Raiden chuckles, the sound dark and humorless. “First and foremost, don’t ask my mate a question, then dismiss her before she even has a chance to respond.” Dom’s face flushes, looking appropriately chastised and sends me an apologetic grimace, but Raiden steamrolls on. “And secondly, she didn’t ‘con’ him into anything. Evren was wise enough to make a play to stay in Amara’s good graces. Ifhe’safraid of making an enemy of her, I would highly suggest you ask yourself why that might be.”
Dominic mumbles an apology, not meeting my eye. A leader showing submission in front of his entire pack, to some random woman no less, stuns me into silence. Cheeks flaming from everyone else eyeing me with wary curiosity now, I awkwardly clear my throat.
“No worries, I appreciate you trying to make sure I didn’t waste my get out of jail free card.”
His mate is sitting on one of her other men’s laps, and all of the air rushes from her chest in relief. She gives me a weak smile that I try to return, but I’m sure it comes off as more of a grimace.
Kodi rocks back on his heels. “Now that we’ve established our mate is amazing enough to make the leader of the underground want to suck up to her, we should really decide what we’re going to do with the interlopers here.”
Everyone latches onto the change of topic, turning to the bound humans, and he sends me a knowing wink when I mouth a silent ‘thank you.’
Groaning, Stone falls back on his ass, grabbing my wrist as he falls to tug me onto his lap. Instantly, his arms are wrapped around my stomach, his chin resting on my shoulder.
Breathing labored, he asks, “Dominic, can you spare a few men to deal with this?” At his agreement , Stone commands, “You’ve got some mushrooms growing about a mile south of here. Give them a small dose and toss a bag in each of their pockets, then drop them off at the police station the next town over. Make up some bullshit about bumping into them in the park and being concerned about the things they were going on about, so you brought them in for help; that sort of thing. It’ll discredit any stories they try to share.”
His fingers tighten on my side. “If they found us here, others will too. No offense, but your patrol is clearly distracted today, so I think it’s better if we move on and find somewhere else to stay the night.”
Dom’s cheeks redden, but he nods without defending himself or offering excuses to save face.
Raiden gives Stone a sly smirk. “Look at you, making decisions. About time you took up the mantle of legionhead.”
Stone snorts. “Hard pass.” Dropping a kiss on my shoulder, he coaxes me off his lap and extends a hand to Raiden who helps haul him to his feet. “But I admit that Kodi and I dumped too much on your shoulders. It wasn’t fair, and our family suffered because of us. I’m sorry.”
Taking a few tentative steps, he’s much steadier on his feet than before. Catching my eye, he winks. “I can regenerate organs, remember? Did you really think a few bullets would keep me down for long, drugged or not?”
“Cockiness will get you killed.”
“It’s not ego, it’s fact.” He shrugs. “Eventryingto kill myself hasn’t gotten me killed.”
I know what he’s trying to do; remind me that they’re strong enough to handle whatever life throws our way and they’re more than happy to be my shields. But it falls flat with the depressing visual of Stone being so miserable in his endless existence, he thought suicide was the only way out.
No wonder he’s unconcerned about me being the thing that could get him killed; it’s not a threat, it’s a reward.
“Liam?” a timid, feminine voice interrupts. Every single person’s attention swivels to Lissa as she approaches, the repentant teenager’s eyes widening comically before he drops his gaze again.
“Lissa,” he acknowledges.
“What Amara said… she’s right, you know. You’re the only one that hasn’t spent the entire day strutting around or picking fights to try and show off.” Tucking a lock of blonde hair behind her ear, she shifts uneasily between her feet. “So I was wondering if maybe…” mustering up her courage, she spits out in a rush, “you’d like to be one of my mates?”
Silence follows in the wake of her question; Liam too stunned to speak, and everyone else equally surprised if the gawking is anything to go by.
Leaning in close, I murmur in Raiden’s ear, “Someone should probably point out that he’s not old enough to get married, right?”
Dominic bursts out laughing; deep, belly laughs that shake his entire body. Liam’s entire face blazes red. “I’ll be nineteen in a couple of months.”
“Oh.”Shit. Someone could have piped up to correct me every time I was calling him a boy or a kid.Not my fault he’s got such a baby face.
Standing up straighter, cheeks still stained with embarrassment, Liam offers her a shy smile. “It would be an honor.”
Dozens of men are glaring at Liam like he cheated to win the game, and Dom is coordinating with one of his brother-husbands to deal with the humans. Using the distraction to my full advantage, I grab Stone’s hand and start slinking away.
Kodi falls into step behind us, watching Stone carefully, but pretending not to. As we reach the winding forest path, he picks up the conversation from earlier like we were never interrupted. “Stone’s right, Raiden. We’ll do better from now on. Not only for Amara’s sake, but yours too.”
Raiden looks stunned. Eventually he snaps out of it, slaps Kodi affectionately on the back, and takes the spot at my free side. “Hear that, love? You pulled off what I never could. How ever am I going to repay you?”
I roll my eyes. “Laying it on a little thick there, aren’t you?”
“Depends, is it working?”
