting with my inner dragon for control. He wanted to flay Deimos alive, and normally I did too—but I wasn’t about to spend a month in solitary now that my fated mate slept fifty feet away from me. “None of your games. Leave her be.”
The demon straightened, his grin cruel and his hand lingering on her shoulder. “Oh, now you want to say something? Where’s this fire been all along, dragon?”
“Miss, don’t involve yourself in his bullshit,” I said, locking eyes fleetingly with the witch. She licked her full lips, the flick of her tongue a fucking tease, and before I could get another word out, Deimos scoffed.
“Her name’s Katja,” he sneered, purring her name in a way that made my blood boil. “She told me—practically handed it over.”
Darkness glimmered in his black gaze, malice burning bright, and, as if realizing her mistake, my fated blushed crimson. Names had such power in supernatural communities, fae most of all, but demons could work twisted wonders with them too. Mercifully, our collars would put a stop to that. Deimos was just another asshole in here, though I couldn’t imagine Katja relished the fact that he knew her name—that he crooned it like he already owned it.
“Right.” She planted her hands on the table and stood. “I’m out.”
What a voice. Sweet and clear but strong. It lulled my inner dragon, quieting his rage over Deimos, and I watched her helplessly as she strode back to her cell and left us all in her dust. At the door, she glanced over her shoulder, eyes catching mine again. My cock twitched with interest when her cheeks darkened, but in a flash, she was gone.
Her scent lingered in the air, and I resisted the urge to suck down a lungful—especially with Deimos grinning at me like that, toothily, the gap between his fake front teeth purposeful. I mean, those were the two I’d knocked out months ago, and he must have requested medical to recreate it when he got the new pair. I cocked my head to the side, refusing to let him get to me, and then glanced pointedly at his mouth.
“You sure you wanna show me those teeth, boy?”
His smile died in an instant. Good. Fucker.
“I’ll be watching you,” I growled—and then caught my mistake a second later. Deimos smirked, his expression oozing a casual cruelty that made my inner dragon seethe.
“Oh, please do watch me,” the demon insisted, grabbing at his dick for good measure. “You can watch me take her, dragon.”
A steely grip snapped around my bicep when I lurched forward, animal instinct on hyperdrive. Rafe wrenched me back just as one of the asshole guards sighed and pushed off the wall, like doing his job was such a fucking chore. The end of his wand glowed when he drew it, but the fight was over before it began, Rafe and I back at our table and Deimos chortling at his.
“You fucked that up,” the vampire muttered, fixing me with a narrowed look as he reshuffled our deck. I gritted my teeth and said nothing, my inner dragon unleashing a hellfire that scorched up my windpipe and burned straight to the tip of