I could rip his dick off and shove it down his throat until he choked on it.

Unfortunately, Death could not die, and I had more class than that.

Watching Ruby flee from the room with my scotch in hand was one of the harder things I’ve had to endure. There were many types of bonds and brands, but the mating bond and branding was a special sort engagement. For me to be branded and claimed as the second mate was what I wanted, but for her to act that way after doing so…stung.

My fingertips traced the edges of the dark blue pentagram. Julian coughed from the doorway, his pointed way of saying to put a shirt on because he’s a jealous bastard and can’t handle it.

“Is there something you needed, Death? Or do you just enjoy being a masochist?” His glare turned brutal as winter in the Arctic circle.

“Don’t fucking start with me, Famine.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t start with you? You interrupted us about the wards—that we both know would have held through the first feed.” His eyes flashed, and he looked away. Yeah, I’m aware of how well enforced they are. “Admit it, Julian. You’re being a bastard because you don’t want to share, but you don’t want to make a move.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about—”

“I can read your fucking emotions. Cut the shit. I know why you’re here. Care to tell me how long you stood outside before interrupting?”

I adjusted my slacks despite the extremely uncomfortable case of blue balls I had thanks to the she-demon who ran out on me because of this prick. I’d never had a girl leave my bed before. Or one that could walk properly after we were done, for that matter. Then again, Julian had never dared cockblock me.

“Long enough,” he replied.

His way of saying he never left. Some would have been enraged by that, perhaps Julian himself, given the shame he felt, but I couldn’t afford that luxury. Not when we all had too much riding on us—Ruby especially—to let their unresolved issues fester into a hard resentment.

As much as it pained me to cover her brand, this was not a normal engagement and would require more tact than any of them had. I found the dress shirt I’d discarded on the floor and put it back on, being sure to button it up properly and put on my cuff links before I turned back to him.

“Did you hear my offer to her when she started to resist?” I asked him. Again, he gave a non-committal mutter under his breath. I took that as a yes. “Because if you did,” I paused, “you should know that the possibility…intrigues her.”

Julian tensed, and it was that stillness of a predator, even more lethal than I, that told me how affected he was by her.

“I don’t share,” he said eventually. I shook my head as he turned to leave.

“You don’t get a choice.”

Julian rounded on me. “You know why I’m staying away. Why I have to stay away.”

I did, but I didn’t think his reasons were good enough. Much as I would have liked to keep her for myself, I could share if it meant keeping some part of her. I could let her be a Queen with four consorts, so long as it was only us.

But Julian couldn’t.

“There are bigger monsters than you in this world now, and one of them has chosen you as its mate. You cannot walk away because of duty, and yet you won’t give her what she wants. You think you can’t share?” I let out a dark chuckle and his eyes flashed in warning. “Imagine the next eternity of watching this while you play the sad, pathetic time of her transition over and over again in your head, asking yourself why you made the most idiotic decision of your existence.” I paused when his head bobbed and fists clenched. If he was this close to losing it, then her transition should go about as well as the beast’s tantrums. “I cannot make a decision for you, and frankly I don’t know why I’m forcing this conversation when less of you means more time with her for me. You need to get your head out of your ass where she is concerned. You will never have any part of her and will ruin any feelings she may hold for you if you keep acting like an adolescent boy and continue to run away from the reality of our situation. Mate with her or don’t, but don’t make her feel like shit in the meantime. She has too much on her plate already to deal with your self-pitying attitude.”

There had only been a hand full of times in our existence that I had to save Julian from himself. As I walked through the mirror and left him to think alone, I wondered if I would look back one day and realize this was one of times. If me pushing him would be the thing he needed to finally work past his own demons, or if the very thoughts themselves would be too much for him to handle and would ultimately consume him.