“You're absolutely right, angel,wearen't locked into anything. You can change your mind at any point, and we’ll adapt.
Her lip twitches. “As long as it's not about you, right?”
“I'd just give you new reasons to change it back. I'm always up for a good challenge, remember?” Stealing her off of Stone’s lap, I kiss her breathless. “Especially when I know exactly how sweet victory tastes.“
ChapterNineteen
AMARA
Carina and Bastian certainly outdid themselves.
If I was capable of it in this form, I’d burst out laughing.They didn’t stop at surrounding Khalida in a moat of lava. Beneath the main ring is another that reads in cursive script,‘If you think this is hot, you should see what else these hands can do’.
Flying over all of the blockades into the city, I tense as dozens of people train guns on us, but they clearly recognize the guys’ shifted forms enough to keep their fingers off the triggers. Seamlessly, a fraction of the guards keep their guns trained on us, another group breaks off to follow us into town, and the others search behind us for anyone we might be trying to escape.
We land in a small clearing outside of a building I don’t recognize, the guys shifting back effortlessly. There are enough people on the streets nearby staring, let alone the men that pour out of the building armed to the teeth, that I can’t bring myself to shift back. Hackles raised, I take a step back, teeth bared without really even consciously doing so. My baser instincts ride me harder like this, with my other half at the forefront, and the longer it stretches, the more she digs her claws in to take control away from me.
“Nobody’s going to hurt you, love,” Raiden murmurs, stroking a hand down my side.
Stone steps in my line of sight with a pair of sweatpants hanging low on his hips and a shirt in hand. “Take a closer look at them.”
Doing as he asks, I scan the armed men first. While they’re strapped down with weapons, most are holstered. Those that have guns drawn have them pointed at the ground, not even looking at me, but the direction we came from. Warily turning my attention away to the lesser threats, I study the gathering ground on the streets, but the only thing I see is curiosity or people enthusiastically chattering away and craning their necks for a better look.
I take a deep inhale and hold it. It feels like static is crackling across my tongue, the overwhelming emotions of the crowd combining into a general sense of excitement and hope. But no one registers in my brain as aggressive, and it helps calm my thundering heartbeat. Exhaling slowly, I let the tension seep from my muscles and do one of the hardest things in my life.
I accept that I’m safe here, because I have people I trust watching my back.
Slowly, I shift back, leaving me naked in the center of the loose circle the guys make around me. Before I can even blink, Stone is pulling one of his shirts over my head. Kodi’s there a second later holding a pair of leggings and kneeling at my feet, helping me into them. My ass is covered in the nick of time as Carina shoves her brother out of the way and launches herself at me.
“You’re soshiny!” she practically shouts in my ear. “No wonder everyone wants to keep you.” After crushing the life out of me, she holds me out at arm’s length, thoroughly looking me over. Satisfied, she turns to the guys. “Alright, boys, I’ll take her from here.”
Kodi scoffs. “Nice try, Rina.”
She pins him with a hard stare. “I’m not ‘trying’ jack shit. You can bring the men up to speed on the state of things outside our borders in the room next to us, but Amara and I are going to have a private chat.”
Three low growls surround us, Stone stepping forward and setting a hand on my shoulder. “She’s not leaving our sight again.”
Carina is a force to be reckoned with though, and doesn’t back down. Meeting his steely glare with one of her own, she says, “You’ve seen some awful shit in your time as a doctor. You know damn well that there are some things women aren’t comfortable sharing with men,especiallytheir mates. I don’t care if all three of you park your asses outside of the door, but Iwillbe speaking to my sister alone.”
Horror flashes through his eyes as realization sets in, that I might have downplayed what happened as Malcolm’s captive for their sake. It’s immediately followed by rage, helplessness, regret, and eventually settles on resignation.
“We’ll guard the door,” he finally whispers.
Kodi and Raiden pipe up to protest, not wanting to let me out of their sights even more now as they start to freak out, but he whirls around to cut them off with a sharp command of, “Kodi, you want to keep Amara safe? Check in with your men and make sure there aren’t any security issues. Raiden? Handle arrangements to repair the damage to the castle so it’s secure. When you’re done, meet me outside of Kodiak’s office, I’ll escort the girls there.”
They take turns kissing me goodbye, Raiden shooting frequent looks over his shoulder as he walks away and Kodi barking at his men gathered in the yard to follow him into the conference room to report in. Once they’re gone, I glance up at Stone with a sad smile.
“Thanks for giving them something to keep busy so they didn’t lose their shit. Are you going to be okay in the hall, though, with no one to distract you?”
He gives me a pained look, but dips his head in a nod. Carina links her arm through mine and strides into the building like she owns the place, confidently navigating the halls to Kodi’s office. Without having to ask, Stone reaches forward to press his thumb to the sensor beside the door to unlock it, and I don’t even get to say goodbye before Carina shuts the door in his face.
Once we’re alone, she crushes me into another rib cracking embrace. “Never scare me like that again. EvenI’mnot hot enough to pull off grey hair.” Pushing me into the chair behind the desk, she pulls out her phone. A few seconds later, music starts up, and she maxes out the volume before setting it at the bottom of the door. “That’ll take care of anyone in the building that Kodi might rope into eavesdropping for him.”
Taking a seat opposite me, she rests her elbows on the desk. Slowly, the hard look in her eyes fades away as she lets shadows creep in, and she seems to age ten years. “I’m assuming my brother filled you in at some point, but you know I’ve been in a similar situation. Bastards killed our parents and dragged me back to their house of horrors. They may not have succeeded in raping me; I killed enough of the fuckers to barricade the door and wait ‘em out, praying Raiden would come for me before I starved to death. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t try.”
“He didn’t,” I whisper. Taking a deep breath, I launch into the entire story. Rather than the abridged version I gave the guys, I tell her every detail. Always walking on eggshells, terrified of setting him off. The clothes covering less every day, feeling the clock ticking down to the inevitable. Every time he touched me, terrified this would be the time his patience would snap.
She lets out a shaky breath, crossing her arms on top of the desk and resting her chin on them. “No matter what he did to you, it was traumatic as fuck. You might have nightmares, or something small you never expected might set off a panic attack. If that happens, don’t downplay the issue by telling yourself it could have been worse, so it’s ridiculous to be upset. Been there, done that, spent several thousand dollars in therapy learning to accept trauma’s not a competition. Hell, some nights Istillwake up feeling their disgusting hands all over me, and it’s been centuries. So I’m here if you ever need to talk, okay?”
