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“I don’t want you going alone,” Kai said, brushing a hand over her lower back.
She pursed her lips. “I’ll be fine.”
She probably would. She was a warrior, after all, and far from fragile and delicate. He knew he couldn’t keep her caged, knew he couldn’t protect her from everything, but—
He remembered the cold of her skin as she was dying in his arms.
“We’re too close to rogue territory. I’m not risking anything.”
“Kai,” she breathed his name before stepping closer to place a hand on his chest. She lifted onto her toes to place a kiss on his mouth. “I’ll be fine.” Soft, sweet words. A caress over his lips in this small space just for them. “Overprotective bastard.”
He couldn’t deny appreciating this obvious tactic of manipulation, especially with how her body pressed into his. Both Magnus and Rhydian had respectfully dropped their gazes.
Kai hummed and said nothing, only brandishing a small uptick of his lips as she turned to walk away. He let her get a few steps ahead before he called out, “Magnus, I’ll take your post. Go with Isla to the inn.”
“What?”
Isla whipped around, teeth bared, while a slightly alarmed Magnus bowed at the waist. “Yes, Alpha.”
“Kai,” Isla hissed, hurling all that fire and determination at him through her stare.
He slid his hands into his pockets. “Give me shit for it later.”
The glower didn’t leave her face.
He flashed her a smile and let the slightest bit of mocking and playfulness slip in as he crooned, “I love you.”
The growl she gave shouldn’t have been as arousing as it was. “Asshole.” She turned her back but wouldn’t walk away completely without grumbling just loud enough for him to hear, “I love you.”
He knew if he laughed, she’d hurl herself at him, so he stamped his lips together as she and Magnus strode away, the guard keeping a wise few paces behind his future queen.
“She’s going to kill you,” Rhydian said, also, it seemed, afraid to show any amusement until the two of them were out of sight. He lifted his head to examine the cloudy sky.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Kai answered truthfully, thinking of that passion being thrown at him. He turned his attention back to the border wall.
Rhydian said, “I thought you told everyone to be scarce around the House tonight.”
Yes, he’d had plans. Plans that began with dinner and ended with her struggling to keep those wonderful sounds of hers contained. But then she’d wanted to trail Eli—not entirely strange, given her need to be involved in everything—and then he’d noticed something else. The black cloak, torn and covered in dark blood, that hadn’t made it entirely under the bed to its typical hiding place.
Her mother’s cloak.
At the thought, his power writhed.
Murderer.
Kai battled away the thought, tried to stifle the void that tried to push,push.He wondered if Rhydian could sense it the way Isla could.
In a breath, Kai allowed it to cast out and give it an outlet. He shrugged. “Plans change.”
A small bite must’ve slipped into his tone because Rhydian jeered, “You seem pleased by that.”
“You wouldn’t want to spend your night trailing the general who brought your mate across the continent just to get in her pants instead of at home in bed with her?”
Rhydian’s smile was too wide for Kai’s liking. “Still on that mating edge, brother?”
Kai ran his tongue over his bottom lip, as if he could still taste Isla there, still feel the press of her body and her touch on his chest. On edge didn’t explain the half of it. Their bond was still new in a way, still fresh. Broken and healing, but still had him in that newly mated male frenzy, wanting to be on her,in her, to points where it was near-maddening.
He said, “As long as it’s the two of us, I don’t care where we are.”
