Page 88 of Sent To A Fantasy World and Now All the Men Want Me 7

“Such a needy little bird.” He leaned toward me and smoothed his thumb over my jaw. “But I, regretfully, have important matters to attend to. I’m confident your other mates can satiate your many needs in my absence.”

“There you go calling me a whore again.” I smiled at the memory of us in the cave. He mirrored my smile, as though his thoughts had taken him there too. “I better see you tomorrow at breakfast. No exceptions.”

“Ordering me around in my own home?” His smile slipped into something softer. “What will I do with you, little bird?”

I leaned forward and kissed him.

He froze against my lips before, slowly, sinking his fingers into the back of my hair and deepening the kiss. Woodsmoke infiltrated my senses, causing spikes of heat in my blood. But the kiss didn’t last long enough. He drew back and traced the line of my jaw, his gaze unreadable, before lowering his hand from my face and standing from the bed.

Without another word or glance back at me, he left the room and closed the door behind him.

“Rude,” I muttered under my breath. “He didn’t even say goodbye.”

Lake stared toward the closed door. “I sense a sadness in his heart. Anger exists within him as well.”

“Anger?” Maddox asked, taking Onyx’s former place on the bed.

“One that stirs deep in his core.” Lake’s brow pinched together. “He’s hiding something from us.”

Not too surprising. Onyx was three hundred years old. I was sure there was a lot he hadn’t shared with us yet. But I had hope he eventually would. Once he lowered his walls a bit more and realized that we… well, were his family.

Bonded by fate.

***

A loud clap of thunder woke me with a start.

“Take Evander and run!”

Ice seeped into my veins as my eyes flew open, seeing nothing but a dark room. It took my sleepy brain a moment to realize I wasn’t back in that cottage as my dad was killed.

I was in bed, with the men I loved, barricaded in the arms of a knight captain as he slept peacefully beside me in bed. Lake lay in his favorite spot on my lap, while Callum snuggled in behind me, his warm breath feathering across my nape. Briar was on the other side of Callum, and Rowan slept sprawled out on the window bench. A ball of black fluff curled up beside him on the cushion.

Lightning lit up the room, the flickers quick and silent. A silence soon broken by another thunderous clap, the kind that sounded like the crack of a whip.

“I’ve got you, sweetheart,” a deep voice softly said.

Looks like my captain wasn’t peacefully sleeping like I’d thought. He’d probably woken when I had.

I burrowed closer to Maddox. “How is it already storming again? We just had rain like yesterday.”

“Spring is upon us,” he said, smoothing his calloused palm down my bicep. “Frequent storms are to be expected.”

“Well, it’s bull crap. Make it go away.”

A low chuckle rumbled in his chest before his soft lips glided over my earlobe. “An impossible request. I can, however, distract you until it passes.”

“What about me?” The warm body behind me shifted closer. “I can distract you as well.”

Smiling, I looked at Callum over my shoulder. “Well, I do love an ooey, gooey cinnamon roll to start my morning off right.”

Callum flashed his dimple. His sleep-heavy lids gave him an adorable boyishness that wrapped around my heart and squeezed. He slid his hand to my jaw and turned my face more toward him before kissing me. The sweet taste of him exploded on my tongue, and the heat in my blood turned electric.

“My lieutenant gets a kiss before I do?” Maddox grumbled, shifting to his back. The sheet gathered around his waist, exposing the bare skin of his muscled torso. Also exposing his scars. They marred his ribs and down his side—wounds that had nearly taken him from me once.

“I guess I can give you a kiss too,” I said, throat tight despite my playful tone.

“You guess?” Maddox tucked one arm behind his head and stared at me.