Page 49 of The Bodyguard and the Alpha (Witch Twins #2)

Electra

Voices outside the room woke me from sleep. I was warm, so wonderfully warm. At my back, a body curled around mine. One heavy arm was thrown over my body, holding me against him. I was the little spoon to a very large spoon. Bastien. My mate.

It had been four days. Four days of amazing sex. Bastien was insatiable. I understood now, what Luc had meant about the mating frenzy. There had been hardly a minute when he wasn’t wrapped around me. If we weren’t in bed, he was feeding me, insisting on me sitting in his lap as he hand-fed me.

One voice rose above the others. “I’m here to see my sister.” Caly? Caly was here? I sat up, trying to pry Bastien’s arm from around my waist. He grumbled his displeasure.

“I’m not going anywhere, I just want to talk to Caly.”

She may enter. No-one else .

I nodded. I was totally okay with that. I didn’t want a repeat of the way Bastien had reacted the first time my colleague, Matteo, had stuck his head into the room.

Bastien had leaped from the bed and charged at him, from all appearances ready to commit murder because a male might have seen me partly naked.

Although, the jealous way he’d fucked me afterwards had been hot .

The arm was still possessively around my body… my naked body. “You need to let me up big guy. I’m close to my sister, but I’d rather have some clothes on.” If only I knew where my clothes were. It had been days since I’d worn anything.

Bastien’s eyes opened and his heated blue gaze ran up and down my body, lingering on my bare breasts, on the marks he’d left on my skin. The hand moved from my waist to caress my hip.

There’s a robe in the bathroom.

Huh. I’d known that. I’d seen it but my brain hadn’t been working properly for days. “Give me five minutes,” I shouted toward the door as I wriggled off the bed.

I scurried to the bathroom. I didn’t shut the door behind me.

There was no point. The lock no longer worked.

The first time I’d tried to take a shower alone I’d locked the door out of habit.

When Bastien realised he was locked out he had shattered the lock with one kick.

I rolled my eyes at the memory. The robe was hanging on a hook behind the door.

Blue silk, it hung to mid-thigh. I was covered, but barely.

Turning, I reached for a brush. There was no mirror, but given the…

activities… I’d been engaged in, my hair was sure to be a tangled mess.

I’ll do it . Bastien’s voice was a warm caress in my mind.

He had rammed through my mental defences the first time we’d had sex.

He had bitten me again, in the same place where he’d given me my original mate mark, and while I’d been out of my mind with pleasure, he had demolished my shields so thoroughly that his mental presence was now a constant in my mind.

I was never alone. Not even in my thoughts.

My hair? You want to do my hair?

Of course. It’s my job to take care of you .

Your job is to be President of the Council .

That was his job. I am not the President.

Brush in hand, I returned to our room… cell… whatever. Bastien had found a pair of grey sweatpants from somewhere, and he had moved to the table, his large thighs spread wide. He gestured for me to stand between his legs.

Handing him the brush, I turned my back. As he wielded the brush through the tangles in my hair with gentle strokes, I thought about the words I wanted to say.

“I love both parts of you,” I said.

Aloud, he just grunted. You’re mine , he growled down the bond. He kept me from you for five years. He doesn’t deserve you.

And we were back here again. Whenever I tried to broach the topic of Bastien bonding the two halves of his soul, he shut the conversation down. He didn’t want to be the President of the Council and he didn’t want to share me with his human half.

“We can’t stay here forever.”

In reply, Bastien sent me the image of a secluded country house, behind high walls, patrolled by Shifter guards.

Ruthlessly, I quashed the feelings that wanted to grow under my breastbone.

I knew that house. It was Bastien’s country home.

I’d been there a couple of times when visiting political figures had wanted some time away from the spotlight and I’d loved every second I’d spent there.

If there was a house where I could imagine spending ongoing enforced isolation, it was that house.

Total privacy. Large, shaded gardens. I could be happy there. A place where I didn’t have to be a Witch. Where I could be my own person. Bastien’s mate.

I knew the thought leaked out when I felt Bastien’s pleased hum. Against my back, his cock swelled.

Be quick with your sister . Sharp fangs grazed the sensitive skin of my shoulder. Bastien pulled me onto his lap, and at the same time his deep voice rumbled, “Let her in.”

Tears welled in my eyes as I watched my sister enter the room. She looked good. She looked confident, joyful. Being mated to Luc clearly agreed with her. And she didn’t even blink at Bastien’s beast form.

The door remained open behind her and she paused, hands open and loose by her side, sensibly showing Bastien that she was no threat. Let me go , I ordered and Bastien’s hands dropped from around my waist. In a flash, I was up and running to my sister.

I will leave you two alone , Bastien said gently in my mind.

Faintly, I registered that he headed for the bathroom and I sent him a pulse of gratitude.

Most of my concentration was on my sister.

She grabbed me in a fierce hug that matched my own, both of us crying.

The past month had been intense for both of us.

While Bastien and I had been in Europe, my pre-cog had fired multiple times, telling me that Caly had been in danger.

I’d been just in time to alert her to an attack in her apartment, but I’d spent several hours pacing the floor of my suite in our luxury hotel waiting to hear what had happened.

