Page 11 of In the Line of Fire
6
Damien
“My home will be the safest place for her,” I insisted, struggling for patience. “It’s deep within my hold’s property. We have more than a hundred acres of land that would be nearly impossible for the witches to invade.”
I felt Soleil tense up next to me, and my argument with her father ceased to matter. Whatever was bothering her was what I needed to focus on. Her pinched expression, rigid posture, and tapping foot made her irritation more than obvious. My dragon pushed against my skin, demanding we fix it. Immediately.
My little spitfire of a mate didn’t make me guess what was on her mind. “I think all of the testosterone in the room is going to your heads. Being my dad or fated mate doesn’t make you the boss of me. I’m a grown woman with her own brain. I’ve been handling the dark practitioners’ crap all by myself for the past three years. The only person who gets to decide where I go from here is me.”
“That’s my girl.” Soleil’s mom beamed a smile at her while her dad grumbled about how he never should’ve let her leave home in the first place.
My dragon wanted to break free from my human skin, throw her onto his back, and fly straight to my home. As far as the animal side of me was concerned, Soleil was my greatest treasure and needed to be protected. My human half knew that I couldn’t force her into my home and keep her there until I’d managed to destroy every last member of the coven who hunted her. Not if I wanted her to accept my claim as her fated mate. “What do you want to do?”
I respected how she took the time to consider my question before answering, twirling a lock of her dark hair around a finger. “I think it’s best if I go with you.”
“Soleil, no.”
At her dad’s protest, Soleil crossed the room to stand in front of her parents. Reaching out to grip Hugh’s hands, she explained, “I’m tired of running, Dad. It’s time for me to take a stand, but the coven is too powerful to take on by myself. The only way I’m going to survive is with a lot of help, and Damien can provide that.”
“But I could—”
Soleil shook her head. “No, I need you to keep Mom safe while Damien and I take care of this. If the dark practitioners got a hold of either of you, I’d turn myself into them in a heartbeat. Keeping yourselves out of their clutches is the best way for you to help me.”
“She’s right.” Stella leaned into Hugh’s side. “Damien is her fated mate. You need to trust him to have her back the same way you’ve had mine all these years.”
I moved behind Soleil, settling my hands on her shoulders as I met Hugh’s gaze. “I swear to you, they’d have to go through me to get to her. And I’m not easy to take down.”
“I guess that’s one thing I can say for you.” Hugh heaved a deep sigh, his shoulders slumping. “You’ve faced off against a lot of powerful shifters and witches in the years you’ve served as the head enforcer for the shifter council. Somehow, you’ve managed to come out on top over and over again. I suppose you’ll make a pretty good shield for my daughter.”
Laughing softly, Soleil cocked her head to the side. “Is that what we’re calling mates nowadays? Shields?”
“He’s lucky I’m willing to acknowledge him at all,” Hugh grumbled. “Coming here uninvited and taking our daughter away when we haven’t seen her in three years.”
“Once this is all settled, we’ll come back for a nice long visit.” Soleil twisted around to look up at me, her gray eyes narrowing as she added, “Right, Damien?”
I could afford to be gracious now that I knew she was coming with me when I left. “Of course.”
“I’m so glad that’s settled.” Stella clapped her hands together, flashing me a smile before focusing on her daughter. “When’s the last time you ate? I can whip something up for you before you go. Starting a long road trip with an empty stomach is never a good idea when it comes to you or your father.”
After seeing for myself how serious Hugh was about his food, I had a feeling she was playing down what he and Soleil were like when they went too long without eating. I wasn’t about to let my mate go hungry, but I’d only been keeping the bare necessities in my kitchen over the past few years. Between my search for Soleil, my head enforcer duties, and meetings for the Council of Five, I was rarely home for long.
Pulling my cell phone from my pocket, I fired off a quick text to my mom, asking her to stock up for me. She and my dad had been getting ready to leave Tigerville when I’d said goodbye. Since their plan had been to return the truck to the rental place in the nearest city and use the portals to get home, they should have gotten back hours ago.
“How long will it take to get to your hold’s territory?” Soleil asked.
As my mate, Soleil was going to be privy to many well-kept secrets. The portals were one of them. Odds were good that her parents would find out about them at some point since we’d probably use them to come visit, but I wasn’t ready to share those details with them yet. I tucked my phone back in my pocket and measured my words. “The trip will be faster than you think.”
“That answer was about as clear as mud.” Soleil rolled her eyes at me, shaking her head before she turned back to her mom. “But that’s okay because I always have room for anything you want to make for me.”
I was impatient to make our exit, but I wasn’t going to begrudge my mate a little more time with her parents and some home-cooked food before we left. The least I could do was spare her an hour when she hadn’t seen them in three years. But those sixty minutes turned out to be a serious test of my patience, with Hugh doing his best to rattle my cage while my dragon pushed hard to get Soleil into my territory. He was about ready to burst through my skin by the time we said our goodbyes, but it was more than worth the wait when my mate flashed me an appreciative smile as we walked down the steps.
“Did you park your car far enough away that nobody would know where you were going like I did? Or did you fly in your dragon form in an attempt to impress my dad?” she asked, scanning the street as we walked down the sidewalk.
I chuckled and shook my head. “I don’t think there’s much of anything I could’ve done to influence your dad. He struck me as someone who takes a while to warm up to new people.”
“Yeah, he’s more than a little stuck in his ways,” she confirmed, pausing at the curb to point to the left. “I’m a mile down that way. What about you?”
I grabbed her hand when she dropped her arm. “If you can’t leave your car behind, text your dad to ask him if he’ll store it for you.”
