“Yeah, if Viper doesn’t kill you.”
“If he wanted me dead, he’d have attacked in my office. There’d be no need for him to wait for another opportunity or to drag this out. You know that. You know your arguments are weak. You know that the Black Saints have no motivation to kill descendants. But you want the spotlight, and you think that challenging my decisions makes you look strong.” Maddox felt his face harden. “It doesn’t. It makes you look disrespectful. It shows a blatant disregard for the chain of command, which isn’t the mark of a good leader—something you apparently believe you should be.”
Euan’s cheeks flushed. “I was only asking questions.”
“Questions are fine. Implying that my decision-making skills are flawed is not. Nor is attempting to cause dissension among the lair, but you’ve made it your business to do so recently, haven’t you?”
Euan’s eyes rounded in an “oh shit” way. “I’m not trying to cause dissension. I merely expressed my worry that having an outsider around—”
“I’m well aware of what you’ve ‘expressed.’”
Euan lifted his chin a notch, but he couldn’t quite meet Maddox’s gaze. “You can’t blame me for being nervous about this situation.”
“I won’t justify my decision to have contact with my anchor. That’s what you want me to say out loud, isn’t it? You think you can imply to others that it makes me weak. Weak would have been refusing to take responsibility for her merely because it would be simpler for me.” Maddox swept his gaze over all his demons as he added, “If there is anyone here who can honestly tell me they would consider it a sign of strength for me to ignore my anchor’s existence, say so now.”
Heads lowered. Shoulders drooped. Bodies squirmed.
“I’m already forsaking the bond to protect our secrets. I will not abandon my anchor altogether. If anyone here doesn’t like that, come to me at some point in the next hour and I’ll arrange for you to transfer to another lair—there’ll be no hard feelings on my part. I’ll be in my office at the club.” Maddox sliced his gaze to Marcella, who’d slid down in the pew in an attempt to keep a low profile. “First, though … Euan isn’t the only one who’s been trying to stir up trouble, is he, Marcella?”
She only made fleeting eye-contact with Maddox. “I’m allowed to have concerns.”
“But you’re not allowed to spur people into pressuring me to walk away from my anchor. Nor are you permitted to play the kind of games you played last night. I hope you don’t think that Raini bought your act. She saw right through you. Most do, Marcella. I’m not sure if you realize how many people are aware that your efforts to cause problems stem from your determination to be my co-Prime. I’ve made this clear to you many times, but you’ve never listened, so I’ll say it again now—right here in front of the entire lair. I don’t enjoy embarrassing people, but nor do I enjoy anyone trying to fuck with my anchor.”
“Maddox,” she wheedled, sitting upright.
“You’ll never be my co-Prime, Marcella. I have no interest in taking you to my bed, let alone claiming you as my mate. If you want the position so badly, you should really look to joining another lair. There may be other Primes who’ll feel differently about you.”
Twin flags of red stained her cheeks, and her eyes flared with anger. She clamped her mouth shut, as if not trusting herself to speak.
Maddox looked from her to Euan as he told them, “This is your only warning. Cease trying to manipulate your own lair members into acting against me. It really is a simple order. If either of you fail to follow it, you will pay.”
Marcella’s mouth set into an ugly twist. “If it’s so important to you to have your anchor around, you’d better hope she never finds out about the curse of our kind. She was hesitant enough to accept you before. She’ll want not one thing to do with you if she finds out the truth about us. About you.”
“Marcella’s right,” Euan told him. “I know you could pluck the discovery back out of the succubus’s mind so that she’d continue to come here blissfully unaware, but you’d always remember the disgust on her face. You’d always know she never really accepted you for who you are.”
Maddox stilled. His inner demon slinked closer to the surface, sensing where this situation might go. “Here’s another order that you had both better follow,” said Maddox, his voice pitched low, his tone dark and dangerous. “Stay away from Raini. Do not talk to her. Do not approach her. Do not contact her in any way. Definitely do not expose our secrets, counting on me to wipe the memory of it afterwards. If either of you disobey me on this, I swear to fucking Christ I will put you through a world of pain. Then I’ll heal you. And then I’ll do it all over again. The process will probably be repeated several times, so I’d advise you to heed me on this.”