Page 86 of Hell Fae Warden

With that, he stood and stretched his arms over his head, the conversation apparently done for now.

I admired his flexing muscles while he moved, my mouth going a little dry at that delicious V cut into his hips.

But Ajax isn’t a Hell Fae.

So I can’t pick him as a mate.

I frowned at my thoughts.Why am I thinking about him as a mate?I could just fuck him, right? And I might not even want a Hell Fae mate.

Shit, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be a Hell Fae at all. While that might be part of my genetic makeup, it didn’t define who I was.

“I need to shower,” Ajax said, drawing me out of my thoughts. “But when I’m done, we’re going to talk about the Hell Fae Kingdoms. That’ll be a good place to start your training.”

That was the abrupt conversation change I needed. A fresh bucket of proverbial ice to extinguish the bizarre flames growing inside. “Kingdoms?” I echoed. “Um, yeah. Sounds good.”

Melek had mentioned we were in the Hell Fae Kingdom, and I knew the Barren Lands was another one. Ajax had also mentioned a Netherworld Kingdom before, too. Learning more about all those places, and any of the others, could be beneficial.

“Don’t go anywhere,” Ajax said before walking away.

I almost asked,What? No cuffs?But I refrained.

Instead, I admired his back and the way it tapered down to his ass.Such a beautiful man.

Stop that,I chastised myself.Yes, he gives good dick. But there are more important things in this world than sex.

Maybe it was this room that kept messing with my head. Knowing Melek, he’d left behind some sort of aphrodisiac meant to spike my libido.

But as I watched Ajax’s shoulder droop just before he reached the door, my heart cracked a little. Loneliness seemed to drape around him like an invisible cloak.

Perhaps I was just imagining it, making up perceptions based on everything he’d admitted while under the truth serum. However, he seemed… sad. Misplaced. Uncertain.

Because he’s no longer the Warden,I realized. While he’d said that hadn’t been his primary driver for wanting to interrogate me, he had admitted that it’d been a factor.

Knowing what I did about him now, I could somewhat understand why. He’d lost everything in the Midnight Fae Realm. But he’d found happiness—or a version of it, anyway—and purpose here in the Hell Fae Realm as the Warden.

But that’d been stripped away from him.

Because of his affiliation with me.

My lips twisted, frustration inching a path across my brain. I wasn’t to blame for what had happened, and yet, something sharp pricked at my heart, something that felt a lot like guilt.

I blew out a breath and grabbed my Irish coffee, needing a distraction. The black screen before me seemed to wave a warm welcome, except there didn’t appear to be a remote for it anywhere in sight.

“Okay, how do I turn you on?” I asked, my eyes scanning the room once more. “Hmm.”

I started to stand, intending to see if there was a switch on the wall or on the screen itself, when something hit me hard on the thighs, causing me to fall back onto the couch with an “Oomph.”

Gaping downward, I found the book vibrating in my lap.

I scoffed. “Yeah, no,” I told it as I grabbed the binding and shoved it back onto the table. “The last time I listened to you, I lost thirty days. Forgive me for not being interested.”

The book blinked out of view, then landed in my lap again.

“I saidno,” I told it, lifting it once more, only for it to vanish from my hands and plop right back down on my thighs.

Damn stubborn piece of parchment.

I glared at it. “No.”