“We could almost completely eliminate the use of m-siphonsanduse the sensors to detect when new clusters form. Only a handful of people track them now. Imagine a vast, global network keeping eyes on them. We’d know exactly when an elemental was about to form. We could make sure they got the resources they need, the care.” Atria sucked in a deep breath. “My friend Hele is a lightning elemental. We’ve worked extensively with her, trying to work out the best way to not only make sure elemental creation isn’t disrupted by the generators, but also to use them to help those newly created.”
Kaz rubbed his angular jaw. His brows were pinched as he considered the implications of their work. He muttered a curse under his breath before concluding, “You aren’t even talking about how most of those clusters could wipe out a city. By tracking them and diverting that power, you could prevent the deaths of millions.”
Atria couldn’t bear to look at him, knowing in her heart that there was no way her work would see the light of day any time soon. “Yes,” she croaked, throat almost too tight to speak, “we could.”
ChapterThirty-Eight
Six blissful dayspassed in the homestead. Kaz savored every second of it even as his restless anxiety worsened. The clock was ticking down to the day of her conference, and though neither of them had mentioned it, the pressure to make a decision on how to move forward weighed heavily on them both.
That was not helped by the sudden appearance of visitors on the morning of the seventh day.
The proximity alarm blared as he was preparing his mate’s“absolutely necessary”cup of coffee — piping hot medium roast, with a splash of whipping cream and half a spoonful of sugar.
His gun was in his hand in less than a second, but a glance at his tablet, now connected to the advanced security system he installed in the homestead several years prior, showed that it wouldn’t be necessary.
Yet.
“Was that the proximity alarm?” Atria demanded, breathless, as she careened into the kitchen. The tether, muted by their physical distance, snapped back into focus. A knot of unease between his shoulder blades loosened as her emotions flowed through him once more.
Worry. Confusion. Trust.
When hefelther, Kaz didn’t need to be good at them. He understood them intrinsically. When she needed something, he felt it like a kick in his chest. When she was happy, it bubbled in his veins. When she wanted him, it was like warm, phantom fingers stroking his cock.
Kaz didn’t want to go a single day without feeling her all around him. He hated when the tether loosened. It always came with a feeling of intense loneliness, even when she was only a room away.
Fuck that,he thought without fail, usually a second before he dropped whatever he was doing to hunt her down again.
But the only way to fix the proximity issue was to have her bond to him, and he stalwartly refused to push her into it like Norman had. Whenever the demand balanced on the tip of his tongue, he recalled how heartbroken she sounded when she asked her ex,“That… was why you wanted to bond with me?”
He’d promised to give her anything she asked for, and that included a bond. When she wanted it, when she trusted him enough,he’d be ready. When his mate stitched them together, soul to soul, she’d do it, just as Margot did with Theodore.
His sister-in-law hadn’t even asked. She’d simplydoneit, claiming Theodore in the back of a moving car, of all places. He could only hope that whenever Atria was ready, she’d pick a better place to do it than that.
Kaz would just have to be patient. He could do that.
Except every time she stepped out of the room, it got a little harder to remember why that was necessary. Even going to the kitchen to make her coffee was bad. He could hardly imagine how it would feel to put a city between them, aterritory.
Looking at her standing in the doorway, he shuddered at the thought.
Her hair was wet from her shower, and she had apparently thrown on whatever she could find on the floor of the bedroom before jogging to find him. Her frame was nearly swallowed by one of his t-shirts, the front hem of which she’d hastily tucked into the waistband of a pair of yoga pants. Her feet were bare, her cheeks flushed, and when she looked up at him, it was with complete trust.
My mate knows I’ll keep her safe, no matter what.What a fucking heady feeling that was.
Kaz’s voice was rough when he answered, “A truck just passed over the property line. We’ve got about a minute before we have visitors.”
Her eyes darted as if she hoped to find an escape route in the partially underground kitchen. “Should we—”
“Not that kind of visitor,” he quickly assured her.
He tucked his gun back into its holster. Hooking a hand behind her neck, Kaz drew her close and buried his nose in her fragrant hair.Days of nesting and marking had left a deep, musky imprint in her skin. She smelled like herself, but she also smelled likehim.
Good,the beast growled, rubbing up against the surface of his mind as if it could break through it to get to her.She should always smell like me.
But the days of blissful marking and watching her sleep trustingly curled against him were over. Intruders were coming to burst the warm little bubble they’d crafted around themselves, and though he knew it was inevitable, he still hated it with such fierceness, it made him want to howl.
Of course his mate noticed. “Why are you upset? I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Kaz stroked her hair to soothe himself. “I don’t want to share you yet,” he admitted. “I don’t think I’ll ever want to share you. If I could hole you up in here forever, I would.”