To my surprise, it had been Luc who texted me to let me know that she’d been hurt but was going to be okay.

Then, after Luc and Caly had figured out that she had a journal that was part of a spell to block magic, he’d moved her into the Palace.

Where she should have been safe. But she’d been kidnapped from under Luc’s nose, in the most secure building in the country and my warning phone calls had gone unheard.

The hours I’d waited for news of her had been the worst in my life. Thankfully, she and Luc were both all right, although she’d been in serious danger. My pre-cog had stabbed into my brain like a knife.

Finding out that she and Luc were mates, was hard.

Envy had stabbed deep into my soul, even though I was rapt for her.

Caly deserved happiness. Our mother’s neglect had hit her hard and the overprotective possessive love of an Alpha was perfect for her.

But it had been a final nail in the coffin for my life as Bastien’s bodyguard.

My own loneliness had reached a tipping point with Caly’s announcement.

Even once I’d returned to the Palace, we didn’t have a moment to ourselves.

While Bastien and I prepared for the Summit, Luc had locked Caly away in his suite, his Alpha instincts pushing him hard, and I had been working round the clock.

We had doubled Bastien’s security, without adding any new staff to the roster, knowing that Caly’s kidnappers had acquired the journal and the missing parts of the magic dampening spell.

If I wasn’t on duty, I was falling into bed exhausted.

Which brought us to the point where Bastien and I had been kidnapped. And now I was mated too. Maybe. Despite Bastien’s assurances, I still found it hard to believe that he truly wanted me. I knew that his Beast side wanted me, but I was less sure about his feelings as a human.

Caly and I sure had a lot to talk about.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Caly said, once our initial tears had passed.

She pulled me down onto the couch beside her.

I just shrugged. Bastien had tried to tell me that too, but it hadn’t stopped the guilt.

“I mean it,” Caly said. “You didn’t do anything wrong.

And even if you had made a mistake, you’re human. It happens.”

Not to me it didn’t. Mother had made sure of that.

I had to be perfect. From the moment my talent had manifested, she had been relentless.

As the first Witch in a couple of hundred years to have pre-cog she had her sights set on me soaring to magical heights.

The ones she hadn’t been able to reach. Through me she intended to get the magical recognition she felt she had deserved.

And that had meant discipline. Schedules.

Endless training. All in the name of perfection.

I hated it, but I didn’t know how to be anything but perfect.

We had known that a terrorist group had possession of the journal.

We had increased Bastien’s protection. But I was his last line of defence and I had failed.

It didn’t matter what Bastien said, or what my sister said.

His capture was my fault. His torture was my fault.

His loss of control and shift was my fault.

Everything I had been trying to hold in since that moment when I’d realised the server in front of me was a magical void spilled out of me. I fell into my sister’s waiting arms, sobbing, my chest aching.

But no sooner had Caly’s arms wrapped around me, than I found myself ripped away from her.

My tear-swollen eyes opened in shock. To see a bare chest. Strong arms held me close.

The scent of soap and male curled around me.

The large body holding me close lowered to the couch and held me tight on his lap, right next to my sister.

Her eyes were soft as she watched Bastien holding me like I was precious.

“I thought you were going to give us some time alone.” I held out one hand to Caly, who gripped it tightly while I wiped my eyes with my free hand.

“You were sad. I don’t like it when you are sad.”

Beside me, Caly smirked. I gave a weak laugh. “Sometimes we need to be sad.”

Bastien rumbled his disagreement. “Not you. Sad before. No more.”

Wait. “You noticed that I was sad?”

Of course , he said, in my mind.

“What do you mean, of course?”

Bastien shifted me on his lap until he could look into my eyes. One big hand scooped up mine and pressed it against his chest. “Felt you here,” he said. “When I touched you before the Summit.”

Oh, wow .

I heard Caly sigh. I’d forgotten she was there.

“When did he Declare his Intent?”

Bastien’s body turned to stone beneath me. I wasn’t as good at reading emotions down our bond as he was, but I thought I could sense … guilt? Distracted, I just answered, “Huh?”

“How long did he court you? How did he tell you that you were his mate?”

His arm tightened around me, holding me closer to him.

Clearly, there was something about my sister’s questions that were making Bastien uncomfortable. A significance that I was missing. It was like my recurring dream where I was sitting an exam but I hadn’t done any of the study.

My mouth opened, but nothing came out. What was the right answer?

The truth: I didn’t know. He didn’t say anything.

Up until the moment his fangs sank into my skin, I’d known nothing.

I could lie, but one: what the fuck would I even say?

And two: I’d always been a bad liar and Caly would see through it in an instant.

In the end, my silence was enough. Clearly confused, Caly’s smile dropped away. Her eyes flicked once to the open door before returning to me. She gave a me a searching look, her hand pumping mine once. It was our special code. Did you want this? Are you okay?

I pumped her hand in reply. Very carefully, once, then let my fingers go lax. Yes, I’m okay. Yes, I want this.

Caly’s eyes didn’t meet mine as she stood. “I’ll be back in a bit. Seeing as you’re stuck in here, I’ll bring you something to read.” The cheerfulness in her voice was fake. Probably no-one except me would notice, but I knew my sister too well.

Anxiety churned in my stomach. Something was very wrong.