Eyes opening, Rathal grinned. “There. Problem solved. You might want to direct your attention back to your friend, my darling wife. He looks like he’s about to explode. He did come to rescue you, after all. It would be rude to ignore him.”
Aga’s voice bellowed. “Wife?!”
I glared at Rathal. “Thanks a lot for that,” I growled before shifting to look at Aga. “Heeey, Aga. Uh, I can explain. You see—”
Aga helped up his hand while blowing a hard breath out through his nose. “I don’t—would you put some clothes on.”
I looked down at myself. My body was riddled with love bites, bruises and some lingering redness around my wrists where Rathal had tied me up for that first round. “Oh, right.” I looked over my shoulder. “Uh, Rathal? Where are our clothes?”
He shrugged, waving his hand in the general direction of the maze. “At the start of the maze, remember? I chased you down last night for our mating Hunt, fucked you into unconsciousness and then brought you here to recover. We are clothless. Sorry.”
Aga sputtered in outrage and I covered my face with my hand and groaned.
Rathal made a sound of discovery and snapped his fingers. “Ah, but I do believe there might be some robes in that storage shelf over there,” he said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder.
I sighed, shook my head at his antics, and stood. As I was walking past Rathal he slapped my ass, the sound loud in the awkward silence. I gaped at him, unbelieving. He winked at me, licking over his teeth.
“I do so enjoy watching you walk away, wife. Look how red your ass still is. I outdid myself.”
I was going to kill him. Slowly. Methodically.
I risked looking in Aga’s direction and winced. The angry crocodile was apoplectic. The green scales on his face were so dark they might as well have been black and his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets.
I scurried over to grab a robe and pulled it on before slowly approaching Aga, my hands raised.
“Aga… Let's not do anything we regret, okay? Just let me explain and then we can—”
Aga drew himself up, pointing a finger at me. “I have traveled halfway across the galaxy to rescue you and how do I find you? Not in a cage but—butcanoodlingwith the enemy! Married, Callie?! Mated?! What in thegodsdamned hellis going on?”
I shot a look at Rathal, biting the inside of my cheek. He raised his brows and mouthed ‘canoodling?’ at me and I about lost it, a whimper escaping before I could rein it in.
Aga threw his hands up with a wordless shout. “Are you laughing right now?”
I covered my mouth and cut off another giggle halfway through and shook my head. “No. No, of course not. I’m just—I’m just so sorry, Aga.” My voice shook.
Aga narrowed his eyes at both of us before closing them. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers and sighed. “Just tell me what happened before I kill you both.”
Rathal broke first, his full bellied laugh bursting out of him like a gunshot and I crumbled, doubling over to hold my stomach as I wheezed.
Aga made a sound of disgust. “That’s it. I’m leaving.”
We laughed harder.
twenty-eight
Callie
Agascowledatusfrom his seat, his arms crossed over his chest like a disapproving father. “So let me get this straight. He kidnaps you, locks you up, foils your many escape attempts and you end up marrying him?”
“Yeah. That about sums it up,” I said, nodding my head with a shrug.
We were in Rathal’s office on the security level of the palace, seated around his long oval table. I’d spent the better part of the last few hours explaining myself and keeping Aga from lunging across the table every time Rathal quipped some sassy comment. I was beyond exhausted and ready for this to be over.
Aga’s gaze sharpened. “And you’ve spoken with Jack already? And she just went along with this?”
I sighed, dropping my elbows to the table and cradled my head in my hands for a moment before giving him an exasperated look. “Yes! We’ve been over this already. Now, can we let it go, please? We have an Assembly to go to and a battle to plan.”
It was the truth, kinda. I’d told Jack I was safe and that I wanted to stay, but I hadn’t exactly told her I’d married the pirate king.
