Page 92 of Elas

“Unfair,” he mutters, “using that mate magic on me like I can resist that fucking smile.” Elas finally lifts his knee from Reyes’s body, though he still has his hands pinned. “Could you say no to that face?” he demands, and Reyes panics as his eyes bounce between us.

“I really don’t know how to answer that, man,” he whines. “It’s a trick question.”

“No one could resist his handsome face,” Elas argues. “Including you.” Well, that definitely sounds like a threat, and Reyes obviously takes it as one.

“Okay, okay.” Reyes relents and gives me an impossibly wide, frantic fake smile. “I definitely could never,everresist your handsome—”

“Do not call him handsome,” Elas growls, and Reyes balks as he pleads for help with his eyes.

“Elas, sweetheart, let the poor man up.”

“Fine,” he grumbles, though I don’t miss the way he smacks Reyes’s cheek as he releases his hands.

“I saw that,” I say, and Elas smiles innocently at me.

“My hand slipped.”

“Uh huh,” I drawl, nodding slowly. “Hate it when that happens.”

“It couldn’t be helped.” Without breaking eye contact with me, he slaps his palm across Reyes’s face as he tries to sit up, and Reyes thuds back to the ground with a groan. “Whoops.”

I give him my best disappointed sigh as I stand, and Elas looks far too happy as he joins me on his feet. He nods at the knife in my hand. “Can I have that?”

“No, you absolutely may not,” I say, fighting my grin at his disappointment. He doesn’t need any more encouragement.

“Gods, you’re all fucking insane,” Reyes cackles from the ground, sounding like he’s a few cracks short of a mental break. “Every single one of you. I thought you’d be the logical one, August, but you’ve been pulled into their madness, too.”

Elas puffs his chest out, awfully proud of this declaration. I reach my hand down for Reyes, and he stares at it for a long second before shooting a wary glance at Elas. A toothy smile covers his face, laced with an excited threat. I position myself between the two of them, and Reyes finally gives in. He grabs my hand and allows me to help him to his feet.

“Are you alright?” I ask, glancing over his dusty clothes and flushed cheeks. There doesn’t appear to be any real damage, other than perhaps to his pride.

“I’m fine,” he grumbles, rubbing his chest while tossing another glare at Elas.

“We didn’t mean to startle you. We had no idea anyone was here. I knew about the hidden rooms from the years I lived here, and we were searching for signs of our friends. Has anyone else passed through?”

Reyes releases a long-suffering sigh. “Let me take a wild guess… you’re looking for a grumpy purple dude and the sarcastic guy with glasses that he likes to throw around?”

“Throw around?” I ask, alarmed, but Reyes snorts, and the first hint of a smile pulls on his lips.

“Trust me, buddy. He liked it.”

“Oh,” I breathe when I realize what he’s saying, and Elas laughs as a flush builds on my cheeks.

“Fuck, you’re sexy when you’re shy, doc,” he says with no shame whatsoever, and my skin burns even hotter. He steps closer and hooks my waist, and I’m acutely aware of Reyes’s wide eyes on us as he leans in for a claiming kiss. He chuckles against my lips, his fingers flexing across the small of my back. When he pulls away, I’m dazed, and there’s a knowing gleam in his eyes.

“Mates,” Reyes grumbles from beside us, and I flush deeper as he rolls his eyes.

“S-sorry,” I say as Elas’s fiendish grin forms in my peripherals. “Ronan and Cameron were here?”

“Yeah, they were here for a while.” He eyes us both with that same wary suspicion. “How can I be sure you aren’t with the guys trying to track them down? Those are military leathers.” He nods at Elas’s uniform.

“You know me,” I argue, but he shakes his head.

“No offense, but you stitching me up once seven years ago doesn’t make us friends. You could be helping them search for those two. Hell, you could be part of a transport that got here early. Rule number one out here is not trusting anyone.”

“Transport?” Elas asks, and Reyes shoots him another wary glance.

“We aren’t with them.” I grip the hem of my shirt and lift, but Elas growls like a rabid wolf and swats my hand away before it gets past my stomach.

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