Chapter 98

 

I leaned forward in my chair and looked down the table at him. “Allow what exactly? My learning Marcus’ moves, or going to see Romeo?” I spoke very clearly and quietly.

His jaw clenched a few times, his hazel eyes not straying from mine. “Both.”

Chase rubbed a hand down over his face and then shook his head again. “Brother, I’m going to risk life and limb here to save your ass, again.” He motioned toward me. “She has a point. If she can give us a heads up on what he’s trying to do, then score one more point for us.”

Troy glanced at his sibling out of the corner of his eye for a moment before they slowly moved back to me. “Very well,” he said quietly. “I will accompany you for this meeting, Daxx.”

I mulled it over; taking my time trying to sort out what the hell was going on. Anything we could use to find and stop Marcus had been the plan yesterday, surely Troy still saw that. I looked at Chase, who only offered me a shrug. All eyes were on me, no one moved. The tension was so thick all of sudden it was hard to think beyond it. “Fine.” I said quietly.

Quinton visibly relaxed beside me. He cleared his throat. “I suggest we bypass practice today, I don’t think I could watch you two try to kill each other two days in a row.

Several nods confirmed there would be no battle, mock or otherwise today. Chairs scraped the floor.

“I’ll be at the cells,” Michael announced.

Victor stood up. “I’ll walk with you.”

Rafael nodded over to Quinton. “We should go make rounds.”

Nodding, Quinton gave me a brief glance. “Yeah, okay.” He got up.

Sighing loudly, Chase stood up. He smirked at his twin, who continued to stare at me. Walking around the table he came up behind me and leaned around the chair to speak beside my ear. “I wish you luck, kitten, you’re going to need it.”

I snorted in answer. Arius glanced from his Troy over to me. “I will be in Vic’s office when you’re ready to leave.” I nodded.

Leone offered no excuse, just pushed his chair back from the table and simply walked out of the room.

I glanced at the clock and then to the man still staring at me. “Well, you managed twenty minutes without being a jerk.” I stood up and moved down to his end of the table. “What was that?”

He looked down to the untouched food in front of him. “Romulus is called Romeo for a reason…”

“Yeah, I caught that. And?” I stood there with my arms crossed over my chest looking down at him.

“I don’t want you anywhere near him.” This said in a tone that implied his word was final.

It was so not final in my mind. “Troy, you don’t get to choose what I do, so you can get that notion right out of your head right now.”

He stood up so quickly, the chair rocked back. Suddenly he was towering over me his face only inches from mine. “It’s not a notion, its how I feel.” His eyes bore into mine. “I don’t want you near any male right now,” he growled.

A combination of annoyance and shock hit me, along with that was a flash of heat through my body responding to the alpha man thing. I swallowed. “Arius is coming with me,” I tried to sound reassuring.

“Arius is still a male.” His voice was shaking in a way that I knew he was trying to control himself.

“Arius is your brother.” I reminded.

Shaking his head, he straightened, giving me a few inches of breathing space. “It doesn’t matter. I watched you dance with him. He was smiling.”

“We were dancing, isn’t that supposed to be fun?” I was confused.

“You enjoyed dancing with all of my brothers,” his tone had dropped again.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and then let it out slowly before looking back up at him. “Troy, what is going on with you?”

With a strangled growl, he shook his head and paced to the other side of the room. “I don’t know.” Spinning, he looked at me with pain in his eyes. “I just…” he huffed out a breath, “the idea of another male, whether sibling or not anywhere near you hits me right in the gut.” His voice was a mix of misery and anger.

A quiet sigh from the other side of the room had us freezing like deer in head lights. Mitz stood there, shaking her head. “You’re going to be very possessive and protective of each other for a while.”

“How do we fix it?” Troy asked in an exasperated tone.

She smiled and looked at him. “Hide and never be near anyone else?”

He groaned, “lovely.”

“If it were meant to be easy, Troy,” she scolded, “everyone would be mated.”

He sighed. “I just about had a bloody fit when Arius told me he was taking Daxx to see Romeo…”

She laughed. “Don’t be silly, Troy. Daxx has far better taste than a man like that.” Her eyes moved to me. “He is a womanizer, a slimy one.” She informed me in a firm tone.

“Ah.” I turned and sent Troy an annoyed look. “You don’t think I don’t know how to deal with men like that?”

He shrugged, not committing to any comment either way.

I looked back over to Mitz. “So, what can we do to help cave man over there keep it together?” Grinning, I felt my cheeks flush slightly. “Alpha is fine behind closed doors, if you know what I mean.” Mitz smirked, “but in front of others, not so cool.” I glanced over my shoulder at him to see him giving me a heated look at the implication of my words.

Mitz came over and touched my cheek softly. “Something as simple as that has been known to reign in a possessive mate, a little reassuring contact.”

I raised my eyebrows and then nodded. “Okay, got it.” I found myself spun around by strong hands and picked up before I could react. Troy’s mouth crushed mine as he held me off the floor.

I had no time to do anything, before I found myself set back down with a spinning head and weak knees.

“Something like that works too.” Troy said with a glint in his eyes as he looked down at me.

Patting his chest, I shook my head. “We won’t be doing that in the middle of breakfast or a meeting though.” I turned around to see Mitz shaking her head, but smirking at the man behind me.

“You hit the nail on the head, love, a cave man for sure.” With a soft chuckle, she walked back over to the door and left us alone.