Succubus Unchained - Heather Long Page 0,56
to his room where he killed me over and over again. I think Asshole fits.”
And on that particular point, Maddox couldn’t argue. He’d not been thrilled when Alfred ordered him out, and Fin and Rogue had to keep him out. Especially when he’d felt her die the first time. It had been agony. Not even his faith in Alfred had sustained him. Not at first.
It wasn’t until she agreed. Until she began to fight…
He sighed, and his shoulders dropped. She’d chosen what she hadn’t wanted for him. His mate had chosen him twice. Cupping her face, he rested his forehead against hers. “Thank you,” he murmured in a low voice, ignoring Alfred’s near silent oath as the other paced away from them.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Fiona teased. “I told you succubi don’t mate and we aren’t good at long-term relationships. I haven’t figured out this hybrid thing, and I definitely know how to hold a grudge.”
Fin’s laughter echoed Maddox’s own. “Not seeing a problem with that, Beautiful. For your Mad-Dragon, or for me.”
She glanced past Maddox to Fin and then over to Rogue before she looked to where Alfred had his back to all of them. “If it’s important enough he won’t talk to you in front of me, I can find my way back.”
“No,” Maddox said in the same breath as Rogue and Fin. Grip firm on her nape, Maddox shifted to stand next to her, even as Fin slid an arm around her waist. “We do this together. Or we don’t do this. We cannot demand you be one of us, then treat you as any less.”
The words were every bit as much for Alfred as they were for Fiona. Maddox had waited endless centuries to find his mate. Even when he thought Fin had lost his mind, some part of him had held out what he believed to be a futile hope that Fin had indeed seen the woman who would be theirs. Though she wasn’t a dragon, Maddox couldn’t hold that against her.
There were no other dragons.
Not golden, anyway.
He was the last.
But she was his, and that was all that mattered to him. They could figure everything else out.
“The seven,” Alfred began, facing them once more, all his earlier frustration and forbidding demeanor erased from his expression as though it hadn’t been there in the first place. “The original seven are those that sired all vampires. All lines trace back to us.”
Though he half-expected her to make a snarky comment, Fiona just leaned into Fin, though she let her nape rest in Maddox’s grip. The nascent trust demonstrated in her actions steadied him.
“Okay,” Fiona said, no snark present. “So you and the six other dwarves are all awake. Does that make me Snow White or something?”
Well, so much for the theory that there was no snark present. The corners of Maddox’s lips twitched, but it was Rogue’s chuckle that broke the silence following Fiona’s question. Alfred’s jaw snapped shut, his teeth clicking as he stared at her.
“It’s pathological with you, isn’t it?”
“If you mean my charm and good looks?” Fiona shrugged. “It’s a gift.”
Fin’s snickers joined Rogue’s, and Maddox allowed his own grin to come out. “It is that, Kitten.”
Shaking his head slightly, Alfred said, “They are not dwarves, nor are they cuddly. Most are not even as tolerant as I.”
Before she could say the next cutting thing on her mind, Maddox added, “Rarely are all seven awake at the same time. It’s usually safer for everyone if they aren’t. They do not play well with others, and the last time all seven were awake at the same time, it was a war.”
“Oh, joy.” She sighed. “And this is my fault, how?”
“You are a hybrid,” Alfred informed her. “One promised in prophecy. Your presence means the world will undergo another change. They will not want the existing power structure to change.”
“Then it will be war,” Rogue said flatly. “Because their only alternative would be to kill her.”
Possessiveness threading through his veins, Maddox glared. He understood what Alfred wanted from him now. “You want me to find them.”
A single nod. “You are the best suited. Take Fin with you…”
“Hey,” Fin argued. “I just got back from my last task.”
“Fiona will stay with Rogue and I, for now,” Alfred continued as if Fin hadn’t spoken. “There are things she needs to learn that you will both just be in the way for.”
The insult bounced off Maddox, because he agreed on some levels. But he hadn’t just claimed his