He stared with his intense green eyes, never once glancing away. Complete alpha. Utterly ruthless in his regard as he held my gaze. Everyone in the room had quieted, letting us have our little battle of wills without interruption, which was much appreciated because I seriously needed to know his answer to my question.
Again, he smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “We’ll be working together, as was ordered, but know that nothing happens here without my knowledge.” A pause. “So, if you want to have more private meetings with Mr John Smith,” he snorted at the name, “which last exactly twenty-three minutes and forty-four seconds, or with anyone else, inside your privacy-spelled tent, I will be informed.”
My nostrils flared, and I barely kept my eyes from glowing, the ice in my veins cracking the barest smidge. This was f**king bullshit. It wasn’t hard to see where this was coming from now that I listened more closely to his tone. “Just because we might have had a child together that gives you no damn rights over me.” I flicked a finger between the two of us. “We don’t even like each other now, we have no relationship other than business together, and quite frankly, I’m beginning to wish I had never stepped foot into this damn camp and was still blind to the truth.”
“Might have had a child?” he asked instantly, sounding incredulous. “Are you f**king blind, as well as sloppy?” He paused, head cocked. “Oh, that’s right,” again with that rough chuckle, his lips curving cruelly, “you thought I was a cat Shifter when we met, so I guess you are blind.”
“Sloppy?” I growled. “I’m not sloppy.” I pointed a sharp finger at him. “I’ll have you know that was the first night I had ever done drugs,” my finger slashed through the air, even though my defense sucked, “unlike you, and it’s just f**king perfect that Isa has a damn druggie dad.” My voice was rising. “And I’m certainly not blind.” My finger waggled up and down his body. “You’re big enough to be a Shifter and you move like a damn cat. It was a decent assessment, since you were masking.”
Elder Merrick’s jaw was beginning to gape, his head twisting back and forth between us. His hands lifted, and he stepped between our lines of vision to one another. Much like Antonio, he made a few gurgling sounds in his throat. Stopped. His wolf growled furiously as he stared off at nothing. Then he pointed a finger straight at me, ordering, “You’re getting off topic!”
My lips thinned, and I took a calming breath, not looking anywhere near the ass**le King. “You’re right.” I pulled my cell phone out. “I’m going to have a DNA test done on him and Isa.”
“What?” King Zeller asked quietly.
“DNA…science,” I muttered, glaring at my phone as I hit Bindi’s number. “You’re intelligent enough to have heard of it, right?” My lips lifted when I heard his Vampire growl in irritation. I put the cell to my ear. “And don’t worry. Bindi, my nurse, is in the know as much as these four since she goes into those gurgling spells like they do.”
“If she talks, I’ll kill her and anyone she tells.” King Zeller shrugged. Truth. His gaze flicked to everyone in the room. “Same goes for everyone here.” His eyes landed on his dad. “Including you.”
“That’s the point, genius. They can’t tell,” I muttered quietly, listening to the phone ring. Ignoring his Vampire growling again, I heard Bindi answer, and I sighed, placing six wine glasses on the bar. “Bindi, I need you to come over. ASAP.” She agreed, keeping the conversation short as I poured the wine into the glasses, making sure mine was filled to practically the rim.
She arrived before I had even distributed the glasses to everyone. And like clockwork, as soon as she saw King Zeller holding Isa, she went completely still, her face going to that emotional void they were all wearing.
King Zeller cursed quietly. “Fucking hell, we must have been damn reckless if a Mage physician knows.” He shook his head, rubbing Isa’s back, and stared at Bindi. “You were stationed mainly in the fighting arena at King Cave, weren’t you?”
She sighed heavily and nodded, her attention moving to me. “What did you need, Queen Ruckler?”
“Paternity test.” I flicked a finger at King Zeller around my wine glass…then downed half of it. “On him compared to Isa.” She stood motionless, not showing a damn thing, then hastily went to their sides and opened the medical kit she had brought with her. I finished the rest of my drink and grabbed the bottle before sitting on the couch. “I want the results tonight.”
She snapped on latex gloves. “You’ll have the results in less than an hour. I’ll put a special rush on it.” Her hands glowed as she smirked.
“Perfect,” I murmured, staring between my empty glass and the bottle, debating drinking straight from the source instead of doing this civilly…but Antonio took that decision away from me, yanking the bottle out of my hand to pour me a half glass before moving across the room, carting the bottle with him. “I hate you.”
His lips twisted in an evil daddy smile before he took a sip straight from the bottle himself. “And I love you.” He stared pointedly at me. “Like Merrick said, you’re getting off track.”
Sighing, I leaned back on the couch, lifting my legs onto it and bending one of them to dangle my arm and glass over my knee as I watched Bindi use a swab on the inside of Isa’s mouth. Isa made a choking noise, and I tensed, but Bindi was quick with the work, and as soon as the swab left Isa’s mouth, King Zeller’s eyes instantly flashed, and Isa’s chin stopped trembling and she cooed quietly, snuggling back under King Zeller’s sharp jaw. The ass**le King had just used his power to soothe her, which wasn’t such an ass**le thing to do, but still… “Bindi, make sure you jab his extra deep.” Oh! “Or maybe I could do it?”
Bindi paused in lifting a new swab to his mouth while King Zeller scowled at me.
“Not helping, Lil,” Antonio muttered.
Unrepentant, I sighed in defeat, shrugging a shoulder. “It was only a thought.” I flicked my free hand at Bindi. “Go ahead. I’ll just have to make do with my imagination.”
In the quiet, King Zeller’s lips curled deliberately. “And that’s all you’ll ever have. Your imagination.” His eyes flicked down my body. “While I, on the other hand, have actual memories of making you bleed.”