Crimson Highlander (Onyx Assassins 2)

Right. Because I'd been the one to growl without even knowing it. Fuck my life.

"I don't know," she said, shaking her head.

"Bullshit," Hawke challenged, catching his dagger by the tip.

"I don't." She turned a full-fledged glare on him, and I adjusted my stance just in case he took offense and decided to act on it.

I didn't want to be mated to the woman, but I couldn't let her get herself killed, either. Every cell in my body railed against the possibility and demanded I protect her, no matter how reckless she was.

And she was pretty fucking reckless.

Of all the females in the world, why the hell had fate tied me to this one?

"Only the heads of the families know the locations for their meetings. You guys killed my father—the head of the Moorehouse family, and then my brother put a nice little bounty on my head, so it's not like I can just call him up and ask for the coordinates to their secret lair."

Benedict smothered a laugh.

"There's a reason they split up all the info, and you're looking at it." She gestured down her body. “You honestly think they’d make it so easy to take them down?”

"You don’t know? But you were being groomed to take over." Ransom’s gaze turned shrewd as he examined the map, no doubt comparing it to the one we had downstairs in the war room.

"From what I know, my brother slipped into the role quite easily. Then again, the friend who told me that was killed shortly after the conversation by her own husband.” Her voice broke. “They'll do the same to me as soon as they catch me." She put the cap on the marker and lifted her chin, but there was a slight tremble in her shoulders.

The room fell silent.

"No lies," Benedict announced.

"So, what's the plan for tonight?" Ransom asked.

"I'm checking out that location." I pointed to the circle Valor had drawn in our territory. How had we let it go undetected?

"Fine, then I'm going with you." She looked at me and handed the marker to Ransom.

"The fuck you are." It wasn't happening…for too many reasons to even list.

She walked right up to me and lifted a delicate, red brow, her neck arching to keep eye contact. Damn it, those pale green eyes of hers were going to be the death of me. It was like the woman had been created specifically to distract and destroy.

"No," I ground out through clenched teeth as the guys started quietly discussing the Conclave-given judgments they'd need to carry out tonight. Balancing the usual justice and this war with the Sons of Honor was wearing us thin.

"Yes," she countered, folding her arms under her breasts, which only made them rise even higher against the neckline—all creamy and—no.

I clenched my hands into fists to keep them off her.

"You don't even know the layout of that safe house, but I do,” she argued.

"Exactly." Fuck, was everything going to be a battle with this woman? What do you care, it’s not like you’re going to act on the bond. "I don't know what I'm walking into, and I can't trust you, so you stay here."

She narrowed those gorgeous eyes at me. "If you can't trust me out there, what makes you think you can trust me back here…in your house…without you?"

My chest rumbled at the thought of the havoc she could wreak back here.

Alek put his hand on my shoulder. "Let me make this easy. Surveillance only, otherwise you have to take one of the trainees with you. We're too spread out tonight."

"Looks like I'm your backup!" Valor flashed me a victorious, smirking grin and walked out of the living room. "Meet you at the front door!"

"Really?" I snapped at my king, who had the misfortune of also being my best friend.

He grimaced. "Yeah, I thought about ordering her to stay, but then I paused long enough to consider how I'd feel if someone else ordered my mate around and decided to let you handle that one. Good luck." He slapped my shoulder and laughed.

I muttered a curse and took off after the redhead who was slowly ruining my life.

* * *

"Thank you for grabbing coffee," Valor said, breaking the silence between us as we sat outside the Moorehouse safe house from a respectable, inconspicuous distance. There were only a few lights on, and I’d counted three separate shadows passing by the window in the last half-hour. "I'm not usually a night owl, so two a.m. is pushing it."

"You live in a house full of vampires, lass, so I suggest you convert. Quickly." Then again, perhaps we'd be safe from each other if she slept while I was awake. Even now, the bond called to me, distracting as fuck. "And don't thank me. Thank Owen. He's the one who put it in my hands as we were walking out the door."