“Feel better?” Therian asked.
The dragon shifter was a man of few words—he always had been, as long as Nikhail had known him. The most he’d ever heard Therian speak was during the Choosing, when the shifter had wooed his now-wife, Hallie.
“Much.”
“Good.” Therian wiped his face and strode towards the showers. “Then let’s get this show on the road. The sooner I get back to Hallie, the better. I always hate leaving her, but now that her due date is approaching, it’s a special kind of torture.”
Nikhail caught up, pushing open the door to the showers. “Two months to go, right?”
“Yes.” Therian grinned, pulling off his sweaty T-shirt. “It feels like it’ll never get here, and yet, time is flying. There’s still so much to do and learn.”
“I get that. My sister’s wife is pregnant, too.”
Laurie and her wife, Krystal, underwent reciprocal IVF a few months ago. Laurie’s eggs had been harvested and artificially inseminated, but Krystal was the one carrying their child. She wasn’t due for another six months, but already, Laurie was talking about how nervous and excited they were.
Nikhail was looking forward to being an uncle. He couldn’t wait for the baby to arrive and spoil them every day. Yet another reason to put an end to this debacle with the Black Night as quickly as possible.
Surely, once they apprehended Gale Harringdale, things would go back to normal, right?
“Don’t wait up tonight, Princess.”Nikhail stood in the doorway of the safe house, checking his weapons one last time. “I’m not sure how late we’ll be.”
Three days had passed since the reinforcements arrived.
Rather than continuing to chase after the rebels, always one gods-damned step behind, they’d altered course. Nikhail and his ever-growing team had spent hours combing through the now-abandoned warehouse, searching for evidence of the rebels’ movement. They’d left no stone unturned—or in this case, no empty crate, stack of papers, or piles of broken electronics.
It was during this arduous, tedious process that Nikhail had uncovered a clue. A deed to a desert property an hour outside the city. The yellowed slip of paper had been buried in a shoe box among a stack of receipts from years ago, and he’d almost missed it.
A week ago, he might’ve written the deed off as inconsequential—the name wasn’t one he recognized—but after combing through the warehouse, he realized there was a certain order to things here. The deed had been so out of place that it felt impossible to ignore.
When he relayed the information to the others, they’d agreed. Further investigation had revealed more informationabout the isolated location, and Nikhail was sure this was where they’d find Harringdale.
River drew her bottom lip through her teeth. The nervous gesture was endearing. “You’re going to the desert, right?”
Nikhail nodded. “Yep. Sandbanks is a small village near where we’re heading.”
For security reasons, he couldn’t give her the exact coordinates.
“That’s near where you grew up, right?”
“It is. How did you?—”
River’s feet shuffled, and she glanced at the floor. “A year or so ago, you were telling Ryker about your mom, and you mentioned the town’s name.” River’s cheeks were a dusty rose. “I wasn’t intentionally eavesdropping, but I couldn’t help but hear you both talking. The tidbit stayed in my mind.”
He stepped closer to River. A coil of warmth wrapped around his lower half, his body far more focused on the stunning woman in front of him than the team waiting for him downstairs. If only he could stay here all night and lavish her with attention as he desired.
One day, when the immediate threat had been taken care of, he would do exactly that.
“And you remembered the name?”
Her cheeks and neck were red. “Yeah. I don’t know how to explain it, I just… I remember a lot of things about you, Nik. Even when I was trying to convince myself to stop, that it was a bad idea, I was still paying attention to you.”
Had he wanted her before?
Now, his pants were uncomfortably tight. Heat coursed through him, and the air sizzled between them.
Three words hovered on the tip of his tongue, but Nikhail kept them inside. Not because he didn’t want to say them, but because when he did, it wouldn’t be in a rush when he had toleave. River deserved to have the words whispered to her as he kissed every part of her, worshiping her the way a goddess like her deserved to be adored.
Even so, Nikhail felt himself drifting closer to River. She backed up until she hit the wall. His name escaped her on a breath. Even if he wouldn’t say the words, he would ensure she knew exactly how he felt before he left.