17
Maia crossed her arms over her chest and scowled, aware she was being bratty but unwilling to change. She pushed her boobs up in her shirt just in casethatmight swing things in her favour.
"They can't stay, love," Jaro said sadly, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear and stroking down her cheek. "We can't walk into a city with a hundred wolves."
"A hundredthree-headedwolves," Azrail put in, leaning against a nearby tree on the outskirts of Eosantha, a sprawling city known for its fields of cotton-headed wheat and the giant spike at the heart of its precise grid of streets—the spire of the tallest cathedral in Venhaus.
Maia shot him a glare for not helping, and on second thought softened it into a wide-eyed pitiful stare.
"That won't work on me, sweetheart," he laughed. "We can't take a pack into the city."
Maia huffed, giving him the finger instead. "They're my wolves, and I'm keeping them."
"They're technicallymywolves," he pointed out. "They were bred in the chasm."
"Well, they like me better," Maia threw back. "Kheir—"
"Don't bring me into it," her prince laughed, holding up his hands where he stood a few paces away with Bryon, the grumpy soldier. "I have no opinion either way, and I can't be swayed."
"Traitor," Jaro said mild-naturedly, earning a snort from Kheir.
Lethe sidled up to Maia, so tall his head came up to her chest. He brushed his snout against her arm, every wolf head giving her a forlorn stare.
"Look at these eyes," Maia told her mates accusingly. She took one of Lethe's faces between her hands and turned him to the bastards. "How can you say no?"
"They're going to cause a riot, Mai," Azrail said, casting a glance over her wolf army. Okay, maybe he had a point. A tiny one. But they made her feel better, and the guilt of getting Vawn abducted couldn't shove its cruel arm through her ribs and crush her heart with her wolves near.
Maia sighed, her shoulders slumping as she rubbed her face against Lethe's middle head, his fur coarse against her cheek. "Don't go far, okay?"
He blinked six yellow eyes, far more clever than any animal ought to be, and made a low whine.
Maia kissed his left head, then his middle, then his right. "You're a good puppy," she told him. "I'll miss you."
"He's a chasm-bred slaughterer who was created to devour misbehaving souls," Kheir said with a soft laugh.
"Andhe's a good puppy," Maia agreed, Lethe’s tail thumping the ground as she stroked each of his heads. She lifted her stare to her army of three-headed nightmares. Their orange eyes didn't glow in the daytime, and their jaws weren't split by the vicious growls they'd emitted when they cornered Maia and her mates—and Bryon—in the clearing.
"You're all very good puppies," she said, and jumped at the loud boom created by a hundred wagging tails.
"The locals are going to think that was an earthquake," Ark commented, amused. He looked so damn good today, dressed casually and with his hair rumpled and rakish.
"But you need to go hide," Maia went on, ignoring her mate. "I'll come back for you, I promise."
"Wait," Azrail said as the wolves turned, his voice deep and resonant like it had been in the clearing when he tried to command them.
This time they paused, all six hundred eyes on him. If Az was intimidated, he didn't let it show, his posture confident as he strode forward. "Beastkind have been abducted and smuggled out of the Vassal Empire. I suspect they've been brought here. Find them."
A little shiver ran through Maia. He didn't l sound like the leader of a band of angry rebels. He sounded like the king of the chasm, and it did something to her body to hear that voice.
"They might not understand you," Jaro said, his eyes gentle on the beasts.
"They do," Azrail disagreed. He raised an eyebrow at Lethe. "Feel free to prove me wrong."
Lethe tilted all three of his heads at once, sending a zip of unease through Maia. Well, that was creepy. But not nearly as creepy as when he dipped his heads in a clear bow.
A ripple moved through the pack as the others followed their alpha, and Maia caught her breath. She swore the world stilled for a second as every wolf bowed to her mate, even time's heart skipping a beat.
No one spoke until Azrail said, "Find the missing beastkind. And thank you for taking care of my mate," he added.