“I’m not mated to your family. You’re my mate.”
“The magic doesn’t let us have good things,” he said, glancing toward the door.
I spun and kicked a foot against it just as the knob turned. Growing up with omegas meant I saw far more magic than my peers. The knob locked without my touching it and Crilus swore under his breath, grumbling about how I had to do things the hard way.
“I don’t want to fight you, Pierce,” Crilus sighed.
“I’m not fighting you, mate,” I said, moving to stand between his legs again because he hadn’t bothered to get up in the seconds it took me to prevent us from being interrupted.
“If I yell for help, they’ll knock the door down.”
“Do you want their help?” I asked, walking my fingers up his knees a few inches.
He didn’t say anything for a long, silent moment. His gaze drifted to where my fingers rested against his bare flesh. Our breathing synced up as I watched him watching me.
“Crilus?” a strange voice called through the bedroom door.
“We’re fine for the moment, Dad,” Crilus called back.
“I’ll be just downstairs. Preston said the door wouldn’t open and for a moment—Never mind what I thought. Letmeknow if something isn’t right,” Crilus’s father said.
My mate tilted his head as a lot of folks did when they communicated silently over links. It was part of the Moonscale Guard training to squash that habit out of ourselves so that we didn’t give ourselves away.
“Is he asking if I’m holding you against your will?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” Crilus nodded. “He gets that it’s complicated, but he also knows I could’ve ripped you in half by now.”
“I think we’d be devastating in mutual combat, mate, but you’d win, because I couldn’t bring myself to hurt you.”
“But you’d keep me here?”
“I plan to keep you forever. Here is merely the starting point,” I shrugged.
“Just because I’m not kneeing you in the balls and running off doesn’t mean I’m going to sex you up or let you claim me.”
“Okay,” I nodded.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re too agreeable?” Crilus arched a brow.
“No. Before I became a guard, I was called many things but never that. If you’re waiting for the moment when I’d be willing to snatch what I want from you, you’ll be here a long time. Rough sex? Sure. If that’s what you want but WANT is the keyword.”
“So kidnapping is okay?”
“I haven’t kidnapped you. You arrived of your own freewill. Technically, you can leave the same way. You just don’t want to. I can smell it all over your skin. How relieved you were when I said you weren’t leaving.”
“This is going to kill us both,” Crilus whispered.
“It can try but I think you’ll find I’m not agreeable when it comes to someone or something – magic or mundane – trying to harm someone I care about. So, yeah, I think in this case kidnapping, as you insist upon calling it, is okay.”
“You’re going to need blood eventually,” Crilus shrugged.
“I’ve got plenty right here,” I said, and his pupils shrank down to onyx chips as he tried to discern whether or not I was speaking of him. I’d never bite him like that. Never take from him the very stuff that kept him alive and hail. He didn’t need to know about my emergency blood pills that I always carried in a pocket sewn into the waist of my uniform. Let him think I was sacrificing everything if that made him feel better. I had a feelingthat he was dramatic, and I didn’t mind playing along with him, if that’s what it took to make him happy.
Without speaking, Crilus grabbed my wrists and pulled me down on top of him. I caught myself on one arm before I crashed into him.
“I’m not porcelain,” he smirked. “I’m not that easy to break.”
He wrapped those long, lean legs around me and pulled me close. His pupils dilated and his scent gave away his surprise and arousal as my already hard dick pressed against him.
