She drew in a deep breath at the sight of him, her brown eyes widening, but at least she didn’t cower, scream, or even look away.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay.” Selma gave him a weak smile, and he could see the tired lines already marking her pretty face again. Not being seeded while he’d been captured had taken its toll on her newly pregnant body.
“You should have let Kesh mount you. He told me you refused him.”
He frowned at the thought of another man on top of her, but he’d sent her to his brother with the expectation that she would belong to Kesh forevermore. He hadn’t expected to make it out alive, and despite his rage at the prospect, she would have been in much better condition if his brother had fulfilled his duties between her thighs.
She flushed. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t about to have sex with anyone else, especially not your brother.”
His possessive nature purred at her statement, but he knew he had to make her see sense, should the need for her to accept another demon ever occur.
“Should something happen to me again, you need to allow it. Your life is more valuable to me than anything else. And if I die, I would want Kesh to provide for you.”
Selma frowned. “Nothing more will happen to you. Promise me.”
The sore thing in his chest—the place that connected him to her beyond anything he could ever have imagined—spasmed at her demand. Perhaps her need to see him safe was born from a place of realizing he would always provide her and their child with safety, but it nevertheless warmed his very core to know that she wished for him to stay alive—and with her.
“I can promise you that I will do anything and everything in my power to remain with you for the rest of eternity. But we still have dangerous times ahead, little one. This business with Naharan…”
“You will have to kill him.”
The way she said it, so completely calm, made pride swell in his chest. She was tougher than he had ever thought a Breeder could be.
“Yes.”
“I killed Marathin.” She caught his gaze and held it. “He was scheming with the Prince, but planned on double-crossing him to steal me away. He tried to rape me, and that power inside of me you saw at the queen’s palace awoke. What does that mean for the contract he had on my soul?”
“My father told me as much. It means you’re free. The only thing that can break contract magic is the death of the demon who created it.”
Despite his pride in her, Kain’s lip pulled up in a snarl at the mention of the scum who’d tried to lay a hand on his mate. For her sake, he was happy she was the one to kill him—the quiet strength that radiated from her now wouldn’t have been there if she hadn’t put an end to the monster herself. Still, every cell in his body ached to maim the man who’d hurt his mate.
“I hope it was slow and painful,” he added.
A smile ghosted across her lips. “You’re very demon-y when you say stuff like that—while looking like this.” She made a vague gesture toward his horns.
Kain snorted and eased himself down on the bed next to her. She didn’t flinch at his proximity, but he noticed she kept a hesitant eye on him.
“I know this is hard for you. It would have been easier if we’d been together longer and you had known me better before you saw my true form.”
She rubbed a hand over her belly and sighed. “Apparently Maell wasn’t kidding when he said I’m extremely fertile. What happens now, Kain? With Naharan and… and my powers? I’m not an idiot—I understand we’re in pretty deep shit.”
We. Even when he was in his demon form, she accepted that they were a unit with a shared future. It occurred to him that while neither of them had wanted a mate, they were both remarkably quick to accept their new bond. Surely it couldn’t all be hormones? It didn’t feel like hormones.
“We go to war,” he said softly. “There’s no other way.”
His mate nodded, her lips narrowed in determination. Yes, she’d grown infinitely tougher since he'd found her alone and scared in that warehouse.
“If you are Queen, no one will question your powers—even if you are a Breeder.”
She looked at him then, something he couldn’t quite identify shifting in her eyes. “And you? Will you question them?”
“There is nothing to question,” he said.
In reality there was much to question, but he didn’t want to rattle her any further. As brave a front as she was putting up, it likely wouldn’t take much more before she’d break.
And he still needed to mate her. Whatever that powerful light within her was, they would have to talk about it later.
