Breed Me, Daddy Alpha-Chapter 280

The way he said it. The way his jaw tightened and his eyes darkened like he was two seconds from flipping the whole table over and strangling his own twin with the tablecloth and for some reason Daren just leaned back in his chair, smirk curling wider like he lived to poke this bear until it mauled him.

"Not my business?" Daren said, voice all calm and smooth like he wasn’t about to get murdered in front of his entire family.

"Brother, I couldn’t sleep because of your little mate here. You think I wasn’t going to ask about it? She was screaming for you like you invented the word sin. We all heard her. Grandma heard her. The staff heard her. Hell, the neighbors probably heard her."

Oh my God.

I wanted to grab a knife off the table and stab myself just to end it all because he was looking right at me when he said it. Right at me with that cocky grin like he knew exactly how red my face was getting.

"She was begging you to eat her like a—"

"Daren." Damon’s voice dropped lower, darker.

But Daren didn’t stop.

"—like a starved man at a feast," he finished anyway, tilting his head toward me like he was studying my face, like he was waiting to see if I’d squirm or blush harder or maybe just melt into the floor and cease existing. "Tell me, sweetheart, do you make those noises every time or was last night special?"

I nearly threw my plate at his stupid, gorgeous, smirking face.

"Daren," Damon growled again, his hand tightening on the edge of the table so hard I swore I heard wood crack.

That maniac just leaned forward, elbows on the table like this was some casual breakfast chat and not the absolute destruction of my social life.

"Relax, brother. I’m just curious," he said lazily, eyes sliding back to me. "You’re so small. So sweet-looking. Never would have guessed you could get that loud. I mean, I knew you were his mate, but damn. You sounded like you were seeing God."

I nearly choked on air.

"Daren!" Damon’s mother cut in sharply. "Quiet. That is not the way to talk to your brother’s mate."

Finally. Finally someone said it because my soul was about to climb out of my body and take the next train out of town.

But Daren just smirked again, because of course he did, because apparently this man had no sense of self-preservation.

"I’m just saying, Mother," he drawled, sipping his coffee like he wasn’t seconds away from Damon launching across the table at him, "the whole house heard them. Figured we might as well get used to it if this is what life with our future Luna sounds like."

"Don’t pay attention to him, dear," Damon’s mother said suddenly.

She gave me this kind smile, the kind only mothers can pull off even when they’ve just listened to you scream their son’s name loud enough to wake the dead.

"I am glad my son finally found his mate after all these years. Truly, I am. You don’t know what it has been like watching everyone else find their mates while Damon had no one.

"We thought he had lost his chance completely. I suppose you weren’t even born when the others found theirs. That was why he had no choice but to marry that witch Camilla. I never liked her. Always acting above everyone else, always sneering, always bitter. I am glad he divorced her. She brought nothing but misery into this family." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

I did not even know what to do with that information. My face was burning, my chest tight, and Daren was still looking at me like he was seconds away from saying something that would ruin me in front of the entire table.

I avoided his eyes because I knew if I looked, even for a second, I would probably either melt into the floor or throw my juice in his face.

Then Damon spoke, and the sound of his voice was enough to freeze everyone in place.

"You all know the reason I came back," he said. "I came to find out who burnt the pack house. Our home. The place where I was named Alpha Damon. The generational home of this family."

The air changed immediately. Even Daren stopped smirking for half a second. Damon’s mother sat straighter, his grandmother’s spoon paused over her tea, and the cousins glanced at one another like they were trying to read what was coming next.

"Today I am going to meet with some of the elders," Damon continued. "I will get the answers I came here for. I need everything to move quickly because I have no interest in staying here longer than I must. This is not a social visit. I want this resolved, and I want it resolved soon."

"Aww, Damon," his mother said softly, her voice dipping into that pleading tone only mothers have when they are trying to keep their sons home a little longer.

"Don’t you want to stay for a while? It has been so long since the family was together like this. Just a few more weeks, Damon. For me."

Damon paused. He actually paused for a long moment, and then his eyes slid slowly across the table toward Daren, who was leaning back in his chair with that same smirk like he had been born specifically to provoke his brother into violence.

That smirk was taunting, dangerous, and so smug it made my entire stomach twist because I could feel Damon’s fury coiling tighter with every second that passed.

"No, Mum," Damon said finally as he looked straight into his brothers eyes.