Page 124 of Her Ivory Flame

“No, I'm ok.” She sighed and composed herself enough to stand against the sink. “His comments during my dance with him at the ball all makesense now.”

‘You always were a feisty one. It’s a shame your mother didn’t listen to me when she was alive.’

She visibly shook and tried to keep herself upright against the counter.

“Tell me about how you and Kaden finally got together!” Raine tried to distract her and she was thankful for it.

“He chased me through the hedge maze and told me if I won, I got whatever I wanted from him.” she smirked, her heart beating faster and her stomach calm.

“Let me guess, you won and you got to finally tell him how you feel?”

“Did everyone really know?” She giggled.

“It was hard to miss.” Raine chuckled, leaning against the sink next to her.

“Want to know something even crazier?” she smirked.

“Of course!”

“Kaden and I are apparently mates.”

She watched Raine’s jaw drop, eyes widen and emit a shrill shriek, sounding throughout the bathroom.

Alyra’s ears started to ring and both men outside the door came running in out of panic.

“What?” Finnley yelled, his hand on his smaller blade on his hip.

“Kaden and Alyra are MATES!” Raine squealed again and she watched both males' faces turn to shock.

“Well, that makes things interesting.” Finnley smirked. “Also explains a lot.”

She raised her eyebrows to him in curiosity.

“Kaden has never cared about any female, even ones we became friends with since…” his voice trailed off slightly. “The way he is around you, it’s almost frightening how protective he is over you and we have tried to figure out why.” Finnley leaned against the doorframe, Titus standing next to him.

“No one can find out,” she said quickly. “No one outside our circle at least. It would put both of us in danger considering Mavros wants both of our powers. They could use us as leverage against the other.”

“Agreed.” Finnley nodded and went back into the room, her and Raine following.

The weight of the situation made her both happy and stressed at the same time, her body slumping back onto the bed.

Their mating bond made her happier than she had ever been and knew she now had someone who wouldn’t betray her. The downside to their bond, in her warrior trained mind, was now it could be used against them as a weakness their enemies could exploit. If Mavros took Kaden, she would do anything to save him and she knew Kaden would do the same for her.

She stayed silent for a long time, Raine and Finnley conversing across the bed and Titus just standing against the wall adding his opinion every so often.

The door opened at least an hour later and Kaden walked back in, Xander following.

“Find anything this time?” Finnley asked tentatively.

“Yep.” Xander huffed and threw a small notebook on the bed next to her.

She glanced up to Kaden, his face not looking towards her and she knew whatever they had found was extremely bad.

Reaching towards the book, she flipped through the pages and felt the color drain from her face.

Test subject 23:

-Female