Page 24 of Darkhan

“Forgive me, Little Dove,” Zeno murmured against her skin. “If I had acted sooner, you wouldn’t be hurting now. I am sorry.”

Harmony pushed down her overemotional tears and bumped her head lightly into his in lieu of pulling away. “I’ve been so worried about you…”

Distinct throat-clearing suddenly reminded her they weren’t alone, or really in a place to be having a personal conversation. No matter how comfortable she felt in Zeno’s arms.

Zeno adjusted his stance, not relaxing his grip or setting her down. “Your men caused injury to my mate,” he said in a low, dangerous tone, “and you left her to sit here and bleed. I thought better of you than that, Scott.”

Scott?Harmony’s eyes widened as understanding dawned. The man she’d been speaking to, sort of, when Zeno had burst in was the man who’d called minutes before their day had gone sideways?

She couldn’t see him anymore, but she recognized the sound of Scott’s sigh. “I had been told the wound was superficial. Unlike you, I don’t have super-senses, I had no way to know she was still bleeding.” His tone shifted as he spoke. “I recognize that’s an issue, Darkhan, but it could have been avoided if you’d just told someone who she is to you. What am I supposed to do with this?” Harmony couldn’t see him, but she pictured the grumpy-faced man gesturing to her almost-silent parents as his words sharpened.

“Arrest them,” Zeno said. “Fine them. Fucking chase them out of the city with pitchforks for all I care. They’re the ones who reported Harmony as abducted and we both know it—just as we both know shewasn’t. I believe filing false reports is a crime in your legal system.”

“You want them punished my way?” Scott’s question was cautious.

Zeno’s thumb rubbed almost absently over Harmony’s scalp. “They are my mate’s blood. I would prefer not to kill them with my own hand.”

Harmony felt her throat constrict and twisted her hands in the back of Zeno’s hair. She had a lot of issues with her parents. At this point, she questioned whether she even truly loved them. She certainly didn’t trust them. But wanting them dead? No. That would only make the loss and damage of her childhood worse if she ended up being the reason they died.

Her father made a sound like he might finally be regaining his senses.

Something metallic clinked faintly in the air. “There’s still the matter of that gang she mentioned,” Scott said. The metallic sound happened again, in conjunction with the rustling of fabric, as it clicked and rattled.

Harmony’s father immediately shouted in protest. “Hey! What—”

“I’ll get to you in a minute, Mr. Lace,” Scott said. There was some more rustling, something like shuffled steps, and the sound of a body settling heavily into a chair.

“You can’t—Linda! What the hell is going on?” The briefest of pauses. “Harmony?”

Harmony pressed her forehead into the crook of Zeno’s neck. She’d never heard her usually almost passive father so riled, and it gave her no sense of peace or justice. The entire situation just made her want to be sick.

Zeno’s hand lowered to her nape and he said, “My vendetta with that gang is settled. Yours, I believe, has only just begun. If you find yourself in need of information from Harmony, I expect you to call ahead and ask politely.”

Her father called for her mother again, the metallic sound clinking in time to another rustling of fabric. He didn’t seem able to focus long enough to follow the scene from his perspective.

Scott spoke up again. “If she has anything to say to them, now would be the best time.”

Zeno gave her neck a gentle squeeze.

Harmony swallowed. “This is their fault,” she whispered, her words feeling too raw. She thought to say she had no words left for them, but before she could, something new occurred to her. So, she drew a breath and lifted her head, forcing herself to turn it enough to see a portion of the room.

She saw her mother, still slumped unconscious on the table, legs dangling off the side. And she saw her father, awake and wide-eyed but somehow not looking overly alert, sitting in the chair Scott had previously occupied. Her father’s arms were behind his back in a way he never sat normally, pitching his body slightly forward … as if he were handcuffed.

Harmony settled her gaze on her father, for what good it would do. “I’ve decided to make my own choices from now on.”

Her father’s mouth opened. “But—”

“Goodbye.” She turned her head away, not giving him the satisfaction of seeing the tear that slipped down her cheek anyway.

Zeno pressed her head gently back into the groove of his throat. “You and I will talk another time,” he said, she assumed to Scott.

Scott made a sound like a pained sigh. “Nothing about you leaving the way you came in is good for any of us. Let me have someone drive you, or wait in another room until Roland can get here.”

This time it was Zeno who made a displeased sound.

Harmony’s mouth opened before she could stop herself, though she at least kept her voice soft. “You’re naked.” He seemed to go still and her runaway mouth continued. “Like, all-the-way naked, you hypocrite.”

The hand locked around her thigh gave a squeeze. “A ride home, then. From a driver not attracted to the male form. My Little Dove has decided not to share.”

---