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“Let’s just say I have some sympathy for what he’s going through right now. Learning that family you loved are traitorous monsters can be quite the mindfuck.”

I nodded. “I’m giving him some grace too. I just wish he’d talk to me about how he’s feeling.”

“Vampires are notoriously emotionless, stoic, and keep things close to the chest. It’s just his nature.”

“I figured.” I kissed him again, then my gaze slid down to the counter. “We should uh … clean the counter.”

“On it,” he said, hitting the tile with a blast of yellow flames from one hand while keeping the other wrapped around my waist. “Yellow are for healing, as well as disinfecting.”

Lifting up onto my tiptoes, I pressed a kiss to his jaw. “I’ll see you in the morning,mate.” Then I broke our embrace and turned to go.

A sharp smack to my ass made me squeak and jump.

“Damn straight you will, mymate,” he said. “Fuck, I like the sound of that.”

I glanced at him over my shoulder and shot him a wink. “Goodnight, Sparky. I love you.”

He pressed both hands to his chest and pretended to faint. “Oh, baby, you just keep serving upallthe good stuff tonight. Next thing you’ll be telling me, we made a little demon-mage tonight.”

I pointed my finger at him in warning. “You shut your mouth and take back that wish. We are fighting a war here. This is not the time to be bringing children into this world.”

“But think of how cute they’d be. Little terrors in all the best possible ways.”

I gave him the stink-eye. “Watch it, Sparky, or there’ll be a moratorium on anymore of that penetrative funny business you’re ridiculously good at. I can make do with your fingers, flames, and tongue.”

He playfully wiggled his tongue and made flames bust out on his fingers. “You mean these?”

“Goodnight,” I enunciated slowly.

His smile calmed everything inside of me. I knew I’d have a good sleep now. “Goodnight, My Queen. Rest well. I love you too.”

I fell asleep with my hands firmly over my brand and cool spirals whirling through me as I replayed our mate-bonding in the kitchen. I had two bonded-mates now. Two men I was tied to forever.

And surprisingly, that didn’t scare me one little bit.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Maxar

We’d been training Omaera for nearly a week now. The morning following our Mate Bond put an enormous gulf between Drak and Omaera. Not only because she was forced to only torture him, but because he was the last mate to bond with her. He was quieter than ever, and because Zandren refused to let Omaera give Drak any blood to heal—because of what happened the last time—Drak was weak after training and retired to bed early.

The next three days were weapon and combat training only. We taught her how to wield a sword, spar in hand-to-hand combat, how to take down her opponent with minimal force, and how to take down an opponent significantly larger than her. Drak sat out during most of those training sessions, sitting in the corner, sullen and silent.

On day five of us being there, Kenvin said he needed to take a trip to a nearby town for supplies which meant we would have a break for the day.

She’d spent the night with Zandren, so I was aching to see her at breakfast, and nearly swallowed her whole when I kissed her hello.

“Well, good morning to you too,” she said with a laugh, coming up for air.

“I missed you,” I murmured against her neck. “Hearing you with the bear last night was torture.”

She blinked up at me. “We have a free day and Kenvin said we can use his spare vehicle. How would you feel about a trip to the prison?” She glanced at Drak, who somberly scooped some of the cricket porridge into a bowl for himself. “Drak, do you want to go too?”

He cast his icy-blue gaze at her, but it was tough to predict his reply based on his resting-bat-face.

Zandren pushed a bowl of porridge and blankberry jam into Omaera’s hand. “Eat, Little One. You need your strength after last night.” Then he shot me a cocky, triumphant look.

She rolled her eyes but smiled at the big beast. “Thank you.”