Page 52 of Crave Me

“I thought you were babysitting your mate” was Kaspian’s greeting as he picked up. “But I see she’s causing problems over at Lissa’s shop.”

“Lissa’s shop?” I repeated incredulously. “Why the hell would she…?” I trailed off as I recalled our conversation before she’d lost her dress. “Right. She went shopping.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and blew out a breath.

“You let her go shopping?Alone?”

“I didn’tlet herdo anything. I left her asleep in my bed while I worked. Apparently, she’s awake now.” And I didn’t quite care for hisbabysittingterminology. She was a goddess. I couldn’t exactlybabysither.

“Apparently,” he echoed.

“I’ll meet you there,” I said, hanging up and stepping out onto my patio.

The shop was only a mile or so from my grounds. Driving would take longer than running, so I engaged my vampiric speed instead.

Only to freeze upon finding Nyx behind a wall of swirling energy.

Her golden eyes were on the crowd of supernaturals behind it, her anger a palpable wave that prickled along my senses and caused every hair to stand on end.

It took me a blink to understand her fury—they were all blasting her with varying degrees of magic and weapons, the shield the only thing standing between them.

What the fuck?

“Stop!” I shouted, my command for those beyond the barrier.

“They’re attacking me,” she spat back. “I will not stop defending myself!”

“I’m not talking to you,” I told her. “I’m talking tothem.”

Several of my men immediately dropped to one knee, their expression of respect duly noted.

It took the others a few seconds to realize who had spoken, their eyes widening with fear as they fell to the ground in a display of obedience.

And the last among them—a bear shifter named Raymond—finally stopped trying to claw at Nyx’s magic and sat on his rump with a loud huff.

“What the fuck just happened here?” I demanded.

Nyx didn’t drop her barrier, her golden irises flaring with power. I must have felt her calling on the moon to bolster her in some way because her shield was made of the same substance that had coated her arms last night.

Stardust.

“Um.” A female cleared her throat.Lissa. “The goddess gave me some stardust to make a wish. And… and I wished for a character from an old movie. An elf. And it worked.”

Raymond growled at that, causing my eyebrow to twitch upward.

“You created an elf?” I asked, glancing at Nyx.

“No, the stars did from her wish.” The irritation in her tone was not lost on me. “I was trying to offer her stardust for payment of clothing, but that shifter”—she pointed at Raymond—“shot my gift in the head. And then he tried to shoot me after I told him to ask you about my clemency.”

My other eyebrow lifted. “You tried to shoot my fated mate?” It wasn’t what I should have said or what I’d even meant to say, but the shock pulled the words from my throat in a low, lethal tone, forcing me to voice them aloud.

This male dared to hurt what’s mine?

We might have rejected our bond.

But we were still linked in a way, one I couldn’t quite define.

And that made her mine to protect. Mine to court. Mine to potentially mate for life.