The Protector (Fire's Edge #4) - Abigail Owen Page 0,53
against us.
She dropped her gaze, hiding her thoughts from him with a sweep of her dark lashes.
“That will work,” Aidan agreed.
“Thank you,” Sera said at the same time, as though the two had already discussed it and responded simultaneously.
Levi blinked. Damn. Not even Delaney and Finn were that in sync yet. Deep and Calla did that often, but they’d been mated for a long time. Perhaps the need to hide and run and move constantly had fast-forwarded the bond the younger couple had formed.
“Is Blake downstairs?” Lyndi asked Sera. “I want to see him.” Without a backward glance, she left the room with all the women, chattering about Sera’s son from her first marriage to a human.
Levi didn’t realize he was staring after her, working through the hole that seemed to sit inside him with her absence, until Hall clapped him on the shoulder. “What was it that scared you away from the grocery store? It was the cucumbers, right? Like green dicks.”
Levi ignored him, heading out of the room and into the war room.
He should’ve known the men would follow. All except Drake and Finn. They already knew what they needed to know.
“Go away,” he said. “I’m on duty. You’re not.”
No one moved an inch.
With a sigh, Levi spun in the chair he’d dropped into to face them, taking in their expressions. None of his brothers in arms looked concerned, though they had every right to be. Instead, they appeared curious.
“We figured talking always helps,” Rivin said.
Behind him, Hall rolled his eyes. “Sharing feelings is not our thing.”
“But he’s gotta have things to get off his chest,” Rivin countered with a hand thrown out in Levi’s direction.
Hall just grinned. “I have no interest in some kind of kumbaya moment. I’m here to screw with a buddy.”
“Then you can keep quiet,” Kanta stepped in, still zen-like and yet his annoyance made itself felt. “Or I’ll get Drake to join in on this conversation.”
“You can’t do that,” Hall pointed out, smug. “Drake will cut Levi’s balls off if he knew the guy was fucking Lyndi.”
“I already said what needed to be said to Drake and Finn,” Levi informed them, leaning back in his seat, ostensibly at ease. “The rest is private between me and Lyndi.”
Hall dropped into a chair across from him, suddenly intent. “We weren’t asking for the dirty details—”
“Speak for yourself,” Rivin and Keighan said in stereo.
Kanta smacked them both across the backs of their heads.
Hall shot them a glare for good measure, then turned back to Levi. “We just want to make sure you know what you’re doing. This has a high fuck-up probability.”
“No shit.”
“What Hall means, in his unique way, is…you’re leaving,” Kanta said.
Also no shit. Levi was just waiting for the new moon and the cover of full darkness to head out.
“Is she going with you?” Kanta asked.
Levi shook his head. “She can’t, and I wouldn’t ask her to. The clans are at war.”
Even the wonder twins didn’t crack a joke at that.
“Then what are you going to do?” Kanta again.
“Ask her to wait.”
Quiet settled over the men. The kind that happened sometimes when they were dealing with a fire, or with any of the thousand serious incidents that had piled up over the years. The kind of quiet that acknowledged that sometimes there were no good answers, just shitty options.
“We’ll keep her safe,” Kanta promised. “We have your back. No matter what. Hers, too.” The others nodded, eyes suddenly glowing with dire determination, the colors bouncing off the walls in greens and whites.
“I know you do.” Only he wouldn’t fucking be here, and that was tearing him apart.
The guys peeled away, heading out of the room and back topside by the sound of the feet in the halls.
“We’re really happy for you,” Hall paused to say. One of the rare occasions he dropped the sarcasm. “You know that, right?”
Levi paused. “Yeah,” he said. “I know.”
Hall nodded, then slid out of the room.
For the first time, maybe ever, fear buried its hooks into Levi’s psyche. Finding his way to mating Lyndi would be akin to traversing a minefield blindfolded. From across the damn ocean, because no way was this happening before he left tomorrow.
Please don’t let this end up with either of us torn up and bloody from the explosion.
Chapter Eleven
“Hey Lyndi!” Blake’s high-pitched excited voice reached her before she’d made her way far enough down the tunnel to be able to see him, though she could hear Sera’s son playing with Lyndi’s younger boys.