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Was it? How could this place be mine when the rogues had painted it with my family’sblood?
Chapter 12
Marco
I knockedon Ren’s door softly, not wanting to wake her if she’d fallen asleep. When we’d brought her to the master bedroom a little more than an hour ago, she’d been shaking, her skin turned sallow. It had wrenched at me to see her so affected by this house’s past, but when she’d ordered us to leave so she could collect her thoughts, she hadn’t offered any room forargument.
I hoped she’d been able to let her awful memories of the attack here fade rather than falling deeper intothem.
“Come in,” my mate said without asking who it was. Well, she must be able to sense my presence as well as I could sense hers through the bond between us. It had only strengthened when she’d finally made that last connection with West. Good to know wolf boy wasn’t completelyhopeless.
Ren’s voice sounded steady enough. When I eased open the door and slipped inside, she was sitting up on her bed, on top of the covers. Her back was straight, but her face still looked paler than usual, stark in contrast with her dark brown hair. The light in her amber-brown eyes didn’t hold quite the fire I’d have liked tosee.
She smiled at me with just half of her mouth. I understood her well enough by now to read what she was feeling then. She was embarrassed by how she’d broken down. As if any of us who’d been with her when she’d gotten overwhelmed would judge her forit.
I ambled over to the bed as if nothing at all were amiss and sat down at the foot, reaching to take her hand. “How is my Princess ofFlames?”
She scooted closer. “Not feeling very regal,” she muttered. “I’m not going to accomplish whatever I’m supposed to do here if I can’t walk down the hall without getting buried inmemories.”
“They’ll fade,” I said, stroking my thumb over the back of her hand. “It’s your first time back here. Of course they hit you hard. I have no doubt you’ll be back to your usual regal ass-kicking self in notime.”
She gave me a fuller smile at that remark, but her eyes still looked a littleweary.
“Is something else bothering you, princess?” Iasked.
She leaned her head against my shoulder. My whole body lit up in an instant, with desire and affection. A week ago, she might have hesitated to get even this close with me. The fact that she was now my mate in every possible way felt almostmiraculous.
I was very much looking forward to experiencing that miracle again andagain.
For now, I suspected affection was going to be more what she needed than desire. I slipped my arm around her waist, and shesighed.
“The way the memories hit me, how much they shook me up… I’m just worrying about all the kin waiting for us back on the other estates,” she said. “I thought I was going to find answers here. What if the past has clouded my mind too much to see where I have togo?”
“There are only so many doors in this place, big as it is,” I pointed out. “I’m sure we can manage to find theone.”
“The vampires could attack again in just a few hours. We don’t have muchtime.”
I pulled her closer to me. “Our kin fended them off before. The strategy you came up with is sound—and it worked just fine in the places that didn’t have a dragon shifter on hand lastnight.”
She rubbed her mouth, frowning. “It won’t be enough if the vampires keep at us. There are ways of getting past regular fire, putting it out… I wish I could be everywhere at once. Burn them all up. Justendthis.”
Oh, my dear mate. I dipped my head to kiss her temple. “It’s been a long, hard journey here, hasn’t it? You deserved a much more peacefulwelcome.”
“Maybe I didn’t. There was nothing peaceful about how I left.” Her laugh sounded a bit choked. She twined her fingers with mine, looking down at our joined hands. Her voice dropped. “It felt so good for a little while there. Having my bond confirmed with all of you. Like everything had fallen into exactly the right place. But now I can’t help thinking about how easily I could lose all ofthat.”
The last four alphas had fallen here too. This was where her mother had lost her mates and Ren herfathers.
Ren’s other hand drifted to her belly, so instinctively I wondered if she even noticed the motion. How much of her fear was the echo of the little girl she’d been—and how much the connection to the dragon shifter who’d come before her, who’d lost children and mates? Who’d losteverythingto saveRen.
Some of both, I thought. All tangled up together. Maybe my mate needed more than affection after all. She needed to feel every bit of her power—the power she held inside her, and the power we generated betweenus.
I tugged her onto her feet. A full-length mirror, the glass bright within its ornate gold frame, stood against the wall across from her wardrobes. I guided her over to it. She raised an eyebrow atme.
“Trying to distract me with the horror of mybedhead?”
I chuckled. “No. Just look atyourself.”
I stood behind her as she gazed into the mirror, my hands resting on her waist. Her hair wasn’t actually all that mussed, falling in its loose waves halfway down her back. The casual dress she’d picked hugged her curves gently, but no less appealingly than if it’d been a silkgown.
