Page 10 of Mated to the Enemy
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Glancing off to the side to where the woman sat, Klaue donned the sweat pants that were handed to him. “Thank you,” he muttered, his attention very much distracted.
“You’re welcome,” Kaelyn replied, with just a bit of a verbal nudge to remind him that he was talking to theQueenof High House Ursa, and that maybe he should act like it. “What happened?”
Snapping up straight, Klaue wrenched his attention back around front. “She was being pursued by a bunch of Canim,” he said. “We didn’t know that at first, but as soon as her car wrecked and they got out to pursue, it was obvious. Kincaid and I jumped in. It’s been a while since I’ve had a good ol’-fashioned Canis beatdown, you know. We sent them scurrying.”
“And then what happened?”
Klaue grew sober. “Then a mage opened a rent between us and the gates and tried to take her out.”
The Queen’s eyes narrowed, jade orbs focused on him directly. “The mage went afterher?”
He nodded once sharply. “Yes. No doubt about it. It was rushed, and she avoided more than just a glancing blow that sent her falling to the ground, but he said something to her as well. I didn’t pick it up, but he wanted her, no doubt about it.”
Kaelyn frowned. “Why? And Canisanda mage? I don’t like the sounds of that.”
“Me neither. I thought we had wards around the Manor that prevented this sort of thing?” Klaue was troubled. Deeply troubled.
“They start at the edge of the property. He must have been just outside them. Still, opening a rent is no minor feat.”
He nodded in agreement with his Queen. She was more of an expert on magic than he was, as it had never really intrigued Klaue. He was a much more direct sort of person. Claws to the throat were his sort of thing.
“What do we do with her?”
Kaelyn rolled her eyes. “For now, we bring her in, shelter her, and keep her safe.”
“Are you sure?” Klaue wasn’t questioning his Queen’s decision, but instead, he was curious of her rationale behind it.
“Of course. After all, what fun is life without pissing off Canis on the regular,” she said with a chuckle, patting him on the shoulder. “I’m putting her in your care, Klaue. Protect her. Find out why they’re after her. Understood?”
He clasped his fists to his chest. “Of course, my Queen.”
She nodded once in dismissal and he spun on his heel, walking over to the woman. “How are you doing?”
Waves of hair too dark to be called blonde but too light to be brown fell in an awkward mess on either side of her head. She looked ridiculous in the oversized brown sweatshirt and sweatpants that she wore, but it was all they’d been able to get her on short notice. The black t-shirt she’d been wearing was ripped and torn in half a dozen places and her jeans weren’t in much better condition. At least now she was warm.
“Scared,” she admitted.
He noted the way her eyes darted around continuously, never resting in one spot, as if she expected danger to jump out at her from every shadow.
“You’re safe here,” he explained.
She nodded, but her body language didn’t change in the slightest. She was still terrified. Klaue thought furiously, trying to come up with another way to help her relax. Hostage rescue wasn’t something he was trained in, but after tonight, he was going to put it on the docket for the education all soldiers of House Ursa received. He was doing a terrible job managing the situation, and hehatedfailure.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, changing the topic.
After a brief hesitation, she nodded. “Yes. Starving, really.”
Klaue turned and started walking toward the kitchen, his own stomach emphatically agreeing that it too was hungry. Like always. Maybe he would get a nice steak sandwich. That would go down nicely just then. And a beer. He always enjoyed a beer after a fight. Then after that, he—
The woman wasn’t following him. Klaue stopped and looked back. She was still sitting on the bench in the entryway to Ursidae Manor.
“Hey, are you coming?” he asked, gesturing through the double doors and into the house itself.
The woman swallowed heavily, her nerves making the motion easily visible. She stood up, arms wrapped nervously around her sides, but she didn’t follow after him.
Sighing, he went back to her. “I’m Klaue,” he said, sticking out a hand.
