I leaned my head against his shoulder. “They can certainly try.”
“Now I kind of wish they do, if only to watch how far you’ll go to protect me,” Malakai teased, his smug smirk remaining.
“She’s right, you’re part of this… weird ass family, and we will protect you.” Ashley smiled, nudging Nate with her shoulder.
“Uh, yeah, of course,” he added quickly.
I really appreciated how they were trying to come around to trusting him again. They had before, when he was simply our Lieutenant, giving orders that they followed without hesitation. It would’ve been a lie to say that I wondered if it was because of their own ideals or if they trusted me enough to give him a shot as well.
“Gods I wish I had a sob story now,” Nate sighed. “Having everyone swoon and protect me. But my life before was pretty ordinary.”
“How about settling for protection?” Eve snorted.
“What?” Nate complained. “That was the lesser choice, I’d settle for the flirty option every time.”
Not that it really mattered how, but the fact that they always came through, they always kept their word… my life couldn’t have been in better hands than theirs; this squad, this family that we had molded ourselves into. It belonged to us and no one else.
And I would die fighting to protect it.
CHAPTER
9
Ash, leather and steel; the scent had grown on me. It was almost addictive, like a hunted prey desperately searching for shelter or safety from a predator. I inhaled it again and again convincing myself that I was safe.
I cracked my eyelids open, the morning light making them sting, forcing me to squint until the blur settled.
Warmth and the weight of arms,hisarms, locked around me was like a shield and a shackle all at once.
My cheek pressed against his chest, his heartbeat steady and unyielding beneath my ear.
“Malakai,” I muttered, instinctively testing to see if I could wriggle free.
I could not.
A slow exhale ghosted through my hair, too deliberate for him to be asleep. My gaze drifted to the sharp line of his collarbone and before I could think better of it, I leaned forward and grazed it with my lips.
That was all it took.
In one fluid shift, I was beneath him, the world flipping with dizzying ease. My back hit the bedroll, air whooshing from my lungs as his weight caged me in.
“Such a bold kitten,” he murmured, amusement crackling in his voice like embers. His eyes, half-lidded and glowing, drank me in as though I were his first and last sin.
“I knew you weren’t asleep,” I accused.
“Would you have touched me like that if I was?” His lips hovered over mine, barely there, teasing the space between us.
Heat coiled in my belly. “I might still do worse things, depending on your next move.”
A low rumble vibrated in his chest, dangerously close to a laugh. “Try me and find out.”
I lifted a hand, dragging my fingers along his jaw. He leaned into the touch, nuzzling my hand like a predator indulging in a pet.
For a heartbeat, a fragile, sacred heartbeat, there was no war, no demons to hunt down and no death waiting with open jaws. There was only this. The faint light of dawn, the muted clatter of soldiers waking elsewhere in camp and the two of us nestled between choice and inevitability.
He dipped his head, brushing his nose against my cheek, his breath warm. Not quite a kiss, just a simple promise of one as his lips brushed against my skin.
“Stay like this a little longer,” I whispered, surprising myself.
