the puzzle I was looking at. And I needed to. They needed me to. It was frustrating and distracting, my mind on it the rest of the day and making it hard for me to sleep even.
The next morning I went for my run—without any extra guests—and then grabbed Keya. We didn’t even need the fae dogs this time as she had a request of where to go next. That worked, and we went to Asia, where she had been living before we’d gotten her family out.
Originally, it hadn’t been that hard, as no one had expected the move or guessed the hobgoblins could have somewhere else to go. But once they did, now others had closed ranks and disallowed hobgoblins from leaving estates, basically keeping them slaves. They could lie about contracts or whatever other bullshit they tried for, but they wanted their indentured servants and were willing to allow slavery for them.
Once she was done leaving magical messages only hobgoblins could see at two estates and telling me where I needed to go, I took her back. I showered and ate breakfast, but still needed to work out what was in my head. I didn’t want to waste the energy and save it for the rescue.
After I got the hobgoblins out of those two estates, I went right for the rec center again.
I had a lot of visuals to cut down with my sword now… So why not use it?
About twenty minutes in, I realized I’d been so in my head, I hadn’t noticed someone had joined me. I spun to see who it was, but a strong arm blocked mine. Not in a threatening or aggressive way, but simply for safety as he was standing too close to me, and that was how accidents happened. He slid his hand over my arm and cupped my hand holding the hilt as he moved closer.
“I could watch you run drills all day, kitten,” Lucca whispered in my ear.
I elbowed him hard, but he simply grunted, annoying me. I went to step away, but he slid his arm around me to keep me there, going further and pulling me against him.
“I’ve missed you,” he tried again.
I elbowed him again and slammed my foot on his. It wouldn’t do anything, given my feet were bare, but it should have told him I didn’t want him touching me.
Except he didn’t back off in his normal Lucca way.
And for some reason, that really pissed me off. I tossed the sword over by the case on the mats and spun on him, shoving at his chest. He simply grabbed my upper arms and pulled me back, negating any distance I’d gotten. I responded with reaching up and slapping him across the face.
His bear moved behind his eyes, clearly not liking that, but he didn’t argue or fight me, simply kept me close.
So I did it again and harder. The third time, he caught my hand and spun me so my back was against his front again.
“I’ll let you hit me as many times as you want, but my sins weren’t as great as you think,” he murmured, his lips against my ear.
Making my fucking traitorous body shiver. One of the worst parts of a breakup—and I’d had multiple at once—that no one ever talks about is craving sex. Once you’ve had good sex, and I had lots of amazing sex, your body doesn’t want to go back to not getting any. I ached for it constantly, almost to the point where I’d had thoughts of going out and simply getting laid.
“You’re punishing me for what you think I knew, and I didn’t—don’t know it,” he murmured, running his nose along my skin. “It’s not like that with bears, kitten. Mates are—” He sighed when I flinched and tried to pull away. “Just hear me out. Please? You need to know this, no matter what.”
He was right about that, and I settled down, giving a swift nod.
He cleared his throat. “Mates aren’t common, but are said to be for commoners.”
That took me a second, and I stiffened.
“I know,” he sighed again. “I know it’s distasteful and crass, but that’s what elites say all the damn time. I grew up hearing it over and over again.”
I chuckled darkly. “You know why they say that, right?”
“Yes, because they sell us elites into matings all the fucking time, and if we could find our soul mates, more of us would rebel and hold out. I put that together