“No mercy.” I said the words as much as a vow to myself as an order to the others. I needn’t have worried. Both men agreed at once.
Captain Turaya shook his head and grinned. “Are you sure about this?” He looked at each of us in turn, like a father scolding his young sons. “Your mates are not docile females. Earth has shaped them to be… different. More. They will not be happy that you have decided to exclude them.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Leo said.
Thor smiled. “A few hours in bed and Faith will forgive me anything.”
The captain looked at me, all laughter fading from his gaze. “Your mate is not like the others, Nix. Are you sure you want to do this?”
I gave him a decisive nod. “Yes. She won’t allow me to protect her. And so, I will protect her without permission.”
“You are all either very brave, or complete fools. The wrath of your females will be severe. I hope you’ve fucked enough for this lifetime. I doubt your cocks will see relief again.”
I didn’t like the idea of Destiny turning away from me, but if she was alive to do so, I was willing to pay the price. “She is my life. I will protect her at all costs.”
“Very well.” The captain shrugged and tucked the note into the pocket of his tunic. “I will meet you in the armory in thirty minutes.”
Thirty minutes I would spend holding my mate and praying she could forgive me.
5
Destiny
She won’t allow me to protect her. And so, I will protect her without permission.
Oh. My. God. I felt like one of those mothers accused of having eyes in the back of her head, her kids not understanding how she knew they’d snuck into the cookie jar while she was in the other room.
Oh, I doubted anyone else on the planet, hell, the universe, had bat hearing like I did. But I understood the true nature of the gift now. The men outside the room were talking quietly so they wouldn’t disturb my sleep. Ha!
I could hear the cook in the kitchen tell someone that the stove was set too high and the pastry was going to burn. I could hear one of the maids in a far bedroom complaining to herself about a sheet she’d discovered had a hole in it. I could hear everything.
Four guys huddled just a few feet away in the hallway trying to keep secrets? Easy pickings.
But Nix’s words weren’t just idle chatter. No. He actually intended to leave me in bed completely unaware of their plans to confront the traitors at that meeting. Perhaps even to get my mother back. After what we’d just done, how we’d just been… it hurt. A whole hell of a lot.
A cold, burning fury rolled through my blood. This rage was different, not like earlier when my Ardor made me into a berserker. No, this was distinctive. A woman who needed to teach her man a lesson about what would and would not be tolerated. This betrayal went deeper, as if his words and his intended actions were arrows he’d slung purposely to hit their mark.
My heart.
He’d claimed he wanted all of me. The fighter. The protective instincts. He’d said he’d never leave me. Well, that lasted all of an hour or two. Now he was standing just outside the door making plans to do exactly that. Finding my mother was not a game. This was not a chess match. This was my life. My family. I was a royal fucking princess, and he intended to protect me without permission? There were exactly three people on this planet I had to answer to—my mother and my older sisters—and he was not one of them.
I had chosen him. Trusted him. I would have asked his opinion and consulted with him as an equal out of respect. I would have included him because I didn’t want to hurt him, because I valued his strengths and his knowledge. Because I valued him.
That he did not intend to extend me the same courtesy stung, and my eyes filled with tears once more. This time they burned like acid on my cheeks. And so I was, after all, a bed mate and nothing more. He did not want me as I was. No. He wanted to hold me back. Change me. Force me to occupy the mold he’d formed for me in his mind.
Damn it to hell. I loved him, which made this hurt ten times worse.
And my sisters? What would they think of these males making choices for them? They didn’t have bionic hearing, but they had plenty of girl power. And fury. When they heard what their own men intended… the shit was going to hit the fan.
There was no way I was letting those arrogant cavemen get away with duping my sisters. They were going to go after my mother and lie to us about it. For our own good, like we were three years old. This was our mission. Mom had been preparing us to rule Alera since we were born, playing to each of our strengths – Trinity’s analytical mind, Faith’s compassion, and my protective instincts. She had believed in us from the day we were born, and so we’d always believed in ourselves.
That the men we loved did not was a hurt none of us would easily get over. Yes, my mother’s enemies—our enemies—were dangerous, but I’d survived a whole lot of danger since I’d transported to Alera. We all had. And we were even stronger now.
I sat up in bed, propped my elbows on my knees. I felt better. So much better. No fever, no simmering need. I felt like me again. A pissed off me.
Men. What was the saying? Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
Whatever. Now that my Ardor was over, I could live without Nix if this was how he was going to be. What would he be like later on when something else came up? A bully at school with one of our kids? Okay, so that was pushing it a little far, because we weren’t going to have any kids. Not after what I’d just heard. Captain Turaya had been right. Nix was cut off.