Chapter 7 #2
I sensed Everly’s angry eyes on Finley, sharp as the blade at her hip. Protective. Condemning.
My chest tightened, a growl rising in my throat before I even thought to stop it. Everly didn’t see what I saw, though. She didn’t see the way Finley’s hands shook at her side, the way our bond tugged and tore just as mercilessly at her as it did me.
To Everly, it was simple. She and Teddy both believed Finley had used me last year. But it was more than that. It was the bond dragging her to me while her heart still belonged to another male.
I bared my teeth, my canines pulling past my lips as I glared at Everly in warning. My arms shook at the sudden rage that built inside me, letting my primal instincts edge forward. I would fight anyone, friend or enemy, for Finley.
Finley noticed, because my mate saw everything, cataloging even the tiniest detail. Her smile fell. I shook with the urge to draw out my sword, ready to defend Finley even from this silent accusation.
Because no matter how it looked to others, Finley wasn’t the villain. And I would bleed before I permitted anyone to make her believe otherwise.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Elias said, his tone friendly as he gave Everly a stern shake of his head.
Everly snapped her attention from Finley, but her posture remained rigid.
Again, Finley noticed, and her expression crumbled even further. She quickly masked it with cold eyes. I wasn’t surprised when she tilted her chin up in that beautifully defiant way of hers.
It was a look I remembered from our youth. A look she’d perfected throughout the years. It softened me, pride flowing through me at the way she held herself together despite the emotions clambering inside her.
I brushed my knuckles over hers, wanting to bring her gentle comfort. It wasn’t simply her anxiety that I felt through our bond, but her insecurity. Since her youth, she’d always felt like she didn’t belong. None of my friends had helped her feel welcome.
She pulled away from my touch, clasping her hands in front of her. Heat spread through my tightening chest.
“She didn’t pull away because of you,” Hoshiko said.
I let out a cutting laugh while I braced my arms across my chest. Elias turned a questioning look in my direction.
“Hoshiko thinks himself a comedian now,” I said.
“It’s important to her that others see she can stand on her own,” he explained.
As if I didn’t already know that about Finley.
Still, her rejection hurt because I knew, despite how much she may need someone to depend on, she wouldn’t turn to me.
Etienne was the only one who’d broken through her shields, the only one she allowed herself to rely on.
And I’d nearly kissed his intended. Vith.
Elias nodded, quirking a brow at Finley. While he meant it as a companionable gesture, I felt her mistrust.
I wasn’t certain who she mistrusted, though: Elias and Everly or herself.
“Why would a tree grow sling-stones?” Elias asked.
Breathing deeply, Finley shoved her shoulders back so that she stood taller. She met Elias’s eyes. “Maybe the stones serve as a defense for this realm.” Her words came out like steel, as if the war of emotions swimming inside her wasn’t happening.
That’s my girl.
No, not my girl.
“I don’t think the tree is preparing for siege warfare,” I said, forcing a tease into my voice. “Maybe this is a male tree, and those are his . . . testicles.” I said the last word as if it were an important secret.
A laugh burst from Finley, her smile stretching across her face in a way that made me want to thump my chest in victory. I’d done that. I’d made her laugh after Everly had made her feel small.
“That’s a lot of testicles for one male tree,” Finley said.
I dropped an arm companionably across Finley’s taut shoulders, drawing her away from my closest friends.
If this mission were to work, I’d have to speak to them.
While I appreciated the effort Elias made with Finley, it wasn’t enough.
Not after he’d used her when we raided human compounds and then cast her to the side when he no longer needed her.
But no, that wasn’t the entire reason why Elias hadn’t used her aside for the missions to find the orb that kept her away from Somnio. He’d done it for me, to protect me in the many ways I wouldn’t guard myself from Finley.
Still, I needed them to treat her with the respect she deserved. They didn’t have to be her friend, but at the very least, treat her as they would any other warrior.
“Oh, sweet, innocent, Finley, don’t you know a real male can never have too many testicles?” I asked.
She snickered, and when she poked my chest, I told my heart to settle down.
“Exactly how many testicles do you have?” A cute blush spread across her face, making the soft pink of her cheeks brighten.
I pinched her nose, wanting to graze the tips of my fingers across her cheeks and lips again. Somehow, I restrained myself from doing so. “A male never tells.” I waggled my brows up and down. “But know my testicles are quite impressive.”
