Page 4

Was it any wonder that both he and Max had been obsessed with her?

But Max had always been the cocky one, the one who had to win every bet, to bed every woman, and this time, it had been no different.

Max had seduced Fenella, inadvertently induced her transition, and then left her without knowing that she'd turned immortal. The poor girl hadn't known what hit her, why all those changes were happening to her, so she'd left her home and started roving the world in search of answers.

It was Din's fault that she'd suffered. His and Max's.

If he hadn't been such a prideful idiot, such a stubborn fool, he would never have gone to see her after Max left her and spoken to her in the way that he had. If he had just handled things differently then, they might have been together for half a century already, and she would have been spared all the horrors that had been inflicted upon her.

The Doomer who'd done that to her was still alive in the clan's dungeon in Los Angeles, and Din had every intention of changing his life status.

Kian's permission was required for ending that vile life, and Din would have to wait until every last bit of information was extracted from the monster, but Kian would recognize Din's right to avenge his mate, even if she didn't accept him as her one and only yet.

"We will be landing soon," the pilot announced, breaking through the haze of rage that had momentarily blinded Din. "Please collect your electronic devices…"

"Are you okay?" the woman sitting next to him asked.

Bloody hell. Din could feel the armrests groaning under his fingers and forced them to loosen their grip.

"Yes," he murmured without turning toward her, and keeping his eyes closed to hide their inner glow.

His elongated fangs were a little harder to conceal, though. He had to get a hold of himself before he let the woman see his face.

"There is no shame in being scared of flying," she said. "I'm especially terrified of landings. Would you like me to hold your hand?"

He followed her gaze to where he was still gripping the armrests, not as hard as before, but his knuckles were still white. Under no circumstances could he allow her to hold his hand. He might crush hers accidentally.

"Thank you for the offer, but I'll be alright in a couple of moments. I'm trying to concentrate on my breathing exercises."

That should get her to mind her own business and stop looking at him.

"Oh, I see. I'll leave you alone to meditate then."

Thank the merciful Fates.

Soon, he would be in New York, and from there he'd fly to Los Angeles. After all the broken travel arrangements, this final leg to Fenella felt like the end of a half-century vigil.

He could almost imagine the look she would give him when he finally showed up at the village. Disbelief, maybe. Annoyance, perhaps. But under it all, he hoped for just a flicker of excitement. Or at least relief that he'd arrived in one piece.

On some level, he was glad that Fenella was so worried about him and imagined each delay as a bad omen. It meant that she cared for him.

He could work with that.

Musings about Fenella calmed the storm he'd created in his mind, and he even started dozing off when the chime sounded, and a moment later, the pilot's calm but taut voice crackled through the cabin speakers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain. We seem to be experiencing a mechanical issue with the landing gear. There is no need for alarm. We are working on a solution."

What kind of a solution could they come up with in the air? And how were they going to land the aircraft without landing gear?

A collective ripple of alarm coursed through the cabin.

The woman beside him gasped, her knuckles now going white on the armrests. "W-what does that mean?"

"It means that we might need to land differently than planned," Din said, trying to keep his tone calm for her sake. "The crew will do all they can to fix it."

He certainly hoped they could do that. Even immortals couldn't survive a serious plane crash. Not that a jet landing on its belly would be fatal to him unless the whole thing caught fire and exploded. Still, he could potentially open one of the emergency doors and jump out. A fall, provided that it wasn't from too high up, would injure him but not kill him.

The same couldn't be said for the human passengers, though, and he couldn't just leave them to die.