Page 116 of Siren’s Secret

“The fuck you can’t. That’s my little brother,” Marc wanted to shout, but he managed to keep his tone sort of even. “He’s barely an adult—” He cut himself off. That was it. Tanner was an adult now. He was able to make his own decisions. He was smart.

When Wayla opened her mouth, he held up a hand to stall her and closed his eyes. He needed to think before he said something stupid and ruined everything again. Tanner was young, but he had always been a quick thinker. He rarely got into trouble. Hell, his little brother had bailed him out of trouble a couple of times.

So, why wasn’t he trusting him to make the right call now?

He opened his eyes and looked at Wayla, who waited silently. She was a… a stormbringer heir apparent. Part of the highest nobility and powerful as fuck. He was halfway in love with her. Did he trust her? Yes. Would she ever make a call that would hurt Tanner?

Fuck no.

The answer was crystal clear. Tanner might get hurt, but Wayla wouldn’t put him in harm’s way on purpose. Whatever she had hired him to do was inherently dangerous because she was who she was. She might have hired him to be her accountant for all he knew, and even that position held some danger.

So, he would need to get Tanner into training. If his little brother was going to work for one of the most powerful ladies of the realms, he needed to know how to fight. That was it. He trusted his judgment, and he trusted her. His little brother just needed to learn how to throw a proper punch.

“I don’t need to know,” he said evenly.

Wayla blinked owlishly. “What?”

“I don’t need to know what you hired him to do. I’ll get him into combat training first thing tomorrow morning, but I trust him. He’s smart enough to know what he’s doing.”

“But—”

“And I trust you, Wayla. I’ve been part of the Powerhouses long enough to know what kind of danger your position brings, hence the training for Tanner, but I trust you to make the right call. If you think he’s your best option to do whatever you hired him to do…” He took a deep breath. “I trust you.”

He wasn’t sure what he expected, but Wayla’s eyes filling with tears and her uncontrollable sobbing wasn’t it. He unbuckled his seat belt and moved to kneel in front of her. Slowly, he reached over and took her hands in his. Her skin was cold and clammy, and Marc rubbed her knuckles with his thumbs.

“Baby, please. Don’t cry.” He unbuckled her and lifted her into his arms, so they ended up sprawled on the floor. She just cried harder, clinging to him. Thunder rumbled outside. The plane shook. Marc glanced outside when a barrage of lightning bolts lit up the night sky. He could hear the pilots cursing.

“It came out of nowhere!”

“No, we can’t go around it!”

He crushed Wayla harder against his chest. “Sparkle, you need to breathe.” His own heart was pounding hard, but hell if he was going to make this worse by panicking. “Do you hear me, baby? Breathe.”

Her whole body shuddered and her breathing caught in another sob. The pilots were calling for them to buckle up, but he wasn’t moving. His girlfriend—and if they got out of this alive, that was what she was going to be—needed him to talk her down from the edge. Either he would succeed, or her storm would bring them down and kill them all. As motives went, that was pretty sufficient.

“Wayla,” he called her name firmly and shook her gently. “Baby. I need you to snap out of this.”

More tears spilled down her cheeks, but Marc felt her fingers dig into his arms hard enough to bruise.

“I’m here, baby. I’ve got you. It’s all right. Just breathe with me, okay?”

Wayla blinked furiously. Tears kept coming, but she seemed to hear him. Her breathing was ragged, but she tried to inhale with him.

“That’s it. That’s my good girl. Keep going. I’ve got you.”

This time, she held her breath for a fraction of a second before another sob rocked her body. Marc leaned in to kiss her cheek and lifted her a bit higher. The dress she wore to the party was low cut and Jarred’s claiming mark shone like the lightning was fizzling under it. By some instinct he couldn’t explain, Marc closed his mouth over that mark and bit.

The pain that exploded in his head for a second almost took him out before his shields kicked in. He could still feel the lightning coursing over his body and he could barely breathe, but it no longer fried his brain. Wayla arched in his arms and the plane shook so hard that Marc banged against the chairs. He refused to let go.

Safe. Mine. I’m not letting you go. Come back to me, baby. Breathe.

Thoughts rattled in his head in an endless loop, and he poured his whole focus on them. Wayla fell limp in his arms. Between one heartbeat and the next, the pain and pressure against his shields vanished. The flight evened out. Still, his jaw was locked in place, unable to let go.

Safe. Breathe.

The thunder still rumbled, but it didn’t sound so furious anymore. The lightning didn’t hit as close. Marc flexed his jaw slightly, adding and releasing pressure on his bite in time with his breathing. Wayla’s ragged breaths pierced his heart, but she was breathing. The thunder waned until only heavy rain rattled against the windows.

That’s it, baby. I’ve got you.