“Is there something wrong with your nose, Felix? You should smell my mark all over her. Next you’ll claim ignorance of Fenna’s protection as well. That you are the only ally in camp who doesn’t know how beloved she is by the king’s consort. Your ignorance and narrow-minded cruelty is unforgivable. You should beg the Makers for mercy now, Felix. They won’t listen, but it’s what people do before they die.
Dorothy gripped the shreds of her shirt against her breasts, wincing while the feline writhed in agony, tortured by some unseen force.
At this moment Z was unrecognizable to her. As cold as the frozen wind, and just as deadly. The Felix screamed, crying and pleading for his life. But Z wasn’t listening.
Because of her.
She jumped up to stand in front of him. “Z, stop! You’re killing him.”
His eyes were drawn to her, icy amber and full of rage. “Did I misinterpret then? Was I interrupting a romantic tryst instead of an attack?”
“Don’t be an idiot. Of course it was an attack. He won’t do it again.”
“Never,” the creature sobbed in anguish.
“And he’ll leave the campsite and never threaten anyone under your protection again. He’ll be an outcast, and grateful to be a living one,” she added, because she didn’t want him coming near Fenna again.
His silence made her glare up at him. “Hey, asswipe, I could just let him kill you.”
The Felix snarled. “I’ll be a grateful outcast. I can go to the mountains. I’ve never been comfortable mixing clans anyway.”
Z wasn’t deterred. “I’m the one holding his life in my hands, witch. He would have killed you and Fenna both. He’s no better than a deranged, feral animal, and he should be treated accordingly.”
“And you’ll be no better than the wizards my aunt warned me about if you break his neck. Send him to the king to be punished, throw him in a hole or let him leave, but don’t use your power to kill him. Please, not you.”
Her words seemed to get through the haze that surrounded him, and the Felix fell to the ground, whimpering apologies as he crawled into the crowd of warriors that had gathered at his screams. They took him away, she assumed to the edge of camp to be cast out.
At least, she hoped that’s what they were doing. The disgusted expressions on their faces didn’t fill her with confidence.
Z glared pointedly at the crowd causing the gawkers to break apart and wander away. Dorothy watched as they drifted back to their tents and noticed Z was staring at her in a way that unnerved her. “What?”
“I went to the king’s tent to find you, only to learn that you had gone wandering alone through a camp filled with rough warriors. If Frayne was any kind of a friend, he wouldn’t have let you go.”
Disbelief made her eyes bulge, and she crossed her arms defensively. “Haven’t we covered this? Kansas let me go because he knows I’m a grown woman, a grown witch woman, and he knows I can take care of myself. Besides, if I’d waited for you, I would have been old and gray by now. Or traumatized, since your king was practically stripping his husband before I could escape their tent.”
So there.
“If you had any sense of self-preservation, you wouldn’t be alone at the edge of the woods with a known seducer of women. Especially after you thwarted his attempt to fight for your honor, as is his right.”
She tilted her head, studying him. The rage in his eyes had changed to something even more dangerous. Lust. He was looking at her as if she were a trophy he’d won. Or prey.
And she liked it, damn it.
“What I wouldn’t give for a handful of chocolate rum cake right about now.” She chuckled, backing away slowly, closer to the tree line.
He watched her like a hawk. “I can think of something that tastes even better.”
He tensed, and Dorothy leapt into action, sprinting into the forest with a shriek.
The chase was on.
Chapter Seven
She made him crazy. A few minutes ago he’d been willing to kill because Lorn had dared to touch her, tried to hurt her. Now he was determined to run her to ground and
claim her in a way that would leave no doubt whom she belonged to. The king’s wizard, running through the woods like a horny adolescent, and loving every second of it.
How did she do this to him? And how had he ever lived without her?