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If they all end up dead by this time tomorrow, I will dance on their rotting bodies.
“Gabe,” my brother starts, and I recognize the tone as the conciliatory one he uses for requests that will make me want to throw him around a little. “Tomorrow morning, when Lennart comes back for her, you shouldn’t be there.”
He clearly expects a fight. But the knowledge that she’s safely ensconced in my quarters, her lingering taste in my mouth, they must calm the most impulsive Alpha bits of me, because I easily understand his reasoning. “I won’t,” I agree. “I’ll need to meet with the council, anyway.But,” I add, “I want someone near her every second she is in the Larsen wing. I don’t give a fuck who you have to bribe or if they have to cut off their own arms and legs in order to crawl through the air ducts and keep a visual on her. She is toneverbe alone, not even for a minute. If something—anything—happens to her while she’s out of my sight, I will personally kill the entire chain of command?—”
“Yeah,” Martia interrupts quietly, exchanging a long-suffering look with Ivar. “We get it, Gabe.”
I open the door to my rooms. “Make sure everybody fucking does,” I say, before disappearing back inside.
Chapter20
THE MOTHER
Sofia
Sunlight filters through the water, bathing Gabriel’s bed in a golden glow. I wake up, gradually, and before even opening my eyes, I become aware of the slight change in the hum of the environmental controls. They’re whirring at a higher frequency, working more intensely, as always when dealing with a rising High.
There is a warm body next to mine. It was there throughout the night, stroking me, holding me, playing with my hair, pressing kisses in odd, hidden places—the inside of my elbow, the top of my sternum, the dip of my lower back. Once or twice, even my mouth. Gabriel hates sleeping on soft surfaces, that much is obvious. And yet, I suspect he hated the idea of sleeping away from me even more.
With a small, tired smile, I reach across the mattress, expecting to come across a solid stretch of muscles. But when I encounter it, I find it remarkably hairier than before.
So hairy, my eyelids flutter open.
Alex is staring at me with an outraged expression, and I instantly snatch my hand back. “I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “I thought you were… Youreallyshouldn’t eat me. I’m too gamey to be enjoyable and?—”
“Lady Larsen,” says a voice from behind me.
I roll to my back to find Bastian, who isalsostaring at me.
Clearly, watching me is this morning’s official pastime.
With a tug on the blankets to cover my chest, I ask, “What is, um, going on?”
“Your mate is here. It’s time to go home.”
I sit up. Run a hand through the mess of my hair as I glance around. “Gabriel?”
“The general already left.” There is a tinge of pity in Bastian’s eyes. A touch of commiseration that could be related to the overwhelming scent of what obviously happened here last night, to his perception that I was forced to do something I didn’t want, or to my obvious dismay at Gabriel’s absence. Martia’s Omega seems to have gone from despising me to feeling sorry for me, and Ihateit.
I had the night of my life, thank you very much, I want to yell.I came about thirty times. I feel as if my body really belongs to me for the first time since I presented. Don’t look at me like that, you jackass.
I refrain from screaming at the seneschal. Instead I pull the covers higher and ask, “Is Gabriel okay with me…?”
“His Right has been exhausted. Not only are you free to leave, but you must.”
“Shouldn’t I wait for him to return?”
“I fail to see why,” the seneschal says, that hint of pity morphing into outright condolences.
“Great,” I say, sitting up in the bed, trying not to think about last night. About all the things he said. About the fact that when he woke up earlier this morning, he looked at me and decided to leave without feeling the need to exchange any last words.
Do you want to go back to him?
I said yes. That appears to be all there is to it.
“If you’ll excuse me,” I say, happy with how firm my voice sounds. Bile churns in my throat. “I would like some privacy to change back into my mating dress.”
* * *
