Page 184 of Cold-Blooded Creatures

A cornered animal about to turn rabid. The past repeating had taken him from me, but I was going to tear it to fucking shreds to get him back.

He was mine.

Using the hem of my shirt, I wiped the scarlet off Kali’s chin. “Do not act so careless again. Not until you know how to defend yourself and disarm an opponent.”

“I can take care of myself,” she sputtered as she ripped my shirt up, examining me like she had done with Zion. I had taken a few fists, but my bones remained intact, and no gushing gashes marred my scarred abdomen. Using firearms and taking cover instead of storming with a cold weapon in hand had helped.

“I do not doubt it,” I said, studying her figure. She moved without wincing, thus most likely covered only in superficial cuts and bruises numbed by the high of the fight. “But he hit you.” I gestured to the unconscious soldier at our feet. “Anyone who tries that dies.”

She blew out an exasperated sigh. “Iwant to be the one to do that. I have killed before, and I can do it again.”

So bloodthirsty. “I know. I left him alive for you.”

Incredulity pouting her lips, a habit she must have picked up from Zion, she harshly kicked the bordering-on-passing-out man in the ribs. He let out a pained sound, and she rocked on her heels, beaming at me. “Thank you.”

Tipping my head down, I stole her lips, drinking her fully, memorizing the outline of her being. After sparing the five seconds to catch my breath and look at her, actuallylookat her, I stepped into Zion, our teeth clashing, our tongues twining in theuncertainty of the moment, the past years, the morning to come. He gradually relaxed, melting into my hold on his nape, and I turned the kiss deep and slow, mapping out his curves and lines.

Mine.

Necessity swirled in my gut tofeelthem, their warmth, their pulses, to see their smiles, faint and fleeting, to witness their lives not having reached their expiration date.

I finally had them both. Two wrecks lashing out with violence at anyone and everyone. They had both shattered into tiny shards of glass that were cutting them up each day they were alive and each night they dreamed their nightmares.

And I had no idea how to protect the pieces of them remaining. How to glue them back together. I was barely keeping myself together.

But I was certain of one thing. I was not letting them go.

My tattoos. My possessions.

Mine to protect, mine to destroy, mine to worship.

You could call me a territorial bastard. But once I had staked my claim, it was a done deal.

“Zion.” I exhaled his name and so much more. The wish tonight could take me back to the day I had met him and the night I had broken him. The apology for the past and the promise for the future.

“Gedeon.” His lip corners curled upward, and I chuckled at his amusement. Yet it did ease the pressure in my chest, relaxing the muscles between my ribs and subduing the regret.

“I’ll take care of him,” Zion said as he squatted before the soldier.

Leaving him to restrain the man, I joined Kali as she raised Malaya’s arms to check her over.

“Did he hurt you?” she asked.

Malaya leaned on the wall, panting. “I don’t think so. He wanted to take me back.” She tucked a blonde strand behindher ear and a button of her navy wool coat popped from the roundness of her belly. “He kept saying the next child would be his.”

His. Ilasall had begun adding green-banded to their military ranks. First the messenger, and now this one.

So that was what fueled their attack today. Switching who took the ranking positions in their armed forces lessened the probability of another revolt, a repeat of the previous war. Their commanding officers would see no need for it when they already had everything they could want waiting for them on a platter back in the city.

The opposite of the ordeal from the past.

“What were you doing here?” I asked Malaya as I pulled Kali closer and kissed her temple.

Okay. She was okay.

“Eislyn told me someone from the Matching wanted to run away, I mean to Ilasall, saying that this compound was, ahm, wrong.” Malaya paused, focused on our teams dispersing to restrain the still-alive soldiers.

They knew the drill. Captives were to be offered freedom in exchange for information. If they did not agree to comply the first time—which had not occurred so far—Zion and his catch-and-play team would take matters into their own hands and extract the answers in whatever creative ways they could come up with.