Page 54

MARA

T he team was set—Javier, Matias, Wes, and me.

Wes was taking point on what was now being called Operation Troy since he pulled rank.

If Javier’s little grimace told me anything, he wasn’t particularly happy about the shift in command.

But he didn’t argue. Giza indicated he would set up a training schedule to prep us all, and Matias would be informed later today of his assignment.

We had three weeks before the mission, so that was three weeks to get into shape and prepare.

Marissa and Krous were super pissed with Wes.

It was unheard of for the leader of a faction to go on a mission like this.

But Wes did what Wes does best…flipped them both the metaphorical middle finger and told them to do their jobs.

Nora and Sasha didn’t argue. It wasn’t their place, and they weren’t going to stick their nose in our business any more than they already had.

I suspected they knew Wes wasn’t happy with them, and they weren’t going to push their luck.

After the meeting, it was awkward. I could feel the thick tension between Wes, his mother, Krous, and me.

I was incredibly grateful when Marissa demanded Wes speak to her, and I latched onto my cousin like a leech on fresh meat.

He happily escorted me out of the room, throwing Wes a casual—albeit cocky—salute.

The whole time, I could feel Wes’s gaze on me as I exited until the door closed behind us.

“Estoy muy orgulloso de ti, primita,” Javi said as he looped my arm around his. “I’m very proud of you.”

I beamed, enjoying the praise, but more than anything, the camaraderie. Having Javier felt so much like having Jacob again. Nothing would replace the loss of my brother, but Javi made it a lot easier to bear.

“Thanks, cousin.” I rested my head against his arm as we walked to the ballroom for dinner.

“You think your boyfriend’s going to have me hung for opening my big mouth? Something tells me he and I aren’t going to be braiding each other’s hair anytime soon.”

I laughed. The thought of Wes’s hair in pigtail braids was rather ridiculous. “I think I’d rather you didn’t. Plus,” I said as I reached up and grabbed a lock of his sleek black hair. “I don’t think your hair is quite long enough.”

“No? I’ll have to grow it out like your man in there.”

I snickered.

“Oye, prima…he’s a bit intense , no?”

Chuckling, I nodded. “You noticed that, huh?”

“It’s hard not to notice. ?Pero es bueno contigo? He’s good to you?”

His words echoed Edith’s, and I couldn’t help but reflect the moments I’d shared with him.

Wes was intense. There was no hiding that.

But perhaps that was why he loved so fiercely too?

He was passionate, though always containing it, and in those rare moments when he let it out, it was frighteningly beautiful.

But there was nothing about Wes that scared me anymore. In fact, the only fear that still swelled in my heart was the fear of living a life without him. Wes was my promised, and I was his. And I wanted to experience a lifetime being wrapped in his arms .

I looked at Javi, hugging his arm a little harder. “He’s always been good to me, cousin. Since the very beginning.”

***

WES

After arguing with my mother and Krous for what felt like an eternity, I climbed the steps, heading back to my room.

I’d messaged Mara telling her to eat dinner since I was stuck with preparing plans for the North.

If Mara was going on the mission, there was no way I was trusting anyone with her life but me.

Not a fucking chance.

If that made me irresponsible as a leader, so be it.

The North would be in my mother’s perfect hands.

It was amazing how much her presence at the bases had settled the grumblings and angst of our forces.

Her presence was soothing to them— motherly —but she also had an iron fist she kept secretly tucked away and out of sight until needed.

She was blossoming now that she was free from my father’s control, and I had no doubt the people would cheer her ascension into leadership if anything happened to me.

It may have appeared to her and Krous that I was being rash, but I wasn’t.

I was following my heart. And my heart would follow Mara into the depths of the storm—walk the smoldering paths of hell—if need be.

I loved my faction, but I loved her more.

My mother could have my region, because all I wanted was my promised.

** *

MARA

After dinner, I raced back up to my room to shower.

I knew Wes was probably not happy with me, and I expected there was going to be some sort of fallout for my participation in this mission.

