Page 5 of Regal Rising

“Not a clue. They have been here since I was a teen.”

She kept her hands steady, and when they moved, she moved. Long slashes from hip to shoulder made them stumble back. The cuts were shallow but got her point across.

They each touched their wounds and examined their fingertips. The blood surprised them.

“Welcome to the modern age, where no means next time you can lose a hand.”

They looked at each other, blurred, and she was suddenly unarmed, and her shirt was gone as they held her hands behind her back. “Oops.”

They were scowling down at her. “We are not ones to threaten, lady.”

“It wasn’t a threat. It was a fear display.” She muttered, “If this is what you think I deal with on a normal Saturday, you are out of your fucking minds.”

They paused but didn’t let her go.

“I understand this is the first time you have seen a female in nearly eight hundred years, but trust me, I am not the one. Wait a few more years until things settle, and there will be women fawning over you. Cute ones. Pretty ones.”

One of the men stroked her hair firmly enough to tilt her head back. “You are lovely, and it isn’t just the abstinence.”

She swallowed. “Uh-huh.”

“What is your name, lady?”

“Rex. Uh, Teagan, but everyone calls me Rex.”

“I am Kael, and that is Ignis. We are the king’s assassins.”

Her stomach went icy.

“Also, his private guard and oldest friends. We held him back when his mate was murdered and kept him here so that the rest of your species would not have been wiped out.”

“Yay, you.”

His hand shifted to loosely grip her hair and keep her head tilted back for him. “So, we are wired to know our mate when we see them. We knew you the moment Ignis grabbed you.”

“So, you weren’t mates to a dead woman?”

“No, you had not been born yet. Had there been no attack, we would still have been waiting.”

Ignis murmured, “For you. For now.”

“Oh, no. I am not going to chance a pregnancy. Reggie needs me, and us both being knocked up wouldn’t be good.” She swallowed. “I need to keep her and her child safe. You know what happened when it was left to the guys last time.”

They winced.

Ignis rumbled. “We didn’t think of someone attacking a labouring woman, let alone an infant. It is so foreign to our natures, we were in shock.”

“I get it. She gets it. We get it. But this next time, she is having their daughter on her terms, with her friends and family to protect them. She will return, and she will be protected.”

“You are sure the same soul will return?”

Rex nodded. “She hasn’t left her mother’s side in all this time. It has been driving Reggie nuts. That was why we came here; it was time for Tawney and her baby to get together again.”

Ignis nodded and smiled. “And you came with her because?”

“She needed someone to drive and watch her back.” She could see a pale body on her hands and knees under the darker one. “Seems like her back is currently covered.”

Kael smiled. “She’s definitely safe. No Elite or dark mage can come through those gates without our agreement.”

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