We took two cars, the bosses in one and the heirs in the other. When Falcon mentioned that we would not all fit and someone had to go with the bosses, my father plucked a set of keys for a four-seater sports car and said there was not enough room. That was how Rayla ended up lying across our laps again for a bumpy ride.
Cosmo hit a bump, and Rayla flew up. Avery, Falcon, and I moved our arms to keep her safely in our lap. “Sorry, Ray.”
She blew out a breath and saluted to no one as she said, “All good. Just, you know... maybe don’t hit a bump?”
I bent down, whispering in her ear, “Don’t worry, Siren.” I twined my fingers through her hair and lifted her head to take a long drag of her sugary jasmine smell, letting it fill my lungs and put me at ease as well as making my blood rush to my dick. “We got you.”
She tilted her head from my lap to look at me. Her smile was infectious as she quirked her brow, giving me anoh, reallylook. Her gaze flicked behind her as her smile turned into a smirk. I followed her eyes to Avery rubbing her ass. “And who’s going to save me from you?”
I turned back, grabbed her chin, and fused my lips to hers, laying my claim, exploring every inch of her mouth until I swallowed down her moan. Her desire skittered down my throat as my wolf made my chest rumble in response.
Even heading toward a dangerous mission, my wolf was completely at ease snuggled up with his mate. He sent me a picture of licking her face, feeding her his blood, and then fucking her into the ground. I smirked.Soon, buddy. Soon.
After all this, I wanted to take her back to the woods and go for a run, maybe play a game of predator versus predator and see who gets to fuck who.
I bit her lip before pulling back, and her lip swelled from my kiss as she licked at the drops of blood on it from my bite. It did things to me. Everything about Rayla did things to me. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell Cosmo to pull over and let us out for a quickie.
“Turn here.” Lex’s lips were pinched as his arms were crossed, glancing back with dark-filled jealousy. For this to go smoothly, we needed to park away from the basin and then sneak in. We were all thinking we would need to park and break off some tree branches for shade when Lex growled out reluctantly that he had a house, one that his uncle didn’t know about.
When he brought it up at the meeting, Rayla suddenly was really interested in the table. I knew it was because this was the place he held her when he kidnapped her. While I still felt a residual anger from that time, I was still curious as to what the place looked like.
He told us we could park our cars out front without others seeing, and it was close enough to go on foot to the compound. He also added that we couldn’t go in the house because the barrier was only coded for him, but us heirs knew better. It was coded for him and Rayla.
Now, having been around Rayla so much, I could see how a kidnapping would seem like the best option for him. It still burned my chest whenever I thought about how he was working with his uncle against us for so long. At the same time, when you were brainwashed into believing a lie, brainwashed by your own blood, it made me reevaluate him.
He might be a little nuts, have a couple of screws loose, and most definitely be a dangerous stalker, but he would raise hell itself to keep Rayla safe. I didn’t even doubt he would consider the oath null and void if any of us, bosses included, tried or planned to hurt Rayla. He would kill any of us and not even bat an eye... and I oddly appreciated that.
We all parked, got out quickly, followed Lex through the vast hills, rocks, and mountains. I felt that familiar tug, telling me to turn away, to leave this place and never come back, increasing the longer we followed Lex. He didn’t seem bothered at least, but a few of us paused for a second before pushing forward. We passed the point where Rayla had her run in with Vincent’s men and went in about another mile before Lex held out his arm for us to stop.
Falcon’s dad walked up next to Lex, leaning forward as he looked around like he was seeing the barrier itself when it was invisible to me. His hand went up like he was touching it, and admiration sounded in his voice. “This is very interesting. I haven’t seen a barrier so well done in a long time. Falcon.” He called out as he tilted his head to the side, but still couldn’t tear his eyes away from it. Falcon came up next to his father and studied the barrier with a critical eye. “Do you feel the subtle complexity of the do-not-pass spell? Someone had the capacity to make it smooth and gentle, making even me think for a second that I truly wanted to leave this place.”
What the fuck was going on? Why are we stopping for them to chat about this?
Falcon’s fingers were curled around his chin as he studied the barrier like he could read it like computer code. “If we increase the air magic, then I think we can use a suggestion rune, making it just as powerful as this one, but to increase it as they get closer... that would take a few tweaks to the rune spell to ensure it raised subtlety.”
Rayla’s dad rolled his eyes, making a puppet with his hand as he mimicked them talking. Rayla stomped on his foot, and he let out a silent cry. He whispered out, “Why?”
She didn’t look at her dad as she kept her arms folded, keeping her face relaxed. “Rude much?! Let them geek out for a second. It will only benefit us in the end.”
Her dad beamed at her. “You’re right.”
She rolled her eyes as she whispered, “Quit it, weirdo.” Then she stepped over to Avery’s father as she threw a withering gaze at her own. They chuckled about something, and two sets of eyes glared at Boss Glovefox. Rayla’s father, I understood, but Avery? Why the fuck was he sending laser beams at his father?
Lex cleared his throat, pointing to a spot that had a thin blue line making the shape of a door. “We can get in here. Just say ‘thrum’ before entering. It will make it so you aren’t marked on the security board.” He smirked, putting a hand out to Rayla. “Ladies first, of course.”
Rayla giggled as she stepped forward and took his hand. “And they said all the gentleman demons were dead.”
As she passed, he whispered, “They are. I killed them.” Grinning at her, she said the word and passed through.
Rayla’s dad eyed Lex up and down, shoving his hands to his sides as he watched their interaction. As soon as she cleared the barrier, he pushed Boss Winstale out of the way as he faced off with Lex. Lex didn’t move a muscle, just stood there as he got within an inch of his face. “Where is my flirting? We are equal opportunists here, soooo”—he put his hand in his face—“are you going to kiss my hand, show me how gentlemanly you are?”
Lex’s smile widened, showing off all his teeth, as he admitted with a hand over his heart, “But I don’t want to fu—” Avery, with the speed of light, put his hand over Lex’s mouth as he nodded his head to the barrier.
“Boss Desmond, I think time is of the essence, and we all gotta get through.” Rayla’s dad glared at Lex again before saying the word and crossing over. All the bosses followed suit, eyeing Lex differently, but all curious.
As soon as the last boss was over, Avery let go of his face and glared at Lex as he wiped his hand on his pants. “Seriously, Lex? Licking? What, are you fucking five? I just saved your ass.”
“And I didn’t ask you to,” was his cool reply as he glared at the barrier. “No one is going to prevent me from loving on my rose, even her damn father.”