But I wasn’t worried about it, nor was I upset about his desires for me not to go.

I knew his hesitation came from a need to keep me safe, and I couldn’t blame him.

I’d deal with Wes, and we’d get over it just like we always did.

But what I was more interested in seeing was Wes’s reaction to my wings.

I realized I had no idea how he felt about tattoos.

He didn’t have any of his own, and now I was starting to think that maybe he wasn’t into them.

And if that was the case, how was he going to react when he saw the entire landscape of my back had been transformed with black ink?

I fretted about it the entire time I scrubbed and washed my hair.

When I was done, I looked at the reflection of my back in the mirror.

The skin looked healed—no redness or irritation that I could see.

I slipped on my bra, just a single layer of black lace, matching the color of my cotton underwear.

Grabbing one of Wes’s baggy black t-shirts, I pulled it on over my head.

I had my own shirts, but I loved wearing his since they fit me like a dress.

Plus, they held the faint scent of him, soothing my soul.

After towel-drying my hair, I was brushing it through when I heard the door to his room close. I quickly passed a final swipe of the comb and turned off the light.

“Wes?” It was stupid for me to even call his name. I stepped out of the bathroom, and there he was. I inhaled sharply as his gorgeous appearance caused my heart to skip at least a thousand beats.

He’d rolled up the white sleeves to his button-down a quarter of the way, exposing lines of muscles and small tendons that popped in his forearms. Three little buttons had been undone, exposing a V-shaped patch of smooth skin that I craved nothing more than to touch.

The little adjustments were simple, but oh my god did they do something wicked to my soul.

Because in that very moment, my heart rate accelerated to a steady pattering that had heat flushing all the way down to my toes.

Suddenly, I was hotter than the baking sands of the Mojave Desert in July, sizzling and desperate for rain.

“Hey…” I muttered. It was literally all I could manage. Because I was missing him. I was craving him. I wanted nothing more than him . And apparently that meant my brain turned off, and I could no longer think clearly.

Wes’s eyes slowly slid down the length of my body as though he were drinking, tasting, devouring every inch of me with nothing but his eyes. I shivered.

Slowly, those eyes drifted back up to mine, and the heat made them glow like ambered jewels. “I was hoping to talk to you about what happened in the meeting. To explain why I didn’t want you to go.”

“I…I think it’s pretty obvious,” I managed to say, tripping over my words.

“Is it?”

I nodded, watching him intently. “You’re worried. But you’re always worried about me.”

His eyes glistened. “I think it comes with the love territory,” he said, offering me a sweet half-smile. “Loving somebody means you automatically worry about them.”

I rubbed my lips together, feeling a little guilty for forcing his hand and making him anxious. But… “I have to do this, Wes. I know maybe it doesn’t make sense to you, and I understand if you’re angry with me, but…I have to do this. Telvia, NIT-V2, my dad…it’s my fault.”

“Mara,” he shook his head gently. “None of this is your fault—”

“Yes, it is,” I said, my voice just a tad too sharp.

I blew out a breath, closing my eyes as I tried to collect myself.

“Look, I don’t expect you to understand, and I don’t expect you to go with me.

” I looked at him once more, fingers curling into my palm.

“But I won’t stay here and make someone else risk their lives for my father’s crimes or for Jacob’s mistakes.

It may not be my fault, but it’s theirs.

And no one should have to risk their life to rectify something that they weren’t responsible for to begin with. It’s not their problem, it’s mine .”

I lifted my chin, rolling my shoulders back. I didn’t expect him to understand, but I did expect him to clear a path, to not stand in my way.

His eyes shifted to the floor with a resolute sigh. Then silence filled the space between us. And when I thought my skin was going to crawl off my bones with anticipation, he finally spoke. “All right.”

I blinked. Some part of me thought he wasn’t going to give in that easily, that this was going to be more of a fight. “Really?”

He looked up at me then. “Really.” He blew out a breath.

“Mara, I’m a selfish man, and the last thing I want is for something to happen to you.

I don’t ever want to see you in harm’s way.

