His heart racing to his throat, he leaped to his feet. Prisms of light shot out of Shae’s eyes, her mouth, and her fingertips. Whatever force held her suspended in the air, the sight was beyond breathtaking. Her hair floated out around her in waves of white. Her arms hung loosely at her sides as she became corporeal once more. Color seeped into her—and she was naked.Dammit!
Then Dagan forgot her nakedness, his eyes widening as branch-like appendages spread out from her back several feet wide. Feathers burst free…and two enormous coppery-red wings spreadout.
“Oh, dear God,” Jenna whispered, her hand on her mouth. “She haswings.”
“She would,” Michael said from beside her. “Her father was still an angel when Shae wasconceived—”
“No!” Jenna rounded on him, her expression fierce in a way only a mother’s could be. “You will not touch her. I know about the killings of half-angel children by youlot.”
Hedori reached for her, but she shrugged him off. “She’s suffered enough…” Her voicecracked.
Hearing Jenna’s words, Dagan’s jaw clenched. Yet his gaze remained fixed on his mate still hovering several feet in theair.
Finally, the furious, spinning energy slowed, and Shae floateddown.
Dagan dove forward, swept her into his arms, and lowered to his knees, her enormous wings fanning out on the ground. Gently, he laid her down and hauled off his button-down. The shirt was scorched in the front, the sleeves burned to his biceps, but it didn’t matter. With her appendages in the way, he put the shirt on herbackwards.
Then he simply held her, staring at her beautiful, serene face. His heart still hammering like crazy, his fear not leaving him, he stroked her smooth cheek, the Y-shaped scar there now a faint, white line and barelynoticeable.
“No one will ever touch my mate. I don’t care if she’s psionic or a damn nephilim, she’s mine!” Dagan lifted his gaze to Michael, his tone a stone cold promise. “They come near her, and I swear on every fucking star in the universe, I will killthem.”
The other Guardians moved to stand beside him, their support evident in their granite expressions. “So willwe.”
“We’re fed up with the Absolute Laws having dominion over us, always on our asses the moment one of us finds our mate,” Aethan said coldly. “We are immortals who live under the radar, but this world is ours, too. We deserve a damn chance athappiness.”
Michael remained silent for a long second then snorted. “You’re one damn pack of boneheads.” He glanced at Jenna. “Rest easy. The laws of the Watchers do not apply here. Shae’s immortal now, she’s safe. But her human self had to die for her immortal self to beborn.”
Jenna’s shoulders sagged in relief, tears sliding down her cheeks. She dashed at them. “After living in fear for so long, it’s so good to hearthis.”
Dagan held Shae close. There were no words to express his relief that he held her living body in his arms again. He rose to his feet, carrying her, her wings draggingdown.
Too overwhelmed to speak to the warriors who’d rallied with him, Dagan nodded to them, then dematerialized with his mate back to thecastle.
