The Protector (Fire's Edge #4) - Abigail Owen Page 0,33

she’s exposed, and it would give the Alliance one more reason to wonder at our allegiances and actions.”

All true.

But sending Calla so far away when the devoted mates hadn’t separated since their finding each other almost a thousand years prior? Hell, Deep’s decision—from a man who had dared to bring her over to an unknown land, but now wouldn’t risk her sticking around their territory—said more than enough.

Levi glanced over Lyndi’s head, his gaze connecting first with Finn, then with Drake, and knew they were both thinking the same thing. Should they send their mates away, too?

Then Drake shot a silent, pointed glance at Lyndi before cocking his head in a barely there move that Levi still caught. Levi gave the same pointed glance to Cami then Delaney, and Drake’s mouth flattened. Message sent and received. No telepathy needed.

None of the women would allow themselves to be shuffled off to relative safety. They’d fight, too. No way would Cami leave her human family behind. No way would Lyndi leave her boys. And neither Cami nor Delaney would want to leave their mates, or, for that matter, let the team risk their lives while they hid and waited. That was for damn certain. They shouldn’t even bother to bring it up as an option, or they’d risk getting their balls chopped off.

He didn’t realize he’d dug his fingers into the soft flesh of Lyndi’s hip until she shifted subtly under his grip.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

Forcibly, he tried to relax, though he didn’t let go. His dragon was wound too tight to do that. One tussle in her bedroom, and the creature side of him had claimed her as theirs, marked his stamp of possession on her metaphorically, since they couldn’t physically. She was his.

And you’re leaving like an asshole. Desperation was starting to set in around that reality, sinking its claws in deep. He couldn’t leave her. Couldn’t leave the team, either.

Needing to settle the beast inside him, Levi snuck his thumb under the gap between her shirt and jeans, whispering the pad over her bare skin.

His dragon curled up, content.

Levi’s dick, on the other hand, now pulsed in time to his heartbeat. In time to hers. This close, he could hear it, higher pitched than his and slightly faster than normal.

“I need to rest before I go back out.” Deep stood from the kitchen table, and everyone else moved with him.

Except Levi, who froze with the realization that he’d been so intent on that tiny touch and the sound of her heart that he’d missed the rest of the conversation. A serious conversation with immediate impacts. He’d never allowed anything to distract him from his duty in his entire long life.

A stupid move with potentially disastrous results.

Fuck. Maybe Lyndi’s hesitation to pursue anything—for so many reasons—wasn’t the wrong instinct to follow. Maybe his was…

With a grunt, he jerked his hands from her body and strode out of the room, following Deep as he headed up to the suites. Deep and Calla had given up their rooms in the mountain, so he stayed in one of Finn and Delaney’s guest rooms when they were there.

“Can I ask you something?” Levi asked as he caught up with his old mentor and friend just as he entered the suite. Was Deep moving slower?

Wizened eyes crinkled at the corners. “So you finally claimed her? About damn time.”

Shock jolted through Levi, emphasized by the slam of the door to Finn’s suite which closed automatically behind him. “Finally?”

Deep’s eyebrows twitched. “I remember the first time you got a good look at Lyndi Chandali, son.”

He did? Deep always did see too much.

The older man chortled. “Hard to miss the way you turned tail and ran.”

No doubt that’s how it had appeared. “Or the way she hated me from that moment on.”

Her message had been more than clear after that day. Several messages, actually. Not interested. Stay away from me. Don’t get in my way. Everything you say is wrong.

He’d respected her signals and done his best to keep out of her way, except those occasions when his protective instincts kicked in so hard, he couldn’t remain quiet. Those moments only served to make her angrier with him. But her antipathy wasn’t the only thing that had shut down his dragon and any moves he might have made. In fairly short order, Lyndi had made it clear that she’d never mate. Plus, she was Drake’s sister and a Chandali. The powers that be would never sanction his claim on