“I’m— I’m bruised,” she finally answered, painfully cautious. “But nothing’s broken, no.”
He forced his gaze away once more. “Good.” Worried that he’d lose control of himself completely if he didn’t put some distance between them, he gritted out, “I need a minute.”
Claws wrapping around the flimsy door handle, he thrust the door open and threw himself out into the cool night.
Kaz slammed the door shut and paced away from the car, his hands on his hips and his chin lowered. A breeze stirred his hair, sliding the strands over his bruised temple.
A fucking telekinetic,he thought, reaching up with one hand to rub the spot where his head met the roof of the car.
She wasn’t a hugely powerful one, not if she needed to focus her abilities using her hands, but she was strong enough to take him and the gargoyles by surprise. That was something he didn’t account for. In all his fevered imaginings, he’d never actually considered what her abilitieswere,and now he felt like a raging dumbass for the oversight. Half his job was gathering intel, and he’d somehow managed to convince himself to do the exact opposite when it came to the biggest challenge of his life: going head to head with his mate.
Why didn’t I look at her fucking file?
Because if he looked at it, he would have hunted her down and thrown her over his shoulder like a fucking caveman. He’d been sparing her as much as he’d been looking out for himself. He wasn’t built for soft shit — especially taking care of a fragile little mate.
A couple hours with her and he already felt like he was losing his fucking mind.
Kaz sucked in huge gulps of air and tasted the scent of living things and water. His nausea receded as he walked away from the car, though his instincts rebelled against every step he took.
He couldn’t protect her if he couldn’t calm down, but he couldn’t calm down if he was near her. Kaz raked his claws through his hair and turned his back on the car as he tried to get his shit in order. Protecting her had to come first. That was what this whole thing was about. If he could be trained by Thaddeus’s own elite unit of assassinsand come out fine, he could do this, right?
They couldn’t afford to linger here for more than a moment. His little breakdown was costing them precious seconds. He needed to get her someplace safe for the night, hunker down, treat her wounds, and call his brother. Healsoneeded to get her file out of his bag and memorize every word—
A quiet clattering of stones and creaking wood was barely discernible over the sound of bugs and frogs wallowing in the shallow ditches that lined the road.
Kaz’s head swiveled in the direction they’d come. A dusty, peeling sign advertising fresh vegetables stood out against the skinny, well-dressed shapes of swaying cornstalks. He could have sworn it was tilted toward the road when they passed it, but now it was tilted in the opposite direction.
His gun was out before he’d made the conscious choice to grab it.
Growl building in his throat, he slowly approached the sign, his gaze swinging in an arc as he tried to pinpoint the source of the disturbance. He had excellent night vision, but he didn’t know the area well, and with the walls of corn on either side of him, he knew there could be any number of enemies just out of sight, waiting to ambush him and take his mate.
In the time between one heart beat and the next, his mind settled. It was no longer a tumult of conflicting desires, but a perfectly oiled machine with one purpose:protect her.
His upper lip curled over his fangs in a fierce, territorial display. Moving silently, he stepped up to the sign, then, in a burst of speed, leapt around it, gun aimed at the shadows cast by the moonlight.
There was no one there.
Disconcerted, he took a sharp step back onto the main part of the road and lifted his face to scent the air. There were no other smells he could detect. Nothing but hot metal, vegetation, dirt, water, the distant, earthy stink of stock animals, the sweet jasmine of his mate, and himself. But the breeze wasn’t strong enough to push the sign, so—
A quiet click forced him to turn back to the car.
Dull orange light spilled out from the partially opened passenger door. The breeze blew again, gently knocking it against the frame — making that tiny click as the door attempted to latch.
Kaz’s bellow carried far over the flat cornfields. “Fucking telekinetic!Atria!”Shoving his gun back into its holster, he took off in a dead sprint.
He didn’t give a shit about the cornstalks he left snapped and bent in his wake as he charged through the field, following the now obvious trail of his quarry, who had clearly picked up her pace.
Orcish instinct, as old as the bedrock buried beneath the cornfields, came screaming to the forefront of his mind.
Chase,it howled.
His claws curled. The muscles of his thighs and calves burned as he pushed himself to move faster than he ever had before. His cock, already a problem, throbbed with a livid erection. Kaz’s vision narrowed to a pinprick — a cone of focus with her in its direct center.
Chase. Snatch. Nest.
She had better luck slipping through the plants, but she lacked his speed and his blind determination. Kaz caught sight of her darting through the stalks quickly enough. Her soft white sweater flashed like a beacon between the dark shapes of the plants.
Increasing his speed, he raged, “Atria,stop!I am not your fucking enemy!”
