“I’ll be right outside.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Saxon watched as she started unpacking the food before lifting his jacket and following Declan outside. He closed the door behind him and put on his jacket. In the distance, the faint glow of the setting sun illuminated the mountains. The wind had died down, but the chill in the air was still enough to make a penguin consider moving somewhere warmer.
“Does she know she’s your mate yet?” Declan inquired.
Saxon rested his hand against the blue motel wall as he studied the parking lot. Aside from their rental vehicles and their SUV, there were four other cars. Two were parked outside the office, and he suspected one belonged to the clerk and the other the cleaning woman he’d seen a couple of times. The other two were probably travelers’ vehicles.
“No.” He knew Declan sensed things about others, but he still had to know, “How doyouknow she’s my mate?”
“I’ve seen you with many women over the years, Saxon, but I’ve never seen you defensive or protective of one. Besides, if she wasn’t your mate, the second you learned she was the reason Killean and Simone were hunted so ruthlessly, you would have tossed her to the wolves.”
“I’m not that callous. I’d never punish someone for something that wasn’t their fault.”
“No, but her ability is dangerous, and you would have restrained her.”
“It’s not her fault the Savages decided to use her ability in such a way,” Saxon growled.
Declan held his hands up in a calming gesture. “I’m not saying it is, and I’m not saying anything bad, I’m just stating how I know she’s your mate.”
Saxon’s gaze slid away from him as a black car traveled down the street and turned onto the road leading toward the bar. “Killean’s going to want her dead. Lucien might too, and possibly Ronan.”
“And they’ll know that if they do, they’ll also be condemningyouto death. Besides, she is human, and we don’t kill humans.”
Saxon turned his attention back to Declan. “Killean has before, and if he thinks she’s a threat to Simone, he will again.”
“He’s not going to destroy you by killing her. He won’t be happy about this, but he’ll learn to live with it.”
“What do you think about it?”
“I’m happy you found your mate, and I think the rest of it will work itself out eventually.”
“Yeah,” Saxon muttered, but he wasn’t so sure.
“If it makes you feel any better, I sense nothing off in her. She’s not cruel or manipulative.”
“I know she’s not.”
“Good.”
Removing Declan’s phone from his pocket, Saxon typed in Ronan’s new number and waited for his king to pick up while he watched another black car drive down the road. He glanced at Declan as he leaned against the wall and pulled out one of the phone’s Saxon gave him.
“Hello,” Ronan said after the third ring.
“Ronan.”
“Saxon, are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Saxon filled him in on the details of the cabin while Declan pulled out another phone and searched through it. He told him about discovering Elyse, the Savages, and her imprisonment.
“I can’t do anything with these,” Declan muttered.
He walked over and tossed them into a trash can outside one of the rooms. As Declan returned to him, another black car drove by. The car turned down the same road as the other two. There were probably fifty million black cars out there, but something didn’t feel right.
