Chapter 56: It Doesn’t Get More Intense Than This

Daemus didn’t turn around. He stood still, his broad back facing the Snake beastwoman.

"Apologize to her," Daemus demanded, his voice dangerously low.

Blair’s eyes went wide. She stared up at him in shock. He was angry for her? But why? It was just an insult, and she was used to so much worse.

"Daemus, it’s okay," Blair whispered quickly, lightly tugging on his sleeve. "Really. I’ve been called worse things than dirt."

Daemus slowly turned his head to look down at her. His silver eyes were devoid of their usual playful warmth. "No one will insult you while I am around. Slandering me doesn’t matter, but how can I call myself a wolf with a mate if I allow poisonous whores to insult her in my presence?"

Behind them, Rain gasped loudly.

"How dare you!" Rain shrieked, her voice echoing across the empty lawns. "I am a consort to the future King of Beasts! You do not speak to me that way!"

She turned to Killian, fully expecting the Crown Prince to immediately defend her honor and put the Wolf in his place. But Killian wasn’t even looking at her. His eyes were still entirely fixated on the human bitch clinging to Daemus’s arm.

Seeing Killian ignore her for the lesser made Rain’s blood boil. Her grip on the silver chain tightened until her knuckles turned white.

"I said," Daemus repeated, his tone dropping into a deadly rumble, "apologize."

"I would rather cut out my tongue," Rain sneered, her green eyes flashing with venom. "I certainly don’t take orders from you. You’re a prince only to a pack of mutts. You have absolutely no power over anyone other than your own kind."

Daemus fully turned around now, stepping protectively in front of Blair. "Is that right?"

"What even are you, Daemus?" Rain laughed, a harsh, mocking sound. "One of what? A hundred princes? After your father fucked and bred every single bitch in your pack, it’s a miracle anyone can even keep track of the bloodline."

Blair cringed, her eyes darting between the furious Snake beastwoman, the naked human male trembling on the ground, and Daemus’s rigid shoulders. She dared not spare a single glance at Killian, but the weight of his stare was making the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Why is he staring at me? she panicked internally.

Daemus didn’t even flinch at the insult to his father. He simply tilted his head, a dark, mocking smirk touching his lips.

"How about the ’most important consort’ tell her future king to stop eyeing what belongs to me?" Daemus countered smoothly.

The comment hit its mark. Killian’s gaze finally snapped away from Blair and locked onto Daemus.

The tension in the air felt thick enough to cut with a knife.

Killian looked utterly bored by the entire display. He let out a quiet, tired sigh.

"You will have to get used to it," Killian stated flatly.

Blair almost choked on her own breath.

"You might own her heart, Wolf," Killian continued. "But her body and her mind will be mine when I am ready to claim them."

With that chilling promise hanging heavily in the air, Killian turned his back on them and casually walked away.

Rain was left standing there, fuming. She knew Killian had been eyeing the human to be his new pet. But the way his purple eyes tracked the girl’s every movement, and that low, intimate tone he used when speaking of claiming her... it drove Rain mad with jealousy. She glared at Blair, her teeth grinding together, infuriated by the fact that she couldn’t just snap the human’s neck without bringing down Killian’s wrath.

Shooting one last, venomous glare at the pair, Rain turned on her heel to rush after her prince.

She didn’t make it two steps.

Daemus’s hand shot out with blinding speed. He grabbed a thick fistful of her long, raven hair, jerking her to a halt.

"You didn’t apologize to my mate," Daemus reminded her coldly.

"Daemus, please!" Blair begged, her heart leaping into her throat as she pulled frantically at his arm. "Just let it go!"

"Stay out of it, Blair," Daemus ordered, not taking his eyes off Rain.

There was nothing she could do. Blair took a shaky step back, her teeth gnawing nervously at the tip of her thumbnail as she watched the disaster unfold.

Rain hissed.

Things escalated way too quickly for Blair’s brain to process. The sound of tearing fabric ripped through the air as Rain’s clothes fell to shreds. Her limbs fused and stretched, her pale skin erupting into thousands of shimmering black scales. Within seconds, a massive, horrifying black snake with green eyes reared up on the path.

Daemus didn’t hesitate. The sound of ripping cloth echoed again as his own sweatpants and shirt tore apart. Bones cracked and reformed in a blur of motion, replaced instantly by the towering, muscular form of a giant navy-blue wolf.

"Oh my god," Blair gasped.

She scrambled backward, sprinting off the path and throwing herself behind the trunk of a nearby tree. She pressed her back against the rough bark, her chest heaving as the terrifying sounds of snarling and hissing erupted just a few yards away.

She peeked around the side of the tree, her eyes wide with panic. She looked around the campus lawns. It was the weekend; most of the beastmen had gone back to their faction houses or were out in the city. The area was deserted.

In the distance, she could still see Killian’s retreating back. He hadn’t even stopped walking. He hadn’t even turned around to look at the commotion.

Blair opened her mouth, desperately thinking about calling out to him to stop them before they killed each other. But what would she even shout? Killian? Mr. Lexur? Prince? Nothing sounded right, and the mere thought of freely screaming the Crown Prince’s name made her feel sick.

She had no idea what to do. She gripped the bark of the tree, desperately wishing that Professor Feron would just magically step out of the shadows like he always did.

But Blair was left alone, forced to witness a clash between two apex predators.