Page 106 of Threaded

Andrian’s mind locked down on the last of those words, his fury seething to a boil.

No.Fuckthat. There would be no sharing.

Fuck his role as an Armature. She washis.

And he would stake his claim.

Finally, while his brothers continued to pat Trefor on the back and ooze their words of congratulations, Andrian caught Mariah’s eye, her gaze surveying over him with an unreadable look. He let her read him, let all the dominance and rage andthingshe felt but wouldn’t, couldn’t, dwell on swirl through his own expression, loosening his shadows even more as they spilled into the air around his shoulders and twined further up his legs. They whipped and snapped like mini tornados, driven to madness by the chaos fueling his thoughts, spurred by the green-eyed she-devil standing before him.

With a deep inhale, he drew it all back into him, regaining his weak control. He pushed his shoulders back, rolling them once, before turning on his heel and stalking off into the deeper part of the woods, the parts that inched closer to the Attlehons, full of ancient secrets and empty of prying eyes.

* * *

The ruins were deep in the game park woods, likely some forgotten retreat of a long-passed queen. The structure was in a state of absolute decay, and the only sign it had once existed at all was the singular stone wall that still stood, vines and moss covering most of the gray surface.

Andrian walked right up to the wall, forcing his breath out through clenched teeth as his lungs heaved. His hands clenched and unclenched at his sides, every inch of his restraint melting away with each dragged inhale.

He froze as he heard soft steps behind him. It was the sound of someone who’d grown up in a forest, who knew how to move without so much as a whisper but wanted to be heard. He knew she’d been following him, of course, but hadn’t heard her steps until now. Until she’dwantedhim to hear.

Witch.

And then … that voice.

“Andrian.” She practically whispered to him, the sound surprisingly gentle. As if he was some wild beast in need of taming.

Yeah. Fuck that.

He held himself still, letting her take her steps closer, drawing her in to him like a moth to a flame. Then, when she was but a few feet away, he whirled, his shadows lashing out and wrapping themselves around her hands, her waist, her ankles, rooting her to the ground. As he finally let his eyes drop to hers, meeting the forest green gaze slowly filling with anger and a hint of confusion, a flood of questions, statements, and confessions went rushing into his head.

But he only asked one.

“Why?”

It was a simple question, but was also the only one that truly mattered to him.

Why?

Why Trefor?

Why had she been Chosen as the next queen?

Why had he been Marked and Selected?

Why couldn’t she have been Royal?

Why was it that everything he wanted most in this life had to be so fuckingrottedaround the edges?

“Why what?” Her response was cold, the anger in her eyes now a simmering vat of green and gold and silver burning up at him.

Good. He would gladly take the heat of her wrath if it meant guaranteeing himself five minutes alone with her.

Not that he would let her know that, though.Not yet.

Andrian tilted his head slightly and stalked a step closer to her, watching her skin alight with the glow of her magic as her anger ran wild around her. The feeling of her silver-gold threads pushing into the air, twining up and out towards him, touching the slight wisps of his shadows he always kept loose around his shoulders had his blood instantly heating. It felt like someone was running a fingertip between his shoulder-blades, along his spine, scratching the places he could never quite reach. His cock twitched in response, his teeth grinding together as he clenched his jaw. He tilted his head at her and loosened the damper on his power just a little more, his shadows pressed harder against the light of her magic.

He had so many different ways he could answer her, but in that moment, he chose to go with the one that might actually succeed in opening the door for her to hear what he desperately needed to say.

The conflagration in her eyes began to soften to a mere candle, her magic also relaxed as it began to gleefully wind itself around his own. He took that as his sign; either she would answer him now, or she never would.