But…” He shook his head, taking a step towards me.

I was rooted like a tree, completely unable to move or respond.

“The last thing I ever want to do is cage you in. I don’t ever want you to feel like you’re trapped with me.

Like being with me is taking away your freedom. ”

His words were like a snare on their own.

Because those words meant more to me than he could ever know.

My whole life I had felt trapped. If not by my parents and the strict rules in Telvia, then by the stupid schemes I had been caught up in to save my brother—first by Sasha and then by Charles.

I was always being ensnared, trapped, caged .

I was tired of it.

I craved freedom.

And I wanted to spread my wings and fly.

His head shifted as he watched me like an elegant predator, taking another step toward me. “I won’t stand in your way, Mara, and I’ll do whatever it is I can to help you. But don’t expect me to just sit and watch.”

Adrenaline was a drug pumping through my veins—hot and addictive. I parted my lips as he took painfully slow, definitive steps toward me .

Just two steps away…one step away.

“I won’t stop you, but I won’t let you do it alone either. We’re together on this.”

Touchdown.

Wes stared down at me, and my heart was no longer pattering, but racing, my whole body pulsing. His left hand found my hip, drawing me toward him while the back of his fingers on the other gently swept up along my jawline.

He spoke softly—warmed whispers that reminded me of breath on exposed skin. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help you soar.”

I shivered at his touch—at the whisper of his breath over my skin. “I love you…and I missed you so much,” I uttered.

He brushed his lips over mine. “I missed you too. I missed the sound of your voice.” He skimmed his nose over my cheek.

“I missed touching your body.” His right hand followed the curves of my shoulder, down my arm, and then swept over my waistline.

“I missed tasting your skin.” His lips grazed my jaw, then slowly made their way down the column of my neck.

I closed my eyes, tipping my head to the side, feeling him kiss and pull on my flesh. A graze of his teeth sent goosebumps skittering down my arms, and when he nipped me, I jumped in his hands, causing him to make a deliciously primal sound.

“But my god, Mara, the thing I missed most was you.”

He kissed me again, and this time, I reciprocated.

I parted my lips, wanting him to deepen the kiss, and he did.

He swept past, and then I was tasting him, all too eager to welcome the gentle caresses of his tongue as his hands began to wander and explore.

He pulled on my skin, gripped at my curves, and I was falling into a storm of fire and vibrant bolts of lightning.

And when he breathed in the very air from my lungs, I was done .

My hands found his chest, and I was tugging on his shirt, undoing the buttons, and diving my hands past the fabric. Palms explored smoothly taut skin and then drifted down over the ripples of his abs.

He took his hands off me only for a moment, shrugging his shirt off his shoulders, and allowing me a moment to admire. Wes’s black slacks hung indecently low on his hips, teasing my eyes with the dips of his pelvic muscles, forming the delicious V that disappeared below the hem of his pants.

His hands reached for me again, drawing me against him as he spoke. “I like when you look at me like that.”

My cheeks flushed as I quickly looked up to his haughty gaze and knowing smirk.

I had been caught staring, but I didn’t care.

And even if I did, there would have been no point.

Wes’s lips found mine again. His hands gripped at me, pulled on my shirt, lifting it just enough to find the exposed skin of my hips once more with the touch of his palm.

I knew he wanted more, and I was all too happy to oblige.

But first…

“Wes?” I placed my hands on his chest, pushing him away from me. Reluctantly, he allowed me to create the meager few inches of space.

His mouth traveled the line of my jaw as he mumbled, “Hmm?”

I smiled. “I need to show you something first.”

He was back on my neck, speaking against my skin. “I’m sure it can wait.”

I shook my head, leaning away from him. “It can’t.”

He paused, letting out a long breath before finally looking up at me. “What is it?”

I stepped away from him, only a few feet, feeling an odd combination of excitement and angst as his eyes tracked me. I reached for the hem of my shirt and lifted it up and over my head, noticing his chest rise. Then, very slowly, I pulled my hair forward over my shoulder, and turned around.