Page 84 of Those That Defy the Realm

“Didn’t you see the little notes on the page from his stuff?” Rory replies with a question. “The added scrawls were Adicious’s handwriting. He’d earmarked both me and Claire. I guess he just chose me first for whatever reason.”

I think back to the stuff Rory had shown us yesterday, I had indeed noted them, but then Antares had opened his big mouth and we’d not looked back over the piece of paper since.

“She’s not been physically harmed. Yet, anyways,” Ash interjects.

“How would you know?” Ty asks, just as I’m trying to form the words to ask the same thing.

My wolf lets out a deep breath. “Because I would feel it. I may have put my own pack bond on her.”

I’m too stunned to speak.

“You can do that?” Rory is the first to break the silence following his admission.

“I’m an alpha. So, yeah.” Ash regains his composure.

“Does she know?” I ask.

“Do you?” he fires back, hooking an eyebrow at me.

“You mean…”

“Yeah, I put one on you as well. Did you really think I’d leave you both without a way to know if you were in mortal danger?”

“Ash…” I start, but with no idea what to say. It’s a great step over the line where our privacy is concerned, but I can’t help the surge of love burning in my heart for him. That he wants to be joined to us in a more tangible bond. That he feels that level of protection over us. And there’s a slight easing in my chest, knowing that Claire is currently safe, to some extent at least.

“How does that work?” Rory asks.

“It’s not strong, and it’s sadly not permanent because neither of them accepted it formally, but it’ll last a good few months with how much I imprinted their scents into my brain,” Ash replies.

“When?” I ask

“Anytime I nip your earlobes, or just behind your ears, where your scent glands are most prominent.”

My cheeks flush. I loved the feel of Ash doing that, I thought he just started doing it often because he knew the sensation turned me to putty in his hands.

“Okay,” Ty interjects again. “She might be safe for now and will probably remain that way, but we still shouldn’t leave her unprotected.”

Something I completely agree with.

“What’s the plan?” Rory asks.

“You need to call Bree. Check she’s meeting Claire from the ferry. Henry, we’ll book you on the next boat crossing. There should be one this afternoon. I assume that’s what you’d be doing anyway, to get this all straightened out?”

“Yes.” Not that I’d had a second to think about it but that is what I would be doing regardless.

“Antares can go with you. I don’t think the Scotian pack are keeping that much of an eye on us, but just in case they are, it shouldn't be suspicious that you’re both returning to the capital.”

We plan for my departure, then Ty and Rory leave me alone to go hunt down Antares to tell him about the mission.

Laying back on my bed I hold my phone above me. “You can really feel us both?” I ask Ash.

“Are you mad about it?” His lips twist in a way that has me thinking he’s fighting not to give me his award winning smirk. The one usually paired with the puppy dog eyes I can never resist.

“A little,” I try to be stern. “You realise if you’d asked me, I would’ve agreed to it.”

“Really?”

“Yes! To be honest, I’m a little jealous that you have that reassurance. I have that from Rory and Ty through the pack bond, but we’d have to put a mate bond in place for me to feel you.” It takes me a couple of seconds to realise I’ve brought up the thing I’ve been thinking about but have never voiced to either of my partners.