“You sent them pictures?” Violet asks Damien on a shriek, certainly sounding horrified.
Vance continues to keep his back to us as he pours himself a drink.
“Just a few,” Damien tells her dismissively.
“Do you really not understand the word privacy?” Violet asks.
“I’m a sexual deviant by nature, and you crack a window open for me. How am I to know what your boundaries are?” he asks her with a grin, as she shakes her head.
“I told you not to reward bad behavior,” Vance says idly, as he passes her a glass of champagne.
She takes the glass from him and berates Damien a little longer. The entire dynamic between the three of them has Arion and I both staring in from the outside of their bubble.
It annoys me how much I feel as though I’ve been left out, because it makes me sound too similar to Arion’s ridiculous self.
During the middle of their almost nauseatingly playful banter, Lemon sends me a text informing me that Violet’s father is leaving later today. Probably for the best. She’s been too busy to deal with him.
“So you’re all going to delete the pictures?” she asks as I look up from my phone.
I’m not sure why she looks directly at me like she expects me to be the good one of the bunch. She realizes I’m the alpha wolf, right?
“I’m afraid I’m holding onto them,” I state without apology.
She blinks like she can’t believe I’d say that. Does the bloody girl think I’m some sort of wimp who’d cow to an unreasonable request?
Shera walks in, phone in hand. “You realize you’re with an elite set of alpha monsters, right? I’m sure you’ll catch on,” she says to Violet before redirecting her attention to Arion. “Emily has finally decided to start her own House and requests your immediate attention.”
It’s like a small bomb explodes in the far distance, and the ripple of air it releases sends a chill through us all. Such a large issue shouldn’t be so casually discussed without some sort of preamble.
“While we have a semi-private moment alone, I’d like to also request I stay in House of Arion and not transfer to House of Emily,” Shera is quick to add.
There’s a moment of silence, where we all digest the lunacy of Emily actually committing to forming her own House.
“I thought the Houses were labeled by surnames, and then there was just a pecking order,” Violet says, not understanding the severity of the situation as she leans back against Vance, still wrapped in her sheet.
His eyes meet mine over her head as his arm tightens around her middle.
“Arion’s my first and only name, love,” Arion tells her absently, even as his eyes stay on Shera.
Surely she’s heard us call him by his true surname…
“He had to drop his family name when it took on new meaning,” Vance says when Violet remains confused, not quite so empathic in this moment.
Then again, she never truly seems empathic…but at the same time does…
This girl is maddening.
“It would be House of Vampyre if it were my given surname,” Arion adds.
Violet sucks in a breath of understanding, but then glances around, gauging our expressions. I suppose if she’s heard us say his surname, she thought we were calling him a vampire…only with an accent.
I’m left guessing at all the thoughts in her pretty head, since she never shares very many, I’ve noticed.
“This isn’t a good thing, is it?” Violet goes on, her gaze still flicking between the three of us who aren’t solidly holding onto her from behind.
Fucking Van Helsing. Why am I jealous of Vance? I’m never jealous of Vance. Vance is a tool.
“I’m sorry if it complicates anything,” Shera continues with a tight expression, eyes still on Arion, “but I think my services would be best used in House of Arion.”
Arion slowly nods.
“It’s both calculated and smart to tell me in this moment,” he says like he’s mildly commending her, as he scrubs a hand over his jaw.
“I thought so as well,” Shera states like she’s well aware of her timing.
“Vance, feel like joining me this evening?”
Vance heaves out a breath in response to Arion’s question, and Violet leans up so Van Helsing can move out from behind her, even though I can tell it’s as hard for him as it was for me.
I glance over, seeing Arion’s eyes are just simply watching Violet, as Vance says something near her ear that none of us can hear. She smiles at whatever he’s said, while he pulls away like he’s said nothing at all. He walks out without another word, likely to head to one of his closets.
Shera exits behind him, and Arion stands like he really doesn’t want to deal with this evening.
