Outlaw (Wolves of Royal Paynes #4) - Kiki Burrelli Page 0,46

it sound like Quinlan was specifically being targeted.

"The halfling cannot be permitted to live," the man parroted like it was a sentence he'd said and heard spoken often. Quinlan was half angel and half human like the others.

"He said that a couple times on the road here. Figured he meant the nephilim," Badger said. "We weren't followed here. I made damn sure of that. He's grasping."

"It won't matter if you let me go. My masters are here. They'll forgive what I've told you. If they can forgive the traitor Pierce, they'll forgive me." He swallowed and set his dark gaze back on my mate. "He's the one insane for the halfling. The halfling will wish he died after Pierce gets—"

My lip curled. "What about Pierce?"

"He failed, lied, tricked the hand that fed him. But he proved his worth with the nephilim from the monastery, and now he's back in their good graces."

My wolf howled at this new information. We'd already known Pierce was under contract with Portal, but we'd assumed killing the pack had been his task. Now it sounded like Quinlan had been the target. But he'd left Quinlan alive. Wondering about Pierce's reasons for doing what he did got us nowhere, so I didn't try, except now it sounded like Quinlan was both the target and the prize.

Protect. He's threatening your mate. Protect him. Protect your omega. I clenched my fingers into a large fist, prepared to punch a hole through the agent's skull, when Knox stopped me.

"Take the others. I'll handle this. He's told us all he's good for."

The agent's smirk hardly faltered. At some point in the interrogation, his faith in those he'd sold his soul to had eclipsed his sense of self-preservation. No one would come for him, especially not now that he'd given us a name. We witnessed, firsthand, what Portal did to its employees. Jazz's father had been killed for much, much less. All this man's devotion told me was that the humans who worked for Portal were just as dangerous as the demons.

Knox and the rest of the team left that evening with the bikers to stake out the location of the man tasked with obtaining the next shipment of nephilim. Wyatt had left, promising to fill the council in on what we'd learned, while preparing their soldiers so they were ready when needed.

No one wanted to dwell on those nephilim who had already been lost or that Pierce might have discovered the nephilim pack's existence while here at the hotel. He'd sat quietly in each strategy meeting, all the while memorizing what he could to bring back to his angry owners.

Though Quinlan and the others had never met the slain nephilim, they took the news of their deaths hard. Knox didn't want to be away from Jazz in that state; neither did the other alphas. Since they'd already been taken out into the field, and this was reconnaissance only, the nephilim left as well, leaving a skeleton crew at the hotel.

Until we knew why Quinlan was specifically being targeted, there was no way I'd let him leave the hotel. Nor would I leave his side. The others didn't need my help to watch a person, and they had extra eyes anyway.

"You could've left with them. We would've been able to handle it here." Quinlan narrowed his eyes on where I stood in the corner of the sitting room. He held Onyx over his shoulder to burp him. The doc had taken Angus while Isaiah, his daughter, and Jamie took the girls. Hallie had already made plans with Alejandro, but swore she'd come back if we needed her to.

Quinlan had to look over his shoulder to see me from where I stood. He likely didn't know I'd chosen this spot so I'd be free to readjust. This wasn't the first time I'd witnessed Quinlan holding a baby, but it was the first time I was seeing it after making him mine, and it made me and my wolf very happy.

I couldn't help but to imagine what Quinlan would look like, swollen with my child. Of all the lives I'd imagined having with him, mated and pregnant hadn't been among the possibilities. At that time, it hadn't been one. Now that I knew what he really was, and what would happen when we came together, I couldn't hold back the mental images. When—not if —he got pregnant, we'd know in the same way all the others had found out, with a sparkling pile