“And you didn’t think it was strange that she didn’t want you here?”
“No, because lately, she’d been putting more and more distance between us,” I admitted with a soft shrug as a pang filled my heart. “I just figured maybe she needed space, but then I called, and she didn’t answer. I sent her messages, and they went unread until they disconnected her number. Now we’re here.”
“Amara showed up in town with an agenda, Aria. She vanished seven days ago.”
“You’re lying. Amara’s phone has been shut off for two weeks. If she vanished one week ago, that would mean she turned off her own phone. I scried, trying to locate her, and she wasn’t in Haven Falls. If she was, I’d have found her. I have never missed a target I have scried for in my entire life. Not to mention, I didn’t feel her here. Why wait until now to tell me this?” I asked carefully.
“Because there are things that aren’t adding up,” he said, observing me. “The day Amara showed up, she took down the magic that protected your home. She disabled the House of Magic. Why? It would have protected her. She fucked anyone who would let her and even tried to fuck me. The thing is, every male she fucked is dead. They’re not just dead, Aria, they were put onto their knees and executed and then arranged on an altar to make it look as if they were sacrificed. That isn’t something creatures in this realm do. That’s something someone from the Nine Realms would do to someone who had trespassed or stolen something from them.
“Then the attack on the portals happened, three places at once. To weaken it as it has been, those wanting to get inside this realm would have needed an outsider to help them. The thing is, Aria, they’d have needed a Hecate witch to weaken the portals to the Human Realm because they were erected by the goddess. The creatures that went after you while you bathed your virgin pussy in the creek? They came out of a tear in a portal on your property. Someone helped create that hole from your bloodline. Then there was the sacrificed alpha we found on your altar, in your backyard. Her scent was all over it, all over him. Amara isn’t missing, Aria. She’s committed treason against the Nine Realms.”
“You’re lying,” I whispered through trembling lips.
“Am I? Or do you just not want to believe she was capable of it? Because it’s the only thing that makes sense,” he said, dabbing his mouth with a napkin and chugging the milk he’d poured. “Amara had a lover in the Nine Realms, did she not?”
“Fuck you,” I snapped, standing up to leave the table. I didn’t make it more than a few steps before he picked me up and slammed me on the chair, jolting my teeth as he leaned over and stared into my eyes. “I won’t condemn my sister.”
“You don’t fucking have to, she is already condemned, Aria. Did she have a fucking lover in the Nine Realms? Answer me, because your fucking life depends on it.”
I swallowed and gave myself an internal shake. What the hell had she done? This wasn’t something I could save her from, not if it was true. I didn’t believe it in a million years, but I also couldn’t let the entire bloodline take the fall if she had. I could prove her innocence or figure out the truth, but if he had the council’s ear, I couldn’t lie.
He growled, and I nodded. “Yes,” I admitted closing my eyes briefly with guilt.
He straightened and nodded. “Fucking figures,” he muttered. “You guys can’t keep your legs closed no matter what the laws are, can you?” My eyes held his, and a delicate brow lifted. “Nah, Aria. You are something else entirely.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re a witch, but that’s only part of what you are. Your other half is more dominant. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t have that pesky little hymen in the way of your ovaries.”
“Can you keep my ovaries out of your mouth?”
“That’s anatomically impossible, Aria.” He shot my words back at me, and I rolled my eyes at his effort to point it out. “Or it is as long as they remain within you.”
I exhaled, turning as the servers entered the room to clear the dishes. They had removed one plate before a male stepped in behind me and growled. I spun in my chair, looking up as he lunged. My arms went up to cover my head, but an arm reached over me and yanked the man around the chair I sat in before he could reach me, tossing him out the door. Standing, I looked at Knox, who sniffed the air and turned to watch as another male moved toward me.
“Bloody hell,” Knox hissed, catching the man mid-leap and wrapping his hand around his throat, snapping it until the room echoed from the kill. “Out!” he snapped, and I moved to obey, but his arm caught me before I reached the door, shoving me into the chair before he slammed the exit closed—along with any chance I had of escaping. “Your ovaries just dropped an egg.”
I stared at him blankly before peering at the motionless body on the floor in utter horror. Slowly, I looked up at Knox, whose nostrils flared, and the moment he moved to step closer, I grabbed the chair holding it in front of me like a shield.
“What the fuck are you doing, woman?” he demanded.
“Not dying today,” I warned.
“Cover your scent,” he snapped, grabbing the body and tossing it aside like the man’s life meant nothing. “I don’t care how you fucking do it, just do it now.”
I turned, staring at the food before frowning. “With what?” I asked, jumping as something clawed at the door.
“I don’t care what you do, just do it now. I won’t fight my men for you; I’ll toss your untouched ass out that door and watch them fight for scraps of you before I do that.”
Swallowing hard, I shook my head to clear my thoughts and grabbed the pineapple, pushing into my panties before scrunching my face up.
“Did you just push pineapple into your pussy?” he asked, leaning against the door, studying me through heated eyes.
“Did it work?” I demanded not bothering to deliberate at where I’d placed it, which wasn’t inside of my body—because that would be nasty.
“No, not at all,” he confirmed huskily.
“Think, Aria,” I whispered softly. “There’s no spell that will magically erase my scent. If I’m ovulating, so are my sisters.”
“The difference between them and you is that yours is a virgin pussy, and the need to mount you will bypass most men’s moral compass. You are a rarity, and in the Nine Realms, men would track your scent and take what they want from you whether you wanted them to or not. Fix it, or I will.”
“How?” I whispered, ignoring the growls and fights that were unfolding outside the door.
“You won’t like it,” he warned.
“If it doesn’t end with your cock in me, I’m game,” I replied without hesitation. He chuckled darkly, smirking as he left the door to grab my hand. “What are you doing?”
“Fixing it without bending you over,” he snarled, stopping and then turning as the door creaked and bowed.
He moved me in front of him, and I felt his pulsing cock rub against my back. Yelping, I leaned forward, arching my back to get distance between us, but he pulled me back even while fingering the code into a hidden panel that had blended in with the white wall. The moment it opened, he pushed me inside, following behind me.