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CHAPTER 3
RUNE
My gaze traveled across the three gorgeous faces of the men in the carriage with me. Three men who would normally be at each other’s throats, ready to kill each other. It was a bit strange how things had been less about stabby moments lately, and more about bonding marks. In all honesty, I wondered if them trying to kill each other would be less painful. My heart squeezed for Wilder, while a blush of pain ran over his bite mark.
I cleared my throat, gaining Daxon’s attention.
I reached up to the necklace, and Daxon’s hand slid over my thigh, distracting me. I lowered my hand over his instead, sensing his worry in my chest.
“It’s okay,” I answered before he even asked the question. “Things just feel a bit much, but that seems to be the story of my life.”
“I’m here for you, baby,” Daxon reassured me, his voice soft. I’d always known I loved Daxon, but this new, deeply affectionate side of himself he was revealing…it was taking it to another level. Everything he did made me swoon.
“Me too, Rune,” Wilder added, his voice still depressed.
Ares smiled at me, not saying anything because I knew at this point he had no plans of leaving me alone any time soon. The fire in my chest burned. Ares was definitely growing on me. There was still so much unknown between him and I, and things we had to sort out. But Wilder…he was going to break me before I could get to that. His eyes were darkened with pain, and he was slumped, like he carried the world on his shoulders.
Daxon’s hand slid across my thigh, and warmth ignited over my skin, drawing my attention away from the others and back to him. Sparks of a thousand stars danced inside of me as we locked eyes.
He was my mate and the urge to crawl into his lap and kiss him as the rest of the world faded intensified.
Movement came from the seat across from us in the carriage, and I turned back to Wilder and Ares, who both watched me. Ares grinned, enjoying the show, happy for me because he considered me securely his now apparently. But it was obvious Wilder would struggle until we figured out why the mating bond wasn’t working. So I moved quickly to sit between them both, our sides pressed up together.
“Hey you,” I murmured to Wilder, coaxing a weak smile out of him, while Daxon watched with a pout. Ares had his hand against my leg now, fingers stroking slowly in small circles. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
“This is rather amusing, don’t you think?” Ares murmured.
“Why the hell are you in the carriage with us?” Wilder snapped, the tension around him thickening.
I ran my hand down Wilder’s thick arm, caressing his tense muscles, wanting to calm him because fighting amongst ourselves wasn’t going to solve anything right now.
“Calm down, asshole,” Daxon butted in, looking ready to tackle Wilder into submission if he kept upsetting me. “If it’ll make you feel all warm and fuzzy, I’ll kick the bloodsucker out for you.”
Ares laughed hysterically, leaning back, unable to appear more relaxed if he tried. “I think it’s pretty obvious the big bad wolf is crying from his inability to perform.”
Daxon made a strange huffing sound that came out as a suppressed laugh, and I eyed him intensely. “Wilder,” he began. “The more pressure you put on yourself, the more you’re blocking the bond.”
“Shut the hell up,” Wilder snarled.
“Okay, let’s talk about something else,” I pleaded, my gaze sweeping from the two grinning hyenas to Wilder who was rolling his eyes at both of them. On the bright side, he wasn’t leaping over me to break their faces. At least yet anyway.
It suddenly felt like a furnace in the carriage, and as much as I appreciated Daxon attempting to put a chink in the invisible wall Wilder wore as armor, I didn’t think pushing the point would work.
“So, that was a crazy adventure,” I said, completely changing the topic and leaning in against Wilder as he slipped an arm behind my back, holding me possessively.
“That’s one word for it, but we found the second piece of the necklace which was what matters,” he muttered. He looked tired, his hair rumpled.
I held his gaze, trying to hide that I was breaking inside. I hated that I couldn't give Wilder what he yearned the most—to mark me. He turned to stare outside, and I sighed, turning to Daxon who wasn’t helping the situation by lounging back, his legs crossed at the ankles, grinning, studying me, reading all my emotions.
Ares on the other hand still had his fingers dancing against my thigh, not giving up in claiming his spot alongside me. With him reclined in the gothic-looking carriage with tiny wolf motifs running along the top paneling, it made him appear every bit a dark lord. An extremely sexy one at that. But I shook my head, needing to not complicate things.
When he blew me an air kiss though, I flashed on how far we’d come, how quickly he’d engrained himself into my life, and how it felt like it was destined. From him tracking me down with the other hunters to kill me, to then giving me half the stone pendant to save me. Which reminded me of something…
“Ares, where did you get your half of the necklace from? I never asked you, but I’m curious now that we’ve found the other part?” I remembered the tale he’d told me about his family living with the royal family, but he never revealed how he’d gotten hold of the stone.
“Good question,” Wilder quipped, shifting around to stare at the vampire, a challenge in his gaze.
Ares blinked, not responding quickly, but the corners of his mouth were curling upward. “I had been gifted it from a friend, who insisted it was the stone of Atlandia, once belonging to the royal family. It carried healing powers, especially when merged with the broken half. So I kept it with me, until the stone started to emit a low humming sound that mortals couldn’t hear. And the closer we got to you, little dove, the louder it grew. The stone was drawing me to you, so I figured that you were related to the royal family somehow and you’d know where the second piece was.”
