My eyes stung, but I refused to let the tears fall. “I can’t be here in this city with him. I just can’t, it hurts too much.” I grabbed my jacket from the chair beside me and slid it on. It was Lothar’s, the one I’d been carrying around for centuries. I’d even risked going back to Hell to retrieve it before I came here. I lifted the collar to my nose and breathed deep, positive I could still smell him on it. “I need some space, some time away to…to…” Get over it? That would never happen, and I refused to allow Lucifer to take the pain away. Taking it away would make it as if Lothar was never mine, and I never wanted to not have that, no matter how painful it was.
Eve and Kyler came to me and wrapped their arms around me. I hugged them back, tight.
“Promise you won’t do anything reckless, or put yourself in any danger,” Kyler said.
“I promise.”
“And make sure you call and text,” Eve said.
“I will.”
I stepped back as a howl echoed in the distance. I froze.
I had to be hearing things.
Lysander howled, imitating the sound, then Rev copied him, and they both giggled.
“I didn’t imagine it, then?” I rasped.
“Definitely not imagining it,” Eve said and rushed to the window as another howl rang out. “Rox, I think you need to see this.”
My heart was in my throat as I strode over to her and peered out the window.
Oh gods.
Lothar had climbed up onto the tall fence that surrounded the compound. He stood on it, shirtless, chest heaving as he drew in a lungful of oxygen, tilted his head back, and let out another mournful howl. I shivered, goose bumps prickling across my skin.
The knights had gathered below him, standing in the large lot just beyond the underground garage. They obviously hadn’t opened the gate for him, but they weren’t attempting to stop him, either, and nothing got over that fence.
“Why aren’t they stopping him?” I choked out.
“I think…I think because they know what it’s like to be mated, and they don’t need to have been separated from us to know how much they’d hate it.”
I scanned Lothar’s body, tattooed and muscled, and now with several new scars. “But…why would he come here?”
“Why do you think?” Kyler said, squeezing my hand. “He’s calling for you, Roxy. He’s calling for his mate.”
Eve wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “Go to him.”
“What if?—”
“No what-ifs. Talk to him,” Ky said. “If you don’t, if you leave without hearing what he has to say, you’ll always regret it.”
She was right, of course. There was no way I could leave, not without hearing what he had to say first, even if it was “Get the fuck out of this city and leave me the hell alone.”
“Okay.” I tried to calm my racing heart. “I’ll talk to him.” My legs shook as I walked from the room, down the hall and took the elevator to the underground parking lot. Shoving my hands in the pockets of my jacket, I walked up the ramp, through the opened garage doors and outside.
Zenon turned when I surfaced and elbowed Roc. I nodded, and the knights walked away, heading back into the building and leaving me standing there in the quiet lot.
Lothar stared down at me, breathing hard, the veins and tendons bulging under his skin as he watched me. He jumped, dropping from the tall fence and landed with ease. He’d fully healed. At least he was okay. He straightened then and strode toward me, a determined look on his face. His eyes were locked on me, wild, and as he drew closer, I took a step back, then another. He was angry. I thought I could absorb his rage, but now confronted with it, I wasn’t sure my heart could take it.
I spun, about to run, but he hooked me around the waist and hauled me up against him. His mouth pressed against my ear. “Oh no you fucking don’t. You are going to stay right here and hear me out.”
I gasped, pain washing through me, and then I was struggling, trying to get away because I couldn’t bear to hear how much he despised me. With a growl, he prowled into the parking garage and spun me around, pressing me against the wall.
“I know you’re angry, and you have every right to be.” I struggled, the multitude of ways I knew how to escape a hold like this, every defensive move I knew, vanished from my mind. I was helpless in his arms, helpless against the warmth of his skin, even with his fury crashing into me. “I’m leaving. I’m going now. I promise?—”
“Roxy—”
