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“We’ll give them a proper funeral pyre.” Eddie stepped forward. “In keeping with the old ways. We’ll destroy the ship.”
“I’ll trust it to your capable hands.” His best friend who had guarded him and never had a true fight with him other than about Joelle. “Anything else before I take my mate home to heal her wounds?”
Alys tipped her head toward Yulia. “What do you want to do about the political visit?”
“It’s done,” he said. “Yulia, if you return to my territory without prior invitation and approval, we’ll consider you an enemy and your life will be forfeit. That’s the price for betraying my mate.”
Yulia shook her head. “You said she wasn’t your mate.”
“Any fool could see she’s his mate.” The hurt in Eddie’s voice couldn’t be missed.
Thank the gods Alys stepped in and saved him from dealing with messy emotions. “We’ll take care of getting their delegation home. Can Tai come back for studies and research if he has a security detail other than his mom? He has his first crush on your mate. Can’t fault the kid’s taste.”
“Kids.” Joelle’s voice from behind went high-pitched, scared. “Kyle said Noxx had kids as prisoners. What if they’re on the ship? What if I killed children?” Panic brought her words faster and faster.
“She’s been traumatized,” Alexei said to the others, covering her last words as he held her and hoped she’d stop talking before he couldn’t explain away what she’d done. They didn’t need Yulia knowing more until they figured out what had triggered the change in Joelle’s powers—the cuffs or something else. “Healer’s guilt hit her hard with Kyle’s death, and we’re still fuzzy on connecting all the pieces of what happened around the time of the explosion.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” Alys’s tone poured comfort with the same ferocity as her magic caused pain. “We didn’t find any kids. Maybe Kyle got it wrong.”
Joelle’s lights hadn’t dimmed, but now they pulsed brighter. “Or what if Noxx is holding them somewhere else? We have to find them.” She stared at him with wide eyes so full of concern that he would promise her anything.
“We will,” he said. “If Noxx has children hostage like she kept you and your brother, we’ll do everything we can to rescue them. But for now, let’s get you home.” He picked her up, not giving her a chance to protest. They would both need a shower as soon as he got her to safety. Hell, they probably needed a decontamination scrub given the blood coating them both. But first, he would make her smile, if her constant talk of his wings had been true.
Stepping onto the deck, he shielded her from the spray coming off the sea that churned as if he’d unleashed a volcano from the ocean floor. At least the tossing had cleared the deck of some of the death he’d left in his wake. He stretched his wings, letting them curl around her. The joy that lit her face? Worth it.
“Ready to fly?” he asked her, glancing back to see Eddie and Yulia both unleashing their wings.
“Born ready.” Joelle’s grin made the day’s tragedies bearable. The sight of it stayed in his mind through watching the massive funeral pyre, its flames blazing bold against the twilight sky of the sun setting into the Pacific Ocean.
He only had one more question for her. “Ready to become mine?”
ChapterTwenty-Three
Joelle didn’t know what to make of the last few hours. She’d tried and failed to save Kyle, Noxx had revealed that she’d been created as a science experiment instead of born as an actual person, and Alexei had declared her his mate and made all sorts of stalkerish but weirdly hot claims about loving her forever.
Helovedher? When the fresh hells had that happened? Sometime between walking out on her after finger-banging her into bliss and, oh yeah, when she killed him and brought him back? Why couldn’t the complications in her life take a few months off so she might have time to think?
But no, her demon prince showered in the next room while she sat on his big, soft bed freaking out. The burns on her wrists had settled into redness and new scars after he’d dosed her with the strongest healing charms that money could buy. She ran her fingers over the shiny skin that looked a hundred times better than she’d ever been able to accomplish with wounds left by the cuffs in the past. He’d helped her wash away the blood if not the memories of what had happened on the ship.What she had done.
Her healing magic had turned on her and slaughtered the guards who’d wanted Alexei dead.
They needed killing, he’d said while he’d cared for her as if she meant more to him than any of his precious rare books or the stolen crown jewels at his warehouse that she wasn’t supposed to know about. As if his offhanded dismissal ended any discussion about the murders she had committed.
He opened the door, steam rolling through the room from the heat of his shower. How could the man stand those scalding temperatures? He’d been so attentive to making sure her water had stayed cool enough not to irritate her burns. With his dark hair damp and slicked back, he looked completely healed and achingly handsome. She hadn’t had long to admire his shirtless muscles when she’d been furious with him for fighting Eddie, but now? He stood in the doorway like a naughty show just for her, the dark hair on his chest tapering to his abs and down into the tucked white towel.
Built like an ancient warrior, Alexei might as well have been a gladiator. Carved muscles with nothing extra, powerful without his position, money, or even a flex of his magic. Sitting in his bed, surrounded by his scent, she could imagine that shewashis mate, that she belonged here with him.
He stalked toward the bed, and nerves sent tingles through her more electrifying than those the healing charm had created. His movements reminded her of a predator shifter, lethal and graceful—the actions of someone comfortable with his strength and size. Had the towel slipped an inch lower on those ridged abs of his? Or did she simply wish it had? Heat having nothing to do with the charm around her neck had her flushing. She wore his robe, and she debated loosening it to cool off—except what would that make him think?
“What are you doing?” Her voice came out too high, and not the temptress, airy kind. More of a squeak.
“Joining you in bed.”
“We can’t just go from what happened to being mates.” It wasn’t done.Was it?
“Why not?” He sounded so matter-of-fact, as though he expected her to come up with logic and reason when he looked likethat.
“Because.”Great. She couldn’t come up with a simple explanation.
