[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Nix patted the arm wrapped around her waist. She could feel
Boone's unease as if it were her own. "I was to be wedded to Vasile.
Everyone knew it. It would not be proper for me to leave home to
fornicate with anyone that was not my intended."
"Which explains why you were in the bar trying to pick someone
up," Cort growled.
Nix shrugged. "I wanted one night to have someone of my own
choosing, not someone chosen by my father." Nix shuddered.
"Besides the fact that I fully believe that Vasile is evil, it all seemed
so cold, so sterile. I just wanted one night filled with warmth."
Nix purred when Boone nuzzled her neck. She felt Cort's hand
stroking her arm, shivers of delight riding over her skin. "Did we give
you enough warmth, baby?" Boone whispered against her ear.
"It will never be enough," Nix murmured back as she let her head
drop back, baring her throat. She shuddered when Boone's lips moved
along her tingling skin. "I'll always need the both of you to keep me
warm."
"Let's get back to the issue at hand here, folks," Dane said,
breaking in to the tender moment between Nix and her mates. She
glared at him. "We need to find out what is going on inside that
facility."
"I thought you just wanted us to watch the place," Cort said.
"That was before they took Nix. If they are following you or Nix,
then we have a problem. It could also mean that they have more
Others. I think we need to get inside that facility and find out what's
really going on."
Mating Heat 75
Cort nodded. Boone nodded. Nix didn't. She didn't like the
direction this conversation was headed. Whoever took her knew she
was Other. That made them dangerous. Now that Cort and Boone's
genetic anomaly had been triggered, it put them in danger as well.
Nix didn't know how this was done. She'd never tried to
investigate anything. But the thought of Cort and Boone going back to
that research facility scared the crap out of her. Her gut screamed at
her that they were in grave danger.
"Isn't there some other way that we can find this out?" Nix asked.
"Maybe stake the research facility out again or something? Do Boone
and Cort really need to go inside?"
"Watching the outside of the building isn't going to gain us any
information," Dane said. "We really need to get inside and find out
exactly what they are doing inside that building. It could mean the
lives of all of us."
Nix knew when she was beaten. She could see it in the determined
looks of the faces around her. No matter what she said or how hard
she protested, Cort and Boone were going to break into the research
facility to gather information.
"Let me go with you."
Dane burst out laughing. That didn't bother Nix so much
considering how he saw her, but the amused chuckles from Cort and
Boone hurt. She felt like they might reach over and pat her on the
head at any moment.
"I'm not joking," Nix insisted. "Let me go with you. I can help."
"Princess, this isn't a shopping trip to the mall," Dane said. "This
is a reconnaissance mission."
Nix bristled. She tried to keep her temper under control and speak
diplomatically as she had been taught and not scream and yell as she
really wanted to do. "I am fully aware that this is a dangerous
mission. I still think I can help."
76 Stormy Glenn
"Nix, we're not choosing nail polish here," Dane said. "Cort and
Boone will be breaking into a top-level security facility. There will be
men with guns, big guns. It's not a place for princesses to be."
Nix waited for Cort or Boone to defend her. Surely they would.
They might not know much about her, but to let someone speak to her
in such a manner was just not acceptable. When they said nothing, she
glanced at both of them, shocked to see them trying to hide amused
grins from her.
"I see," she finally said. And she did. Cort and Boone thought she
was as frivolous as Dane did. They would never take her seriously.
Nix climbed off of Boone's lap and stood. "I'll just let you get to your
plans then."
Nix held her head high as she walked from the room. She didn't
hurry as she wanted to but kept a regular pace out of the room. She
was a Princess. It wouldn't do for anyone to know that inside she cried
like a baby.
She was able to keep her composure until returning to their
bedroom. Closing the door behind her, she looked at the bed they had
shared, remembering the hours spent there making love. Making love,
she scoffed, fucking, more like it. They didn't love her. Boone and
Cort didn't even respect her! She lay down on the bed, curling into a
ball, and wept.
Nix wept for her lot in life, the way her father ignored her, used
her as a possession to keep his power. She wept for the way her mates
treated her, like some toy they could have sex with and not the partner
she should be. They treated her like a silly child, not even trying to
get to know her. They listened to Dane, assuming his opinion of her
was correct.
Dane had never even met her before. She thought she had gotten
the point across that his assumptions were wrong. It seemed mere
words would change no one's opinion of her. Nix tried her best
always in life, living up to the expectations her father put on her,
Mating Heat 77
living at court put on her, even her mates put on her. She was so tired
of it all!
No more! Nix thought as she wiped the last of her tears of hurt
away. She would no longer tolerate people treating her this way. She
was no longer going to turn the other cheek while people used and
abused her for their own purposes. It ended today! If being diplomatic
and trying to rise above the bait of people's words didn't work, as her
life now clearly showed her, she would find another way.
Nix paced around the room. She deserved the respect of her
position. She was a Princess, damn it! She came from the most
powerful bloodline of the faye, but if that wouldn't bring her respect,
she would do it the way any man would. She would fight back with
strength and hand them their asses!
She had been working with her powers in secret since she was a
child, knowing her father didn't approve of a Princess to train in such
ways. Her father loved her somewhere in his misguided head, but his
treatment of her didn't show it. She was a mere possession to be used
the way he saw fit. It was time to show, by any means necessary, that
she alone possessed herself and anyone she allowed in her life or to be
her mate was given a gift, one that would be respected.
Cort and Boone were about to find out what it meant to be mated,
and to be mated to someone as powerful as a faye. If they couldn't
handle it, too damn bad. This mating worked for all of them, or it
didn't work. And she was determined to make it work. She didn't have
a choice.
78 Stormy Glenn
Chapter 7
"That might not have been our smartest move," Boone said as he
watched Nix walk out of the room and down the hallway.
"What do you mean?" Cort asked.
"I think we just hurt Nix's feelings," Boone said.
"She'll get over it," Dane said. "A recon mission is no place for a
girl, especially a Princess. She could be seriously injured."
Boone rubbed his fingers along the rim of the coffee cup in his
hand. "I agree, but we might have handled that a little better."
"The little Princess will survive." Dane snickered. "It'll be good
for her to be knocked down a level or two."
"Dane, just stop it, okay?" Cort snapped.
"Stop what?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]