LEXINE WAS SNEAKING food in for Sterling when she found Phoenix at the front desk.
“Please, I need to see him.”
“I’m sorry, miss,” the receptionist who didn’t sound the least bit sorry said, “but you don’t have any right to go back there. And Mr. Leonidas is sleeping. I will not wake him for this.”
Lexine walked over to the two of them. “Hey, Phoenix.”
The cat-shifter turned to Lexine. “Uh…hey, Lexine.”
“Listen”—Lexine looked at the receptionist—“this is Dante’s future mate, so if I were you, I would not want to piss off the leader of the Guardians. You feel me?”
The receptionist nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Come on, Phoenix. I’ll take you to Dante,” she said. “And don’t ma’am me,” she told the receptionist. “I’m not that old.”
Phoenix followed her down the hall.
When they got to the door to the room that Dante and Sterling were sharing, Lexine turned around. “Look, I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry. I know I haven’t been nice to you in the past.”
Phoenix looked like she didn’t know what to say. “Thank you.”
“I was jealous before. I always thought I had a crush on Dante, so when you came along, I didn’t like it. But, now, I see that I didn’t really like him like that. I liked the idea of him. Anyway, you and Dante are meant to be together. And I hope you came here to set things straight with him.”
“I did.”
Lexine smiled. “Good. Otherwise, I’d have to kill you.”
Phoenix laughed, not the least bit intimidated. “You could try.”
Lexine pushed open the door and walked past a sleeping Dante to Sterling’s bed.
His gray eyes opened when she got to his bedside. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she said. She held up her backpack. “I brought you food.”
“I know. I can smell it.”
She set her backpack down and pulled out the burger and fries for Sterling.
“God, you are awesome,” Sterling said. “Now, if you could just fit me in your backpack and sneak me out of here, that would be great.”
Lexine sat next to Sterling and lay back on the raised head of the bed. “You’ll get out of here soon.”
“Not soon enough,” he said, already taking a bite of his food.
“You’re lucky the booby-trap bomb that Lucas had set was only enough to blow off the door and send you and Dante through the air. It could have been a lot worse.”
“I know,” he agreed.
There was a noise over by Dante’s bed. Sterling looked up to see Phoenix sitting by Dante’s bedside now that Lexine wasn’t blocking his view anymore.
“When did she get here?”
“Just now.”
“And you’re okay with this?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
Sterling looked at her like she’d told a bad joke or something. “Because you’ve been in love with him forever.”
She closed her eyes and relaxed. “Nah. I was just telling Phoenix that I was in love with the idea of him, not Dante himself. I wanted a strong alpha male who would boss me around in bed, but it turns out, I’ve already found that.” Lexine settled in, ready to take a short nap while Sterling ate, when another thought crossed her mind. She opened her eyes and sat up. “Wait a second. How did you know I liked Dante?”
“Babe, everyone in the house knew.” He tilted his head to the side. “Well, almost everyone. Dante never knew. At least, I don’t think he did.”
“Ugh, how embarrassing.”
Sterling lifted his brow.
“You’re right. After everything we’ve gone through recently, that’s not very embarrassing.” She laid her head back again while Sterling polished off his burger.
“So, if you realized you no longer loved or liked Dante, what did you say to him that night in his office after he came back from seeing Phoenix?” Sterling looked worried.
“Did you think I went and propositioned him or something?”
“No. Yes.” He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Lexine laughed. “I went and told him about you and me. I know there are no rules on fraternizing, but I wanted to be honest with him. After everything I put the Guardians through, I felt like it was best to start being honest.”
Sterling paused with a fry halfway to his mouth. “You told him about the two of us?”
“Yeah,” she said in her best duh voice. “You didn’t really think I was going to let you move to California, did you?”
Sterling leaned over and kissed her. “God, I love you.”
Lexine smiled against his lips. “I love you, too.”
Sterling sat back and popped a fry in his mouth. “Good, because, when we get home, I’m going to make you prove it.”
Dante woke with a crushing weight on his chest and what sounded like a motor running. The room was pitch-black, except for his monitor in the corner. But even the light from that hurt his eyes. He still had a massive headache from the bomb that stupid fucker Lucas had set. Dante couldn’t wait for the Council to throw the book at him.
The physical ache didn’t help with his mental ache though. He still missed Phoenix. One would think getting thrown twenty feet in the air would help one forget about missing the individual they couldn’t have, but instead, he missed her so much that it felt like she were in his room.
Man, he wanted to go home. But first things first. Dante grabbed his call button and pressed. His hand still hurt where it had gotten burned, and he hoped that he would heal from this whole ordeal soon.
A nurse walked into his room, and he had to shut his eyes from the sliver of light from the hallway.
“What can I get you, Dante?”
“I think I need to see the doctor again.”
