Captivated (Deep in Your Veins 6)

(Max)

Folding her arms, Sam gave me an ‘are you high?’ look. “You do know Paige, right?”

I gritted my teeth. “Of course I know her.”

“Then you know she’d never agree to this.”

“You’re her superior, she follows your orders.”

“But this isn’t an order I’d ever give her. I have no reason to, and she’d be ticked off at me for so much as suggesting it. I wouldn’t blame her. Come on, Max, you’re not dense. You have to see that for me to ask that of her would be an insult, pure and simple. It would be me saying I have no faith in her abilities, which is bollocks. Paige is perfectly capable of protecting herself.”

I felt my mouth tighten. Apparently Sam had forgotten, but … “Lenox hurt her tonight.” My voice was like gravel.

“I know. I was there. And I’m still well and truly pissed about it. But it’s not like she had a near death experience, is it? He clawed her. She healed herself.”

Not the point. “Only because Jared was able to teleport her to someone who she could transfer the wound to. If he hadn’t been right there to take her away—”

“But he was there, and he will be each time we try tracking Lenox. So, no, I won’t ask her to remain behind just on the off-chance that Lenox might target her again.”

“We both know he will.” The guy had nothing but vengeance on his mind. He wanted to make Quinlan and Ivan pay. If that meant removing Paige from the equation, he’d do it. “Tonight was both a warning and a punishment. He was letting her know he was pissed she’d interfered, and he was cautioning her not to do it again. But she will do it again.”

“And we’ll be ready for however he chooses to handle that. He will not find it so easy to touch her a second time. I’ll make sure of it. You can’t honestly think I’ll tell a member of the legion to sit this one out because, hey, she’ll be in danger. This is kind of what being part of the legion is all about. There’s always risk involved. And before you ask, no, I won’t pair you two up when we’re on the field so that you can be at her side.”

Fuck, I had been about to ask that.

“It wouldn’t work. Your gifts don’t complement each other’s. And you might be used to sparring with each other, but not with working together as a team. Plus, she’d never agree to partner with you over Imani anyway—Paige is way too protective of her. You know all this. I really don’t know why we’re having this conversation.”

“Coach, just—”

“No, Max, I won’t baby her. I certainly won’t hide her away until all this crap blows over. The other girls would stage a protest if I did, because they’d see it as unfair to her, which it would be. And you’re not really in a position to ask something like this of me, no matter how concerned you are for her. You might be sleeping with Paige—yeah, I heard she’s staying at your place—but you’re not her mate or even her boyfriend. Unless there’s something I don’t know?”

There was plenty Sam didn’t—couldn’t—know. Like that my heart stopped when I heard Paige’s hiss of pain earlier. Like that a ball of anxiety had sat in the pit of my stomach right up until Paige reappeared in the rainforest, healed. Like that my gut kept twisting at the thought that Lenox would for sure target her again. But I held all that in and said simply, “She and I are friends.”

“That’s all? Disappointing. But not surprising, given you don’t do relationships.”

I forced my back teeth to unlock. “Just because you’re happy Bound to Jared doesn’t mean that being Bound is the only way someone can be happy.”

“Of course it doesn’t,” she easily agreed, no sarcasm. “And, yeah, you’re happy as you are. That’s good. It means you won’t react like a wanker when Paige eventually takes a mate. It will happen at some point. She’s not a person who’ll be content with spending forever on her lonesome.”

I was well-aware of that. I pretty much shoved the thought aside every time it popped into my head.

“Don’t worry, she won’t pressure you to step out of your comfort zone and give her what she needs. That’s not Paige. She’ll want a bloke who wants what she wants, and she’ll accept nothing less. One day, she’ll have that. And you’ll have no choice but to see it all play out in front of you. So it really is good that you’re happy as you are, Max, or that shit would fucking burn. And I don’t want to see one of my boys get hurt.” With that, Sam walked off.

CHAPTER SIX