Chapter Forty-Six
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ZOE AND GRACE WAITED anxiously for their friends to return. Zoe had known they would be gone overnight. She was confident everyone would come back alive, but Grace still paced up and down in worry.
It was just after one o’clock when Zoe sensed her mate. “They’re almost here,” she said in relief.
“Just in time for lunch,” Grace joked, finally relaxing. She put the coffee on and gathered snacks. They’d both used their makeshift shower last night. It had been a laborious task to fill the metal tank with hot water twice, but worth it in the end.
Zoe went outside and waited in the doorway.
Cam and Vic were sitting in the back of the truck, locked in a passionate embrace.
Amaros grimaced at her and she snickered.
A stranger was sitting beside him. He gave her a cocky wink and received an elbow in the side from his boss.
“Zoe is mine,” Amaros said with a glower as he came to a stop beneath the trees.
Grace appeared beside Zoe, craning her head to see the newcomer. The foursome rounded the north wing on foot to enter through the main building. “He’s hot,” Grace said too quietly for the knight to hear her. He was examining both of them in return.
“Do you feel anything for him?” Zoe whispered back.
Grace strained with all of her senses, then shook her head in disappointment. “He’s not my mate,” she said, shoulders drooping.
“Zoe, Grace, this is Jacquin,” Amaros said in introduction when they reached the main entrance.
“Ladies,” Jacquin said with a grin. “It’s a pleasure to meet two more beautiful cambions.”
Grace rolled her eyes at him and he smirked in return. “Welcome to the team, Jac,” she said, then turned and trotted back to the kitchen to finish making coffee.
“Jac?” the new arrival asked, turning to Amaros for an explanation.
“Grace likes to give us nicknames,” his leader said.
“I’m Cam,” Camriel said, slinging his arm over his new mate’s shoulders.
“I’ve always been Vic,” Victoria said.
Jacquin looked at his boss. “I’m still Amaros,” he said with a shrug. “It’s hard to shorten my name.”
“Come in and we’ll give you a tour,” Zoe invited the warrior.
Grace had everything ready by the time they gathered in the great room. The teen handed two packages to Victoria and Camriel. “Happy bonding day!” she and Zoe exclaimed together.
Vic tore her gift open. She whistled when she held up some lacy see-through black underwear. “Nice,” she said with a grin. “Cam and I will make good use of these.”
Jac looked Grace up and down with a slight frown. “Aren’t you a bit young to be handing out underwear like that? You can’t be more than fifteen years old.”
“I’m eighteen,” she corrected him with a glare. “That makes me an adult.”
The knight looked at Amaros for confirmation, then shook his head. “My bad,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender. “What did you get, Camriel?” he asked.
Cam tore his gift open and grinned. “It’s a detailing kit for my baby.”
“That was my idea,” Amaros confessed, glad his second liked it. “I got one for my tank, too.”
“When do I get a big truck?” Jacquin asked, jealous that he was missing out.
“All of the knights are going to want their own toys,” Vic said with an eyeroll.
“We don’t have enough room for twenty-one trucks,” Zoe figured, including their little red pickup in the vehicle count.
“We’d have to build one hell of a monstrous garage,” Camriel mused.
Amaros shook his head. “We have more important things to worry about than collecting trucks for everyone. We need to install indoor plumbing for one thing.”
Cam suddenly hunched over, holding his stomach. “Uh, oh,” he groaned. “I think my breakfast is coming back to haunt me.” He shuffled off towards the back exit as the others muffled their snickers.
“It’s his first shiz,” Vic said, wiping away an imaginary tear of pride. “This has been the best day I’ve ever had,” she added.
Jac had been taking everything in. This was all so new he barely knew what was going on half the time. “I have a feeling this trip to Earth is going to be very different from usual,” he predicted.
Amaros had put off telling his knight everything. It was time to lay it all out for him now that he’d witnessed a knight and cambion becoming bonded for himself. “Fate spoke to me before she expelled me from the Void,” he began.
Jac listened in silence as his commander told him about the monumental choice Fate had given them all. “It’s a lot to think about,” he confessed when Amaros was done. “How do I know Fate has chosen the right cambion for me?” he asked skeptically.
“You’ll know,” Cam said as he returned from the outdoor latrine. “You’ll sense a bond with your female immediately,” he added. “It’ll drive you crazy until you can finally persuade her to become your mate.”
“And when you win her over, all of your wildest dreams will come true,” Victoria said, smiling seductively at her new mate.
“Ew,” Grace said, holding her hand up to shield her eyes when Camriel’s body reacted to her. “Take it to your bedroom,” she complained.
“Good idea,” Cam said. He took hold of Vic’s hand and snatched her gift up from where she’d placed it on his chair. “We’ll be needing these,” he said, then tugged her into motion.
“Can you mute their room, so we can’t hear them shagging?” Grace asked Amaros.
“I’ve got it,” Camriel said, overhearing her.
Jacquin’s eyebrows rose. “How can both of you already use magic when there’s only three of us here?” he asked.
“Our bond with our cambions makes us stronger,” Amaros explained. “We can communicate telepathically with our mates as well.”
Jac gave Grace a critical once over with a speculative expression.
“Nope,” she told him flatly. “We don’t have the potential to bond together. It’s useless to even try.”
He deflated a bit, now intrigued by the whole idea of having a female permanently joined to his mind. “So, if we accept the bond, we’ll be able to remain here instead of returning to the Void?” he asked, wanting to make sure he hadn’t gotten it wrong.
“That won’t even be an option,” Zoe reminded him. “Order is going to create new warriors if the knights decide to retire.”
“You’ll fade away and cease to exist forever when you die,” Grace said to hammer the point home.
Jacquin enjoyed fighting. He put everything he had into winning their wars.
He hated the Soldiers of Chaos with a vengeance.
It wasn’t easy for him to trust the cambions.
All three females seemed mentally stable so far.
The thought of bonding with someone he hadn’t even met with yet was going to take some getting used to.
At least he didn’t have to make the choice immediately.
His potential mate hadn’t even arrived yet, so he had time to contemplate if this was something he wanted.
Zoe watched the emotions play over Jacquin’s face. She wished he was Grace’s match, but it wasn’t meant to be. Another cambion was destined to become his mate, but she hadn’t been shown who she was or where she was located yet.
Trust in Fate, Amaros suggested, picking up on her thoughts.
I do, she replied. I just wish we could gather all of our family together now, rather than having to wait.
He didn’t ask her how long it would be until their entire team was assembled.
The truth was that she didn’t know for sure.
All Zoe knew was that Fate had set everything up in advance.
They just had to play their parts and hope they didn’t screw anything up and risk losing any of the knights or cambions.
A shiver of dread worked its way down Zoe’s spine. It was a premonition of doom, but she sensed it was a long way off yet. She hid her trepidation from her mate and her friends. This was a burden that she would have to carry alone.