"Me? Seduce him?" Cass bent, unable to help himself as he laughed. The brothers stared at him laughing, the bro swallowing thickly as Cass continued to laugh.
"How is what I said funny? I’m sure you’re well versed in it." He accused. Cass was almost offended. Cass? Seducing people? Lord Ridgewood’s best friend was Edgar! Did the man have fucking eyes?
"Me? My goodness, what do you think of me? Am I just a siren seducing anyone and everyone left and right? Wow. If I didn’t think everyone was fucking terrified of me, I might believe that." Cass joked and watched as the man paled. "Who are you to accuse me of seducing Lord Ridgewood? I’ve never met you before." That seemed to bother him the exact same way it had bothered his father earlier as well.
Cass watched as the man slowly inflated, getting bigger than he already was. Cass stood there, watching him as he dropped Lord Ridgewood to his feet, where the man crumpled into a pile against the wall. His hands instantly went to his throat as he coughed and Cass resisted the urge to go to his side and get him up to his feet.
Instead, he faced the man who was puffed out like a damn pufferfish, trying to look intimidating and important at the same time. Cass just smiled at him condescendingly. That seemed to make the man even more angry.
"Who am I? We’ve met before! Several times! I-" Cass cut him off with a gentle shrug of his shoulders.
"Clearly, you didn’t leave a lasting impression." Cass was quiet, but that clearly was a blow to the other man. Lord Ridgewood was staring at him, surprised as Cass was arguing, but it was more like batting around, his brother.
He was sputtering.
"L-Lasting impression? I’m the heir to a Dukedom!" The man shouted and Cass gave another shrug.
"So am I. Congrats." His voice was deadpan, and that made the man flush bright red.
"You are only the heir because they have no other choice!" He declared, pointing a thick, sausage-like finger at Cass. Wow. The man really was bigger all around. Well, probably everywhere except where it mattered.
Cass gave a thoughtless glance to his junk, back up to his fingers, and then gave a little sigh. The man looked like he was going to explode.
"D-Did you just-"
"Apologises," Cass said, cutting him off again. "I wasn’t aware that there was a competition for being the heir of a dukedom. I thought it was just that I needed to be of the same bloodline. But if I did have any competition, I know I would blow them out of the water." Cass said quietly, carefully. He glanced at Lord Ridgewood, smirked, and then looked back towards the brother. "I would only need my own powers and talent to show that I was superior to them. I wouldn’t need to corner them when they were alone without friends nor family to beat the shit out of them where no one else could find them." Cass’ voice was dark, threatening.
The temperature in the room dropped as the brother swallowed. Cass raised his head, looking down his nose at the other man. He’d refused to do so thus far because he was still taking in the room. That had changed. He knew what was happening, or at the very least, had a relatively good idea of what was going on.
This was a punishment. A shake down. Something along those lines, and while Cass was sure that Lord Ridgewood deserved it, that didn’t mean he approved of it. They were supposed to be a united front tonight, and he would be damned if Lord Ridgewood fucked that up. In any capacity.
Cass moved towards the man, staring down at his fucked up clothing, how the handsome features which were normally cold, were wary as they stared up at Cass. Like he wasn’t sure what Cass was going to do.
Good. He should be worried about what Cass was going to do. He was still debating between if he should punish both of them, or just his brother.
"Let’s make something very clear," Cass began, his tone even. Dangerous. "You’ve been around Gideon his whole life, essentially. I am not sure how siblings work as I don’t have any," the lie stung leaving his lips, but this man didn’t know shit, "so I’m working on an assumption. You would know who Gideon hung out with. The fact that you accused me of seducing Gideon instead of Edgar? Ridiculous. Edgar is a far more handsome man compared to me." Cass needed to make that clear.
For his own sanity.
Lord Ridgewood’s eyes widened at Cass’ words, while his brother looked shocked.
"What?" He sounded confused. "Why would that be a point you need to clear up? And besides that, Edgar looks like a man. You look like a girl in man’s clothing." Cass couldn’t believe the man had said that to him.
A girl?
A girl?!
Cass had the man flung across the room, pressed into the other wall with his magic before he was even aware of it. The loud crash, groan, and reverberation through the wall had a familiar knock sounding at the door.
It was only when the familiar knock sounded that Cass realised the other knocking had stopped.
"My Lord?" It was Byron. Making sure that everything was okay.
"I’m fine!" Cass called, staring at the man who had insulted him so clearly. If he was going to call him a woman, at least call him a fucking grown woman! What the fuck was wrong with the guy?
"C-Cassian." Lord Ridgewood croaked. At least he hadn’t forgotten that he needed to at least attempt to be close with him. "Y-You can’t hurt him too much." Lord Ridgewood’s voice strained to speak. He’d been choked for a long time, and he looked like hell, honestly. Cass turned to look at him, holding his brother in place without much of a thought.
