Blackwell, who had given up on helping with Razar far too easily, stepped closer to Amun, in between us and him. He offered him a low warning that I couldn’t completely hear, because right at that moment, Arabella leaned into my chest, her small little yawn making something in my chest relax. I knew it was odd, her reactions to most of this shit, but I absolutely loved it. I loved it that nothing fucking fazed her.
The same couldn’t be said about our Director, though.
James McCroy let out a tired groan, seemingly not nearly as entertained as myself or as unworried as Arabella. Then again, violence as a whole was a general source of entertainment for me. I just preferred it not to include Arabella at all. I liked her to watch us slaughter from a distance.
“Fucking shit,” Razar snarled as my gaze moved over towards where Cy had knocked him on his ass. I then looked down to Arabella, who was still tucked against me possessively, to watch her reaction. Except I found her looking right back at me, her cheeks a light pink and eyes wide as her fingers hesitantly slid over my tail that was still wrapped around her waist tightly.
Fuck.
My cock jumped to attention at the slight touch on my dark tail, her lips parting as if she could tell the effect she had on me, her breathing hitched. This. This was the exact reason why I kept my distance from physicality with Arabella.
Blackwell grunted as my lips pulled into a smirk, knowing he could sense her desire, which momentarily saturated the air before she seemed to snap out of it, shuttering it. It didn’t stop a surge of pride from going through me that she found me attractive, and I was thankful she couldn’t get as good of a read on how much I wanted her because it would rightfully scare the living hell out of her. Having one monstrous creature following after you needily was one thing, especially considering my heritage, but several would be enough to make any woman nervous… and trust me, it was very much ‘several’ of us. Arabella had absolutely no idea the extent of what I wanted to do to her, and I needed it to stay that way.
Unless she wanted the same thing…
No. That was ridiculous, and I wouldn’t allow myself to go there. Not right now, while she was in my arms and on the edge of being turned on. That was asking for fucking problems. As in Blackwell, someone I considered a brother, would probably actually kill me in order to protect Arabella from my not so innocent intentions.
Scratch that—I absolutely knew he would kill me because I would do the same, especially if it put her at risk. It wasn’t personal… well, it was, but we both understood the priority that Arabella played in our lives.
“I’m fine,” Razar hissed as Cy offered him a hand to stand, his eyes going completely dark to the point where the whites were absent. His temperament seemed to cool slightly, but it was very obvious how close he was to his night terror taking over. It wasn’t like the bastard was known for control, but he usually was better than this, at least around Arabella.
I had never been one to deny the desire and lust I had for blood and violence, which was why chaos tended to entertain me rather than upset me or get me worked up. Unfortunately, Razar was very much not the same, and I knew he would beat himself up over this for fucking weeks if he had somehow hurt Arabella in the process of extracting her from Amun. Hell, even if she seemed slightly upset about it, he would be a mess. If there was anyone attempting to deny their nature on our team, it was Razar, and the funny part was that I couldn’t even blame him. I knew he was doing it out of fear of what Arabella would think. I just happened to be more confident in my knowledge that this type of situation would barely faze our little cherry blossom.
Arabella, the stunning woman that was watching all of this with a bit of concern, but mostly interest, probably not understanding why exactly her being in another nightmare’s arms was so fucking upsetting in the first place. You would think after all this time she would have realized how goddamn possessive we were over her. She may not be allowed to be ours completely, but she sure as fuck wasn’t anyone else’s.
I narrowed my gaze at her hand that had stopped running over my tail, making me want to ask her to do it again but not wanting to sound needy. The ending barb rubbed against her arm—without my permission, for the record—and she began to smooth her fingers over the sensitive skin again, making me almost produce a purring noise that was completely unacceptable for a public setting. Luckily, there were enough distractions going on that she wasn’t focused on my odd behavior or how I was nearly fucking panting over her.
Cy made an amused sound at Razar’s behavior as the latter offered a snarl, his anger clearly dampened. His gaze darted to Arabella safely in my arms as he stood upright.
If it wasn’t for Arabella being around or a stranger like Amun, Razar and Cy may have gotten into it, but I had a feeling that he wouldn’t risk that right now. Hell, I wouldn’t start shit with Cy most of the time, just on pure survival instincts. He had been on our team for two years now, and all of us, outside of Saint, had gotten our asses handed to us at one time or another by the terrifying bastard.
The problem was that Cy didn’t appear extremely powerful, despite being a Class A creature terror. He was tall with lanky muscles and rarely said anything, especially nothing that could be considered intimidating. His voice was a near whisper when talking, and he usually only focused on responding to Arabella. With that being said, Cy was probably one of the most dangerous members of our team, and not just because of his nature and what he transformed into. No, he was terrifying because there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do, especially for Arabella. It didn’t surprise me exactly, but I was cautious around him, knowing that the nightmare had no lines that he wouldn’t cross. Even in our culture, that was unusual.
“I think Razar’s getting faster,” Blackwell determined, looking annoyed with Cy, before sliding his hands into his suit pants pockets and turning his attention down at Arabella. I knew he was only a moment away from snapping Amun’s neck if the man moved towards us, but it was somehow more amusing and insulting that he’d turned his back on him. Something that I was positive the legend terror noticed.
Still, I offered Blackwell a knowing expression and nearly an eye roll at his words. I think everyone was well aware that Blackwell had hardly been giving it his all to stop Razar from ripping Arabella out of Amun’s arms.
He should have been, considering the circumstance, though. She could have been hurt. I trusted Razar to protect Arabella, but not Amun—if the two of them had started fighting, she could have easily ended up between them and injured. My throat produced a low growl as I tightened my grip on her.
My eyes narrowed on her throat, where Amun’s hand had been, and I breathed out in relief, not noticing any bruising yet. If there ended up being any, he was going to find himself absent of several important appendages. I didn’t feel like a warning was necessary for that.
Mind you, it wouldn’t be the first time Arabella had gotten hurt during work, but I still fucking hated any marks on her beautiful skin.
Well, actually, that wasn’t completely true, and that was far more of a problem than someone like Amun posed, unfortunately. There had been once or twice when I’d accidentally left light bruising on her waist from how I’d been holding her during a tense or dangerous situation… and that had left me with a feeling that I tried to not analyze too much.