The Protector (Fire's Edge #4) - Abigail Owen Page 0,59
man as he caught his gaze.
“Late, beta? Took you long enough to check the perimeter after my arrival.” Tineen interrupted Lyndi who snapped her mouth closed with a glare quickly concealed. Then he turned to Drake. “You might want to pick a different second-in-command. This one seems lazy.”
Asshole.
“And where is your beta?” Lyndi asked in a cloyingly sweet voice.
After years of having it directed his way Levi recognized it as a warning signal that her temper was not far behind. He could have kicked her and kissed her at the same time, standing up for him that way. Sweet, especially given she was usually the one finding fault with him, but also dangerous.
Tineen’s gaze slid to her and stilled, though, after a moment, he seemed to ease into himself again. “Why do you ask?”
She shrugged. “It’s dangerous to travel alone these days. I wouldn’t want something to happen to you.”
Words that could be interpreted as a threat, except for the fact that she’d delivered them with her dark eyes wide and innocent, and a tone that a well-meaning grandmother might have used, as though she were sincerely concerned.
“Indeed,” Tineen said. Was that a sneer? It certainly wasn’t an answer when the question was, in actual fact, a real one. Why was Tineen alone? Or were more Alaz members close by? Just out of range of their patrol, maybe. Would they track Aidan and Sera? Capture them?
Tineen pursed his lips, then shifted his gaze to Lyndi. “So…you said you were practicing down here?”
“Yes,” Lyndi said. Then tucked her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and stared back with a patient expression. Defying the other man with direct answers, but no additional information.
That’s my girl.
Levi had to hide a grin at the flash of irritation in Tineen’s eyes. For once, Levi wasn’t the one dealing with the kind of frustration she could engender.
“She had my permission to use the facility,” Drake said. The red dragon was still on the cusp of a snarl, lips curled.
“I’m still not sure what you mean by practicing.” Tineen ignored Drake to ask Lyndi, tone not quite so congenial.
“Shifting,” Lyndi said. Still keeping it to one-word answers.
“What?” Hall interjected. “Don’t the Alaz team practice?”
Tineen flicked him a dismissive glance then looked around the chamber. There was only room in any part of the tunnel for one dragon to fit, even at its widest points. “In here?”
“Yes.”
Tineen blew a breath out of his nose. “Why in here?”
“I find younger shifters should practice in different environments. Don’t you?” She blinked at him like this was completely normal.
It wasn’t. She’d never practiced in here or had her boys do that. Though, now that Levi thought about it, that wasn’t a half bad idea.
Tineen’s expression turned strangely satisfied. “Are you saying the youngest members of the team need more practice?”
He slid a glance to the older of her boys, who were now technically enforcers if not officially sanctioned by their kings, well aware of who they were no doubt.
Lyndi gave the guy a pitying smile that would’ve made a lesser shifter growl. “Of course not. I’m talking about my younger boys. As I’m sure you remember, younger dragons’ instincts are triggered more easily. Today, we were practicing close quarters shifting and flying.”
“Uh-huh. And where are the younger ones now?”
“Most of them just left down the back exit.” She waved behind her. “I sent them to do a practice run in daylight, before they head home.”
“I see.” Tineen nodded slowly. “Which of these remaining are…yours?”
Lyndi’s face was one she’d shown Levi often through the years. How she managed to appear both disdainful and like she thought he was pretty damn stupid while smiling sweetly he still had no idea. “Mike, Coahoma, and Attor are behind you.” She indicated the oldest of the boys with a wave.
“The younger ones,” Tineen clarified through gritted teeth.
“Oh.” Lyndi made a sound he’d never heard from her. A giggle that gave her an air of ditziness that she would normally hate to project. “Of course. Like I said, the others have gone. Only Marin, who is my youngest at the moment, is still here.”
The boy, suddenly looking all of his nine years when usually he seemed younger, moved out from behind a glowering Hall to her side to have her wrap her arm around him in a casual motion that Levi knew was more about protecting her kid.
Tineen studied the younger boy. “Have you made your first shift yet?”