Page 75 of Forged Bonds

“And you can’t call me that,Daddy, because we don’t have time to fuck. Everyone else is already waiting.”

She pushed back from me as my cock began to go hard, and I tried to will the erection down. Her calling me Daddy always fucking did it for me, but she was right. Now wasn’t the time. We really needed to learn to contain our fucking hormones. When I’d learned what they’d all been doing on our dry run, I’d given them a stern talking to.

“Let’s go, then. Grab your bag of knives and lead the way.”

For once, she listened, if only because she really enjoyed being in the lead.

* * *

Amabella’s portal brought us to an apartment building on the East Coast, plopping us in the middle of a tiny one bedroom unit that Nolan claimed was a safe house location for his assassins. Altair and Sky were already there, waiting, and my hackles rose at the sight of the fallen angel.

Sure, he’d killed the Duke he’d sworn fealty to and maybe his shadow abilities were the tiniest bit helpful. I didn’t have to like the guy, with all his chipper comments. He was like Nolan, without all the flirting. I’d thought Nolan was a dick at first, too.

I did my best to outwardly hide my dissatisfaction with his presence, trying to trust that Nolan was a good judge of character. Considering he was bonded to Oswald, the vampire assassin wouldn’t risk bringing anyone less than a hundred per cent trustworthy into the fold. He’d acknowledged that all his other contacts and employees weren’t to be trusted, so I had to hope he knew what he was doing.

“This operation is going to be a pain in the ass,” Altair declared the second everyone cleared the portal and it whooshed shut behind us. “The Rare Jewel Gala is the most heavily guarded event in the Earth realm.”

“Fucking obviously,” I muttered before I could stop myself. “The Sanctuary sends unmated Omegas to chat with the guests. They’re not going to treat that lightly.”

Shockingly, no one barked at me to be nice. Altair laughed. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just let me vent about it. Sky and I have been struggling to improve the plan for days and we haven’t come up with anything.”

We’d been caught up on the initial plan, which needed work. It involved surveillance on the gala itself, which was risky. There were so many security guards there, both from the Sanctuary and from the host of exclusive guests. We didn’t even know the entire guest list, so it was impossible to predict who would be wandering around looking for threats and where they would be.

“It might be better if we didn’t look at the gala at all,” I suggested.

“What do you mean?” Freya asked.

Her eyebrow was raised as she wandered over to the couch, collapsing down onto it. Caspian followed her closely, like a needy puppy, and slotted himself in beside her. Emmett found a place in the corner of the couch beside Cas, and we all came over to surround them. There weren’t many other places to sit in this cramped room.

“We can treat this like we would have if it had been any other location. Focus on where Kylan is going to be spending the night. The hotel. It’s not the main hotel gala guests are staying at because he prefers a bit of peace and quiet, so there won’t be as much security around. Only his.”

“The plan was to attack him during transit, though,” Nolan said, leaning casually against the wall. “He’ll be more vulnerable.”

“He’ll also be on high alert,” I countered, “with his head on a swivel and his guards watching for all signs of attack. If we wait to get him in his hotel room, he’ll be more relaxed.”

“Kylan has magical protections he puts up, though. It’ll be harder to get to him.”

“I’m not trying to be overly cocky, but we have Freya.”

My mate beamed, her happiness filtering through the bond. It was probably the first time I’d complimented her magical abilities, which kind of made me a dick. Then again, up until recently she’d been on the verge of death and her magic had been weak because of it. In the practice sessions we’d had since she formed her bonds with Em and Oswald, she’d been stronger.

Her appearance was stronger too. The pale colouring of her skin was brightening ever so slightly, and her thin form was putting on a noticeable amount of muscle. Where her hair had been stringy and thin before, it now glowed and the strands were softer. If all that could happen in two weeks, I wished we’d had more time to let her recover from years of bodily trauma. But I was also more convinced than ever that she was strong enough to fight with us.

It obviously didn’t mean I wanted her to.

“You wanted to leave me behind, and now you’re claiming I’m the saving grace?” Freya asked, letting out a snort but grinning. “If we hit once he’s back at the hotel but before his protections have fully risen, I’ll be able to use my magic to fuck shit up.”

“Timing is everything, apparently,” I said. “Any complaints about this plan?”

“We’ll still need someone at the gala to watch for when he leaves, if you’re only going to have a limited time to attack after he arrives at his room. Sky and I can do that,” Altair said.

He didn’t argue about the plan or that I’d been the one to come up with it. Clearly, I was the only one with a problem, further serving to make me feel like a dick.

“Shan and Caspian can team up this time, because we’ve learned Shan is the only one capable of keeping his dick in his pants around the incubus,” Nolan declared.

Emmett rolled his eyes. He would have been able to as well. Freya, Ozzy, and Nolan were the problems. It probably had something to do with the immense sexual tension between them and Cas.

“I’ll take Oswald with me.”

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