my window outside. “Why did the human boy call you babe? How dare he demand to have an intimacy with you! I’ll slay the prick!”
“The human shall never come near you if he wants his dick to stay attached,” Rowan said icily beside Baron.
“What the f—” Richie’s voice came from the phone, but I didn’t let him finish. I powered it off, so he couldn’t call back again.
Fortunately, my siblings’ rooms were on the other side, or no one could get any sleep.
I jumped off the bed, shrugged on a robe, picked up Legend Heavy, and rushed to fling open the window.
Rowan and Baron stood beneath it with their minions patrolling at the alley.
“What the fuck, dudes?” I asked, my eyes burning with rage. “What’s wrong with you?”
“That human boy was bothering you,” Baron said. “I won’t allow it.”
The damn Fae’s ears had caught everything Richie and I said on the phone. They were indeed supernatural beings.
“It’s none of your business,” I said. “He’s my boyfriend, well, now ex-boyfriend.”
“And he’ll try very hard at keeping his ex status if he wants to stay alive,” Rowan said, blowing a puff of icy steam.
“Are you threatening me?” I asked, leveling the rifle against the windowsill.
“I was promising death toward your ex,” Rowan said. “I’ll never threaten you, Lady Evelina. Instead, I’ll take out any threat to you.”
That was why the two Fae gangster bosses sent their goons trolling my neighborhood.
“So, you admitted that you’re stalking me?” I asked in icy anger.
“Yes, I’m your stalker, Evie, and nothing can stop that,” Baron said. The timbre of his sensual voice caressed me, sending shivers all over me.
Or maybe it was just the cold of the night.
“Did your lackeys pass on the message that I want all of you gone?” I asked. “Or you’ll be served with a very strict court order, both of you.”
“We’re the ultimate courts,” Baron said smugly. “No human court orders can stop me from protecting you.”
Could anyone be more infuriating and unreasonable? But then I was probably handling them the wrong way. They didn’t think like humans and their world had different rules, and I had the iceberg of it in the Claws, Fangs, and Fiends.
“You got the wrong girl,” I said, my voice softening and pleading as I swallowed my pride and changed my approach. “I’m nobody but merely a human girl and a college dropout. I’m a plain Jane and I’m nothing special. You should not waste your court’s precious resources and manpower on me. Just move on. There’re tons of other girls out there, who are younger, smarter, funnier, and prettier.”
I felt a bit sorry for throwing other girls under the bus, but I was sending the Fae on a wild goose chase by not giving any specific.
“My mate is tired if she talks like that,” Rowan said to Baron in a hushed voice. “You should not harass her again, or you’ll answer to me.”
Baron sneered. “You have no claim on her. She isn’t yours.”
“May the best male win then,” Rowan said tightly and grumpily. “That’s our pact before we draw blood again.”
“Agreed,” Baron answered, his voice turning lethal. “She’s mine and will be mine in truth. I’ll do everything in my power to protect and keep what’s mine.”
“When she chooses me,” Rowan said, his tone equally dangerous, “you’ll back off, half-brother. I don’t want to kill you, but I will. I’ll slay anyone who stands between my mate and me.”
Their threats to each other chilled me, yet their menace and possessiveness and domination also strangely appealed to me as if they struck the chord deep within me. As if the very depth of my soul had always carved to be claimed and dominated.
No, no way. Now my cold logic also returned. The two Fae thug bosses couldn’t be reasoned with. They’d said it very clearly this night that they wouldn’t allow any male to fuck me, except them. They couldn’t bully or cut down Richie since he was thousands of miles away. But what about Rydstrom? I got the job, and he might ask me to dance for him again. I might do that, and if I couldn’t stay cool, we might go further. I couldn’t promise myself that I could trust myself with him alone. I’d nearly beg Rydstrom to fuck me last time if that astral image of the Fae female hadn’t stopped me.
I couldn’t trust myself with any of the three Fae.
I was sure Rydstrom could take care of himself if the three