Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
I swallowed and leaned into him.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Let’s meet at Ivy House and talk about it. I haven’t been around. Neither have you. That’s my fault. Let’s open the lines of communication. It’s time to get control of all this.”
He stared at Sebastian for one more tense beat before letting go. He didn’t step back, though, but rather waited for Sebastian to stagger away before he turned just slightly toward Broken Sue, who was nude and standing near the wall. For once, Nessa wasn’t winking or poking fun at him. She watched the scene solemnly.
“Leave the enemy mage in this room,” Austin said. “He doesn’t walk free until I say so. Keep the guard around the perimeter of the building. Load up the Ivy House crew, and you and Kace meet us at Ivy House. I want you two with Nessa and Sebastian at all times until you’re on Ivy House soil. If that means you need to carry them around like luggage while you see to your tasks, so be it. I want this territory locked down.”
Broken Sue nodded and headed for his clothes.
Austin slung an arm around me. “Ready?” he asked, then paused. He was giving me a moment to direct my crew so it wouldn’t seem like he was taking over.
“Yeah.” I made a circle with my finger, about to tell the Ivy House people to head to the cars, but then the basajaun unceremoniously flung the mage across the room. My mouth hung open as Edgar sidled a little closer to the wounded enemy mage, who was still screaming and crying, and said, “We’ll get to those doilies another time, okay?”
“Yeah,” I told Austin again, heading for the door.
They’d figure it out. There was only so much weird a person could take, and this situation had tap-danced over that threshold in sparkly red slippers. I needed to get out of there.
“Sorry about that,” Austin said as we exited the storage facility-turned-mage detention facility. I would eventually need to ask when he had done all that, because it didn’t look freshly built.
“About what?” I asked as he directed me toward a nondescript black sedan.
He opened the passenger door for me, handed me in, and then crossed to the driver’s side. Once on the road, he said, “That was essentially your scene, and I usurped your command.”
I issued a humorless laugh. “Leave it to you to apologize for what was basically securing the territory to ensure my safety. Especially after I tried—and will probably continue to try—to hijack your pack members.”
“I stepped into that interrogation when I shouldn’t have—”
“When you strangled him, you mean? That greatly helped, actually.”
“I interrupted your mage’s plans—”
“Which was logical, since no one even knows his plans—my fault for staying away…”
“And I took possession of the enemy mage, not as an alpha pair, but as a solo alpha.”
I frowned. That part had obviously escaped me. Then again, I’d never cared about being a town alpha. Austin had given me that role. I was happy to let him handle the sticky stuff.
He wouldn’t see it that way, though. He lived by shifter rules, most of which I didn’t know. His unwavering loyalty to me meant he wouldn’t take it easy on himself. He wouldn’t believe me when I said I didn’t care, and he wouldn’t forgive himself for not believing me.
My heart swelled. The Ivy House heir could be in no better hands.
I dropped my hand to his thigh and rubbed, making light of it. “It’s your castle, baby. I like when you play king. Besides, your taking control of him is infinitely better than whatever Sebastian and the basajaun would’ve cooked up. Especially the basajaun. He might listen to me, but if Sebastian said, ‘Don’t pull his head off and see how far you can kick it,’ he’d be aiming for a head-kicking personal best before Sebastian got out the last word.”
A grin pulled at Austin’s handsome face. He nodded slightly, and I knew I’d succeeded in letting him off the hook.
“But seriously, I’ll definitely try to hijack more of your pack. Anyone who sheds blood on my behalf is…offered that connection. Offered is the only word I can think of. I can’t help doing it. I can’t seem to stop it. I tried to pull it back with Kace, but he’d accepted before I figured out how. And then…” I shrugged. “I just can’t control it yet. But I’m working on it. Know that.”
He covered my hand with his. “I know. And I will assert my dominance every time you do. Your gargoyle is wrestling with my animal.” He slipped his hand off mine and reached for my thigh. “She’s challenging him. She’s challenging me.”
His hand ran along my inner thigh until it brushed against my apex. A shock of fire coursed through my body. I sucked in a surprised breath…and then widened my knees.