an excellent training area in the basement, and hopefully Adare was down there. Instead, he found Garrett finishing up with a weight set in the far corner.
“Hey,” Garrett said, straightening to study him. The kid’s metallic gray eyes caught everything. “What’s up?”
“Looking for Adare to spar,” Ivar said.
Garrett looked around the vacant area covered by mats. “He’s not here, but I’m available.”
“I’m pissed,” Ivar warned.
Garrett shrugged. “Dude, I spar with my dad. He’s often pissed.” Talen Kayrs was the strategic leader of the entire Realm and was known to level buildings with his temper. “And stop calling me kid.” He shook out his hands and moved toward Ivar.
“You are a kid.” Yeah, he might be twenty-five or so, and he might’ve fought in a war and then survived the Seven ritual—“Yeah, okay. That’s fair.” There was nothing kid-like about Garrett Kayrs. Ivar swung out, testing, and Garrett ducked easily.
“So. What did she do?” Garrett asked, his feet light on the mats.
Ivar kicked and hit him beneath the chin. “How did you know my mood has something to do with my mate?”
“Please.” Garrett swung and connected with a solid punch to the neck.
Fair enough. “She told me the math says we can’t get Quade out.”
Garrett’s head went back, and he flipped backward, landing on his feet and sweeping Ivar’s feet out from under him. “So you feel betrayed.”
Ivar hit hard, rolled, and kicked Garrett in the gut before striking behind his knee. “Well, yeah.”
The fight intensified, and they stopped talking, just hitting and kicking. An hour passed and then two. Finally, they both lay on their backs, breathing heavily and bleeding, maybe coughing up shit that shouldn’t be coughed up.
“Feel better?” Garrett groaned.
“Yes. Thanks. Owe you one,” Ivar panted.
Garrett snorted, blood dribbling down his face. “Just don’t let me get mated. Ever.”
Ivar grinned, his tongue touching the spot where he’d lost a tooth. “Oh, man. I can’t wait to meet your mate.” Now that was going to be an interesting day.
For now, Ivar had his own mate to deal with. Somehow.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Promise awoke from dreams about the universe exploding and rushing back to the moment of the big bang, when time stopped, never to move forward again. She blinked. The bed shifted, and heat instantly enveloped her. Then Ivar hauled her up against him, her back to his front, his mouth at her ear. He was nude and rock hard behind her. “Did you have time to think about your position?”
Her position was rather vulnerable in her T-shirt and panties. Desire clawed through her, and she tried hard not to shiver. She failed.
His chuckle sent ripples beneath her skin, even as one big hand moved up and caressed her nipple through the shirt. “While I’m not having an effect on your brain, your body knows who it belongs to.”
Her nipples, both of them, turned tight and achy. She dug her hands into the sheets to keep from reaching for him. “I thought you were pouting elsewhere,” she breathed.
He pinched.
She moaned, delicious flames streaking from her breasts to her clit. “That’s not fair.”
“I’ve never planned to play fair.” His fang caught her earlobe with a hint of threat.
Her womb convulsed. How did he do this?
He licked along the shell of her ear and tugged the shirt over her head to toss it across the room. Then his warm palm moved to her other needy breast. “I kicked Garrett for a while, he punched me, and once we were done, I realized a couple of things.”
“That you need to be hit in the head a lot?” she asked, her voice breathy.
He pinched again, and she arched against him, pressing her thighs together against the painful ache there. “No. That you belong to me. Every stubborn inch of you.”
She opened her eyes, having not realized they were still closed. “Says the man determined to disappear into hell without me.”
“It’s a mission.” His fangs scraped along her neck, providing an erotic reminder of the danger in him. He tugged on her panties, and she scooted her butt up to let him remove them. “Like any soldier, I’ll have missions. And I’ll return. Didn’t know that until I met you. But I will be back.”
She settled back down, need rioting inside every cell. Not one molecule of her wanted him to stop, so she’d argue with him while heading toward orgasms. Who knew? Maybe they could reach an agreement somehow during sex. It was certainly worth the experiment.
His free hand flattened over her abdomen, sliding down.