CHAPTER TEN
Bane
Still reeling from the fact that Saylor sucked my fucking toe into her sweet little mouth, I play with the ends of her hair as she sleeps. I’m not going to lie, she surprised me. I’d think that was really her kink if she hadn’t laughed evilly after doing it, giving away that she was merely messing around. But still, a ten out of ten for dedication to test my boundaries. However, it’s going to take a little more than a toe job for her to unsettle me. Every inch of me is hers, including my feet, so my little wolf can play around as much as she likes. She can throw whatever she wants at me. Smiling to myself, I kiss her forehead and then lay back on her ridiculous feathered pink pillows.
If only my brothers could see me now.
“How do your illusions work?” I ask her the second her honey-brown doe eyes open. This woman beautiful in the morning, all messy hair and swollen lips. I’ve been waiting for her to tell me about her magic and why she never takes those gloves off, but she hasn’t said a word, and I’m done waiting for her to open up. She’s mine now, and I want to know every single thing about her past, present, and future.
“Worried you might siphon some of my unpredictable magic?” She smiles, and it’s like sunshine.
She lifts my hands with her gloved ones and inspects my palms. She sighs in relief when she lets them drop.
“I create my illusions with my mind,” she explains, resting her covered palm on my bare chest. She slides off her gloves and shows me her palms. On each of them is a tattoo. One has a key, and the other a lock. “I was born with these, and this is how I lock the illusions into place. When I wear the gloves, I can’t accidentally create anything. If I did that, I could end up really badly, or maybe I could use the magic in my sleep. Or people could get lost in the illusions.”
“Can I touch them?” I ask, letting my fingertips brush hers for the first time.
She shivers and holds her palms out. “I don’t know. Since we’re bonded, you might have some of my magic, so it might not be the best idea to test that out right now.”
Avoiding her palms, I kiss her fingers, one at a time, then hand her the gloves to cover them back up. “You are powerful. I can feel it.”
“So are you,” she replies, her tongue sweeping over her full bottom lip. “I guess that’s why we match each other. I’ll have to keep wearing short gloves from now on since you won’t be able to see my mating bands with the long ones.”
Our eyes hold and connect. Mating band on show or not, it doesn’t change the fact that she is mine . “You wear what you are comfortable with.”
She smiles and lifts her head to rest on my shoulder. “The reason I’ve been running around and disappearing on you is because I’ve been trying to find information on Shadow. That’s why I was at the strip club. And just so you know, no one else could see it was me. I used an illusion to make me look like someone else, but I guess as my fated mate, you could see right through that.”
My fingers gently tangle into her hair, massaging her skull. “I like that no one else got to see you like that.”
Understatement.
It was driving me crazy with jealousy, thinking that other men got to see her in her lingerie and another woman had her mouth on her.
“I knew you would,” she replies in a dry tone, making me laugh.
“You want to find your brother? I’ll help you,” I promise as she sighs in content as I continue to massage her. “Soren is the best tracker in all eight realms. If I ask him to help, he will.”
“You know Soren?” she asks, sounding surprised. “I thought about asking him, but I don’t know him that well to ask for a favor. I only met him once at a party in the Goblin Kingdom, not to mention the whole Salem and Pandora thing.”
Ah, yes. Salem was once betrothed to Pandora, which spurred a little unhealthy obsession. And Soren found Salem going down on his now mate.
Let’s hope Soren forgets all about that.
“I’ll take care of it. You tell me everything you’ve found out so far,” I say, kissing her head.
“He’s been missing for a few years,” she says, sadness lacing her tone. “He just disappeared without a trace. One day, he was at the castle, and the next, he wasn’t. King Bax searched for him, we all did, but eventually, he stopped. I never did, though. Me and my brothers have never stopped looking. Laurel told me to go to the strip club that night to look for someone named Jagger. That’s why I was there. Actually, Laurel is the one who told us to be on the battlefield that day. The day you kidnapped me.”
“Laurel, the seer?” I clarify, and she nods. I choose to ignore her last comment. I have no regrets with how it all went down because I got the outcome I wanted. But it seems Laurel played a hand in the timing of our fate. I know Astrid has been wanting to try to save Laurel from the Shifter Kingdom, worried about her treatment there. Laurel won’t leave, though, and we have no idea why.
“Astrid is a seer too. I’ll ask her if she can see anything to do with Shadow,” I say softly, wanting more than anything to take her pain away. Her loyalty to her family is a commendable quality and makes me realize just how incredible she is. More than beauty and powerful magic, she has a genuine soul and good character. She’s also quirky as hell, which I find both cute and amusing.
“You’re close with Astrid?” she asks, her tone giving nothing away.
“Yeah, I would say we are,” I reply, treading very carefully. I don’t think she’d ever want to know that I used to have feelings for Astrid. I’d hate to hear that about her and another male. In fact, even the thought makes me want to strike someone with a lightning bolt. “She’s the one who told me about you. She saw a vision of us.”
I don’t add that Astrid was in the vision, too, sitting with us. And that we were clearly all friends. They can find that path on their own.
I also don’t mention that I was wearing a crown in the vision because that can only mean one thing.
Saylor is very far down the line to the Shifter throne, being the youngest, so chances of her taking the crown are slim. So that means any crown of mine would have to come from the Demon Kingdom.
The one place I haven’t set foot in since I was a child.
The one place I don’t want to go, but as fate would see it, the one place I might end up.