Ashla stirred, blinking awake with clear eyes, not the lusty, needy gaze of the past few… how long had it been… days?
She smiled and my stomach flip-flopped in response.
“Hi,” she murmured.
“Good morning, mate.”
“Is it morning?” she asked. “How can you tell?”
I squeezed her closer and kissed the top of her head. “I can’t. I’m pretending so that we can lay here longer.”
Soon, we would have to leave this bunker and face what was happening outside. The bounty on Ashla. The traitor in the castle. The beta resistance and the enemy humans from the Keep. As much as I wished it could, life wouldn’t stand still for us.
“Before we…” Ashla paused to trace her finger down my sternum. “Something happened before we…”
“Lost our minds to your delicious heat?” I rumbled.
“Yes, that.” Ashla’s cheeks reddened but there was no whine of desperation. Was it already over? A thread of sadness wound through me at that. And if so, just how much time had we lost?
I needed to check my messages to see if there was anything new from Adalai. The last one didn’t sit well with me.
Thanks to Ashla, I’ve identified how deeply the resistance goes. Adalai hadn’t used the code word ‘package’ as we’d agreed upon. Instead, he’d called her by name. It was dangerous and reckless. The king was neither.
The package is secure, but this line may be compromised. Switching to secondary communications. After I typed my response, I sent a code to crash that line so it couldn’t be used again. From now on, the messages from the king would come through my wrist com.
“Is the castle still safe?” Ashla asked. “Zelene and the others?”
“Yes, the castle is secure and the resistance is controlled for now.” For how long, that was the question.
“Wow. You just went into soldier mode before my very eyes. I don’t know whether to be impressed or annoyed.”
I quickly kissed her smirk away. “Be impressed. Your mate is a warrior just like you.”
“My mate. You’d better watch out,” she said softly. “That sounds dangerously like a commitment.”
It did. But I was living dangerously these days. There was no telling what I would promise this female before we left our hideout.
Ashla sat up, reaching high above her head for a long stretch. I was mesmerized by her curves and valleys. Her lean muscles. She was a work of art, and yet battle scars from her days in the Badlands marred her skin. I’d paid special tribute to those last night, kissing and licking each one.
She noticed me watching and her cheeks went pink. Her shyness pulled at some male part of me that I couldn’t explain. Part of me that wanted to hide her away forever and give her anything she wanted on a silver fucking platter.
“I’m going to shower,” she said, standing and pulling the sheet with her. I grabbed the end of it just before she slipped past the bed.
“Leave that here.”
She dropped it, her gaze turning hot again. “You can join me.”
“Give me five minutes. I need to update the king.”
She closed the door to the bathroom before I rose from the bed to find my wrist com. Four unread messages from Adalai waited for me, all marked URGENT.
“Shit.”
Something has come up. Return to the castle immediately. Bring the package.
The next three were more of the same, except with varied levels of threats attached. No mention of the compromised communications.
I typed a reply. The package is hot. Still in danger. Advise.
Adalai’s response came quickly. Hot? Tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it means.
Affirmative, I answered.
This time, the reply took several minutes to come through. It doesn’t matter. You must return with the package immediately.
I frowned. The king was asking me to return even though Ashla was in no state to travel and every wolf within a hundred miles would be scenting her heat? Reckless.
How do I know this is you? Our other line was compromised. Confirm identity.
My wrist com buzzed with an immediate reply. Twelve. Eight. Double zero. It was the king’s security code. We’d settled on it long ago when I first built this bunker.
This confirmed I was talking to Adalai.
I stared at the bathroom door, contemplating my next move. Adalai might be my king—and before my time here with Ashla that meant a whole hell of a lot—but he was putting my mate in danger with this request.
Request? It wasn’t a request. It was a command, and I was expected to obey it. Like always.
Why? I quickly typed into my com.
Why? Because I’m your goddamned king.
I promised I’d keep the package safe, I wrote. You’re asking me to break that promise without any explanation. What kind of general would I be if I didn’t ask, if I didn’t question the strangeness of Adalai’s request?
What kind of mate would I be?
There has been evidence brought against the package. Proof of guilt.
My heart stopped. Proof of guilt? How could there be proof, when Ashla did nothing wrong?
She’s innocent, I wrote back.
She needs to stand trial. For the good of our entire pack, they need to see that justice will always be served.
I believed her when she said she was innocent. But… but even if she wasn’t, I was ready to defy my king to keep her from harm.
Shit. Duty versus my heart was always where my true battle was destined to be fought.
Solen, it’s not just the package. There is also evidence against you.
I jerked
