Page 445 of Primal Bonds

Her gaze had followed his own. “Of course.” She hugged him again and then turned to Dion, who was waiting to wrap her in a hug of his own.

Marjani looked up at Adric, biting her lip. “He won’t leave. I think he’s bonded to her somehow.”

Adric scowled down at Luc. He’d thought the next time he saw the wolf, he’d rip off his face for what he’d put Rosana through, but now he just felt sorry for him. Besides, if he knew Luc, the wolf would punish himself more harshly than anything Adric could do.

He set a hand on Luc’s head. The wolf pushed into his palm, taking his alpha’s scent on himself.

“Luc. Come with us. The clan misses you. I miss you.”

The wolf turned his head to look up at Adric. His eyes had lost their madness. He gave Adric a decided nudge toward the exit. Go.

Adric’s throat tightened. He wanted to argue further, but almost everyone had left now. Besides him and Marjani, only Fane, Cleia and a couple of sun fae warriors waited, and it wasn’t fair to ask them to stay in this nightmare of a court any longer than they had to.

“Okay. If you’re sure that’s how you want it.” He rubbed his cheek against Luc’s. “But when you return, your place in the clan will be there. That’s a promise.”

Luc dipped his head in acknowledgment.

There was still one thing left to do. Keeping a wary eye on the circling ravens, Adric thrust his quartz toward at the woman trapped within. “Lady Blaer,” he commanded. “Look at my quartz.”

She glanced up and dully shook her head.

He let the fire flare inside. “Lady Blaer,” he repeated in a hard voice. “Look at my quartz.”

This time, her gaze caught on the quartz. Held.

Maybe it was because he was so determined, or maybe it was because she’d been weakened by her fight with Langdon, but when he said, “You will forget the secret words. You’ll even forget they exist,” she gave a jerky nod.

“Say it,” he ordered.

“I will forget the secret words. As if they never existed.”

“And you’ll never use them against a fada again,” he added.

“And I’ll never use them against a fada again.”

“Good.” He bared his fangs at her. “Because if you do, the next time we meet, I’ll carve your fucking liver out.”

He rose back up.

A tear ran down Marjani’s mud-streaked cheek. She touched Luc’s shoulder, then turned and stumbled toward the portal, where Fane wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Together, she, Fane and Adric exited the clearing, Cleia and her men behind them.

Dion and Tiago waited on the other side of the portal, along with Rosana, who had an arm around each of them.

“You came.” She was laughing and crying at the same time. “You came.”

“Of course, we did,” Dion growled and handed her off to Cleia for a hug.

“You were awesome,” Rosana told her. “Totally kickass.”

The queen grinned—and swayed on her feet. Her skin was pale under its dusting of gold. Dion was instantly there, sweeping her into his arms.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he said.

Together, he, Tiago, and Rui hurried the two women through the forest. Rosana cast an apologetic look over her shoulder at Adric, but allowed it. But when she stepped through the second portal, she halted to wait for Adric.

He immediately set an arm around her waist. Staking his claim in front of her brothers.

Dion cast Adric a dark look. “You really mated with this filho da puta?”

---