“And why is that?”The man’s voice was deep and calm. Arrogant.
He would die.
“So my mate doesn’t kill you.”
Lindsey tried to save him, but it was too late. He’d threatened my mate and my son. I had no idea what this place was, but it was not her home. That I knew for certain as others rustled and moved in the spaces behind the adjoining doors.
Silent as a shadow I moved to the door and listened.
Five heartbeats. Five different breathing patterns. The boy’s racing pulse was almost birdlike. I could distinguish the sound of four smaller bodies, smell the sweet scents of three females, one of them my mate.
But the other? Metal and male aggression. Battle had a scent, and this man was drenched in the desire to hurt, intimidate, perhaps even kill.
I waited, listening as he ordered them to gather their belongings and go to the door.
A woman I did not recognize came out of the room first. She was young, similar in age to my Lindsey, her hair was a dark, vibrant red, her clothing similar to what Warden Egara wore, but green.
The doctor who’d betrayed the program. This must be her. She’d been the one to implant Lindsey with the NPU and sneak her into the transport room.
I remained silent and still, waiting in the dark space where light from the closest two lamps failed to reach.
An older woman exited next, and from her looks and the way she moved I knew this was Lindsey’s mother.
My mate appeared in the doorway, the coward behind her had moved in front of the glass window.
The moment she passed through the threshold with Wyatt and I knew a stray shot from the man’s weapon wouldn’t strike her, I leapt.
Glass shattered in an explosion as I lifted my armored elbows up to protect my face and propelled myself through the barrier to leap on the man who’d dared threaten my mate.
His neck cracked in my hands half a second later, the sound one I wished to hear a thousand times over. He slumped to the ground, the weapon he’d used to threaten the woman I loved dropped to the floor with a soft thud. Broken shards of glass slipped from my armor like water from stone and fell to the floor with hundreds of small tinkling sounds I doubted anyone but I could hear.
I tossed the dead man’s body aside like trash, forgotten as I turned to my mate.
“Lindsey. Are you unhurt?”
She stood still, shocked for a heartbeat of time that was an agony for me. I needed her, needed to touch her, kiss her, feel her alive and well in my arms.
When I was about to go mad, the spell broke and she cried out, leaping at me, trusting me to catch her.
Her arms were around me, her lips on mine, crushing me with a desperation I felt keenly.
“Kiel!” She tore her lips from mine and I settled her on her feet, my arms around her waist, unwilling to let her go.
“Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head and the tight coil within me began to unwind.
A small hand tugged on my arm and I looked down into a pair of wide blue eyes the same shape as his mother’s. “Hey. Who are you?”
Holding onto Lindsey with one hand, I bent down and lifted Wyatt up with the other, holding them both to me as I looked into the eyes of my son and told him the truth. “I am your father now, Wyatt. I love your mommy and I’m going to take care of both of you from now on.”
The boy looked at me, then his mother who was crying and clinging to me like I was her world, her everything, as I would be.
“Mommy?”
“What baby?”
“Is he my new daddy?”