He felt more than saw the nurse get tense. “What symptoms are you having?”
“I’m having trouble breathing. I feel like something is crushing my chest. I feel hot, and the ringing in my ears has changed to what sounds like a car running.”
The nurse’s body sagged, and it sounded like she stifled a laugh. “I’m sorry.”
“About what?”
“I shouldn’t laugh. Dante, you’re fine. I mean, except for your concussion and burns. You just have a full-grown cat-shifter purring and lying on top of you.”
“What?” Dante said as he looked down. He could barely make out the outline of Phoenix in the dark, and mostly because he knew she was there. He put his hands out and felt her hair and then the rest of her body.
The nurse smiled sweetly, turned, and walked out the door.
Phoenix moved as he continued to touch her, and the purring stopped. “Dante,” she said, her voice groggy.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious. But why did you come to see me?”
“Because I realized that I almost lost you today.”
“It wasn’t that bad. Lucas set a small bomb to blow off his garage door, but that was the extent of the damage. Only Sterling and I were hurt.”
“But it could have been worse. And I figured out that I couldn’t go another second without telling you that I love you.”
Dante’s heart skipped a beat. Not literally. He heard the rhythmic pulses of his heart monitor continue on, but it felt like his heart had skipped a beat. “You do?”
“Yes. I want to be with you, and I hope you still want to be with me, too.”
“Of course I do. But what about your heat?”
“I’m still disappointed in my body, but we can try again. And we can have a lot of fun preparing in between.”
Dante pulled Phoenix up to his mouth and kissed her. “God, I can’t believe you’re here.”
“Me either, but I am so glad I am.”
“Phoenix?”
“What?”
“Will you tell me what happened to you?”
He felt her body go on alert, and his hopes fell. He didn’t want to know what had happened to his cat-shifter because he was curious; he wanted her to trust him enough to tell him.
Her body sank back into his, and she said, “Sorry, I just had to make sure Sterling and Lexine were sleeping first.”
Is she actually going to tell me?
She took a deep breath. “I started developing early. Early by human standards and really early for a shifter. My dad died when I was young, and my uncle moved in. My mom got free help, and my uncle got a place to stay for cheap. He lived with us for as long as I can remember. He wasn’t actually my uncle. He was my mom’s cousin, so that would technically make him my cousin, but he and my mom were close like brother and sister, so uncle seemed easier. Well, my uncle never married. When I started developing, he took notice in me.”
Dante had almost told her to stop when she first muttered uncle. Now, he had to literally bite on his tongue, so he wouldn’t say anything. He knew it was good for Phoenix to talk to him about this.
“You’re probably going to think I’m crazy because he never raped me or anything. I think he knew that was a bad thing. But feeling my breasts and making me take my shirt off, so he could look at me while he beat off was apparently okay with him.”
Dante closed his eyes. “Oh, Phoenix.”
“Yeah, this went on for a while. When I finally got up enough nerve to tell my mother, she blew me off. When I told her how he looked at me, she told me I was misinterpreting things. Then, when I said he touched me, she flat-out refused to believe me. I know he was like a sibling to her, but I was her daughter. What did I have to gain by telling her that?”
“Your mom’s a bitch,” Dante said. “Sorry. Please continue.”
“You’re right; she is a bitch,” Phoenix agreed. He could hear the smile in her voice for that second. “That’s why, the day I turned eighteen, I moved out. I had already begun training myself to fight off my uncle, so I went and knocked on my alpha’s door and insisted he hire me, which he did. I think he sensed that I needed to be a sentinel more than he needed me to be one.”
“So, that’s why you wear baggy clothes and hide your body.”
“Yeah, because it wasn’t just my uncle; he was just the worst. Guys at school grabbed my breasts all the time, as if having a large chest was an invitation to touch someone inappropriately. I couldn’t help the way I had grown. But, even after I grew stronger and tougher—”
“And practiced your resting bitch face.”
“Hey! But, yes, after all that, I never changed the way I dressed. I felt more comfortable with hiding my body.”
Dante rubbed her back. “Thank you for telling me. But two things.”
“What’s that?”
“One, I don’t think you’re crazy. What happened to you was a crime, and that bastard should be locked away. Yes, it could have been worse, but that does not negate your trauma. He never should have treated you like that. And, when you told your mother, she should have at the very least kicked him out.”
Phoenix kissed him. “And what’s number two?”
“Where is the asshole? I want to watch the life leave his eyes as I squeeze his neck.”
“Sorry, Dante. He’s already dead. Car accident five years ago.”
“Damn,” he said, disappointed that he wouldn’t get to confront the guy. “I’m sorry for what happened to you, Red.”
“Me, too. But at least I have you, right?”
Dante pulled her close. “At least you have me. I’m not going anywhere, Red.”