Drakkal took her hand and brought it to his face, rubbing his cheek against the top of it before turning it to lick her palm. The roughness of his tongue sent another tingling wave through her.
“Not until I can take care ofyou, too. The wait will be worth it.”
Shay smiled and stroked his jaw. Itsowould be.
“So anyway, why haven’t you told Arc?” Shay asked.
He released a long, slow sigh. “I don’t know. Part of me thought he might try to find her if he knew. Arc doesn’t tolerate betrayal, even when he’s not the direct victim, and when he latches on to something it can be hard to distract him from it. We had other things going on that needed his focus. And another part of me felt like I had to say she was dead because it was the only way I could free myself from the whole mess.”
“But now she’s here. And she knowsyou’rehere. You should tell Arc, Drakkal. You can’t keep shit like that secret.”
“Yeah. And I should’ve learned by now how the past has ahabit of trying bite you in the ass if you ignore it.” He angled his head to the side a little more, shifting his gaze to Leah, and gently brushed the pad of a finger along her little back. “Vanya can’t be trusted. After what she said to you, about you…she’s a potential threat. Need to make sure we’re all aware so we can keep an eye out. The odds of running into her again are slim, but I won’t take the chance. Not when I have so much more to lose.”
After a few seconds of silence, Drakkal leaned toward Shay and kissed her forehead again. “I’m going to talk to him now. Do you need anything?”
Shay wrapped her arms around her slumbering baby. “No, I’m good.”
“All right.” He rolled away from her, sat up at the edge of the bed, and stretched as he stood up. His fur was rumpled and sticking up all over, but he was still sexy as hell, especially with those tight pants hugging his toned ass. He walked toward the door. “Get some more rest. I’ll be back soon.”
“Remember, no tail twining,” Shay said with a smirk.
Drakkal snort-laughed. “If you don’t see it, it doesn’t count.”
Shay scoffed playfully. “So much for trust.”
“I’ll think of you while I do it,kiraia,” he said as he reached the door.
“Bet you wouldn’t like it if I said the same thing about Thargen.”
The playfulness vanished from his expression. “That’s different.”
“But he’s my friend.”
“Are you saying you have abromancewith Thargen?” he asked, lifting a brow.
“In a manner of speaking. I’m just missing the thing swinging between my legs.”
“Hurry up and heal,kiraia, and I’ll fill in that emptiness as much as you want.”
Shay grinned. “I love it when you talk dirty.”
With another chuckle, he opened the door and stepped out into the corridor, leaving Shay alone with Leah.
Shay’s smile lingered. “Hear that, body? You better hurry up.”
She turned her face back toward Leah and leaned down to press her lips to her daughter’s head. She inhaled deeply, taking in the sweet scent of her baby, and closed her eyes. Weariness poked at the edges of her consciousness. There’d been more exhaustion, anxiety, discomfort, and pain over the last several months than Shay had thought possible. Drakkal had made it so much easier to bear, but he couldn’t eliminate it, couldn’t shield her from all of it. And she knew there was more to come.
“But you are worth it,” she whispered. “And so is he.”
Drakkal felt lighteras he walked the quiet corridors in search of Arcanthus. He’d never shared his past with anyone but Arc, and that had only been in pieces—and had included the lie about Vanya. Telling Shay the story—the full, true story—had been like shedding a crippling burden he’d never realized he’d been carrying.
He’d been described by others as guarded and hard to read, and he’d never disagreed. His emotions had always been just that—his. The same for his past. It had always seemed like sharing either could only have unfairly burdened the people around him. He’d never wanted them to worry about his problems.
But while Shay—his beautiful, fierce, strong Shay—had talked about her regrets in the training area downstairs weeksago, Drakkal had realized that sharing those things with a mate wasn’t a matter of burdening someone else, wasn’t a display of weakness. It was a sort of strength beyond any he’d known before. It was a courage he’d long been unable to muster. Drakkal had always been there for Arc and the rest of the crew, but he’d never allowed them to be there for him.
Vrek’osh, Iamgetting sappy.
That was all right, though. Having his true mate and a newborn cub had altered Drakkal’s perspective for the better. He wanted to share everything with her, and he could see that allowing himself to lean on her sometimes would only strengthen both of them—and their mating bond.