We did? I clearly hadn’t been following the gist of the conversation. Then a scent drifted over me—so sweet, and compelling.
Jaz. Standing in front of me.
“We can help you, Zyair.”
The words were almost purred, and I blinked up at her perfection. Her eyes gleamed a metallic violet—as vivid as Drake eyes, but in her human face.
I did not understand the transformation. It was beyond beautiful, and I reached to drift trembling fingers over her cheek.
“You are so perfect.” My voice was a ghost of its usual self.
She folded her hand around mine, and tugged on it until I rose. When I staggered sideways, Xandros caught me.
“Come with us,” he said.
“The last time you said that, we ended up in a Cagliwok jail,” I pointed out.
“How was I to know that flirting with a Cagliwok was illegal?”Xandros protested.
“It is only illegal if she is mated,” Rhodes stated from behind us. “Considering how lethal Cagliwoks can be, we were lucky to just end up in jail.”
From my other side, Jaz arched a brow at Xandros. “You were quite the lady’s man, I take it.”
“Lady’sDrake,” Xandros corrected warily. “That was then. This is now.”
“That would be why I used the past tense,” she affirmed.
Xandros cleared his throat. “There is no other for me now. Only you.”
“That is a good, healthy point of view,” she said. “I would hate to experiment with castration via talon.”
Rhodes laughed.
Her easy inclusion in brotherly banter resonated deep inside me. We weremates. The impact of that was only just starting to sink in—I had not dared to dream it could ever be possible.
It made me want to live. Very, very badly.
“Where are we going?” I husked as we stumbled down the hall.
“We are here,” Rhodes answered, slipping past us to open the aft storage bay door. I had long since given up trying to figure out how he managed to move like that. He had always been able to do it.
I noted the repairs to the exterior—then my gaze fell to the mattress in the center of the room.
It was surrounded by tiny lanterns that Rhodes now lit. They gave the bay a warm feel despite the metal walls. He moved them back from the mattress and offered me an upward twitch of his lips that allayed some of the worry in his gaze.
“We will need more room,” he said.
That worry was for me. I knew it. Just did not think there was anything I could do about it. Especially since I collapsed to my knees on the mattress as soon as Xandros let go of me.
When Jaz kneeled beside me, my juggernaut of a brother vanished with Rhodes back out into the hall.
“I’d ask how you are feeling, but I already know. I feel everything you do,” she whispered to me.
“You do not have to do this,” I said. “I am so twisted up right now I can barely function.”
She waggled her brows. “With what I’m getting from you, I think you’re functioning just fine.”
She was not wrong. But as desperately as I wished to fondle her until she was begging for culmination, I could barely get my arms to move.
