Page 47 of The Barbaric Fae's Soul

Protective.

Then again, he was already both of those things. He had run into the forest after me, when he realized I was going to find North. And he had risked his life to keep me safe a few times, too.

Summer came out of nowhere and nearly tackled me in a hug. A laugh escaped me as I hugged her back, just as tightly as she hugged me.

“No more risking your life,” she declared.

“You know my answer to that,” I teased her.

“I refuse to accept it.” She squeezed me tighter.

I laughed again.

“Did you have to save her ass?” Summer asked Aev, who I realized had shifted back to his man form.

“No.” He didn’t even hesitate.

“He had to ice the klynna’s mouth, or it would’ve roasted us,” I corrected him.

“Presley would’ve dodged the flames,” Aev countered.

“Wait, Presley flew you?” Summer’s eyebrows shot upward. “Hopefully she doesn’t have a fated mate to lose his shit about that.”

“She doesn’t,” Presley called out, from where she sat on a thick tree limb nearby. “Totally unattached, thankfully.”

I grinned.

Summer snorted. “Just wait, you’ll end up like me eventually, completely attached and one hundred percent okay with it.”

Remmo strode up to us then, as if on cue. “How close was it?”

The words were directed to Aev.

“Too close.” The sabertooth’s voice lowered. “We’ll need to find other life-bringer volunteers. Thorns can’t be risking her life every time one comes around. There has to be a rotation.”

“Blue said she’ll do it. Rosalie, too.Thornscan teach them.” Summer winked at me, and my face heated. Of course, it was followed by the rest of me, as my whole body blushed. “Remmo still isn’t on board with me doing it, so I’m benched for now.”

“No, I most certainly am not,” the basilisk agreed.

“There’s not much to it. You just have to make eye contact with them, and then you feel it, here.” I tapped the center of my chest, hoping to distract them from the whole nickname thing.

“They’ll have to go with you next time,” Summer said.

I waited for Oren to protest, since he was Blue’s fated mate, but I could see him from where I was. He pressed his lips together in a tight line, but said nothing.

“I’ll talk to Fovea about classifying the new human females. They can’t spend the rest of their lives in the Stronghold with the klynnas in the skies. We’ll need them,” Korrik said with a sigh. “Unless you want to deal with her?” He looked at Summer.

She made a face. “I’ll pass.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to offer to do it myself, but…

I needed to talk to Teris.

And probably to get some rest afterward, if I was going to be ready for the next klynna. That whole thing had been intense, and extremely exhausting.

Before I could do either of those things, though, I needed to talk to Summer alone.

“I’ll take care of it,” Oren said, though he was grimacing.

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