Chapter 74: 74: A Mate’s Resolve

BELLE

I slammed my hands over my ears.

“I’m going to kill him,” Grayson bit out.

“Who?” I squeaked. “Who is that?”

With one final apologetic squeeze to my neck and a kiss on my mouth, he moved me off of him so I was lying on my back on the bed next to him.

“Wait, what are you doing?” I asked, watching as he stood in all of his naked glory. ~Dear Lord, I had sex with that?~ “I thought you said that not even the Moon Goddess could pull you from me.”

“And I meant that,” he replied sternly. “I’ll be back—just as soon as I murder my beta.”

“Your beta?” I repeated. “Kyle is here?”

Grayson grunted in response. He was pissed. I could feel his anger racing through our bond, squeezing around my heart.

He didn’t like it when we were interrupted during an intimate moment like this. He liked it even less that there was a person anywhere near me so soon after mating for the first time.

“I’ll be right back. Stay here.” He began walking to the door.

“Grayson!” I called after him. I quickly stood and wrapped a sheet around me. “Where are you going? You’re naked!”

Grayson was past the point of listening. He was shaking with anger, body growing, preparing to shift.

He very obviously didn’t care about his state of nudity. His attention was set on ripping apart whoever was at our door.

“Grayson, wait! You can’t just—”

I chased after him to the door only for him to turn, walk back to me, toss me over his shoulder, and march me right back to the bed at a speed I couldn’t even begin to comprehend.

He unceremoniously dropped me on the mattress and climbed over me, looking down at me with livid dark-red eyes. I gulped.

“Stay. ~Here~,” he ground out. “If I come back here and find that you’ve moved even one inch toward that door, you won’t like the consequences. Understand me, mate?”

“I’m not a child.” I glared up at him. “You want to get kicked in the balls? Talk to me like that again.”

Grayson bared his teeth in frustration and stuffed his head into my hair, taking in deep, calming breaths of my scent.

I knew he was on edge and couldn’t exactly control his actions right now. Maybe I should have granted him some mercy and just done what he’d said.

But that didn’t mean he could get away with talking to me like that.

There was another rapid pounding on the door. Grayson snarled in the direction of it.

“Um, excuse me, do you really think I want to be here right now?” Kyle’s voice shouted through our apartment.

“In fact, do you think I would be anywhere ~near~ your wing of the palace right now unless it weren’t ~extremely~ important?”

I sighed. “Go talk to your beta,” I told Grayson. I massaged the tight muscles of his neck with my fingers in an attempt to calm him quickly.

“I’ll stay here. I promise. The sooner you go see what he wants, the sooner we can get back to what we were doing.”

He kissed my mark and then my lips before leaning back to look at me.

Next thing I knew, I was alone on the bed, and the door to the bedroom was slammed shut.

I sprang up, raced to the door, pressed my ear to the wood, and strained my hearing to listen to what they were saying.

“What the flying fuck do you want?” Grayson demanded the moment he was outside the room.

“The borders are down,” Kyle said. His tone was much more serious than I was used to, indicating he was getting straight to business.

He could probably tell he was on thin ice and that he had mere moments to explain why he was there before Grayson lost his shit.

“What do you mean they’re down?”

“They’re just down. We have no idea how it happened.” He took a deep breath. “We’re handling it, but I thought you might want to be aware. Anyone has access to the kingdom right now. Absolutely anyone.”

The door to our bedroom swung open a second later.

I stumbled backward with a gasp, not expecting my mate to burst through the door just then, only to be grabbed around the waist and slammed into his naked chest.

“I thought I told you to stay on the bed,” he said, chiding me.

“And I thought I told you I would kick you in the balls if you kept talking to me like I’m a child.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “You make me fucking crazy.”

“Don’t blame me for your psychosis.”

“Baby, you ~are~ my psychosis.”

With that, he released me, and within the next second, he was across the room in our closet, pulling on a pair of dark jeans.

“Are you going somewhere?” I asked.

Frustration took over his face. “Yes. I’m so sorry, love. You know I wouldn’t go if I didn’t really have to.”

I nodded, following him into the closet. “I know. It’s okay. Kyle sounded pretty serious. What does it mean that the borders are down?”

He paused after pulling on a black T-shirt, his brows knitting together. “You could hear that?”

“Of course I could hear that. You were just in the other room.”

His puzzlement showed. “The rooms are soundproof. The only reason I knew Kyle was coming was that I could smell him, and the door was open. Even I would struggle to hear through that door when it’s closed.”

I shrugged. “Well, I guess you should get your money back because whoever soundproofed this room obviously didn’t do a very good job.”

Grayson shook his head, reaching for a pair of boots. “So I guess you heard that the borders to Zaweth are down. First time in centuries.”

I pulled my sheet around me tighter. “What exactly does that mean?”

“It means that someone figured out how to break them down. Someone very powerful. It means that anyone can get through.”

“Well, can’t you just put them back up?”

“Not without an extremely powerful warlock. And the only one nearby just so happens to be missing. And I have a funny feeling that I know who’s responsible.”

He walked to me, pressing a firm kiss on my forehead. “We need to protect the borders. For all we know, Azazel is already in the kingdom.”

“And you’re just going to go out there?” I demanded. “You’re the one he wants to kill. Shouldn’t you be hiding?”

“I’m no coward, Belle. I’m not going to run like Azazel. I’m going to rip him to shreds for what he did to you. Because that’s what he deserves. I’m going to make him suffer.”

The emotions I was feeling from him suddenly made sense. There was no fear over the potential danger facing his kingdom or his people right now.

He was eager for Azazel to come. He was excited. He wanted to destroy him.

“What can I do to help?” I asked, already reaching for my clothes.

“You can stay right here where I know you will be safe—where Azazel cannot get to you,” he said.

He walked past me, making his way to the bed, where he sat down and started to quickly lace up his boots.

I threw on some underwear—of the non-sexy variety this time—before tugging a pair of jeans over my hips.

A scoff flew from my mouth. Why did I know that was going to be his answer before I even asked the question?

“I’m not going to just sit here like a helpless doll while you go out there and risk your life. Absolutely not. I’m coming with.” I shrugged into a white T-shirt.

Finished with his laces, Grayson finally looked up at me with a piercing gaze.

I knew the expression on his face. It was a look that said he wasn’t going to budge on the topic.

“Argue with me all you want, Belle,” he said slowly. “It’s not happening. I will not willingly put you in danger.”

“There has to be something I can do! I can help with medical stuff. Or with children. This is my pack too.”

He ignored me, already making his way to the door. I scrambled to put my sneakers on, hopping on one foot while I followed him.

“So what, you’re just going to lock me up in this apartment while you go off to war?”

He nodded once. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

I scoffed. “I know how to unlock a door. You can’t force me to stay here.”

Grayson’s brows rose. He opened the door to reveal Liam standing there, a grim expression painted on his face.

“No, but I can,” Liam said as he stepped into the apartment.

I looked at my mate. “What is this? What is he doing here?”

Grayson was hesitant with his words. “He’s going to make sure you stay here.”