“Fine.” Adrian didn’t look at me, not once, as they all walked away.
I glanced at the countdown.
00:10:01:33
Fuck. Ten minutes ago I was ready to die, to do what I could to help Helion and the I.C. team accomplish their goal before I succumbed to mating fever. I was close to losing control of the beast. Too close.
Now all I could think about—all my beast could think about—was Adrian, hot and wet, her pussy bare and open and mine. Filling her up. Running my fingers through her hair. Tasting her mouth. Her skin. Her core. Putting mating cuffs on her wrists and filling her from behind as my beast was freed. Telling her over and over again that she was mine. That I was hers. That I would die to protect her. To keep her. To care for her.
I would do none of those things. I would die in ten hours, one minute, and thirty-three seconds.
Angry, frustrated, alone, I paced my cell, no longer able to remain stoic. Calm.
Time passed. I did not look at the countdown again. Too slow. Agonizingly slow.
I slammed my fists into the wall and roared with rage. With regret. With fucking bad timing.
“So, itwasyou I heard.” The sweet, feminine voice silenced me instantly.
Turning my head, I found my mate and her sister both staring at me, hands on their hips. Stances, identical. Adrian’s expression? Determined.
The other female had more sense. She had the decency to be nervous, biting her lower lip. “I don’t know about this, sis.”
“They won’t even realize where I am until tomorrow.”
“I know. But you know how much I hate lying to them. What if they check on us when they get home?”
Adrian chuckled. “They won’t. Mom can’t keep her hands off him. They’ll be too busy bumping uglies to worry about where I am.”
Bumping uglies? Ugly what? And why would they bump?
“I’ll worry.”
“That’s why you’re going to be back here in exactly four hours and let me out.”
Stephanie looked at me, inspected me from head to toe. I remained silent. “What about him?”
“I’ll figure it out. After.”
After?
Stephanie’s head dropped backward so that her face looked up at the ceiling. She groaned. “God. And you were making fun of mom for being a horny wench. This is insane. You know that, right?”
“I know. I don’t care. I’m calling in my twin card.”
“Oh, I know. You told me. Why the hell do you think I’m down here again? And low blow by the way. I used my twin card for that stupid calculus test.”
Twin card?
“Not my fault I saved mine for something juicy.” Adrian gathered her sister to her, their heads identical in height as well as form. In fact, the twins were remarkably similar except for mymate’s beautiful hair. “Look. I’m going in there. I know what I know. I can’t explain it, okay? You have to trust me.”
The brown-haired twin’s voice was muffled in her sister’s neck. “Okay. But if you die, I’m going to be really, really mad at you. Like, forever mad.”
I’m going in there?
Adrian’s words finally registered, and I moved forward to tower over them as much as I could with the energy barrier still between us.
“You will not enter this cell, my lady.” I was furious that she would take such a chance. Still, I could not force a threatening tone from my throat, not while I spoke to her.
