Requiem (Lost Mates Book 3)

Chapter Two

Mae idly scratched at the rust coloured flakes on her arm.

Blood.

Not her blood, but someone’s blood. Someone who a few hours earlier had been alive and now weren’t. They might have been bad men, but did they really deserve to die like that? Ripped apart by tooth and claw. They were no different to her, they had taken the wrong job, just as she had. Did that mean they had to die?  

And why was she spared?

Glancing up, Mae hiccupped on the sob she had been holding onto, glancing at the massive man who was busying himself with something on his phone. He didn’t look at her. He hadn’t once since they had the left the offices of the security company, he co-owned.  Hadn’t spoken one word to her the entire trip to his lavish apartment. Though he had plenty to say back there in the offices. None of which made a lick of sense to her.

He acted like he knew her, cared for even which was strange because the first time they had officially met face to face he had been in full dragon form. A massive creature bigger than most houses with teeth the size of swords and just as sharp. And she was pretty sure he had been about to eat her.

And then he didn’t.

And she had no idea why, not that she wasn’t grateful because she was, but it still begged the question.

Why?

Why was she spared when a dozen others weren’t? It had nothing to do with being human. The men who had taken her hostage when she refused to work with them any more had been human. And they had died horribly. She had even helped kill someone herself. The men who gave her the job to begin with had been human as well she was pretty sure of it, though she had never met them.

“What?”

It was only then that she realised she had been staring at him. She hadn’t meant to. He had been so softly spoken all the times they had communicated over the weeks by phone. She had always looked forward to speaking with him even when she knew she was the one who was hacking him, but she had never expected him to be like this.

So big.

And so angry.

Not that could blame him. She had f****d up royally. He had every right to look betrayed. He had trusted her, and she had thrown that trust right back in his face. Still if he would only listen, he would realise that she was just as much a prisoner as his best friends’ mates had been. They had used her, her naivete and her need to keep a roof over her head. She hadn’t meant for the people he cared about to come to harm.

“Sorry” She averted her eyes, drawing her knees up to her chin in the chair he had deposited her in.  She shouldn’t have stared, not when he was still so volatile. He might not have eaten her back there in the muddy grass, with dead bodies all around them but that didn’t mean she was safe.

She was just as much his prisoner as she had been the other guys. The guys who had kidnapped two women to use them to lure their mates to their deaths.

“Get your feet off the sofa, you are getting blood and mud everywhere”

She yelped as his hands knocked her feet off the seat of the chair. How had such a huge man moved so quietly.  “Sorry Requiem”

“And don’t call me that” He was glaring down at her, hands on his hips and his mouth was curved in a cruel line. Mae couldn’t help it she curled into herself.

“I’m sorry Requiem” She didn’t even know what she was apologising for anymore. That she had been instrumental in putting the people he loved in harms way, the fact that she had betrayed him, for getting grime on his furniture. Maybe even because for some reason he hated the very way she sounded. She didn’t know any more and sobs took over quickly. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” She was almost chanting it, like some how it would keep her safe.

“Mae” His voice sounded strangled. “Don’t cry ok” His voice was softer, like it had been all the times they had spoken on the phone. Before he knew she was the enemy.

Requiem reached out a hand to push her dirty blonde hair out of her face and she flinched back instinctively, a small scream erupting from her lips. He jumped back guiltily, letting his big hand fall to his side. “Easy I’m not going to hurt you”

“You were going to eat me” She couldn’t help the waver in her voice as she raised her head.  Staring at him head on. She was done being scared. If he was going to kill her then she would face it head on. Even if the terror in her chest was so constricting, she felt she would die. Or wet herself at any minute.

Requiems lips curved under the beard, and for a second she realised how devilishly handsome he was. “I wouldn’t have eaten you Mae”

“Bitten me then”

He shrugged as if biting someone in half was just par for the course. Something he had done many times before. Maybe he had. He was a god damn dragon after all.  Maybe he went around chomping on people all the time.

“I didn’t though”

Mae couldn’t help but roll her eyes and his eyes flashed in return. “Do that and I’m going to eat you in a totally different way” His voice was a rumble, more growl than actual words and his eyes were blazing as he watched her.

Mae blushed, had he just said what she thought he had said? And did he mean what she thought he meant. The man was going to give her whiplash the way he ran hot and cold. Though that wasn’t entirely true. There was nothing cold about Requiem.

He ran hot.

And HOTTER.