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I felt his words like a punch to the gut.
“That’s what I want to give you. That’s what I’ll always give you. Because that’s who I am.”
It was a simple statement.
But one that was felt by us all.
“Motherfucker,” Derek breathed. “You’re not going to give in on this are you?”
I shook my head.
No.
I’d gotten the same advice from not just my mate, but Ian.
The one man, among them all, that was least likely to give a fuck about it all.
And I was going to take their advice.
Because that’s what I wanted to do.
“Alright, boys. Anything else we need to talk about so I can go back to my woman?” I asked tiredly.
“The house…with the friend,” Nikolai said.
I closed my eyes.
“We’ll do that after a few more nights of reconnaissance. I’m not sure what they have left there after their vehicles self-destructed, but I want to be sure before I send any more of our people in. We’ve already lost enough.”
Nikolai nodded.
“Anything else?”
They all shook their heads.
Except Derek.
“We need to have your crowning ceremony.”
I could tell he hadn’t wanted to say it.
But it had to be said.
It didn’t mean I had to listen to him.
“No.”
“Keifer…”
“I said no. Not without Blythe. When she wakes, we’ll do it. End of story.”
He sighed.
And with that, they all got up and left at the finality of my words.
And I was left a tired, wanting mess.
“Wake up soon, Blythe,” I ordered softly to the still air of my office.Epilogue
It’s been a long week.-Keifer in the middle of MondayKeifer
Seven days later“She had something in her stomach.”
I watched in horror as a USB drive was held out to me.
Taking it like it was a poisonous snake about to attack, I plugged it into the computer and winced when a file popped up.
“Fuck,” I hissed, clicking on it.
It was a sound file.
Short. Sweet. And to the point.
“I know you, Vassago. I know you better than you know me. I knew you’d come for her. You can’t resist helping the innocent,” he hissed. “Which was why I put a GPS tracker in her. You doomed yourself with your big old heart.”
Fear clogged my throat as I looked at the woman on the exam table.
The beaten and broken woman that would never have a normal life again.
“Find the GPS,” I ordered. “I’m going to be with my wife.”
I wasn’t as worried as I could have been.
Joseph was dead. I’d seen him die myself.
There was no coming back from a death like that.
But when you cut one head off a Hydra, another two spouted in its place…and that was what I was afraid of.
I just had to hope that maybe…just maybe…Joseph didn’t share this information with anyone.
That it ended with him.
And then I laughed humorlessly…because Joseph was all about help…and he had help from damn near everyone. Including my own mother, at one point.
Not that she’d realized it at the time.
Mom had thought Joseph was her friend.
Joseph was using Mom to get in with the dragon riders.
Joseph had bided his time, getting to know my mom. Spending time at my father’s business, shooting the shit.
That’d gone on for years.
And my mom being my father’s secretary, while he’d built his business, she’d been there every day. Spent time with Joseph. Told Joseph some things she shouldn’t have.
And that’d been what had gotten my father killed.
I thought back to the night my father was killed, and a cold chill washed over me.
My parents used to take night rides.
When life got to be too much for them, they’d chase the setting sun on Angus’ back.
Something my mother had inadvertently divulged to Joseph during one of his visits to my father’s garage.
That night my father had died was burned in my memory.
It’d been the night I came into my powers.
His death had set up a chain of events that led to me killing five men, and watching my father take his last breath.
So for the next fifteen years, although I couldn’t prove it, I watched Joseph like a hawk.
What he did, who he did it with. Why he did it.
So it was easy to see all the ‘friends’ he had.
Congressmen. City officials. Police officers. Hell, even US Military.
So when he died, I felt no relief.
Someone wouldn’t let it go.
And with a woman that we’d taken from Joseph’s own home sitting in our infirmary, I had a good reason to be nervous.
Considerably so.
Because I had things on the horizon that I had no clue about…whether it’d be something minor or something huge.
Should I start packing up everyone now? Moving to a different sanctuary?
Darcy Manor had been the home of the King for seven generations…which made me reluctant to leave when I had a future son on the way myself.
“Stop thinking so much, you’re making my head hurt,” a groaning female voice came from in front of me.
I came up short when I saw my mate sitting up in bed.
