I turned to face Fin. “Can you guys smell it on me or what? How does everyone recognize I’m a bounty hunter? I’m pretty decent at blending in.”

Fin shrugged. “Can you take something seriously for once in your life?”

Okay, so we’re going there, right now. Sure.

I took a step toward the overgrown thug. “He’s just mad that I found out we’re mates before he got to tell me.”

He sucked in a breath and took a full two huge paces back from me. “You’re his mate?”

The tone was all disgust.

Oops. Guess I should have kept that to myself in front of Fin’s enemies.

Fin had his hands on his hips, one knife in each fist, as he shook his head. “Really? We haven’t even discussed it and you’re telling people?”

I closed the distance between us and shoved his chest. “Really? You’ve known for how long and you didn’t deign to tell me?”

“Not the fucking time,” he said between his clenched teeth.

“Why not? If these assholes were going to attack, they would have done so by now. They’re gathering information to report to someone, or maybe a little of both. Us chatting, arg

uing, fighting, only gives them more fodder, at least until we kill them.”

He met my eyes, something like surprise written there. I would try not to be offended by that.

“How do you know?”

I lowered my voice. “If they wanted us dead they saw us, they would have been waiting at the tent flap to grab us the second we exited. They would have also tailed us through the market to alert one of them when we’re coming out. An easy snatch, grab, beheading, and done in minutes.”

“I don’t like how easily you can talk about our potential beheading.”

I took my place at his side again. “Perspective, Fin. Try it.”

The guy who grabbed me resumed his place in the circle.

“Are you going to fight or argue with your mate all night?” he asked Fin.

I whispered to Fin, “What don’t I know about mates that I should?”

“They won’t touch you,” Fin said. “Mates are off limits to other fae.”

I reared back, not bothering to lower my voice this time. “What the fuck? You’re as much my mate as I am yours! Why aren’t you off limits in that case?”

Fucking patriarchy shit.

I glared at the men around us. “You can say I’m off limits. It won’t stop me from kicking your ass.”

Fin gave me a side eye as I unsheathed my blades again. I felt his magic in the air a split second before all the men seized up under his hold.

“How long do we have?” I asked.

“A few minutes max. Humans are easy. Fae are a lot harder to control, especially in a group.”

I nodded and walked up to the big guy I pegged as the leader. “Listen here. If he releases you, you take your men and you go. Otherwise, I’m going to walk around the pretty little circle you made for us and cut everyone’s Achilles so you can’t walk and then—”

My voice cut off the same time my air supply did. Someone was using their magic on me. Fin could immobilize and control them, but maybe not the will of their magic.

I reached inside myself, grasping for whatever magic I could find. The dark abyss of mage magic flung up from somewhere and I washed it over the group in an arc.

Tags: Amelia Shaw The Rover Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net