Page 83 of Phoenix Falling
“She sure as hell is.”
I forced my tongue to work. “No, I’m not.”
Grim came up behind Sun. His head turned in my direction, and he slid a finger across his throat.
“Don’t tell me to be quiet!” I shouted. And okay, maybe my voice was a little hysterical. “I’m not his mate.”
Baer piped up from beside me, “I kind of think you might be. Look at his face.”
I did. He looked a bit like a bull about to chase down a matador. I had a feeling Cale might want to scoot out another door. But that didn’t make me Sun’s mate.
“I am not his mate.”
Sun looked at me then, his animal staring out of his eyes. A growl rumbled up in his throat that was anything but birdlike. Plenty threatening, though.
I stiffened my spine.
“Cale,” Grim said, “you need to go. Don’t”—he interrupted when Cale would have argued—“make this any worse.”
Cale hesitated one more second, threw me a look, and then marched down the hall. The tension dropped about five degrees in the aftermath.
I turned away from the window, stalking back to the corner of my cell where no one could see me.
My door opened. Shit.
Sun, Nala, and Grim entered my room. I refused to turn around and face them.
Sun didn’t wait. “What do you know about Raine?”
Wellthatgot me jerking around. “What about Raine?” I looked to Nala. “Is she all right?”
Nala shook her head, and my heart dropped. She glanced over at Sun. “I haven’t checked on her.”
Relief had me sagging back against the wall.
“We want to know why you know her,” Sun demanded.
I switched my attention to Grim, who gave me the slightest nod. Encouragement? “She’s a friend.”
“Youare friends with the only female we know in this city who has escaped an Anigma attack? I don’t think so.”
Pain sparked in my chest. So first I wasn’t good enough for him—something he’d proved when he’d dropped me off after we had sex; he’d had no intention of seeing me again, I could tell—and now I wasn’t good enough to have friends? “Believe whatever you want.”
Nala moved up beside Sun. “I know you are friends with her, Risk,” she said in that oh-so-gentle voice of hers.
“Rissa,” Sun growled.
Since I was wearing my Risk persona, that was a bit contrary. “Risk,” I told her.
She hurried on. “I don’t think you would hurt her. We just want to understand the relationship here.”
“She’s. My. Friend.”
“Risk—” Grim sounded disappointed.
Nala held up her hand, forestalling further argument. “It’s not that unusual for Archai females to be drawn together. Risk experienced that when we first met, correct?” She smiled calmly at my acknowledgment. “Maybe it’s the DNA, the abilities in our minds… Something makes us gravitate toward each other. We don’t know enough about how it works to understand why.”
And they weren’t learning from me. They didn’t need to know that I’d sought Raine out after seeing her attack on CCTV.
