Beauty in Ashes (Phoenix Rising #7)- Harper Wylde Page 0,79

we all stood by his side.

“And what about you?” Hiro’s dark brown eyes sought mine across the tent as I settled onto the air mattress with a groan. I blamed Theo for the intense rematch he’d put me through. I’d flowed around his ice, trying to get him to encase my fire again so I could gain control over his element, but the same trick hadn’t worked twice, the crafty Kraken.

“What about me?” I sent a confused look to Hiro as Ryder crawled toward me and settled on his side next me. He coaxed me flat and placed a glowing hand on my stomach, practically sighing from the heat of my body as he poured his healing energy into me, taking away my aches and pains.

“You praised each of us, but you didn’t include yourself. Do we need to have another lesson about your value and self-worth?” Hiro lightly chastised, clearly having read my thoughts through the mental connection Damien had left open. Those dark eyes of his flashed across the tent, and I pressed my thighs together from the sinful promise in their depths.

Killian groaned, the sound halfway between a grunt and a sigh of pleasure. “Seriously, did you have to go and turn her on? This is a small tent, and it doesn’t take much to fill it with the scent of her arousal. Now I’m as hard as a fucking rock.”

“Ignore the grumpy Celt and answer my question, Nix.” Hiro assessed me behind his dark rims.

“I don’t think I have a specific role the way many of you do, but I like to help out with training sometimes. I like to check on all of you and see if I can lend support.” I shrugged as best as I could in my horizontal position.

“You don’t see yourself through others’ eyes then,” Damien remarked as he entered the tent last, zipping it up behind him before he stiffened from where he was bent at the waist. “Damn, that smells good.”

“That’s what I was saying. Smoky. Sweet. Fucking addicting,” Killian grumbled, throwing an arm over his eyes as he pressed a hand against his jean-clad dick, trying to tame it into submission.

“I think it’s funny that you don’t see what an important role you’ve played in the rebellion, Nix.” Ryder tapped me on the nose and shook his head wryly. “You’re only the most important player in the game.”

I scoffed. “I don’t think so—”

“He’s right,” Damien interrupted. “Without you, our numbers wouldn’t be as favorable as they are. You incited the animal shifters to rise against their injustices when you tried to save that servant Maldonado was keen to kill during your first date with Joshua. You stood against the Council, a feat no one has ever been able to accomplish.”

“Or had the balls to try,” Killian added helpfully, smirking behind the arm he had draped across his face.

“You showed them that the Council was not as invincible as they’ve always tried to appear when you killed Khan, and you paved a path for other mythologicals to abdicate, to follow in your footsteps,” Theo reasoned, joining the conversation as he pulled his shirt over his head as he changed for bed. My gaze tracked over his cut muscles and tapered waist as he unbuckled his jeans and shimmied them down, standing only in his boxers now. When he caught my lustful gaze, he lingered longer than usual, taking extra time to get his sweatpants on, leaving them low on his defined hips just to tease me and make me drool over his body.

It was a good plan, because it was working.

“Without you, Tao never would have shifted into his Qilin. You push us to do the right thing. You don’t tolerate injustice, and it’s just one of the many things we love about you,” Joshua finished.

“I didn’t know you’d thought about this so much,” I admitted.

“It’s hard not to. We’re proud of you, sweetheart. You’ve done so well. You’ve been a catalyst for change. You make the world a better place just by being in it, and these shifters, these people, they see you as the keystone of this movement. I truly believe that without you, there wouldn’t be a functioning rebellion.”

“I never asked for any of this,” I replied. “I just didn’t like the Council’s politics and their vile treatment of those under their rule. A leader should protect and guide, not subject those beneath them to fear and violence.”

“And that’s what we love about you.” Killian dropped