Page 151 of Cost of Courting

I incline my head. “They can descend after my omega is taken care of.”

Zaden’s lips quirk. “Good luck with that.”

I bare my teeth. “I can be very persuasive.”

He shrugs. “See you soon, brother-in-law.”

I scowl, hating the sound of that even more so. He just laughs and then, thankfully, leaves.

I look around us. Emotions are high, but all is well.

Selene gets free and comes to stand beside me. All the signs are there.

It’s time.

“We will be back.” I say loudly. “In a week.”

No one protests, though I expect them to. Is that because they love her or they fear us?

I cradle her to my chest, and it’s a sign of how exhausted she is that she doesn’t fight me.

I don’t wait or ask anyone else’s permission. I just turn and walk away with her.

Once we’re outside, I look down at her in my arms. She moans, turning her face into my chest.

“Where is your nest?”

She blinks up at me and smiles. “You’ll never find it.”

I let out a deep growl that has her trembling, that perfume filling the air and driving me to the brink of my control.

“Come on, our crazy girl, where is it?”

She arches in my arms, but Kingston grips her hair and yanks on it.

“Focus, where is your nest?”

She lets out a deep purr.

“Omega!” Mael growls. “Where have you hidden your nest?”

She just throws her head back and laughs, completely unaffected by his growl.

“Let her go. We’ll just follow,” Kingston says with a grin.

I put her down hesitantly and watch as she steps back. She grins wickedly, and I have a second, just one, to realise how badly we just fucked up.

“Catch me if you can,” she says as she whirls and darts away.

“Damn it, Selene!” Kingston growls and explodes after her.

We’re all on her tail, thundering down the street after her. She slips through a fence too narrow for us, but I grab it and hoist myself up and over while Bailey goes through the gate.

She runs around a corner, and, by the time I get there, I see her jumping up onto a roof.

“Tricky!” I snarl and jump, catching the guttering and pulling myself up easily.

I race across the roof, only to see her fly onto someone else’s. She keeps going, dropping down onto someone’s patch of dirt and disappears out onto the road.

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