“That’s because I don’t like their hands all over me. They make me feel dirty,” Gryff replies to his sister, who is staring at Gem and Gryff with wide-eyed surprise before her face softens to joy, and Hunter shudders.
“None of us do except Liam.” He glares at me. Obviously he hasn’t forgiven me for my mistake.
I hold up my hands in surrender. “I swear I’m done with her. She was getting clingy, and you know I’m not into that. Plus, my bear wants to rip her face off now too.”
Bryson narrows his eyes on me. “Hmm, well, that’s good to know. That girl is as manipulative as her mother. You’d all do well to steer clear. I told Talon the same thing about Liana.”
Hunter snorts. “Oh, I think Talon has set his eyes on a little something else.” None of us have missed how much he’s into the queen’s new advisor, and I approve. The girl’s cute and sweet, but he also has to be careful not to break her heart. His bond group has a destined mate too, and they need to be patient. I just hope he doesn’t upset the queen by messing around with her friend.
“Go find some clothes, Liam, and we will see you at lunch. Elliot will let us know if Micah needs anything else.” Bryson departs, the rest of us following behind. I leave them to help with cleanup and head back to the palace to find suitable clothes to wear for lunch and our task after it. I smile wickedly to myself as I make the decision not to put on shift friendly clothes. I want to see how the queen reacts to seeing at least one of us naked as we work on her shifts.
ChapterNine
Colbie
I’m still stressing about my new extra mates when the royals insist we take a break for lunch. I agreed to tell Watch Team One about the bond mark and Nox this afternoon during my shift training with them. It doesn’t seem fair to hide it from them. Lucas insisted they are just going to become more confused and their animals will be harder to handle when they are drawn to me and don’t know why. It would be unfair to leave them perplexed.
Before we get to the dining room, though, I decide to head back to my room to change. I don’t want to wear a dress to self-defense, so I separate and wind my way through to my wing of the palace.
I’m lost in my head and not really paying attention to my surroundings when someone steps into my path, and I literally bump into them. I put my hands up to steady myself and feel hard, hot, silky smooth skin beneath them.
“Look what we have here, a queen all on her own. Do you think it’s such a good idea to wander around unprotected, little girl?” a voice growls at me as I look up and find Liam glaring down at me. “Especially with rogue magic just randomly flowing through the kingdom.”
I’m instantly annoyed as well as incredibly turned on from feeling his bare skin on mine. Liam is the perfect outlet for my frustrations, because he doesn’t even seem to like me, which just pisses me off. I’m his mate, there is supposed to be instant attraction, but he’s been nothing but aggressive and downright rude since day one.
“Who the fuck are you to tell me what to do?” I snap at him and give him a shove, but he barely budges. In fact, he crowds me, and I step back, not wanting to be any closer to all the delicious naked skin in case I do something stupid, like stick my tongue out and lick it. He may be a dick, but he’s a hot dick.
“I’m the person who has to keep your pretty ass safe until your useless mates get their heads out of their asses and present themselves to the castle, and you aren’t making it any easier by being careless with your safety.” He backs me up until I’m pressed between the wall and the solid surface of his body.
I almost scoff at him calling my mates useless. Man, he’s going to kick himself when he finds out the truth. “I’m perfectly fine, as you can see. I’ve been walking since I was one and can manage to get around without falling on my face. We also know what that damn wave of magic was about,” I argue, and he leans down, his lips a hairsbreadth from my own.
“You know what the magic was about? Tell me. What caused half of the kingdom’s warriors to lose control over their animal. What put everyone in danger?” His eyes flash with anger as his body presses me to the wall. His delicious scent, frost and pine, whirls around me, and it’s all I can do not to lean in and take a bigger breath. “Was it something you did?”
I put my hands up to push him away again, pissed that he’s blaming me for the magic, but he cages them with his own, pressing them against the wall. “Tell me,” he demands. “The barracks just about burned down because of that magic and a dragon shifter who wasn’t able to hold out against the magic’s call.”
Fuck. I didn’t even consider the magic affecting anyone else. I just thought it was localized to the palace. “It was the goddess’s magic. She somehow decided she needed to fuck me over even further,” I snarl at him, angry at both the deity who just made my life even harder and the asshole who decided I was to blame. “I had nothing to do with it, and if you think I’m happy with the outcome, you’re fucking delusional.”
His eyebrows jump, and I feel some of his anger seep away. “The goddess? What did she do now?”
A bit of my anger recedes, and my body slumps. I’m tired from the overload of emotions that have been bombarding my body for over a week now. I can’t believe it’s only been a little more than a week since my life changed beyond recognition.
“I have eight mates instead of six. There are now two more crowns in the throne room,” I mutter, and I see him flinch, but he doesn’t release me or move away.
“Eight mates? And none of them have bothered to show their faces?” he growls. “What the fuck is wrong with them? If I had been marked, nothing would have gotten in my way of getting here as quickly as I possibly could.”
My heart skips a beat at his unexpected confession. Liam has been nothing but antagonistic toward me, but then I remember him jumping to my defense when my mother was here. He was protective and effectively ran interference, and I can’t deny that we have some intense chemistry. Maybe having him as a mate won’t be so bad.
I make a split-second decision, one that could backfire on me, but I’m sick of pretending. Need is riding me, insisting I tell him the truth.
“Well, that’s kind of lucky then,” I remark, and his brows furrow in a confused but adorable frown.
“What is?”
“That you would be honored to be my mate, because surprise, you are,” I say lightly, bracing myself for his reaction, because I know it’s going to be spectacular.
There’s a moment of silence as he tries to process what I said. Before he can reply in any way, I push him, and when he steps back, I pull down the side of my dress so it’s halfway down my arm and turn, showing him the mark on my back.
I hear his sharp intake of breath, and then his finger runs softly over the mark.
