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Her brow creased. “Why would you think I’d feel obliged to inform him?”
Was she being serious right now? “He’s your Prime. As his sentinel, you need to keep him apprised of anything that affects him.”
“This doesn’t affect him.”
“It’s something he’d want to know.”
“Probably. But it isn’t something he needs to know. So I’m not sure why you think I’d expose you.”
Teague’s mouth snapped shut. Wait, what?
Again, there was a twinge of hurt in her eyes. “I’m a lot of things, but I’m not unnecessarily cruel. Nor am I someone who’d take a dump all over a person who matters to me. Which you do. Sort of. At times.” Her cheeks reddened. “Don’t read anything into it.”
Teague’s chest went tight. Damn if that snippily spoken confession didn’t get to him. And damn if she didn’t look so fucking cute, all red-faced and flustered.
His beast wasn’t the slightest bit surprised by her words, or by her intention to guard their secrets. In the entity’s opinion, both her declaration and demonstration of loyalty were only to be expected.
“Wait,” began Leo, raising a hand, “you don’t plan to tell Knox?”
Her gaze sliced to Leo. “No. It would be different if I thought you were a threat. But if any of you meant to blab his secret, you’d have done it long before now. You’ve given him no trouble. You’re not callous, self-entitled assholes who treat Earth-born demons as mere toys for you to play with and break at your leisure. So what reason do I have to warn him that you’re hell-born and, in doing so, condemn you? None.”
Pausing, she returned her focus to Teague and fixed him with a hard glare. “And don’t think I’m not pissed at you for believing I’d fuck you over like that.”
God, he wanted to kiss her stupid right now. It was going to happen. Soon.
“I thought he was only your pretend boyfriend,” said Archer.
“You don’t have to be in a relationship with someone for them to mean something to you,” she pointed out.
“You expect us to buy that you’d keep this from your Prime?” asked Saxon, folding his arms.
Larkin bristled, feeling her expression morph into a glower. “Yes, actually, I do. I don’t say what I don’t mean.” She paused to flick a look at the bird that kept repeatedly flying above them in a figure of eight. “If that raven shits on my head, we’re gonna have problems.”
A male who she knew from her research was named Leo scratched his temple and said, “It’s more likely to try stealing any jewelry you’re wearing. They’re all thieving little bastards.” At a loud screech, he looked up at the raven and lifted his hands. “I didn’t say that was a bad thing.” He returned his gaze to Larkin. “They’re touchy, too.”
She’d heard that hellhorses had an infinity for animals and could form such a deep connection with them that it not only enabled the hellhorses to communicate with them, it allowed the animals to understand them. Apparently it was true.
“So you’re really not going to tell Knox?” a red-headed male asked her, looking cautiously hopeful. Gideon.
“No, I’m not.” Even if Teague hadn’t mattered to her as much as he did, she wouldn’t have doomed him in such a way when it would be totally undeserved. “Regardless of what you all seem to think, I don’t tell him every little thing. That goes both ways.”
“This is no little thing,” said a guy she knew brawled in the Underground’s fighting pit. Slade Something Or Other.
“No, it isn’t,” Larkin allowed. In fact, a part of her still struggled to process it. “But it’s your business to share or not to share. Of course, if any of you ever suddenly decide to screw over Knox, I’ll return that favor in a fucking heartbeat and then hunt you down to execute you,” she warned. “But I’m hoping it won’t come to that.”
Silence reigned as the seven hellhorses stared down at her for long moments.
The one she recognized from her research as Archer extended a small, brown paper bag toward her. “Mushroom?”
She felt her nose wrinkle. “No, thanks.”
“Good. I don’t like sharing them.” He bit into one. “I’m Archer, by the way.”
Gideon raised a hand, a lazy smile now curving his mouth. “Gideon.” Gesturing at the others, he added, “That’s Leo. And then you have Tucker, Slade, and Saxon.”
Rather than explaining she already knew their names, she gave them a curt nod and said, “Larkin.” She then refocused on Teague, asking, “Why were shadowkin here?”
He didn’t answer. He unabashedly stared at her, his body no longer still and tense. Just the same, his gaze was no longer grim and distant. Far from it. There was a blatant and super-intense possessiveness there that made her demon grin and her belly do a slow roll.
“Come here,” he said, his voice pitched low and deep.
