Chapter Thirteen

Phoenix

Killian needed to burn under the heat of our flames.

I wasn’t a murderous person, not even violent, but that male deserved that for all he’d done to Iris.

Physical abuse. Mental abuse. Emotional abuse. She hadn’t mentioned sexual, but it hung there too. Unspoken but true. No amount of torture had been out of range, it seemed.

“I need a drink,” Keir said, scrubbing his hand down his face none too gently. He’d already taken the stairs two at a time, on his way to the bourbon bottle if I knew my friend. I finished loading the dishwasher and joined him.

He didn’t often drink alcohol, but after hearing the terror Iris had gone through at the hands of someone who called himself her mate, I needed a drink as much as he did.

When we got to the cabinet where we kept a few bottles for occasions like these, he poured me three fingers of bourbon and slid the glass across the marble countertop. “I’m going to call Wright tomorrow and have him install three more cameras around the house and one at the end of the driveway. Now that we know his name, I’ll run a background check and get Jason to reach out to the alphas in packs and see what we can find out about him. Killian, well, there’s kill in his name. It takes a grade-A asshole to put his hands on a female.”

I agreed. “I already texted Jason. He’s already on it.” Jason had started out with little jobs. He’d once been an underground shifter fighter, punched people in the face for money. He was a dragon shifter like us and he was damned fierce when he wanted to be. Eventually, he moved to work in the office.

“Good. Another?” Keir asked. He’d already gulped down his first drink and was pouring another.

“No. I don’t want to get inebriated in case he’s already on our trail.”

Keir grunted and took a seat on one of the barstools. “We were careful.”

“Yeah, but we barely know this asshole. He might have avenues we don’t know about yet. So far, it sounds like he’s been toying with her since she left. We don’t know what lengths he will go to now that she’s gone.”

“That’s true.” He pushed the second drink aside.

I sat across from him after pulling out some chips and salsa. Because it was always time for chips and salsa, especially when drinking. Eve shifters had their limits and I feared we’d meet ours tonight. “What’s your dragon saying?” I asked, wanting to get a feel for where he was.

“He wants to avenge her.”

I snorted. “Not about him. We won’t let the bastard touch her, but what’s he saying about Iris?”

He took a chip and ate it without salsa. The animal. “I know it’s impossible but he is calling her our mate. Tell me mine isn’t the only one.”

“Mine is saying that as well. Hell, he was hinting at it on the video call. I would have agreed with you on the impossible after Rachel, but he wants Iris infinitely more than he did her.”

“Shifters don’t get more than one fated mate,” he said. He wasn’t refuting what he felt for Iris but questioning everything he understood about mating.

“We did.” Or maybe we’d been wrong about Rachel? My dragon’s reaction to Iris made what he’d felt about Rachel pale in comparison.

“Seems that way,” he answered. We snacked on more chips and salsa and talked more about Iris. How courageous she’d been to leave him. A brave mother-to-be looking out for her young despite her circumstances.

“She’ll be an amazing mother,” I blurted out.

Keir grunted. “To the babe in her belly and ours.”

We knew she was our mate, but hearing him commit to the idea surprised me. Glad I wasn’t the only one.

“We’ll raise her baby as our own. Make sure they never feel like they aren’t ours biologically. If she’s ours, then he or she is as well.”

“It’s killing me not to be next to her tonight.” Keir drummed his fingers on the countertop. My dragon could feel the ripples of unease coming from Keir’s. “We can protect her better with her between us.”

“She’s hurt and traumatized. It might take a long time before she accepts us. We have to be patient with her. She might even need some psychological help. Someone to talk about the abuse with.”

Keir laughed. “You mean, someone else who isn’t going to growl and blow fire every time he hears something new?”

“That.”

I held up my finger, signaling him to be quiet. Iris’ soft footsteps padded out of her room and halted before she descended the stairs.

Once her feet hit the bottom step, I called out, “Iris, we’re in the kitchen.”

Her raspberry-and-cinnamon scent hit me only moments before she stepped in, wearing the cutest silky pink pajama set. Her hair was braided over her shoulder, and she’d washed off the little makeup she wore when we picked her up. A bit of the bottom of her belly showed where the pajama top hem ended.

Gods, our mate was a gorgeous woman.

“Is everything okay?” Keir stood, almost knocking his barstool over.

“I couldn’t sleep despite being so tired. It’s very quiet here.”

We lived away from town and even farther from the city. She must’ve been used to the noises at night.

“How can we help you?”

I wanted to cuddle up with her. Let our scent and our touch keep her safe, but the request had to come from her. She had been through years of being told what to do and every move being monitored.

“I…” She blushed, and I wondered what thoughts danced around in that gorgeous head of hers. “Would it be too forward to ask you both to sleep next to me? I need to feel safe.”

Keir answered first, “It would be our honor, female. We’ll go up and get ready and be there in about ten minutes. Would that be okay?”

She moved her feet together, one over the other. Her scent gave away her unease. I had an idea. “Come with me to my room while I change and brush my teeth. Be near me.”

“That sounds good, Nix. Thank you.”

While I changed into some pajama pants, sans a shirt so she could touch as much of my skin as possible, I felt her eyes on me. Gods, I wanted her hands all over me, but sleeping together would be a good start. I brushed my teeth, and several times our eyes met in the mirror.

I turned, not able to contain myself. “Like what you see, Iris?”

Another blush filled her cheeks. “Yes. I won’t ask you the same. I’m getting bigger by the minute.”

Time to put an end to all that. I marched over to her and put my hands on her waist. Her belly pressed against mine. It was part of her and all of it gorgeous. “Look at me, female,” I whispered. Her brown eyes slid from where they had been on my mouth and met mine. “You are a beautiful woman. The first time I saw your picture, my dragon growled inside me, he was so stricken by it.”

She shrugged one shoulder.

“You think I’m lying?” I asked.

“No.”

I leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “Let’s get you two upstairs so we all can share some rest.”