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“Duh, I meant for you to hear me,” Alys said. “I’ve got the results on the shackles.”
The reminder of what they’d come for sobered Joelle. She didn’t think she would ever be able to hear the wordshackleswithout her stomach turning and her skin prickling with the reminder of the pain. “You found something?”
Alys’s face glowed, hermad scientistexpression a little disturbing. “I found a ton of things.” Her watch beeped a loud, annoying tone. “I’m running a final review on a test. Can I meet you in the office upstairs in a few minutes?” She didn’t seem to expect an answer, already backing away. “Tai will be here later. The kid wanted one more chance to use my new microscope, and I told him to swing by.”
That had Alexei snapping his head in his sister’s direction. “Yulia’s still in town? I ordered her to leave.”
“Relax,” Alys said. “Tai has been staying at the hotel with his jerk of a dad, but his security will bring him. Gotta run before I blow up the building.” With that, she rounded the corner toward her lab and disappeared.
A pulse of power from the protective wards rushed over Joelle’s skin, not an alarm but more as if the magic wanted to check on her. She glanced at Alexei. “You don’t think she cooked up a bomb in her lab, do you?”
“Who knows with Alys.” He pulled her toward the stairs. “If she has, then at least she knows better than anyone how to keep it from going off. Come on. We’ll wait in my office like she suggested.” Lowering his voice, he said, “Otherwise, we’ll never get privacy now that you’re family.”
His office smelled of coffee, books, and her mate. She wanted to bottle the scent and keep it close forever. Liquor and fancy glasses took up a shelf in the corner next to carvings of animals. She touched a bear that stood upright on its back paws, its mouth open in a roar. The edges of the detailed figure felt rough beneath her fingertips, and a ripple of magic ran beneath the wood. “What’s this?”
“A gift from a bear shifter clan a few hundred miles north of here.” He sat behind the desk. “They mate much as we do, chosen by fate and destined to last forever.”
We. Despite Joelle’s nerves about whatever his sister might’ve discovered, no matter who orwhatshe might be, Alexei loved her. His people accepted her. She rounded the desk to face him, sitting on the edge. “Do they also get an overnight family?”
“Yes. There’s no separating the shifters from their packs or prides.”
She’d studied the faces of the guards, memorizing each and noticing the one missing. They needed to talk about who hadn’t stood with the others. “Why wasn’t Eddie here?” The last time she’d seen him had been on the ship. “Please don’t say you’re still angry with him over a single hug.”
“A hug frommymate.”
Poking at him, she said, “All the more reason for you not to be mad. I’m yours, and I like you possessive, not obsessive.”
With a resigned sigh, Alexei nodded. “He’s out looking for Noxx or any signs of children she might’ve taken. He feels as though he failed Kyle and his mom although it’s not his fault. We still haven’t found a link between Kyle’s mother and the Order so Eddie has his team working on that as well. If we can find the connection, we might discover where your tormentor has been hiding. With Noxx’s whereabouts unknown, I shouldn’t have brought you here. The Order could have hit us on the way or on the drive home in any number of—”
She interrupted before he could detail gruesome attack possibilities. “I can’t stay locked inside your house forever.”
“Ourhouse.” Trailing a hand along her leg, Alexei leaned back in his chair, tipping his head against the leather and looking far too sexy for her to win any argument. “I should’ve kept you tied to the bed.”
She bit back a snort. “I would’ve blasted my way out sooner or later.” The reminder of her messed-up magic had her smile fading. “What if we don’t figure out what made my powers change?”
“We will.” He clipped the words as if his tone would make the topic go away.
“Have you told Alys about my magic?” she asked.
“No.”
“You haven’t told them what I did? How I killed those men?” She couldn’t keep from saying the worst. “Killedyou?” Gods, the memory haunted her.
“No.” He tightened his grip as if afraid she might slip through his fingers. “We’ve been over this. You didn’t mean to hurt me.”
“My intentions didn’t make you any less dead.”
“New powers start in their raw form when they manifest.”
“You rock an amazing amount of control over yours when you’re not fighting the destined mates thing.” She envied his restraint even when she pushed him to abandon it.
He curled his arm around her waist, hauled her into his lap. “It took an entire winter’s isolation with my family at our mountain home to control my powers. I almost wiped out a nearby village…twice. Volcanic magic and avalanches don’t mix, but the snow kept me from doing more damage.”
“While I’m digging the idea of an extended honeymoon at your family’s vacation home, I can’t risk sparking another nuclear explosion like I set off on the ship.”
“You won’t,” he said. “Fear triggered whatever your magic did.”
“What if it goes off the next time I’m scared?”
