demi had been with them for more years than Gunner could remember. Always there, always giving everything he had to the knights, to his people.
Not just training, but fighting, putting his life on the line every damn night for the greater good. He was their friend, their brother, and right now he was in the hands of their enemy. There was no doubt in Gunner’s mind about that. He was either dead or wishing he was, and they had no fucking clue how to find him.
Azel was behind this, he had to be.
They’d searched for hours, but James was just…gone.
Grace had sent word out, she had eyes and ears around the city, but there was nothing more they could do, not without a trail to follow.
He shuddered. Fuck. Grace was one of the strongest females he’d ever met, but tonight she’d been broken. James wasn’t just her friend, he was her brother-in-arms, her right hand, and like the rest of them, felt she’d somehow failed him.
Gunner groaned as that rock in his chest grew heavier, so heavy it was almost too much to bear.
“Gunner?”
He sucked in a sharp breath, head twisting to the female standing on the other side of the shower glass. She was wearing one of his shirts. It swamped her tiny frame. He tried to steady his voice. “It’s okay, love. I’ll join you in bed shortly.”
She stood there, those stunning violet eyes blinking at him through the water rivulets running down the glass. “Something’s wrong. You’re upset.”
“I’m fine. I promise. You head back to bed.” He turned away, unable to continue to look at her and not fall on her, not beg her to hold him, to let him have her. Because right then he needed her in an all-consuming way, and it was only growing stronger.
A moment later, he heard the door open behind him, and he squeezed his eyes shut, gathering himself.
He turned—
“Fuck.” He dragged in an unsteady breath as Luna climbed into the shower with him, her small, curvy body completely bare except for the gold cross hanging around her neck. “Luna…”
“You’re injured,” she said. “I can smell your blood.” She glanced down at his most obvious wound and made a soft sound of sympathy. Her head tilted back again. “You were fighting tonight?”
He dipped his chin, it was all he was capable of doing right then. How could he speak when he was in the shower with his female? The most beautiful, sweet, tempting little female he had ever encountered. She was his, and one day soon they’d make it official. They would mate.
But they weren’t there yet.
She needed time, and having her with him, naked and wet, and looking at him as if he hung the stars and the moon was more than he could handle. Still, he didn’t tell her to go, because his need to be close to her—the roar of his demon to get closer to what was theirs—was more than he had the strength to fight right then.
So he stood completely still as her small, pale hands moved over his body, cataloging his injuries. She whimpered as if she felt it as well when her fingers danced gently around the knife wound in his side. She bent down, he assumed to get a closer look—
“Christ,” he barked as her tongue swiped softly over the deep cut. It didn’t cause pain, no, the opposite.
She stayed where she was, but her gaze lifted to him. “Did that hurt?”
“No,” he gasped.
“Will you let me?” she said, motioning to the slice in his skin. “My saliva will help speed up healing, the same as when I lick the puncture wounds I make with my fangs.”
He nodded, his ability to speak now choked off completely as he watched her, her little pink tongue, now streaked with his blood, sliding over the slice in his flesh.
She swiped over it several more times, then checked with him again. “You’re sure I’m not hurting you?”
“You’re not,” he managed to get out.
No, she wasn’t hurting him, and if she looked down, she’d see exactly the effect she was having on him. His skin tingled where she’d licked it. He could actually feel himself healing, the skin drawing together. His own natural ability to repair his injuries was fast, but not this fast. He was forced to use the tile wall as support again as his sweet, well-meaning, utterly gorgeous female worked her way around him, licking every cut and graze he’d received tonight until he tingled