Page 135 of Grave Beginnings

He let out a long sigh. “I have to present this to the Chief, regardless.”

“My answer will be the same,” Hanna said.

They glared at each other for a long moment before the man turned and left. Sergeant Hanna gave us her attention, her gaze annoyed. “Do you understand what you’re doing?” she asked.

I wondered if she wanted me to answer, but it was Angel who replied, “I do.”

She let out a long sigh. “This may not end the way you hope.”

“Then I’ll seek asylum at your court across the Veil. I have enough favors owed to me,” Angel said.

“I paired him with you to ground you, not realizing he was going to be a magnet for trouble.”

“Why do I feel like youknewhe was my mate? Didn’t you say you’d been asking for him for a while? You couldn’t have known he was both SV and DV. None of us did until he was marked. The demon variance was dormant. SVs are never powerful enough for you to covet one. Yet you wanted him for me.”

She stared at him, expression blank. “And now every letter agency in the world will want a piece of him, and only you stand between them. Do you want that target on your back?”

Angel sighed. “Yes. He’s mine.”

She sighed. “Don’t let this bite us in the ass, Mao.”

He saluted her. “I’ll save all my biting for Jude.”

“If only,” she said, sounding annoyed before she stalked out of my room.

“Should I be worried?” I asked as she left. The frown on his face made me worry, and think about his kiss, because damn that man had skill. My face heated as his gaze met mine, and Ithought he’d somehow been hearing what I thought and knew that I was obsessed with his kiss. “I really don’t want to be dragged off to the military.”

“Not going to happen.” He let out a long sigh. “They’ll keep an eye on us, checking in from time to time.” Angel stared at me, his shoulders tight and expression guarded.

I let that process a moment, taking in his body language and the tension radiating off of him. “Okay,” I agreed. “I already said yes to the mate bond. But you knew I came with baggage before you kissed me stupid.”

A smile tugged the edges of his lips. “I’m aware.” He appeared thoughtful for a minute. “Stupid, huh?”

“Every time you kiss me, I forget everything else.”

“Sounds like bad situational awareness.”

“Only around you.”

“Yeah, we’ll work on that. Your magic worries me. We need to get you real training.”

“I’m on board for that.”

“And maybe stop rescuing random fairy creatures?”

“It was stuck in goo and couldn’t breathe!” I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation. “What would you have done? Left it to suffocate in magical sludge?” I asked. “I saved Ezra and the blue-haired dude, too. Oh, and Jonah. Speaking of, is he okay? Or did CPS toss him into the system with a ‘return to sender’ stamp since his parents liked the creepy version of him better?”

Angel sighed. “Jonah is fine. The changeling has been taken into custody and his parents are thrilled to have their real kid back.” His sarcasm could’ve cut glass. “But that’s CPS’s issue now. They are under investigation, as we aren’t sure if they willingly had him exchanged or something else happened.” He froze mid-sentence, his head snapping toward the door, his supernatural hearing catching something I couldn’t.

Ezra strode in, his piercing blue gaze locked onto Angel like a husky who’d just spotted a squirrel it really wanted to murder. “Hanna’s already put the word out,” he announced, voice sharp. “Declaring Holt as yours. Everyone at SED will know in less than an hour.”

Angel stiffened. “He’s not leaving our team. Don’t you dare suggest it.”

Ezra didn’t blink. “Hanna’s demanding we add Woodward. Says Holt needs the supervision.”

“Oh, fantastic,” I cut in. “Because what my life is missing is a moody, blue-haired wizard who treats my soul like a sippy cup. The expert in unlicensed magic extraction and boundary violations. Does his training include asking before he turns me into a human juice box again, or is that an advanced class? Maybe we can incorporate a Consent 101 class for all new hires?”

Angel’s jaw flexed as he ground his teeth, obviously not liking the idea of the practitioner joining our team. “I don’t want him near you.”