As if her heart hadn’t just been ripped out and shown to us, the sadness that had crept into her face was gone. Crossing her arms, she was back to her usually cold indifference. “We’ll need to bond as soon as possible to start training, but we’ll needthatfirst.”
Cash released a petulant breath, refusing to let me go. “Consider it done. I have someone who could procure thenecessary item for channeling and ensuring the bond is successful.”
Jo nodded, but didn’t explain. Neither one did. But I connected the dots and figured that we’d need something to help form the bond between us.
“If that’s all, then V and I should hurry off to our room.” Cash’s arms loosened around me, and I exploited the opportunity.
Escaping his hold, I touched Jo’s shoulder and hoped the gesture said what I couldn’t put into words out of fear of everything sounding like pity. That I was sorry she’d lost someone so important to her. That I couldn’t imagine how hard it was to look at me knowing what I was. How I wished it were different.
I ignored how uncomfortable it made me to think about her previous mate’s blood and magic creating me. I didn’t know how much of Reyna was a part of me.
Was that who she saw when she touched me? Kissed me? Did she see her in me? Was I just…a memory relived? Fuck. How selfish was I to worry about myself when her mate was used to create a monster and killed?
Self-hatred was a vicious squeeze on my chest. I struggled to breathe despite not needing to. Panic set in. Before it could spiral out of control, Cash was there, holding me again, easing the pain and debilitating emotion bent on destroying me.
Jo covered my hand on her shoulder with hers and wiped away a tear that stole down my cheek without permission. “You’re as much a victim in this as she was, V. Don’t let yourself think otherwise.”
Her eyes jerked over to Cash behind me, close to setting the possessive bastard on fire with the heat in her glare. But then she leaned down and gave me a kiss that put that fire in my body instead, all while I was a hostage in a Dark Fae’s arms.
“You’re you. To me, you’ve always been you and no one else. I don’t want you to ever think it’s anyone else’s mouth but yours I feel when I kiss you,” she whispered against my lips before pulling away. After giving me one last intense look, she left.
How did she always know what I was thinking? Oh, fuckity fuck. Right. Mind barriers. I’d taken off my necklace earlier when I showered. Great. Fucking fantastic. Maybe Jo could read thoughts.
Would our bond give her access to my emotions the way the bond with Cash did? I fucking hoped not. It already felt invasive knowing that they could possibly read my mind and feel what I was feeling. The motivation to protect my mind had never been so damn strong.
“Let’s go to our room, love,” Cash murmured in a tight voice. I picked up on the rage that wasn’t mine. The desperate need to claim what was his. The yearning.
I shook my head and decided he should sit with those feelings for a while after being a jerk all night to Jo. “I’m sleeping with Kate tonight.”
Throwing off his arms, I left the room and headed to where Kate was sleeping. I needed to be with my best friend right now. I wanted the safety of a friend who didn’t know this…monster. Who couldn’t access parts of me I wasn’t ready to share. Who only knew what I used to be, not this new and confused version of me.
As if knowing I needed her, Kate gave me a sleepy grin and opened her arms wide. “Come here, my bro.”
“My dude.” I dove into her embrace and pressed my face into her chest, thanking whatever deity that had sent this angel to me when I didn’t deserve her.
Chapter 11
Ten-Year Plan on Fire
Iblinked, sensing something off without understanding why at first. I couldn’t sit up the way I wanted to. Kate was wrapped around me, arms and legs holding onto me like a koala. The girl had no personal space. But it wasn’t her that kept me in bed after looking around. It was what was behind her that kept me frozen to the spot.
A silhouette.
A set of staggering red eyes.
The shape was masculine and powerful. He was easily eight feet tall, and shadow wings stretched and then folded at his sides. His entire body was smoke and barely solid. I couldn’t make out more than those few features, but whoever it was, they weren’t someone I wanted here.
Hardcore villain vibes.
The echo of my power awakening in my core made the silhouette speak. “Little hybrid,” the deeply unsettling baritone called out to me.
His barely solid form shifted and swayed, leaving parts of him behind as it moved forward. The pupil-less eyes scorchedand burned their way down to where I was on the bed as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing either, and my body was suddenly on fire after our eyes connected.
I couldn’t call on my magic. I couldn’t move at all as a vicious heat swelled across my skin the same way it did with Cash.
I sucked in a sharp breath and arched, and the silhouette seemed to respond, his chest expanding and size swelling as if he was inhaling something that hadn’t been there before.
“Mate,” the mysterious creature hissed, almost as if he couldn’t get enough air in his lungs. He wasn’t the only one. I never wanted to breathe so much in my damn life.
