Page 161 of The Beta's Blind Date

“I know,” Taryn says, pressing her body closer. The warm sparkles from the bond and the enveloping golden peace from her powers merge beneath my skin—in my heart—as she sends her beautiful, all-encompassing, soul-shattering love through our bond.

“Shreds, you hear? Mutilated, torn, unrecognizable shreds.”

She chuckles into my mouth, and I smile too. “I’ve got it, Reid.”

Our foreheads press together, and my hands stroke her back while our breathing and heart rates settle; my beast and I sated and calm.

For now.

“Whatdidwemiss?”I ask as I open the door to the small office in the cells.

All eyes snap to me, and Taryn groans as I smile. I can picture her eye roll and her mental face-palm, but I don’t care. Everyone knows what we were up to in that observation room, so there’s no point in downplaying it.

“Not much,” Wes says from his chair to the left of King Malachi. “We were waiting for you two.”

“Thanks,” Taryn says, coming to my side.

My T-shirt drapes off her body, covering her upper body and hanging below her adorable butt, hiding those pretty pink panties from sight. But I know they’re there.

My smile grows, and my wolf puffs up with pride at the sight of my girl in my clothes, with my scent covering every inch of her, inside and out. Besides a mark, a female in her male’s clothing is the most visible, tangible claim a male can make on his mate, especially when others will see her wearing them.

I plop into a chair across from Sebastian and next to Nolan and pull Taryn into my lap, one arm around her waist and the other resting on the smooth, warm skin of her upper thigh.

“Sebastian helped me come up with some variations of the same questions I asked Dominic,” King Malachi says, tapping a sheet of paper. “Being an alpha, he knows how to work around the words in a command, so we hope if we hound him, chisel away at his defenses, he’ll slip up, or we’ll catch him off guard with the wording of the question.”

“That makes sense,” I say with a nod. “Should we head back now?”

“The cleaning team just sent a crew over to sanitize the observation room,” Haven says, her lips twitching. “It will be a few minutes at least.”

“Right,” I say, my wolf preening again.

We did that. We claimed our mate and left our combined scent all over that room and all over our girl. My fingers brush along the inside of Taryn’s leg and she purses her lips, her body tensing as she holds in her reaction.

“The other issue I brought up,” Dr. Russo says from where he leans against the wall behind King Malachi, “is the wolfsbane and liquid silver or whatever else it is that’s in his system. Because he’s restrained with silver cuffs, his natural lycan healing is slowed, and he can’t filter the poison from his system. And because we’re not one hundred percent sure what the other element of the poison is, we don’t know all the effects it has on his body. It could be that the poison in his system is making it easier for him to lie while under the king’s command.”

“But he told the truth about commanding me to leave and be his luna,” Taryn says. “Why tell the truth about that and not the rest? Why not lie about that too?”

“To throw us off. Keep us confused. If he admits to one thing but not the others, it looks less suspicious. And he knows the king would figure out he was lying about that. All he’d have to do is talk to you,” Seb says.

“So, what? We just wait until the poison is out of his system?” I ask. “That could take hours. Days, even, since we don’t know what the other ingredient is.”

“There is another option,” King Malachi says, glancing at Wesley and then at Taryn.

“No,” I say, wrapping my other arm around her, realizing what they’re suggesting without them having to say it. My wolf growls in my head, his ears laying flat against his skull and his teeth bared. My lips curl, too, and I shake my head. “No way. She is not going in that room with him and she is not touching him.”

“He’s sedated. Unconscious. I dosed him with a heavy sedation medication formulated specifically for lycans. He won’t wake up,” Dr. Russo says.

My head continues to shake, and the hair on my arms and neck stands on end. “Fuck no. Not my girl. Find someone else to do it. Another healer.”

“You would be in there with her,” King Malachi says. “Right next to her. You can touch her, or hold her, or whatever it is you need to do to keep your wolf calm and your instincts at bay. And Wesley and I will be there too.”

My nostrils flare and I turn my head to him. “Right next to her?” I ask, and he nods. “The whole time?” He nods again.

My throat bobs and I close my eyes, focusing on my breathing and the heartbeat of my mate in my arms. She is quiet, her hands rubbing my forearms as I think. She doesn’t argue or push, even though I know her thoughts. Instead, she waits. She puts her trust in me as her mate, respecting my instincts to protect her and our family.

I exhale through my nose and move my hand over her stomach, my mouth pressing into her shoulder blade. “Will our pup be okay?” I ask, my voice softened by the T-shirt.

“She will be just fine,” Dr. Russo says, his voice soothing and understanding. “You have each other’s mark, and your strength and presence will ensure that Taryn and the pup will remain unharmed. She can draw on your strength through your mate bond so she isn’t weakened or drained from the healing like she was the first time.”

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