“Anything else?” she asked, her voice a little too throaty.
“That is all,” Neve said.
He caught the way her cheeks heated in embarrassment at the quick dismissal. “As you wish,Reillov.” She stiffly walked to the entrance but paused to peer over her shoulder at him. “If you change your mind, send for Jaiix.” She slipped outside, her voice soft as she spoke with one of his guards. Her tinkling laugh filled the air and trailed off when she walked away.
Neve ran a hand through his inky hair, thankful thevalleswas gone. The last thing he needed was another female messing with his head. All he wanted was his backstabbing mate. That was confusing enough.
Silence settled in the tent. It wasn’t unsettling, but he could almost feel Olwen’s gaze crawling over him.
“What?” he bit out, scowling at his commander.
“You hardly looked at her.”
“I’m not interested.” He sighed irritably.
“Clearly.”
“Am I supposed to be?”
Olwen smirked. “You tell me.”
Neve clenched his teeth. “I am a mated male.”
“To a traitoroussaloes. No one would begrudge you a little companionship.”
“Do I look like a dishonorablevallosto you? Despite what Lia,” he stuttered over her name and corrected his words, “the queen did, I made vows.”
“Vows are one thing, but a bond is another.”
He stiffened and fiddled with one of the crystals marking the human’s movements on the map. It was just vows. That was all itcouldbe. Neve would not have been so stupid to bond himself to her. He hadn’t even connected with her physically yet. It should not be possible, and yet... she was not fading from his mind, despite everything she had done.
Liar, liar.
His friend flopped into the nearest chair, the wood groaning underneath his muscular bulk. “I was just checking if you were in there.”
“In where?” He narrowed his eyes at his friend’s playful smile. “You sent her here? The halfling? Why?”
“It’s been a little over three months since your attack,” his friend said softly, losing all humor. “I’ve watched you drift further and further away. Not once have you looked at anothervallessince you laid eyes on Dahlia—even when you despised her at first. Have you claimed her? Did you complete the bond?”
“No, I have not taken her.” He picked up the goblet of warm wine and tossed it back, the rich spice filling his senses and warming his belly. A secret regret and blessing.
“But?”
Much to his ever-loving shame, Neve needed Lia with a desire that did not make sense. Every time he closed his eyes, all he imagined was rose gold-hair running through his fingers. Impossibly soft star-sprinkled skin and dancing human eyes. Pink lips that he wanted to devour. But it was more than her curvy human body. It was the way she showed kindness, how she attacked a problem, and her inner strength.
“She haunts me,” he gritted out. His fingers tightened around the goblet. All he wanted to do was throw it. She was a traitor. Lia tried to kill him. To destroy his kingdom. He needed to hate her. Nevehadto. He was at war not just with thesaloesbut himself.
“What will you do when we find her?” Olwen asked.
He set down the goblet, his hands shaking. “Punishment.” It was automatic.
Olwen snorted. “How do you propose you do that when you’re bonded to her?”
The hackles at the back of his neck rose at the insinuation that might be all too true. “We are not bonded. How could we be?” While they had not connected their bodies, he feared somehow their souls already were. He had allowed himself to love her and that was bad enough.
His friend tsked and crossed his arms, his biceps bulging. “I thought we made a promise when we were children never to lie to one another. If you can’t admit it to me, how do you think you will handle it when you see her again?”
“She could be dead.”
