Page 75 of Her Silent Knight

Rhen nodded. “I’m even ashamed to talk about it.”

“How did you stop?”

“My woman, my mate, she whispered one word that stopped me cold. Yours.”

“Yours?”

“She’d been trying to tell me something during the entire battle. I’d been ignoring her and trying to kill her. You see, she recognized me before I recognized her.”

Damn.

“While she lay dying in my arms, her broken sentences weren’t getting through to me. She kept saying, stop... I’m... yours. She was saying that over and over again. She said yours one final time then passed out. That’s when I finally heard her. That’s when I finally realized what she’d been saying. She was mine. And I’d almost killed her.”

“Who saved her?”

“Sil was younger back then.”

“Our Sil?”

“The one and only.”

“This must’ve been before I arrived here?”

Rhen nodded. That meant Rhen had been waiting decades for his mate to forgive him.

“I cried out for help. There was blood everywhere. That was the first time I’d ever been disgusted at the sight of blood. One of the guys in my crew knew of a healer. He fetched Sil. All I could do was hold my mate and cry. I felt ashamed, guilty. I wanted to die. If she wouldn’t have survived, I would’ve killed myself. Sil came and brought my mate to the compound. It wasn’t as crowded as it is now. Still, I wasn’t allowed in. That was the longest week of my life. But Sil did it. She healed my mate. The look in my mate’s eyes when she walked out of the compound, fully healed, brought me to my knees.”

Rhen swiped his hand over his face. “I could feel the hate in her gaze. It’s dimmed a little over the years. But that first day, it broke me. I tried to talk to her. She put a stake through my chest, barely missing my heart. She told me to stay the fuck away from her.”

“But you didn’t stay away.”

“I couldn’t. Now, there’s a little less hate in her eyes. Still hate though. And I’m not allowed near her. We usually speak through an intercom unless it’s an emergency. She uses me, you see. I run errands for her and this or that. What do I get out of it? I get to hear her voice through an intercom.”

“But how long will that be enough for you?”

“For as long as she deems it necessary. Like I said, it’s not up to you or me. It’s up to them. We wronged them. However long it takes for them to forgive us, is however long it takes. We have no say in that.”

Kaede leaned back in his chair. Could he wait decades for his mate to forgive him?

We can,his dragon answered. She’s worth it.

“She is. But I’m not Rhen. I won’t be satisfied with talking to her through an intercom.”

What are you saying?

“I’m saying, she remains here, with me. I’ll sleep in a different room if I have to. But she’s not allowed to leave me. Not now. Not ever.”

That will push her away.

“No. That will keep her here.”

It will anger her.

“She’s already angry.”

“Enough about me. Let’s discuss our mission to protect the village from the TD attack. This is what Sil and I discussed. The TD like to attack late or early. Depending on when they think their target or targets are asleep. They’ll first send in someone who’s skilled, but not their best, to see if that person can get the job done. If that person fails, they’ll jump to their baddest creature on their roster. They hate having to repeat a task. The first battle should be a breeze. It’s the ones after that one, that could bring us trouble. So Sil and I decided...”

Finally, they were talking strategy. Only, now, Kaede was barely listening. He was too busy thinking of how pissed off his mate was going to be when he told her she could take her time in forgiving him.

Take as long as she wanted. But what she couldn’t do, ever, was leave him. Kaede sighed. He was in for the fight of his life. Two of them. One, with The Deciders. And one, with his mate.

She’s going to try to kill us again.

“Yeah. She is.”