Page 299 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

“Guess you just got lucky, brother.” Luka shakes his head as Jax slaps him on the shoulder, looking proud of himself.

I bite my lip, hiding my smile. Their normal bickering easing the knot in my stomach as we head into the unknown.

Kai turns to us, a worried look on his face. “Even with the guide, we’re basically going in blind. So, there’ll be a few ground rules that you all will follow.”

“Yes,Alpha,” I tell him, biting my lip. I guess some of Jax’s playful humor rubbed off on me. The other guys turn to me, but I stay focused on Kai as he narrows his eyes on me. The spark of heat in his eyes telling me I would definitely be exploring more of Kai’s dominant side.

Maybe I could push him enough to break those tight restraints he likes to think he has full control of. Or maybe just break them completely.

“Behave.”

“Yes,Alpha,” Jax replies to Kai, saluting him before sending me a wink.

Kai narrows his eyes on Jax before releasing a harsh breath.

“Rule one. No heroics that will get you killed.” His gaze stays on Jax, raising a brow before looking at Axel. Axel rolls his eyes, mirroring his raised brow as Kai continues. “Even with the upgrade to our abilities, we don’t know if being in the Underworld will stop us healing or getting stuck down there.”

The gravity of where we’re heading hits me, making me lose my smile. This was my idea, after all. If anything happened to them…

The knot in my stomach twists just thinking about it.

“We stick together. No matter what. There are a lot of unknowns in the Underworld. Many of which none of us have seen or ever heard of. If we get separated, it might stay that way for a very long time.” Kai pauses, looking at each one of us before looking right at me, the worry slashed across his face. Jax and Luka take each of my hands, squeezing them tight.

The air around us turns thick with apprehension the more Kai talks. Dread fills me as I think about anything happening to them, and from the slight glances from each of them, I can tell they feel the same.

Luka swallows hard, clearing his throat. “No straying from each other and no heroics. Got it. Anything else?”

Kai nods, looking back at me. “We know you’re powerful, but even powerful beings can die.”

The air swiftly changes around us at the mention of death.

Jax clenches his jaw. “The only one that will be dying is King.”

Kai nods at Jax, but there’s a glint of worry in his eyes. “If something happens to one of us…”

“Kai…” The mere mention of one of them being hurt tears me apart.

“If things get out of our control, I want you to get out of there,” Kai demands, narrowing his eyes on me.

I mirror his demanding body language. “No. I’m not leaving without any of you.”

“Kiarra—”

“You can’t ask me to leave any of you there.”

“Kiar—”

“Would you leave me there?”

Kai’s mouth snaps shut.

“Well?” I raised a brow.

Kai clenches his jaw. “No.”

“Then how can you ask me to do the same? I will destroy everything in the Underworld before I leave any of you there.”

The guys chuckle as Kai’s eyes soften, his shoulders and jaw relaxing. “Fine. We stick together. No matter what.”

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