Page 47 of Inevitably Yves

“Maybe someday I’ll turn someone. We can add to our family.”

I brush my fingers across his cheek. “Our family. How beautiful it sounds.”

“Am I taking liberties, Yves? Assuming I’m part of something I’m not?”

“Dami, come on. You’ve been mine since the day you entered the Palace. You know in your heart the answer. Everything that is mine is yours too.”

“I wish I had something to offer in return. I have money, but you don’t seem to be struggling for that.”

Laughing softly, I lift his hand and kiss his knuckles. “What you give me is better than any treasure the world could offer. Your heart, your love, Dami, they’re worth more than all the gold and treasures in existence. I would sell everything I have and live in a box as long as I had you and my family.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. We may lose a lot in this battle. We have to be prepared for that.”

I nod as the truth in his words cools my mood. “Like I said, I’ll lose it all, but not you, not my brothers, and not my sisters. Everything else can be rebuilt.”

Damiano nods. “We’ll defeat him. I know we will. I have so much hate for him, it needs a place to go. Where better than to the man who caused it all.” Damiano’s lavender eyes glow. “I want him to beg us for death.”

“Yes, and we will give it to him.”

“We’ll show the supernatural world that you don’t have to be evil to be powerful.”

I cup his cheek, searching his eyes. “All the gods, Damiano. I’m so happy you’re here. I wouldn’t be strong enough to face him without you, and he knows that.”

Damiano smiles. “Yes, he knows that, and he won’t get either of us alone. Not ever again.”

I close the distance between our mouths, pressing my lips to his, soft yet firm, hungry but measured. I want to lock us inside this tower in the city and gorge on each other, but there is a war that must be fought first.

As if on cue, there’s a knock on my door. I already sense who it is. “Enter,” I call out quietly, knowing Syn can hear me.

He enters my bedroom a few seconds later, looking momentarily surprised then averting his eyes.

“Yes, I’m naked and in bed with a lover.”

Syn chuckles. “I knew on some level, but it’s unusual to see.”

Damiano’s energy ticks up, his pride in being by my side obvious.

“What’s happening?” I ask.

Syn glances up again. “While we were out, Hale called. There’s a problem with Paolo. He’s missing.”

“Fuck,” Damiano mutters. “Hadrian.”

A sinking feeling settles over me. “Time’s up.”

Less than thirty minutes later, Damiano, I, my brothers and their mates, and Vivienne pull up outside Lair in several vehicles. Viper stayed back with Greer.

“This feels oddly familiar,” Damiano quips.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

As we pile out and head to the door, I tilt my head back to sniff the air.

“Nothing,” Damiano says. “He’s still blocking us.”

“Not nothing,” I note. “The air feels…wrong.”

“That’s right, boss,” Vivienne says, bumping her arm into mine. “It’s a masking spell for sure. I can taste it.” She screws her nose up. “It’s black and foul, like rotten meat.”

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