Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49459 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
I knew she was trying to convince herself, and I wanted to ease her, to make her feel as safe as she had before all of this shit. “Aye. And until then, we hold the line.”
She tilted her head to look at me, eyes catching the firelight. “And we’ll always be together.”
That made me smile. “Aye, lass. Always.”
It took only minutes for Aisling to fall asleep against me. I listened to the steady rhythm of her heart, and it eased and calmed me. I thought about what she said. The magic would hold—for a time. We’d work tirelessly to ensure this played out successfully. But the rip was still there and still a threat.
I tightened my arm around my mate, tethering her to me, and looking forward to the future with my female above all else.
CHAPTER 36
KANE
Months later
The night air was brittle, the kind that stung your lungs and burnt your skin.
The forest stretched wide and black around me, every shadow a potential threat. I’d been walking this perimeter for hours, boots crunching over frost-hardened earth, the cold gnawing at my exposed skin.
The Guard, vampire covens, witches and warlocks, and other Otherworld factions had been taking shifts here for months now, ever since we’d located the exact spot of the ripped portal.
The breach itself wasn’t visible anymore—at least, not to the naked eye—but you could feel it if you stood too close. It was a tingling on your skin, like you touched a live wire and felt the electricity humming through you. There was a low hum that rang in the wards and a light smell of sulfur lingering in the air.
And it felt like you were being watched by something unseen.
The witches said the wards were holding, but we all knew they were temporary, and we didn’t know what the fuck we were dealing with. How could you fight an enemy when you didn’t know what the hell they looked like and what weapon they used to combat it?
A bandage over a wound didn’t mean it would heal. I stopped in front of where the rip was. I couldn’t see the tear, but I sure as fuck felt it. I closed my eyes, feeling the dark magic seeping out from it.
“You’re a real motherfucker, you know that?” I said under my breath, opened my eyes, and gave the space in front of me both middle fingers.
I started my patrol again, sensing the other males also on patrol. Some were miles away; others were close enough that I smelled their scents as if they stood right beside me. I continued to move in a slow circuit, eyes tracking every tree line and taking in even the small shift in the wind.
The silence of evil and danger and everyone getting back to their normal routines made me uneasy as fuck. It was unnatural. I felt it under my skin.
Because things were too quiet.
It was moments like this I was glad as fuck I wasn’t mated. I had to worry only about myself and those closest to me. Having a female of my own meant I wouldn’t be able to focus on anything else. Protecting her would be the only thing I could focus on, and emotion fucked up a male.
My brother Sebastian and cousin Adryan were proof of that.
So yeah, I was glad I was mate-less. It made things really fucking easy for me.
Evil didn’t just stop. It waited. And the last thing I wanted was to have to worry about my fated mate being put in harm’s way.
All I needed to worry about was taking down whatever the fuck this was, even if it killed me.
EPILOGUE
LENNOX
Imoved in with Aisling months ago. And the cottage felt like ours now. A home.
The last few months had been spent settling in and trying to achieve normalcy. It was getting easier, at least for Aisling. But for me, I was always on alert. I was ready to go after the threat that hung over our lives.
I drank my beer and relaxed on the couch, looking around the tiny cottage that felt too small but always felt like this was where I belonged. My boots sat by the front door, and her pretty, floral shawl was tossed over the back of the couch.
I was at the estate daily, which is where I stored nearly all my weapons, but it would be foolish not to have weapons here at a moment’s notice. We’d made space for each other without thinking about it.
Aisling grabbed us another round of beers for us. I brought in more wood I’d chopped earlier and added a few logs to the fireplace, stoking the flames until it filled the entire room with warmth. And then I searched for a movie for us to watch as we unwound from the day’s events.
Aisling was a horror fan, me an action lover. But I gave her whatever she wanted, so horror-themed it was for tonight.