“Don’t sweat it.” Briar turns in her chair to more fully face her Mate and wraps her arms about his neck. “Everyone knows you’re the most romantic brother. The way you called my name that first day,I choose Briar.It still gives me chills thinking about it.”
“You are cold?” Smoothly, he slides Briar off her chair and onto his lap. “I will warm you.”
“And that,” I say loudly, “is exactly the type of thing wewon’tbe filming.”
“Get a room,” Harlee jokes.
But instead of laughing, Briar straightens, her eyes widening. “That’s reminded me of…thething.” And she gives Harlee and Roan a deliberate look. “Thethingyou were telling me about.”
“What?” Harlee frowns.
“You know,” Briar says. “Thething.”
“Oh, babe.” Harlee stands, clutching Roan’s arm. “Thething.”
“Akh. Thething,”Roan agrees.
“It’s official,” I say. “You guys have officially suffered too much trauma, and you’ve all gone crazy.”
“You’re the one who’s about to go crazy,” Harlee says, motioning for me to follow her and Roan downstairs.
It’s still trashed down here. The door to Killan’s room has a huge tear down its center as if Atakis and his crew took an axe to it instead of bothering to turn the handle. I catch a glimpse of the few clothes and the spare pair of shoes I left behind when I ran away to the caves. Which makes me realize that of course Atakis knew about me, even if he never saw me through the window. He’d have seen my stuff and known there were three Humans, not two.
I’m guessing Killan has realized the same thing because he’s scowling at the mess of my clothes over his bedroom floor. It’s probably a good thing we’ve already locked the two remaining crew in their ship, because there’s a murderous glint in Killan’s eyes.
I nudge his arm with my shoulder, and he glances down at me.
“We’re safe,” I murmur. “We’re together.”
He doesn’t stop scowling, but the murder glint dissolves into something else, something like love. His expression has my heart skipping a beat as my mouth drops open. Killan has a love scowl.A love scowl.
“I forgot about the mess down here,” Harlee says, peering over my shoulder into Killan’s bedroom. “This probably isn’t going to be the nice surprise we were hoping it’d be.”
“What do you mean?” I turn to face her.
“Here.” She opens the door to what I know is one of the many empty rooms. Except it isn’t empty. There’s a bed. Well, there’s a bedframe from which the mattress has been dragged and dumped in the middle of the room. There’s a nightstand—with its drawers all pulled out and tossed aside. There’s a desk—the surface of which has a deep gouge. And a chair—which is lyingon its side. There’s even a blanket—which has been trampled and stained by boot prints.
Harlee hurries inside, straightening the chair and fluffing the blanket.
Roan lifts the mattress back onto the bed, stares at the tear and the stuffing trying to burst its way out, and flips the whole mattress over to the uninjured side.
“It was supposed to be way more impressive than this,” Harlee says.
“Wait. Is this for me?” I glance at Killan, who shrugs.
“It is.” Harlee smiles, gesturing around the room. “Roan and I, er,foundwhere Mr. Smith had hidden all of Killan’s extra furniture. We wanted to have everything set up for when you got back from the caves, but…it didn’t go to plan.”
“We thought you would like your own space,” Roan explains. “So that you do not have to keep sleeping besides that grumpy fek.” And he nods toward Killan.
“I can’t take all of this. It’s Killan’s, and I’ve already taken so much of his?—”
“It is yours,” he says. “I would give you everything you could ever need or want.”
“I know you would.” My knees practically melt. “That’s the problem. I don’t have anything to give you in return.”
“Lydia.” He growls my name, and I can’t resist pressing a hand to his chest, wanting to feel the rumble of his voice. “You saved my family.”
“Wesaved them.”
