Page 190 of Filthy Royal

“You don’t look fine.” Luc’s fangs flashed.

As the tension in the room ratcheted up, Maddox placed his half-eaten snack on the crystal table.

Damien’s claws pushed against his skin.

“We heard chatter over the Consortium comms lines.” Not one braided hair out of place, Anya glided into the fray and, without hesitation, curled an arm around Luc’s waist as if she’d known him all her life and he was just another brother wrapped around her finger. “You tell them we were worried, big guy?” She gave Luc a squeeze. “’Cause we all were, but now that you two are here safe and sound, we can all relax and work together to make sure we stay that way.”

From the confused look on his face, Scarlett’s brother had absolutely no idea how to handle someone like Anya.

But it didn’t matter. Luc grunted his assent, and, just like that, the tension dissipated.

Scarlett sucked in a sharp breath and muttered, “Fearless.”

Anya just kept right on talking. “Kadon and Luc have beenamazinghosts, and I, for one, am grateful to be off the shuttle and out of those tunnels. But when you didn’t arrive, I started monitoring comms over Kadon’s secure line, and it seems something big went down in one of the tunnels. There’s a lot of teams there now. Digging.”

Scarlett stiffened beneath his hold.

So he’d been right. Darvish wasn’t sure if they were in that hole along with the dead guards.

Dig away, motherfucker. And while you do, I’ll keep hunting you.

“I can fill you all in, but first, Scarlett needs a cleansing unit and to rest.” Plus, the last thing he wanted was to force his female to relive the whole chasm incident when it was still so fresh. He’d just gotten her beyond her state of devastation. He shifted to give her his full attention. “Omega, you head there, and I’ll catch up with you.”

“We’ll show her where it is.” Luc rushed in right away. “Alone.”

“Good idea.”

The surprise on his face almost made Damien’s agreement worth it.

Did he like that the guy still wasn’t sold on the idea of Damien in his sister’s life? No. Did he like that Kadon Stormhart would accompany her to the cleansing unit? Also no. Did he like that Luc and Stormhart would likely interrogate her on the way? That, too, would be a no.

But he did like that Scarlett had others who worried about her.

It also wasn’t lost on him that Luc and Stormhart had taken care of his sister and Maddox.

Best of all, he was confident that whatever the hells Scarlett told the nosy Alphas about their bond, it would be good.

He and Scarlett were solid.

It might not have been pretty—though it had been fucking hot—but they’d pushed past a big obstacle, and she was with him now. Committed to fighting for their future.

It made him slightly less twitchy about sending her off with two Alphas who clearly didn’t think much of him.

Plus, he needed to speak with his family in private.

But first, he wanted one final check-in with his female. “You sure you’re good?” Currently, the only dark cloud on his horizon when it came to her was those damned bruises and her level of exhaustion.

She snuggled into him and shot a soft smile his way. “Better than okay. Great.”

His chest went tight. For so long, the thought of them like this had been nothing more than a dream gone bad. But here they were. They were real, and even with all the shit they still had to deal with, they were beautiful.

He couldn’t wait to get home to Abzal with her. Show her his world. Breed her and make a family together. Figure out a million more ways to be filthy and wild together. And do whatever it took to see that sweet, contented look on her face for the rest of their lives.

After pressing one more kiss to her temple, he released her. Then watched as the other two males closed in.

He didn’t like it, but he let them lead her away.

“She’ll be fine.” Anya tugged his hand. “Come on. You need to hear the latest so you can go clean up too.” Her nose crinkled. “You’re filthy.”

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