Page 148 of The Crown of Nyx

Bile rose in my throat as I thought of the pile of bodies left in the snowy ruins. The little girl who reminded me of Maisie at the top of the pile, like it was a threat from Dante himself. The ones we burned in our wake.

“That army you warned us of killed more than just what you saw,” he growled, voice startling me out of the memories. “An entire city was wiped out because of them.”

Guilt swelled within me. His pain was evident in the way he spoke, but it was his eyes that made it all the clearer. He mourned the creatures Dante slaughtered. And more than that, he wanted vengeance.

“You want to join us, then?” I asked carefully, uncertain.

The beast stared at me for a moment, quietly taking me in. There was no sign that he even felt the connection of a mate bond. Maybe that wasn’t something common in the Old World. I couldn’t tell if he even recognised the pulsing need to claim your mate.

Nyx, why did you have to make this all the more difficult?I wondered, tearing my eyes from his to look at the dark branches above us.You really know how to pick them.

The half-Fae male who appeared allergic to claiming me as his mate—wouldn’t even admit it aloud, except to say he didn’t even want it. And the unknown creature from a world we’d all thought had long since died, who could speak to us in his shifted form.

Fantastic.

The bond between Maeve and I opened hesitantly; I hadn’t even realised she’d thrown up blocks just in case the creature wasn’t an enemy. But now, she let our bond open completely, giving me full access to her thoughts.

Do you trust him?She glanced at me from the corner of her eyes, which flashed red dangerously.

My heart pounded as I looked between her and the unknown creature. I knew he was my mate; there was no doubt about that in my mind, not with the way my magic reached for him, begging to complete the bond that had just identified itself. The wordsmate, mine, claimcontinued to echo in my ears.

But did I trust him? After everything we’d gone through, from the epic betrayal that was Dante, to having to tie my life to the King of the Elysian Fields, and coming here, only to find that not only was this world still alive, but there was a thriving civilisation still living amongst the ruins of the Old World, I couldn’t come up with an answer.

I didn’t trust him, though my soul wanted to. It wanted to believe that he wasn’t an enemy, but I couldn’t fully believe he wouldn’t turn on us if anything happened. Especially when I couldn’t tell if he even understood there was a mate bond between us.

The only reason I trusted Damon was because I still had his soul in the palm of my hand, a very obvious reminder that his life belonged to me, so long as he didn’t betray us. There were plenty of times where hecould have left us behind, chosen to go off on his own, hurt any one of us, but he hadn’t.

And Hawk was…Hawk.

I gritted my teeth, checking in with my other bonds. Their wariness was just as thick as the tension surrounding us, and there was an impatience and frustration that was almost palpable. But they still trusted me; they believed I recognised the snapping of a mate bond.

They just didn’t trust him.

I turned my attention back to the shifter. He was no longer on high alert, with his hackles down, and ears perked. I had a feeling he had no intention of shifting into his other form, but I supposed he wouldn’t when he could communicate well enough as he did now.

I cleared my throat, stepping out of Elias’s protective embrace. Despite releasing me, he still moved to become a protective presence beside me as I addressed the shifter.

“I need your word that you aren’t here to hurt us—or take us back to your leader,” I said, keeping my voice low. “Like I said: my magic might have claimed you as a mate, but I will put the lives of those bonded to me, and those in this party, over yours if it comes down to it. You are a stranger, potentially a danger to us all, and I will not be putting those I love in harm’s way.” I swallowed hard when he didn’t respond or give any indication that he cared. “We know where we need to go to find the army. Now, you can join us, but I will have to place a charm on you that will keep you from hurting any of us.”

He growled, the sound low and rumbling from his large chest. “And how do I know that you will not hurt me?”

“Because I can’t,” I replied simply. “My magic won’t allow it. It will stop you if you prove a danger to anyone else, but I can’t physically hurt you. Whether you believe it or not, Nyx bound us together, blessing us with a matebond. For whatever reason, she wants us to be together. So, I won’t hurt you.”

I thought for a moment he might shift, but there was only another rumble from his chest before he sat. “Then place your charm.”

I released a breath, surprised it didn’t go worse. I didn’t have much on me, so I rifled through my belt pouches and came back with a piece of twine. There were several, and I realised that someone had cut them for charm work. It was something Adrian had begun teaching me during our one-on-one training, just like how Hawk had taught me to put charms into stones to turn them into weapons.

“Your…paw,” I said, grimacing.

The giant wolf-beast raised its huge paw into the air, and I took it. Well, it wasn’t exactly a paw. It was more hand like, but it had the texture of paw-pads and was covered in the same thick fur. I thought it would be rough to touch, but it was surprisingly soft. Claws tipped his more human-like fingers, and they were coated in silver, or maybe a different kind of metal.

I tried to ignore why he’d need that, and instead wound the twine around his wrist, ensuring it wasn’t too tight. “I take it you have no intention of shifting?” I asked, glancing up at him.

The beast dropped his head, his sweet scent somehow becoming heavier. I hadn’t noticed before that he didn’t have any…balls, no penis, but there was a weird slit where they should have been. A pouch, maybe, where they hid? The very few monster romances I’d read flooded my brain. That was mostly Thea’s thing; she had a thing for the weird…appendages. The double dicks and strange shapes.

I averted my eyes and quickly went back to tying the twine.

“It is safer for me to be in this form,” he grunted. “You will thank me for it.”

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