Page 9 of Slake His Thirst

Lucius wasn’t feeling good about any of this memory. He was on edge as she watched two bedraggled men leave in a fan boat. Then she snuck into the piece-of-shit home that reeked so badly that she put a hand over her face. She sent a spell to unlock all the cages and opened the front door. With a whoop, she and Calista ran as fast as they could. Snakes seemed to follow, and neither girl was worried. She’d been so very proud of herself. Her moms were less pleased—they made calls to have the animals rescued and lectured the girls. He felt his mate’s heart breaking at the thought of the creatures being in danger because of her. She’d thought she was saving them, but the swamps were dangerous.

He would have a heart attack if their children were anything like her.

He mentally braced himself for the next memory. Several passed with more dangerous heroics and pastimes. The two moms seemed to get grayer every time he saw them in her memories. It didn’t matter to Lucius that she’d always had such moral reasons for her actions. Her recklessness didn’t make him less nervous. Not at all.

A succession of memories showed a budding friendship with a dark-haired girl with mixed heritage and dark-blue eyes—Jade, Ash’s cousin. Something about Jade sent warning signals off in Lucius’s mind. That girl had seen things, bad things, and it was obvious to him but not to Sage. Jade tried to keep to herself, but Sage had pushed through the girl’s walls, and they’d gotten close. He felt how much Sage had grown to love her best friend. They ran amok in the swamps. They played with spells and shared notes on their schooling. Jade and Ash had taught Sage to fight dirty.

That’s when the worst of her memories came. He saw her as a teenager tramping around the swamp at night with Jade. They slipped by a dive bar. Music filtered from the cracks in the ancient wood barely holding up the roof. Sage’s instincts told her something was wrong. Jade’s stance beside her changed, a small warrior set to do battle. Sage didn’t see the three older men until it was too late. They were tall, with dirty T-shirts covering bulging stomachs, twice the girls’ size and more than twice their age. Lucius raged in the cage of the memories as the men in dirty clothes trapped his mate and her friend. She smelled whiskey and smoke on their rank breath and put on a brave face through her growing fear. They taunted the girls and tried to grab them.

The girls fought, but the men were stronger. Jade moved far too quickly for a mortal, and two of the men were on the ground, but one had a knife to Sage’s neck. He felt the sharp metal digging into her neck as her heart raced. The other men got up, yelling and trying to drag the girls away, but something dangerous flashed in Jade’s eyes. Power. The men were trapped in it, but not Sage. Lucius’s mate was in shock. But the men’s eyes went wild as they scratched at the lids, crying out in fear that wouldn’t stop coming for them. The knife had dropped along with the three writhing men. Jade was shaking and pale. The girl looked numb when Sage pulled her away from the scene.

Fear and fury sank their claws into Lucius’s mind.

More memories shot past in a rush, but his mind was on the dirty knife at his mate’s throat. If Jade hadn’t killed the men, Lucius would have hunted them down.

He barely registered the changes in her life, other than seeing long friendships with Jade and Ash and more and more danger as they started bounty work. He saw the collection of too many powerful Mageia. He was grateful as hell when he realized her wild streak had started to fade. He thanked the creators that she’d grown out of bounty hunting.

He was in her mind when she and her friends opened her bar. Those memories were happy ones with her sister and friends and moms.

Then she was teleporting to Slake and trying not to throw up when she reformed on the grounds. He felt her excitement at seeing a hellhound for the first time. She loved it all. It seemed a little danger would always excite his mate. When she saw him on the balcony, she’d been drawn to him. That made him happy.

She’d been in awe of Slake, the Mermaids, then the conservatory. The plants and trees were reaching for her, drawing her forward. He felt the compulsion she’d spoken about, the rush of power until she passed out.

He felt the moment she heard his voice in her head, when she saw him in front of her, felt her desire and lust, her power, and when her climax rolled through her. Then she was afraid of the power she didn’t understand and how it was filling her too full. With him, she felt safe and comfortable, as if it was truly right. That was a good sign. He loved how her heart had done a flip when he’d spoken the vows to her. She was learning to trust him and care for him.

He woke with his mate in his arms, and he was grateful as hell that she was still unconscious. He needed time for his heart to stop pounding and to simply hold her.

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