Warmth bloomed in his chest as he carefully took the bag. While he was absolutely certain that Vesta was perfectly fine, he appreciated Atria’s thoughtfulness.
He bent down to press a kiss to the crown of her head. “Thank you, princess.”
Every eye was trained on him and his mate.
He didn’t like having an audience. Kaz felt the bristling instinct to hiss and hide her away in the nest, but fought it. Fracture wasn’t a threat and they weren’t going to try and steal his mate. He suspected that they were simply curious — perhaps doubly so because Atria wasn’t an elf. Fracture wasn’t exactly full of sociable types. As far as he knew, most of them only kept contact with one another. Outside of the bounds of an assignment, this was perhaps the closest any of them had been to someone outside of the team.
Forcing himself to appear at ease, Kaz stepped away from her to hand the bag of fries to Vesta. Holding the bag aloft, she gave him a bewildered look.
“For your head,” he explained, biting back the lingering rage at her trespassing in their nest. He was still pissed, but he also figured Atria had delivered enough retribution to wipe the slate clean. After all, what punishment could he deliver to match the visceral, out-of-body terror his mate inspired?
I find something new to love about her every day.
Vesta sniffed the bag suspiciously. Her gaze darted to Atria, who stood by the doorway with her arms crossed. In a high, sweet voice usually hidden by a modulator, she said, “It’s not life-threatening, Captain.”
“Yes, but you don’t need to be dying to accept care.” It was a point he’d tried to make a thousand times over the years, but old habits reinforced by a madman died hard.
“My helmet protected—”
“Vesta,” Kaz snapped, “my mate is worried about you. Put the damn fries on your head.”
Fracture had a reputation for being Thaddeus’s personally trained hit squad. He’d stolen children and forged them into weapons to be used against their fellow EVP citizens. They were the legendary shadow squad, the beings who haunted nightmares and lurked in the shadows.
They were also some of the single most eager-to-please, fragile elves Kaz had ever met in his life.
This was perfectly exemplified when Vesta’s eyes snapped back to Atria. A crease appeared between her pale brows before she hurried to press the bag against the back of her head.
“Does anyone need water? Food?” Atria looked around the room, a deep frown forming lines around her mouth and between her brows. Kaz’s chest tightened.She looks exhausted.
“I should find more blankets.”
“No.” The deep, gravelly voice came from an elf lounging against the wall by the steps leading to the front door. Kaz turned to look at Sloane. The expression on his pale purple face was completely blank when he said, “We don’t need blankets, madam.”
Atria cocked her head to one side. “You’ll be staying the night, won’t you?”
Every eye shifted to Kaz. They waited for his orders. Would he command them to stay, or would he kick them out to fend for themselves?
Running a hand through his tangled hair, he sighed, “Tell me what you’re doing here and then I’ll decide whether I toss you out or not.”
“Kaz.”Even after everything, his mate was still an incorrigible soft touch.
Kaz held up his hands in surrender. “A joke, princess.”Mostly.
Vesta leaned back into the couch, one arm raised to keep the bag of fries awkwardly pressed against her head. “Lucien and Arlo were sent to assist Sam. The rest of us were ordered to hunt you down by the Sovereign.”
He suspected as much. Still, he shook his head and wondered aloud, “And it took you this long to find us?”
He’d stewed over why Fracture hadn’t found him yet, and the only reason he could come up with was that Theodore hadn’t wanted to split their loyalty by assigning them to the mission. After all, his team was composed of some of the best hunters and assassins in the world. There was no way it would take them over a week to track him down, no matter how careful he was. He’d hoped their absence meant they were on the hunt for Ruby.
Vesta made a face as a nearly imperceptible ripple of offense ran through the room. “Of course not. We’ve been following you since you left Chambers’ lab.”
Atria made a small choked sound. He couldn’t blame her. That was an awfully long time to be tailed without realizing it. Even he felt a shudder of unease, but he was also used to it. For all that he had a street reputation for being a scary motherfucker, the feral guard dog of the Solbourne family, he knew that he would never be as scary as the elves under his command.
He had limits. They did not.
Kaz looked askance around the room, his gaze touching on every elf before he settled on Sloane.
When handling matters not directly concerning Kaz, Fracture’s leadership tended to bounce between Vesta, Sloane, and Arlo. Of the three of them, Sloane was by far the least stable. He was brawny, his skin a cool, light purple, and was the kind of man who looked you in the eye when he told you in the mildest possible tone to fuck off.
