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“Were our efforts a little strenuous for her? Is that why she is not here serving me today?”
She was laid up, probably with a perforated bowel from the vague yet disgusting descriptions her mother had given Adam, which would mean she would die in a place like this.
“I wouldn’t know, sir,” I said, about to place the tray onto the lap table.
His hand shot out and closed around my wrist, causing me to freeze as the fingers tightened. I stayed as still as possible as he put pressure on the bones there, until it felt like they ground against each other.
“My lord,” he said.
You stupid bitch, Jules.
“I’m so sorry, Your—”
“Spare me,” he said, the clipped words stopping my babbling outright. He leant back, and I arranged the tray just as Adam had coached me before stepping back.
“Well done,” Lian said with the kind of neutral dismissiveness only elites seemed to manage. “You’ve been instructed in how to let my pet down and take him for his ablutions?”
I nodded quickly.
Red cord, Red cord, remember the red cord, I told myself.
“Pull the red cord slowly and lower him to the ground. He’s been up there for some time, so his extremities have been weakened. He won’t be able to support his own weight initially, so you must.”
“Of course, m’lord.”
I strode over to the ‘play’ side of the room, avoiding the wide array of equipment, some obvious in their purpose, others looking like weapons of war rather than pleasure. Max looked at me blearily, those green eyes struggling to focus, something I remembered all too well, though in a completely different setting. I wanted to reassure him, say something to replace the blank look in his eyes, but instead, I did as I was told and slowly pulled the red cord. It was a tricky balancing act, putting Max back on his feet and then rushing in to hold him upright.
“You’re quite strong,” Lian said as I grasped Max’s torso, then slung his arm across my shoulder. How the hell Arden managed to manoeuvre a one hundred-twenty kilo Tirian male around, I had no idea. “I might have use for you.”
“Of course, m’lord,” I said, trying to affect a convincing wheeze, then I took a step forward, Max’s feet stumbling along with me, and he hissed with pain as he moved.
The walk out of the bedroom and into the bathroom was slow, tedious, and ultimately a relief. Out from under the eagle eye of Lord Lian, I felt like I could actually breathe. I helped Max sit down on a stool beside the bath, apparently for just this purpose, and shut the door before filling the bath. While most of the city did not have running water, the Volken wasted power on magically providing it to this building. I searched the shelf above it, looking for the red bath salts, and measured out precisely a cup before scattering them across the water’s surface. Max struggled to get to his feet when I finally stopped the water at three-quarters full, but I moved in to help him in.
“I come from Finn. I am his mate.”
The words were little more than a breath in the quiet of the bathroom, but the tension in Max’s body was immediate. I ignored that, helping him put one foot, then another into the bath, before lowering him down.
“We will free your mates during the Great Rite,” I whispered as I sluiced the water over his body, my voice meshing with the swish of water. I grabbed the soap and washcloth. “We have the support of the Great Wolf. Do we have yours?”
For a terrifying few seconds, Finn’s dad just stared at me, those green ey
es so familiar yet alien all at the same time. Then he caught my hand as I went to wash his chest, taking the cloth from me before he rasped, “I’d snap that arsehole’s neck like a chicken if I knew my mates were safe.”
“How was he?” Finn asked me when I returned.
“Take a seat,” Adam said. “Most of the girls look like this when they come back.”
“What? He didn’t—”
“Not to me,” I said. The rest of the sentence hung in the air, unspoken, but heard all the same. Finn swallowed, then shook his head.
“So, he’s on board?”
“Said he’ll snap Lian’s neck like a chicken if we can confirm Grey and Rhydian are safe.”
Finn nodded, but it was a short, abrupt thing.
“Well, sit tight. I have to speak to the produce man for a moment,” Adam said, clapping Finn on the shoulder. “Bastard keeps trying to rob me, not realising it’s them not me that’ll be on his arse if they find out.” He cracked his knuckles suggestively. “Keep on chopping!” he shouted to the kitchen hands as he swung out the back door.
