King Hall (Forever Evermore, #1)(10)

I learned King Fergus hadn’t gotten laid in two years. King Nelson was gay and mated. Jack had a thing for late night porn. Pearl’s favorite place to have sex was in the hot tub. Gideon’s favorite was in the shower. Dominic enjoyed me being on top the best.

Seriously, I couldn’t think it enough: this guy was something else.

I kept my gaze down, not wanting to get flashed.

He chuckled deeply. “What’s the matter? Afraid of what you’ll say about your mate?”

My eyebrows slammed together, and instinctively my eyes raked up, glaring.

His eyes flashed.

I felt a slamming inside my head. A deep presence urged me to say I was a hybrid. My vision was gone, only a spring green void in front of me. My sanity hadn’t disappeared, though. My teeth gritting, I pushed back at the foreign presence.

I gasped, blinking through the surprise of release. My eyesight was back and in focus. I allowed myself a quiet sigh of relief, knowing that I hadn’t blabbed.

Ezra’s eyebrows lowered.

Flash.

All I saw was an abyss of spring green. I was floating in it, warm. Safe.

“Tell me your deepest secret,” a voice purred, surrounding my mind, all the hidden places, an invading fog pouring into every crevasse. “Lily,” the voice hummed. “Tell me.”

My mouth was open, my vocal chords pulling me to shout my hidden nature. Grunting, my teeth instantly ground against each other. I didn’t trust that voice. Only Dominic’s did I trust, and that wasn’t his purr.

My wolf growled and I heaved against the pressure, hissing, “Screw you.” Trembling, I gasped, the room once more coming back into focus.

Dominic still had me wrapped in his arms. “What the hell kind of question was that?”

Ezra was studying me, silent.

King Venclaire rumbled, “One which shouldn’t have been asked in this game, a damn good reason why I protected her.” A foot moved away from mine under the table, and King Venclaire flicked his Prodigy a chastising glance, which Ezra didn’t see…because he was still staring.

I flipped him off. That had been hard as hell to resist, even with King Venclaire’s help.

“How?” Mrs. Jonas asked.

“His foot. Under the table,” I murmured absently, still glaring and, also, a tad freaked. Ezra had a lot of power. He had kicked my butt both physically and mentally today. Time for a little false boasting. “Maybe I’ll visit you in my wolf form.” I grinned. I would happily rip into his leg with my teeth. He would heal quickly enough. I growled a little, letting my wolf take voice.

“Lily…” King Kincaid admonished quietly.

I sighed and stopped snarling at Ezra, who had reclined calmly on his chair, crossing his arms over his chest like I hadn’t just growled and, possibly, threatened him.

He grinned.

While I was tapping my fingers on the table, the server set another course in front of me, but I held Ezra’s gaze straight on.

As thirty seconds turned into a minute, my eyes began to water.

Our staring contest continued.

Only when Dominic mentally growled to not start trouble did I sigh, looking away.

There would be plenty of other opportunities.


With everyone else still inside the office chatting, Dominic and I stood directly outside the front entrance of the administrative building. A moment away from the others, just for us. I brushed my lips over his, readying myself to rush to my poetry class. “I’ll see you later.”

He nodded, but glanced up when his dad and King Venclaire walked out the door, almost running in to us as they spoke quietly. Dominic quickly tugged me aside, the door swinging wide and almost hitting me in the head. Wrapping his arms around me, he glared. “Can’t we get a moment of privacy?”

King Kincaid chuckled quietly. “King Venclaire, do you know this word privacy my son is speaking of?”

“Never heard of it,” King Venclaire murmured absently, bending low so that he was right in front of my face. Again his eyes darted across my face, but this time he smiled. “Angela Springs was your mother. Your face is the spitting image of her. Your hair threw me because hers was dark brown, and her eyes were brown whereas yours are blue. But there’s no denying it.” His gaze skimmed down my face again unhurriedly. “You’re her daughter.”

My heart jumping to my throat, I pressed harder against Dominic. I knew what my real last name had been when I was born — before it was changed to Ruckler — but my mom had always told me that, if anyone ever knew who she was, I was to get the hell out of town. I scanned the lawn, looking for hiding exits, seeing only open space.

King Venclaire grabbed my chin, swiftly turning my attention toward him. His eyebrows were together, his features etched with worry. “From what King Kincaid’s said, I understand you lost her. It must be hard, but try not to panic. I didn’t mean to make you overwrought.” He seemed…sincere.

I gulped. The area was quiet; I realized that there was nowhere to run, with a King to my left and another in front of me, so I had to get my act together. I nodded swiftly, playing a part: breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth to even my heartbeat and stating, “She only died a little over a year ago. It’s still very raw.” Anybody could hear that in my tone.

King Venclaire smiled delicately, his words just as gentle. “I’m so sorry for your loss.” His eyes unfocused and his expression softened further, his tone a whisper. “I knew her. She and I were,” he hesitated, “friends, long ago.” His sigh was quiet, sounding weary. “I would have liked to have kept in touch with her, but I imagine Mr. Ruckler was who she ran off with?” He straightened when I stayed silent, his eyes dancing across my features again, his tone still whisper-soft. “She was quite beautiful. As are you, Lily.”