"Why? He has his little priest friend outside. He can have him heal him." Cass pointed out and Lord Ridgewood flinched.
"F-Father will-" Cass’ loud, angry sigh cut the man off. Lord Ridgewood flushed, looking embarrassed. Cass stared down at him with a narrow gaze. Even after he’d been disowned, even after how his brother had treated him, he was going to let him do this?
No fucking wonder the man was used to standing by and letting others treat him like fucking shit on the bottom of his shoe. It was a fucking normal policy at the Ridgewood family estate. Not only did they keep the fact that they were fucking holy knights a secret, Cass had a feeling that they had a lot more going on internally then anyone knew.
At least with the Blackburn family, everyone kinda knew they were corrupt and evil.
It was kind of ridiculous that Cass was finding out the family he thought was the most fucked up was actually...the least out of the other Dukedoms. Figures that the outwardly ’good’ families were the most fucked up.
"I don’t give a fuck about your father, Lord Ridgewood." Cass told him plainly. "Do you know why?" Cass asked the man and Lord Ridgewood looked down at his lap, swallowed, and then looked up. Cass hated to see how he could barely look at him with his right eye. Cass tsked loudly, showing off his anger, and frustration.
He reached out, touching Lord Ridgewood’s face, touching the skin that was puffing up under his thumb and felt his lips pull up in annoyance.
"I don’t know why." Lord Ridgewood admitted softly. He fucking looked like a beaten puppy. Cass was pissed that someone else had beaten up his fucking puppy. After everything that he had gone through, what he’d had to reveal, the parts of himself that he had to give up all because of him?
Yeah. The man belonged to him. Especially now that he’d signed the contract. Especially now that his family had turned their back on him. His survival? That was all on Cass’ shoulders. The man should be begging him like the other nobles, but he wasn’t going to do that to a man who was already at his lowest.
Cass had practically pulled the man off of the streets, and that only made him even more angry in the moment.
"Cass-"
"You belong to me, Gideon, and I don’t like when others touch my things. You’re my property." Cass spoke his words angrily just as Lucian pushed the door open. He froze as he heard the words coming out of Cass’ mouth, as did everyone else.
Lord Ridgewood looked shocked, as did Lucian, Edgar, Fiona and Lady Ava who were in the doorway. Along with the damn entourage that had followed them. Those words had been meant for the two Lord Ridgewood’s, and instead, they’d had a much larger audience.
Cass had just declared that Lord Ridgewood belonged to him in front of several nobles. Cass could already see that someone was running away to spread news.
Cass’ face flamed, while Lord Ridgewood swallowed.
"I-I know. You took me in when no one else would." He tried to recover the situation, thinking on his feet while Lucian snarled.
"Absolutely not! He tried to kill you!" Gasps from the other nobles as Lucian stormed into the room, putting himself in between Cass and Lord Ridgewood. Cass rolled his eyes, his face warm.
"Who in this room has not attempted to kill me, Lucian? You’ve done the same, and yet, you’re still by my side? Let’s face it, before him, you were the most recent to try to kill me." Cass spoke casually even as his face burned. Lucian at least flinched at Cass’ words.
"Yeah, but that was a while ago! I do not approve of him! No! Never!" Lucian was shouting while Fiona took a step into the room, her hand over her stomach. Cass was mildly impressed that she was able to stick to the bit even in this moment.
"Lucy, don’t get mad at Cass for this. I think he has the right to make this choice, and besides, Gideon could be the father of this child too." More gasps, and Cass was a little bit proud of the fact that they were taking over the ball, even though it was supposed to be for the King and Queen. Was it petty?
Oh yes, but that was the only positive he could take from this situation.
"You harlot! Heathen! How dare you do this to me!" The other Lord Ridgewood was struggling from where he was being held against the wall. He should have realised he was lucky he was forgotten, but now Lucian had a new target for his anger.
"What the fuck is a loser like him doing here? I thought that Gideon had attacked you again." Lucian growled and Cass let out a light laugh.
"Do you think I would have let the room get this far if he had attacked me?" Cass asked and Lucian nodded, even as he stormed towards the brother.
"Fair point. So? What the fuck is he doing here?" Lucian asked and Fiona let out a tense response.
"I think he was here to attack Gideon when we were busy with our own conversation. Gideon, are you alright? Avie?" Lady Ava rushed into the room.
"On it. You be careful, Fifi." The girls were rebounding pretty quickly given the news, but they also appeared...at peace in some ways. Edgar was still standing in shock in the doorway. He looked like he’d seen a ghost and Cass wasn’t sure why he was like that.
Was it seeing Lord Ridgewood so beaten up? Was it the declaration? Or was there something else he wasn’t aware of? Cass shrugged, meeting Byron’s gaze from the doorway and Byron began to clear out the group. They would need some privacy, especially if the brother was going to get beaten up by Lucian.