Page 143 of Hell Fae Commander

My prince is playing with fire,Typhos growled.He’s mated her on the next level, too.

Yes, I’d noticed as much when I’d woken up and joined Cami on the balcony. My power had immediately responded to the stronger outlet inside her, my Phoenix humming with approval.

Melek deepening their mating only makes it more important for her to understand who we are,I told Typhos as I settled beside Cami on the couch.I know you don’t trust her, Typhos. I know you’re not ready to let her in. But my Phoenix is done waiting.

As was evidenced by my bird biting her without a second thought.

It seems Melek is done waiting, too.The words were a sigh in my mind, Typhos’s exhaustion palpable. Yet there was an undercurrent of power that hummed through our bond. Like a live wire he wasn’t quite restraining.

I couldn’t tell if that was related to residual emotions or if it was a hint at his unraveling control.

I trust your judgment, Azazel. But I maintain my right to intervene the moment I determine Camillia’s true intentions.

She doesn’t want to hurt you or me, Typhos. I would know otherwise because I can hear her mind,I whispered to him. It hadn’t been intentional, but when she’d mentioned Vivaxia, my barriers had temporarily fallen. She’d experienced my shocked pain, just as I’d experienced her reaction to it.

And her residual concern for Ajax, her thoughts that I’d been working with Melek to lull her and Ajax into a false sense of security.

That prospect had upset her far more than the realization that my Phoenix and I had been sharing control all this time.

It told me exactly how she felt about Ajax. She cared about him. Deeply. Although, I suspected she hadn’t quite realized that yet.

Her decision to mate him seemed to be based on a misconception about her lack of time left.

Soon she’d realize that she’d mated him for very different reasons. That the two of them were meant to be together.

Just as they were both meant to be mine, too.

My Phoenix had figured that before me, his animalistic instincts keen and determined and not swayed by logic or reason. He’d wanted them, so he’d taken them.

Over the last few weeks, I’d slowly deciphered the cause, my stubborn mind unfurling like my Phoenix’s wings.

Ajax had always been compatible. It was why I’d used him as I had—as a sparring partner capable of managing my brand of heat. But neither of us had been ready to acknowledge or accept the inevitable. Hell, he still wasn’t ready.

However, Cami’s arrival had expedited my bird’s processing of events.

He’d immediately identified her as a fighter, someone who could challenge him and give him renewed purpose.

It’d started when the Hellhounds had failed to capture her, thus requiring Ajax to go hunt her down.

And it’d solidified when I’d been tasked with finding her less than a week later.

My Phoenix had been enamored with the chase, his inability to track her nearly driving him mad. Her father had led us on a similar mindless pursuit, but it hadn’t been the same.

My beast had wanted to destroy her father for that game. Fuck, hestillwanted to destroy the male.

But not Cami. No, he’d wanted topraiseher for crafting such a unique and difficult hunt. He’d decided she was his then.

A cunning, beautiful female with the heart of a warrior.

She wouldn’t fall for me easily. She’d require me to work for it, even with my Phoenix’s sensual traits.

Just as Ajax would make me grovel either until he decided to forgive me, or until I made him forgive me. At this point, it seemed like it would be the latter.

A few weeks might not be long in the grand scheme of things, but it was so much more than that.

My Phoenix had finally marked his mates, yet I hadn’t been allowed to physically complete our claim because Ajax and Cami were too angry and hurt for me to do so.

Telling Cami the truth now might help that along.