Page 129 of Conflicted

For the first time in centuries, Dimitri and I were on the same wavelength as we exchanged a knowing look. Ezekiel said that now, but he had no idea what it was like to find your mate. To feel that pull to them. To have them reshape your world until they were in the centre of it.

For all his barbs and walls, I suspected Ez was a secret softie. God help us all if he ever did find his mate. The poor guy wouldn’t know what had hit him.

“We’re all here for you,” Benji added. “We’re a team. It’s time you started treating us as one.”

I bowed my head, ashamed that I’d let it get this far. I’d been so busy trying to shelter them that I’d failed to remember what we were.

A unit. A team. A family.

“As for the punishments,” Rami said, “they stop now. There’s no fuckingwaywe’ll tolerate you being whipped again.”

Nox spoke up. “Trust me, that’ll happen over my dead body.”

“It won’t come to that,” Ez said simply. “If Micah is called to Heaven, at least two of us accompany him at all times. Agreed?”

Every Seraphim nodded, loyalty burning in their eyes.

Suddenly I was overcome by a wave of emotion, my throat thickening to the point of pain. “Thank you. I’m not sure what I’ve done to command such loyalty from you, but I’m grateful for it all the same.”

“You’ve been you,” Benji said. “That’s enough for us.”

After the emotional pause, the meeting turned businesslike. None of us believed that we’d heard the last of Gloria. For an angel, she wasn’t exactly forgiving.

We spent a few hours turning over the various ways she might come after us again, the demons chipping in with their thoughts. It should’ve felt odd to have Dimitri back with us, especially given he was accompanied by Dagon and Ferry, but it didn’t.

Despite what we’d been taught, today had shown that we were on the same side. We didn’t care whether Heaven or Hell was in charge. We cared about keeping those we loved safe and being able to live our lives as we wished.

It was the sort of wish that shouldn’t have been hard toachieve, but I supposed that was the downside of being powerful immortals. There’d always be someone looking to threaten what you’d built, who’d want to disturb your peace for their own gains. And those of us with mates to worry about had one massive fucking weak spot.

For me, it wasn’t too bad. Nox had already demonstrated how capable he was at protecting both himself and me. But for Dimitri and Ferry? Their human mates were always going to need more protection than the rest of them. I think that was partially why they were even here—keeping an eye on supes affairs and seeing how it might affect them was sensible.

After hours of discussion, we came to two conclusions. One: Gloria would definitely be an issue. Two: we had no idea how that would manifest.

“Okay, so we’ll keep an eye on Gloria and meet again when she decides to make a play.” I rubbed at my temple. “Moving on, there’s another problem we need to deal with. When Nox and I were taken topside, three regents accompanied us.”

“I remember,” Dimitri said with a frown. “Twats promised you’d be safe and that nothing was going to happen. Obviously they were fucking lying.”

“Because I asked them to,” I said coolly, meeting Dimitri’s eyes. “I knew there was no way you’d let us leave unless you believed that.”

Both Dimitri and Dagon looked as though I’d whacked them upside the head. “Why would you do that?”

Nox came up behind me, rubbing my shoulders. I put one of my hands over his, so fucking grateful to have him there. “Because I knew that the Seraphim would be the next targets if we didn’t go with them.”

Dimitri pursed his lips. “We still could have gone with you.”

I laughed humourlessly. “And where would that have got you, Dimitri? I’ll tell you where—landed in a cell beside ours. We weren’t prepared to do that. You have your mates to consider now. I didn’t want to put them at risk.”

“And you really didn’t want to be in the cell next to ours,” Nox said, breaking the tension as he squeezed my shoulders. “That would’ve been super awkward.”

“I still can’t believe you did that,” Dimitri said. “You should’ve told us the truth.”

“I’ve caused enough trouble for you and your mates,” I said simply. “That’s not something I’m ever going to do again.”

There was a slightly awkward pause before Ez brought us back to the matter in hand. “What did you want to tell us about the regents?”

I nodded at him gratefully. “They knew something was amiss about the whole situation and tried to defend us. One in particular, Amelia, was very…vocal in her defence.”

“They intimated that they’ve received similar punishments to Micah,” Nox added, his hands tensing on my shoulders. “The way they spoke of it suggested it was something they were used to.”

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