“No you’re not.” Julie felt proud that her voice stayed so even. “You don’t give two shits about me. The only reason you told me was to hurt Coal.” Whether he would be hurt because of her reaction or because he didn’t end up completing his task was unknown to her.

Julie gave the door another hard push and this time Scarlet allowed for it to slam shut.

Julie leaned back against it’s cold surface. Coal had feelings for her. He definitely had feelings. This wasn’t all because his brother had commanded him.

Her eyes stung and her chest heaved. Her first instinct was to pack her bag and leave. High tail it out of there but that wasn’t going to work in this instance. Then again, she didn’t want to run. She wanted answers and she was damned if Coal wasn’t going to give them to her. He’d made her trust in him. For the third time in her life she’d trusted someone. She clenched her jaw until her head hurt. She fisted her hands so hard that the nails dug into her flesh. Someone had some explaining to do and she was damned if she was going to wait for him to come back.

****

It was Coal’s turn to pace up and down. The woolen rug beneath his feet was soft and yielding. He wished his brother could be the same.

“No.” He growled, hoping that his brother would actually hear him this time.

“Don’t you dare use that tone with your king.” Blaze narrowed his eyes.

“You are being unreasonable.” He let his eyes wander across the skyline. The sun was still rising and it was only midway in the sky. He tried to breathe deeply, to get himself to calm down a bit. Blaze didn’t respond well to aggression.

“That female is trouble. Your feelings for her are interfering with your judgement.” Blaze rubbed his chin. “Torrent has said that he would like to have her.”

Coal snarled, flames shot from his mouth and claws erupted from his nail beds. There was a tearing noise as the carpet was torn up beneath the talons that had begun to erupt. His pants pulled tight around his waist. If he’d been wearing human clothing it would be long gone.

“Stop with the boyish tantrums.” Blaze gave a bored shake of the head. “Torrent’s female left. I’m sure that he’s wasting his time with your human but it would be a sign of good faith if we sent her to him anyway. He doesn’t know about her qualms about conceiving. Maybe he can do a better job of convincing her to…”