Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Grace’s address.
“They’re here for you.” I shoved the paper into my pocket and turned back toward her, barely managing to hold myself in check as anger coursed through me with an intensity I’d never felt in my life.
They were trying to kill her.
She was mine.
“What?” Her eyes were wide, fear streaking the green and blue depths as she stared up at me, her jaw hanging slack. Her arms dropped to her sides and her robe fell open at her chest.
A chest that now bore a circular mark I recognized all too well.
No. Fucking. Way.
Protect!
The predator within me snapped my control, and my vision flickered into thermal, turning me into something far more animal than male.
It was impossible, wasn’t it? But Lyric had been human. Valor still was. And I knew that tattoo beneath Grace’s collarbone as well as I knew my own hand. It was my mating mark.
Safe. She had to be safe.
Rational thought abandoned me and I let time rip free, snatching Grace into my arms and wending as another bullet hit the wall.
Icy cold ripped over my skin as time and space folded at my command, and I stepped into the courtyard of the residence, carrying a gasping Grace.
“Ajax?” she asked, her arms tightening around my neck as I strode for the front door.
She’d be safe inside the house. She had to be inside the fucking house.
Alek’s talem jumped out of the way at our approach, hastily throwing the door open as I marched inside the two-story foyer.
“Ajax,” Grace said again. “You have to put me down.”
“No.” There was no room for argument in my answer as I moved through the house, looking for Zachariah. He would know what to do. He always knew.
I found him—and pretty much everyone else in the kitchen, gathered around those fucking muffins.
Zachariah’s eyes widened for a heartbeat, then he moved toward us, moving faster than any vampire in the house could. “Ajax?”
“I didn’t know where to take her.” It was all I could say.
“You brought a human home?” Ransom growled, moving in front of Olivia as if she actually needed his protection.
I shot him a look that dared him to take a single step in my direction.
“Ajax…” Grace groaned. “Put. Me. Down.”
I held her tighter. “They came to her house! They tried to kill her! She’s mine!” I barely recognize my own voice.
“Holy shit,” Talon muttered, moving to Zachariah’s side. “Look at her chest.”
“Keep your eyes to yourself!” I snarled at my best friend.
“I’d put her down,” Saint said, leaning back against the counter.
“Fuck off!” I shouted.
He winced. “Don’t blame me when—”
“Let me go!” Grace screamed, and her tone made me loosen my hold. She hit her feet and lunged for the nearest thing—a potted fig tree—and then heaved up the contents of her stomach over its roots.
“Shit.” I hit my knees next to her, rubbing her back as she vomited, her pain taking precedence over my anger. “It’s the wending. Damn it. I’m sorry, baby.”
“Baby?” Dagon whispered on a half-choke.
Talon whistled.
“We have to get her to Alek,” Zachariah said. “He’s in the library.”
“Where are we?” Grace asked as the heaving stopped.
“I’ll explain everything in a minute,” I promised, helping Grace to her feet and tucking the robe tighter around her as Cassandra and Jocelyn walked into the kitchen.
“Holy fuck, you brought a human to the residence?” Jocelyn openly stared at Grace.
I glared at Benedict’s mate and Zachariah sighed.
Cassandra inhaled deeply and then cocked her head to the side. “Oh, she’s not human.”
“I’m not?” Grace said.
“She…what?” I snapped at the same time.
Cassandra looked at Grace, her gaze dropping to the mating mark on her chest, and then gave me her full attention. “She’s a half-blood.”
10
GRACE
My heart raced against my chest, making it hard to get the proper amount of air in my lungs, and I seriously needed a toothbrush. Like now.
Half-blood.
The words from the stunning woman standing next to an even more striking woman with purple hair had said the words that had Ajax going as still as a statue.
I glanced up at him, my mind whirling. “Ajax?”
The sound of my voice shook him from whatever trance he’d been in, and if it hadn’t been for the movements and concerned looks from his…friends, I would’ve thought he stopped time again.
“Get her to Alek,” one of the men said. “We’ll figure the rest out after you speak with our king.”
“King?” I asked as Ajax gently tugged me down a hallway. God, now I sounded like a bird squawking out everything I didn’t understand.
“I promise I’ll explain everything,” he said, his voice edged with fear, anger, and some kind of desperation that pulled at my heart. I couldn’t blame him. Not after what had just happened.
Men breaking into my house. Shooting at me. Ajax stopping time and slitting their throats before…
God, had he teleported me here?