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Her face flushes—anger and embarrassment in equal measure—and her fists clench by her side. He expects a scathing retort—punishment, even—but after a long silence, she huffs a breath and her shoulders slump.“Fine.”
He waits for her to follow up with instructions, but she just shoots him a glare before she climbs underneath the covers again, back turned. Apparently this is as close as she’ll get to admitting she does, in fact, need him.
Every muscle in her body tenses as he lifts the duvet and slides down behind her, his pulse throbbing harder when he presses his body tight to hers.
She’s cold everywhere they touch, and he rumbles with dissatisfaction as the primitive protector in him takes control. It’s basics—an alpha’s primary job is to keep his woman fed, safe, and warm. No amount of hatred or conditioning or fucking with his DNA can take away the abject failure it is that his mate’s freezing.
The second he slips his arms around her torso, she goes rigid. He ignores her, pulls her closer, and wraps his leg around hers. Wishing they were skin to skin like she clearly fucking needs.
It takes longer than it should, but slowly her body warms in his grasp. He feels it in the gradual relaxation of her muscles as well as her rising temperature. By the time she’s back to normal levels, her breathing is slow and even, and her ass is heavy against his painfully straining erection. It’s a fucking miracle the damn thing still has circulation, considering the blasted jeans.
“Thank you.” Her voice is quiet, sleepy, but he hears the words clear as day.
Gratitude.Spokengratitude. Even if he were inclined to answer, he wouldn’t know how.
Silence settles between them once more. He closes his eyes and inhales her scent—allows the quietude of the moment to fill him until there’s room for nothing but calm. And her.
“Do you think you’ll ever want to purr for me?”
AX2 frowns and opens his eyes again. “What?”
“Dad purrs for Mom. He used to do it for me too, when I was little.” She still sounds drowsy—like she’s floating on the edge of sleep. “It’s the only reason I ever saw to marry an alpha.”
Purr.The word stirs something in his primal self. He knows what it is, but it’s the first time he’s ever thought about it. There’s been no reason to, before. An alpha purrs for his mate when he wants her calm, or for his family unit, to please them.Intimate.That’s the best word to describe the act. Or perhapsloving.
“No.”
“I didn’t think so,” she sighs. She doesn’t sound particularly disappointed, just… resigned.
“Adelaide?”
She jolts a little against him, still unaccustomed to hearing him speak her name.
“Why does your father insist I was the only man who could save you?” Out of all the questions, out of all the confusing half-revelations, that is the one that’s been playing on a loop in his mind. Prodding at him, as if the answer is the only one that truly matters.
She stiffens against him, taking a slow breath before she says, “You’re the strongest weapon on the planet.”
“The other AX soldiers are equally strong. Equally capable,” he says, frowning into her hair. “All alphas. If you’d ordered one of them to claim you—”
“That’s what he meant,” she interrupts him, sleepy rasp giving way to sharpness. “You, as in the AX unit. It could have been any of you.”
That sounds plausible. It’s a passable explanation—a misspeak from the general. Surely any of his brethren could have saved her from that bunker.
So why do they both know she’s lying?
It doesn’t takeher long to drift off to sleep. He stays awake, too alert to allow unconsciousness to take him. Her father may have removed her direct control over him, but he may also be the one who had her kidnapped. Sleeping under his roof is out of the question.
Instead AX2 stares into the darkness of the room and tries not to think about what it means that he had a way out of this nightmare and didn’t take it. How he could have defended his tormentor’s life and chosen to stay under her thrall even before their mating bond tied him to her for the rest of eternity—assuming General Thompson’s explanation about AX1 is true.
AX2 looks down at Adelaide’s pale face. She looks entirely peaceful in her sleep. Gentle, even. Safe in his arms. She wants him topurrfor her, of all things. But she hadn’t commanded it. Hadn’t even asked him to. The woman who’s never hesitated to demand everything else she could extract from him, with no regard for his wants.
Without meaning to, he smooths a thumb over her cheek. Even her own father knows she’s cold. Cruel. Though he claims she wasn’t always like this.
Gently he extricates his limbs from their embrace. She murmurs a sleepy protest, but settles when he tucks the duvet tight around her, mimicking his presence.
Her diary is still wedged behind the pipes underneath the bathroom vanity where he stashed it before his morning shower. He pulls it out and returns to the bedroom, silently placing himself in a chair that lets him keep an eye on the sleeping woman.
He thumbs through the old journal, looking at the dates before skimming the pages. His enhanced vision lets him read every entry despite the darkness in the room.
