I tuck her hair behind her ear. The ends are damp from her ten-second bath. They’ll dry. However, I help speed that along by patting them with the towel. Then I lift her again and set her more firmly in the center of the bed and grab one of the blankets to drape over her.
After firmly tucking her in, I pick up the towels and discard them in the bathroom.
With a low whistle, I call for Ossa and her brothers. They appear in a heartbeat, our connection resolute. “Guard my Omega,” I tell the trio. “Alert me immediatelyif there are any issues.” There shouldn’t be any, as this maze is the best-protected creation of my existence.
But Serapina may wake up scared or confused, and I’ll need to mist back to reassure her.
Though, I hope she sleeps. She’s going to need it for the heat to come.
I give in to the need to admire her again, my gaze observing as her chest lifts and falls as she succumbs to a deeper sleep. My purr is likely a source of contentment for her, which I use as an excuse to linger a little longer.
However, after several minutes, it’s clear that she’s lost to her dreams now.
So I leave her to go clean up the living area.
Once done, I stop in one final time, just to see if she’s moved.
She hasn’t.
Though, my beast has settled onto the foot of the bed, their three heads resting on the mattress as they guard my sleeping mate.
Fortunately, they’re facing away from her, their focus seeming to be on me in the doorway.
“Try not to scare her when she wakes up,” I say softly. “She doesn’t know you like I do yet.”
Ossa snorts, almost as if to say, “And whose fault is that, hmm?”
I ignore her and look pointedly at Mort and Howl. “If you want to play fetch, use balls, not skulls.”
They look at each other in a way that suggests they’re confused by my request, but I feel them agree via our connection.
Meanwhile, Ossa basically rolls her eyes.
“I mean it,” I say. “Be gentle.”
She huffs, and I’m pretty sure she’s saying, “We’ve got it. Now fuck off.”
Sighing, I do just that and mist back to the palace where I sense Maliki’s presence. He has no idea that I marked him. It wasn’t exactly intentional. I really just wanted Morpheus to leave my best friend alone. But I suspect Maliki isn’t going to see it that way.
And honestly, I probably should acknowledge that mymarkwent a lot deeper than a simple charm.
I essentially claimed him as part of my mate-circle.
Which… I didn’t fully realize or accept at the time. But I understand it now. And I’m prepared to?—
A fist flies at my nose as Maliki materializes in front of me, his fury a whiplash that has me misting backward just before contact.
Only, the asshole anticipated my movement, as evidenced by the knife now lodged in my fucking back. “Maliki.”
“Hurts, doesn’t it?” he says. Then saunters off down the corridor like he didn’t just fucking stab me.
I’m about to go after him when a series of electric currents hums through my veins, telling me he laced the blade with some sort of venom.
Fuck.
“What the fuck?” I demand, my knees giving out.
“You stabbed me in the back, so I returned the favor,” he informs me from what sounds like far away as my vision begins to black out.
