What if it fractures them the way it has me?
Kylian appears in front of me, his dark eyes gleaming intensely as he reaches up a massive, calloused hand and cups my cheek. My body reacts to his touch and his scent instantly, and I lean into his caress.
"Don't go do anything I wouldn't do," he says.
While part of me wants to clutch at his hand and dissolve into tears, I shove aside that urge as I nuzzle my cheek against his warm palm. Somewhere in my deepest depths, I manage to drum up enough strength to keep the moment with him light and airy.
"You mean like sneaking onto all-omega campuses and digging through underwear drawers? Or like gorily mutilating enemies on the battlefield?"
His eyebrows drop. "How about don't do anything Iwoulddo."
I grin wider, but the expression is laced with an ache that digs deep. His free hand comes to my hip, and he steps closer, tilting my head back and giving me the softest kiss imaginable. The gentlest, most reverent brush of his lips.
It's not the sort of kiss that I would have expected from him, but there's a raw vulnerability to Kylian's gentleness. As if the softness buried beneath the wild, brittle layers of crazy is only for me.
Mine.
My beautiful, perfect scent match.
My mother is trying to rob me of him, to steal him and the future I want away.
I reach up and wrap both of my arms around Kylan’s neck and then yank him down into me so that our kiss grows angry and feral.
He gave me his tenderness, but I steal his crazy. His unhinged wildness. With every tiny inhale between biting kisses, I fill my soul with the maniacal bits of his, the parts I'll need to survive.
We're both panting when I finally release him.
I hardly get the opportunity to stare into his eyes before Ridge plants himself in front of me and picks me up. The angel-faced alpha wraps both of my legs around his waist. In contrast to Kylian, he dives right into our kiss, dominating my mouth with his as his hands squeeze my hips.
He's forceful and controlled, changing our tempo at his whim, showing me exactly who's boss in a way that leaves me dazed and turns my limbs to putty.
Ridge doesn't even set me down. He simply pulls his head back and pivots, handing me to Luka. Without a word, the leader of Alpha Team X gestures to Kylian, and the two of them pick up massive duffel bags and head off toward the barn that is the palace's parking garage.
"I—”
"He's not good with goodbyes," Luka says, redirecting my attention to him.
I reach up and cup the light scruff on his face and drink in his warm, coffee-colored gaze.
"Me either. I don't want to say goodbye," I whisper.
Luka leans closer until the tip of his nose brushes the tip of mine. "We'll be back sooner than you think."
Next to him, Colter adds, "We're pretty good at killing. Might not even take a week."
"That's not?—"
Luka silences my protest with a gentle but insistent kiss. His lips roam over mine until my lips part and his tongue darts in. I don't know if it's his scent or his precision, but he's a magician who somehow erases every worried exclamation stacked up in the back of my head. They just explode in a puff of smoke as his kiss overtakes everything.
When he pulls back, he stares at me with a firmness I'm not expecting. "Be careful. And stay in the castle. Stick with guards at all times. Keep my true love safe for me, all right?"
My throat clogs up so suddenly and fully that all I can manage is a tiny nod. The tears spill out as Luka hands me to Colter, who switches me into a bridal carry when tears completely blur my vision and mat my eyelashes together.
I cling to the huge man's shirt desperately, so tightly that my knuckles start to ache. My nose is buried against his heart as teardrops turn into shaking sobs that I fight against. Fight against and fail.
Colter holds me gently and patiently as I ugly cry in his arms. And of course he has a tissue ready when I'm done. Of course. Because he's too perfect.
"I've soaked your shirt," is the first broken phrase I manage to choke out.