“She’s said from the beginning that she would stay with your House,” I tell him as I lean back in my chair.
“But will Isiah give her up for Emily?” Damien drawls.
“All this tension is because Isiah may break up with Emily if Shera makes him choose?” Violet asks like she’s confused.
Arion smiles tightly. “If only it were that simple,” he says before walking toward her. He stops just short of her, as though he’s changed his mind. “I’ll pick you up at seven tomorrow,” he adds before walking out.
She just glares at his back, and then she turns her glare on Damien.
“Just curious, since when do you and Vance share time?” I ask Damien.
He grins and waggles his eyebrows, as Violet groans and drops back on the bed, covering her head with a pillow.
“Contrary to popular belief, Violet enjoys sex,” Damien tells me with notable amusement, causing her to groan louder, as though she’s embarrassed now. “According to her, we just make it entirely too complicated.”
He cuts his gaze to her, even as she keeps her face covered, and his smile doubles.
“Was that simple enough for you, sweet gypsy?” he muses.
“I’m going to let Vance stab you if you don’t stop mocking me,” she tells him, her words muffled a hair.
I hate them both for having her to themselves without extending an invitation to me. She’s been too distant with me as of lately, no matter how hard I try.
Her hand sneaks out of the covers, and her fingers lace with Damien’s in a way that only makes me…want to let my wolf free on that motherfucker.
Especially when he smirks at me.
What the hell did they do that’s so fucking special to her?
Chapter 21
VIOLET
With some really terrible underwear stitching that is tickling me in all the wrong places under my clothes, causing me to walk a little wonky, I head into my house.
Lemon and Leiza both sniff the air and arch an eyebrow at me, before twin grins form.
“I had two showers,” I say, holding up just as many fingers.
“I smell Emit but not sex with Emit,” Lemon says on a long inhale, before frowning at me.
“Sex with Vance and someone else,” Leiza adds.
“Damien,” I supply dryly.
They both grin. “It’s always the sweet girls you don’t suspect,” Leiza manages to say with a semi-straight face.
“Rolling downhill. This direction just happens to have less complicated blockades…for the time being. I’m sure that changes soon,” I state, not saying the I-word they all hate hearing.
Their smiles fall away.
“With Arion, maybe things will be different,” Leiza says with very little conviction.
“Has Ingrid warmed up to Dad yet, or does he still think there are large mice in the walls?” I ask in deflection.
“They played cards today,” Lemon states, glancing toward me as her eyes light up a little. “We’ve been good with your father. Are you sure we can’t just have a little—”
“No. You cannot have sex with my father,” I hiss, having already said this too many times to count.
“I just don’t know if I’ve met someone more adorably normal than him,” she tells me on a wistful sigh.
“Was it the first time you’ve been with two men at once?” Leiza randomly inserts.
“I’m going to go make myself some breakfast. It’s been a long night,” I tell them, listening to them giggle at my back.
“Did Emit watch?” I hear Tiara ask around a yawn from the couch, like she’s just now trying to get in on a finished conversation.
I ignore her and walk faster, moving toward the coffee. I’ll be skipping sleep today, since I’m finally able to work in my own store.
I can’t help but let my mind wander back to the way it felt to have their hands on me…at the same time…
It’s the first time I’ve truly enjoyed being a monster.
My phone chimes with a text from Damien, distracting me, and I open it to see he’s sent me five pictures. I save all five, refusing to thank him, since I don’t want to reward bad behavior, but I really did want the pictures for myself.
Mostly to have proof that it happened and I didn’t make it all up in my head.
A video begins playing, and I quickly mute it, even as I watch the clip and idly wonder how I didn’t realize Damien had set up a camera.
It’s starting off where Vance has me to himself, pinning me against the wall as he fucks me with abandon. My hands are against the wall, my body is bent over, and he is staring down at me with concentration etched in his hungry gaze.