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“Don’t swell his head any more than it already has, Little Krill. He’s not the Golden One, not yet at least.” Nico kisses her neck.
“I’m not inflating your ego, am I?”
I shake my head at her.
“See, I’m not.”
Nole, can you please confirm that Annabelle’s family is on board?
I’m the governor. You don’t outrank me yet.
I understand. But Annabelle’s worried.
Nico’s mate is worried. Why do you care? I thought you’d left that old pact of mating into the same pod when he mated someone you clearly can’t.
Nole.
She’s on board, her mother too, and there are a few people here who wish they weren’t.
Why? I don’t look over at Annabelle, but I can see that Nico’s arm has become a true belt now.
“Let me go.” She gives him a light tap on his arm, and he releases her. He’s awfully amused by something. Annabelle crawls across the sofa faster than a Glyden warrior. “Let me see?”
“Give me a second.” I stand, and she stands. I turn, and she jumps on my back. I’ve never seen her this crazed. But something about it makes me proud of her. She’s got a fighting spirit, a fire in her. One that I want to possess. Fuck, how am I ever going to stay away from her?
I pull her around to my front, holding her gaze. She’s worried, and I understand. I let her feet dip to the floor and hold her there for a minute until Nico grabs her hand, pulling her away from me. My block vibrates.
They’re fine. I will be transferring them to the Centauri, and we will be returning to the Veiled City in a week, maybe two, at the most. And then they are someone else’s problem. But as one of the few mated males on the sub? Fuck. This is going to be a feeding frenzy. They both have the gene.
I had the block held at just the wrong angle—or right, depending on if you were me or Annabelle. “Did that say ‘they?’ As in my aunt too?”
I’m impressed. The text was in Dorian. I didn’t realize her Dorian was coming along so well. Hopefully she missed the feeding frenzy comment. I nod once.
“My aunt, my aunt Blair? That’s...” Something clicks in her. “You know, that’s probably fine. She deserves to have someone dote on her, love her, take care of her. But all of this should be their own choice. Did you tell your brother that? I want to talk to them.”
Nico holds Annabelle on his lap again.
A gnawing pit opens in my stomach. “I can’t let you do that. Our blocks aren’t legal. Having access to an alpha-class warship without it being on a sanctioned private channel could endanger both Nole and your family. I can’t let you talk to them. I’m sorry, Annabelle. “And I am sorry, with every ounce of my being. Especially when quiet tears start to slowly drip down the side of her face. I step between her legs and hold the side of her head in my hand. I wipe a tear away with my thumb. “Nole and Lachlan will take care of them.”
“You think so?”
“I know so. Every male on the ship knows what they are to you. They know who your mates are. They know that harming them would declare war on Glyden.”
“Oh, not war.” She sniffs.
“We defend our own. And you are a Glyden mermaid. They have no dome, but they’re your family. That makes them one of us. Part of us.”
“Oh, and if they don’t want to be here?” Her blue eyes hold mine.
“Let’s cross that gulf stream when we get to it.”
“Right.”
“Do you think they’ll want to go home? From what my sources showed me, they don’t have much of a home left to go back to. Even before your uncle picked them up, it didn’t look like much of a home.” I shake my head. A dark one-room apartment with little furniture.
“But shouldn’t the choice be theirs?” She puts her hand in the middle of my chest. My heart reaches out to touch her skin through my ribs. “Please let the choice be theirs.”
Please, please. Fuck, she’s killing me.