She tipped her head down, her hair blanketing across her face. “You’re ridiculous.” She knocked her hip against mine before she looked back at me. “I’ve missed your ridiculousness.”
Those four words shouldn’t hurt, but they did. She missed the way I made her laugh, the way I made a fool of myself to bring her joy.
“Actually, I missed more than that.” She chewed her bottom lip while I tried to calm my thundering heart. But I wanted to hear whatever she had to say, needed to know what else she missed about me. “I’ve missed you, Brent.”
Unable to stop myself, I pulled her to my chest. This sense of wholeness spread inside me when she wrapped her arms around my waist. Cupping the back of her head, I held her close to me and buried my nose in her hair.
Her breath caressed my ear while the steady thump of her heart beat against my chest.
“I’ve missed you too.”
I didn’t know how to let her go. Not when this single embrace held every part of who I was, and letting her go meant shattering me.
“She’ll do a lot more than miss you if I eat you,” Hoshiko said.
Grateful for his distraction, I forced myself to edge away from Finley. The small act felt unnatural when all I wanted was her closeness. It hurt, but I made a show of huffing and rolling my eyes at my overprotective dragon.
“I was in no danger of falling off your back,” I argued, knowing exactly what he meant.
A deep, guttural growl rumbled from his throat as white smoke puffed from his nostrils. I faced my dragon, looking over his towering body to his enormous face.
There wasn’t any real anger or frustration behind his reptilian eyes, but they prompted me to engage with him rather than continue to lose myself to my mate.
“I can make smoke too.” I opened my palms, grinning at the smoke magic entrusted to me. With Hoshiko’s magic joining mine, the smoke remained controlled and twirled atop my hand like a tiny storm. “Impressive, huh?”
More smoke blew from him.
“Did I do something to upset Hoshiko again?” Finley asked, playing with the jewelry on her wrist. She cast a worried gaze at Hoshiko.
I couldn’t say why, but every time I saw her fidget, I wanted to pull up her long sleeve and see what she kept hidden. As if it might serve as some clue to the female I wanted with every thrashing beat of my heart.
“Nah,” I told her, keeping a watchful eye on my dragon. “He’s being dramatic.”
“Why?” She peered up at Hoshiko, at his golden eyes that shone as brightly as the sun. She knitted her brows together. “He’s angry with you because of me. Is that right?”
“Do you fancy yourself a mind reader now?”
“Brent, please tell me what I did wrong.”
She clung to her wrist hard enough that I feared she’d snap the bone.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I said with a sigh. “He’s not actually angry. He’s drawing my attention away from you. He doesn’t want to see me hurt.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” Worry brimmed behind her eyes, quickly flashing to that all-encompassing white before they returned to their natural, radiant color.
“I know. I don’t want to hurt you either.” I paused to run a hand over Hoshiko’s side, so incredibly grateful for his friendship. “It seems that’s what we’re best at, though. Right?”
“I guess.” She nibbled her bottom lip. “What if . . . being with you always feels right? What if we chase that feeling? While we’re here.”
I didn’t know how many ways a single heart could break. How many times could the already shattered pieces fragment further? But her words speared through me, like daggers piercing my soul and turning the remains of my heart to dust.
A growl ripped out of me, our bond tearing through my control.
“I won’t warm your bed while we’re here simply so you can run back to Etienne.
Don’t cheapen what I feel for you as some temporary fling.
” Fury scorched my throat, too sharp, too raw.
I dragged in a ragged breath, tempering that fury before I hurt her with words I couldn’t take back.
“And what of Etienne? What about the love you tore through the human realm to save?”
Her lips parted. “I didn’t mean—”
“I know what you meant.” My jaw tightened, but the fight fled out of me as quickly as it came.
“Last year, I gave you bits and pieces of myself, and I never got them back. They’re yours, Lolli.
But that’s all you’re taking from me. I can’t survive repeating what we almost had.
” My voice cracked. “I want forever with you. Nothing less.”
The way her features fell tore through our bond in vicious swipes. She quickly concealed her emotions, her eyes fanning over me before she gave me a tight-lipped smile. I didn’t know what that smile meant, nor did I have time to try to decipher it.