I ran my fingers up the sides of her neck, working the muscles to center her. I could feel her pulse beating like a caged bird fluttering in vain for freedom, but she nodded. “Subdue, not harm. Got it.”
Kingston seemed to settle into his role after my little speech. He began taunting her with a surprisingly good impression of the vampire. “You pathetic little nobody. You think you’re remotely on my level? On my worst day, you aren’t even close. Thorne’s taking pity on you. All he wants you for is your blood.”
The air around Sunday crackled with energy, a feeling akin to the atmosphere just before lightning struck. The ends of her hair lifted, just enough I noticed, and with a calming palm between her shoulders, I murmured against the shell of her ear, “You can do this,Kærasta.”
Everything stopped the moment the endearment fell from my lips. Why was I calling her that? It wasn’t a word used lightly. For the men in my family, hailing all the way back to my grandfather’s time, it was the term reserved for their true mates. The woman who called to their soul. I had absolutely no business using it with Sunday. Did I?
Her rage didn’t ease as it should have because I lost my damned focus and had taken my hand off her. Before I could fix what I’d broken, she lunged, a wild growl tearing from her chest. I released the magic keeping Kingston in the form of Callie to give him a fighting chance at subduing Sunday.
Kingston, thankfully, seemed to realize something had changed because he dropped all pretense, his body language shifting as he prepared to intercept her. Amber flashed in his eyes as his beast merged with his human form.
“Sunday,” he growled, his voice lower and filled with authority, “stop.”
He’d used an Alpha’s command, I realized. But he wasn’t Sunday’s Alpha. And she wasn’t obeying.
“No. I’ll never stop fighting you. All you want is to command me, control me.” Sunday pinned him, possessing a strength she shouldn’t have. Kingston was the next in line to take the position of prime Alpha of his pack. He was more powerful than most wolves, built to defend and protect. But the small, curvaceous woman straddled him and held him down. “I can’t stop.”
Well, this didn’t go as expected.