He shoved me into the circle with a dark chuckle.
I fell down hard, not prepared for the attack. If Alek could see me right now, he’d be so fucking disappointed. I pushed myself up, but Chad was right there, picking up my wrist with one hand and grasping the sacrificial dagger in the other. He cut a burning path through the fleshy part of my palm, spilling blood everywhere.
“Hmm, not enough,” he muttered before wrenching my arm out to the side and sinking the blade into the tender skin of my bicep, tearing through muscle and destroying the inked runes marking me as Alek’s.
Then he flung my hand down as I cried out in pain, tipped the dagger so it pointed down as a stream of ruby drops splashed onto the outer rim of his circle. The walls went up instantly. I could see them, just a thin faint sheen of red preventing me from leaving.
“What are you doing?” I screamed.
“Come on, Sunday. I thought you were smarter than that. Don’t go and play stupid on me now. I don’t have time to explain. My demons are on their way with your mate.”
“Your demons? You’re the one behind this? But how could you summon them while there was the magic ban?”
“Why do you think we’re all the way out here? It took me a while to find a weakness in the wards, but it was there. And I was... motivated.”
“Why? It doesn’t make sense. Do you really hate me that much?”
He snorted. “Of course you’d assume this is about you.”
“It’s not much of an assumption when women who looked like me kept showing up dead, and the demons always seemed to target me.”
“Not you. Kingston. That fucking sorry ass excuse for an Alpha. The most powerful pack in America is going to be led by a goddamned cuckold? I don’t think so.”
And then it clicked. He was trying to take out his competition. He wanted to take Kingston’s spot.
“You ungrateful piece of shit,” I growled.
“Yeah, well, you’re a stupid bitch. Like I give a fuck what you think. I can’t wait for the big finale. I’m going to make him watch as I kill you. Oh, but maybe I’ll fuck you first and then slit that pretty throat of yours while I fill you with my seed. It probably won’t bother him. He’s used to sloppy seconds.”
I gagged at the thought of him anywhere near me. But he continued, and the words he uttered sent lightning surging through my veins, filling me with an unholy fury. I’d never felt a soul-deep need to kill before, but the thought of Chad harming a single hair on Kingston’s head had me ready to tear him apart limb from limb.
“Then I’m going to tear out his heart and eat it before claiming my rightful place as Alpha.”