Page 37 of Hearts of Stone

She wove her way awkwardly between three different gargoyles, not to rush towards us, but to walk to him. I watched her stand between him and us, like she needed to protect him with her body, rather than us do the same for her.

“This Daniel,” Graven said, rising up to his full height. And the quivering fool behind her? His eyes went wide. “He is important to you.”

“Um…duh,” the man said in an insulting tone. This drew growls from all of us and I stalked forward.

“Can you keep your fucking mouth shut for a second?” she hissed at him before straightening up. “He is. He’s my best friend and if you hurt him…”

Her voice trailed away as Graven stalked forward, then offered the man his hand.

“Any friend of yours, Mistress, is a friend of ours.”

“What the actual fuck…?” This coward pulled himself out from behind our mistress and shrank back, eyeing Graven’s hand, then each one of us, as if our leader wasn’t offering him a hand of friendship.

Something I wasn’t sure he deserved.

I saw the white of his eyes clearly, smelled the stink of fear upon him and could not see what she saw in him at all.

All while feeling a pang of jealousy at how close he was to her.

I had heard about this before, our mates making connections with other men before we got a chance to meet her. Tales were told of the lengths gargoyles went to prove they were the better option.

But not all were success stories.

I dimly wondered if an ‘accident’, where the man was knocked over the fence, not to die, but to be injured sufficiently he’d need to be whisked away to hospital for some time, leaving us free—

“Mistress?” this Daniel said. “You’re their mistress?”

“Yes, no, maybe…?” She looked around her wildly, but her fear was like acrid smoke in my nose, something I would do anything to assuage. I rose to my full height, ready to go to her, to soothe her when she spoke. “I dreamt of them, two of them last night.”

“Last night?” The man put a finger up and then circled it around in the air. “Like last night, last night? So I was out with Big and you were…?” His eyes slid down, taking in Graven’s tumescent state and then mine, something that had me growling anew. I was not his to inspect. “Oh my god, bitch, when I said you were a monster fucker, I was joking, but you…”

Anything else he might have to say was no longer relevant. His hand rose, ready to slap my mistress’ arm and that would not do.

“Seneca!” Graven barked, but it was too late. I rushed forward with a savage snarl and then collected up my mistress, yanking her away and setting her behind me, before turning on him.

“You. Will. Not. Lay. A. Hand. On. Her.”

He should’ve been shaking in his boots, this little man who thought himself strong enough to strike our mistress, but he just looked me up and down before smiling.

“Holy crap, you’re super protective of Jade.”

Jade, that was her name? That of a precious stone, it made sense, because that’s what she was to us.

“I will lay waste to this entire city if that’s what it takes to keep her safe,” I told him in no uncertain terms.

“Ah… Seneca?”

A hand on my forearm, that’s all it took to destroy my focus. To be touched by her… My cock lurched, seed brimming inside me only to spill a few drops, something the man seemed to take in with rapt fascination. I whirled around, spreading my wings to block Daniel from looking at either of us, and I may or may not have let my tail swipe wildly, colliding with his legs.

“Ow!” came his muffled retort, but I didn’t care.

“I am Seneca.”Mate, I added silently. “Any wish that is within my power to grant is yours.” I took her hand as my mother had instructed me to do and pressed a soft kiss to the back of her hand. “My mistress.”

“Oh, I’ve got some ideas—” Daniel started to say, but Jade hissed at him for silence.

“Seneca,” she said, shifting to take my hand in hers and then give it a squeeze, there and gone again as she pulled back. “I’mgoing to need you to back up a bit.” I took a step backwards. “A whole lot more than that. Daniel is very precious to me.”

So it was true? This boy with the blue hair was her chosen mate? I felt like I was sinking down into the lake again, but this time I made no attempt to rise above it.

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