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Then I paused, spotting a flash of something that chilled my blood. “Show me your neck.”
“What?” she asked, looking startled.
It took everything in me not to close the gap between us right now. Instead, I swallowed my instincts. I didn’t want to ruin this. “Whatis on your neck?”
Her hand jumped to the spot I was staring at.
Theirfaces flashed in my mind: the men from my nightmares. Images of them biting her. Claiming her. Taking her from me so I couldn’t protect her, like I wasn’t able to protect Ransom.
They’d destroy her; the most beautiful woman on the planet, left hollow and?—
“It’s mine.”
At Umbra’s words, my ice cold fury vaporised.
“He bit you?” I asked, forcing normalcy into my voice. She’d spotted my demons. I could see it by the uncertainty in her eyes. I had to pull it together.
“She lost a game we played,” Umbra said smugly.
“I didn’t lose!” she hissed, her spark of rage smothering the momentary tenseness. “Youcheated.”
Umbra grinned. “Did not.”
“I warned you, Gem,” I told her as I stepped toward the door, still reeling from adrenaline. I would leave the evening as it was, not ruin it with nightmares. They just felt so close today.
They were still bickering when I reached the hall, and I had a few moments before Shatter dragged Umbra to the door and was shoving it closed right on his grinning face.
“You have no faith in me,” he huffed, punching me on the shoulder, light tone covering the concern I felt from him down the bond.
I cleared my throat as he began down the hallway. “You bit her?”
That was good.Reallygood.
It would make me happy if I wasn’t so fucking on edge today.
Umbra was grinning as he turned, spreading his arms as he walked backward.
“I think I love her, mate,” he said, something dazed rising from his end of the bond. I’d never felt anything like it before. A warm summer’s breeze, stirring grass and lifting leaves. “I’d burn this whole place to the ground before I let them putonefilthy tooth on her.”
The smile on my face was real as he vanished down to the living room.
I was about to follow when I heard the door creak behind me.
I turned quickly and saw a golden eye peek through the barely cracked door. Shatter spotted me, then shut it again. I leaned against the wall, waiting. Sure enough, it opened again, wider this time, and she appeared, chewing on her lip and folding her arms like she meant business.
“Yes?” I asked.
She cleared her throat. “Can you tell him thank you for me?” Her voice was low, and she kept passing the card from one hand to another in trembling fingers.
I straightened, stepping closer. “Yes.” She didn’t flinch as I cupped her cheek and tilted her chin. Her eyes still swam with nerves. I wanted to kiss her, but somehow, despite the lie, it felt like thiswasRansom’s moment. Not mine.
“No one is going to take that away. You don’t owe him—anyone—anything for it.”
She nodded, but I could see that she hadn’t truly grasped it yet.
She needed time for that.
I dropped my hand and she stepped away, her gaze meeting mine one last time before she shut the door, stunning golden orbs equal parts hopeful and unsure.
