“The masquerade is coming up; all the factions are coming… and I have my Hound by my side. Or has that changed?” He paused, arching a brow. “Have you betrayed me in your time away?
She scowled, even as her pulse sped up. “I haven’t made plans to unleash the Hounds on you, Pyre. Yet.”
He laughed easily at her threat, waving a negligent hand. As if Tempest herself was insignificant. Did he have any idea what would happen to him if she unleased Madrid upon his mountain palace? If she made another deal with Damien, he had the ability to lead all the Hounds in.
Pyre frowned and sauntered up to her. Tempest backed up, pressing against the wall as he invaded her space and leaned into her, inhaling heavily near her temple. “You’re not well.”
She wedged her hands between their bodies, her fingers meeting warm skin. Her stomach flipped, and Tempest shoved him away. “Stop with the sniffing.”
“Nyx,” Pyre barked. “She’s not well.”
“I’m fine,” she argued. “It’s just been a few long days.”
The kitsune scowled, buttoning his shirt. “So why were you looking for me?” He ran his hands through his hair, pushing the deep wine-colored strands from his face. He flashed a grin Tempest’s way. “I gather it wasn’t to appreciate my good looks?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Tempest said, edging toward the door. “I think I’m going to take your advice and get some more sleep.” Slipping from the room, her shoulders sagged, and she staggered down the hallway. Gone were any lingering obligations she felt to tell Pyre about her engagement to King Destin.
Let him find out like everyone else—as secondhand news. Let him discover just what insignificant feels like.
She squinted, her body aching.
“Shhhh… Go back to sleep,” Briggs rumbled.
“What?” she whispered through parched lips.
“You’ve been running a fever,” Pyre’s familiar voice answered. She turned her head slightly. The kitsune sat on her bed, running his fingers through her sweaty hair. Tempest pressed her cheek against his cool hand.
“So hot.”
“I know, love,” he crooned. “Briggs and Nyx made you a tincture to help, but I need you to drink it.”
Anything to get the pounding in her head to go away. Briggs handed Pyre a cup, and she sighed when he slipped his cool hand beneath her neck, cradling her head. He held the draught to her lips.
“It’s nasty, but you need to drink it,” Briggs admonished.
Tempest gulped the concoction and gagged. Her eyes watered, and her stomach rebelled. She was so damn hot. Kicking at the covers, she sighed when cold air hit her bare skin. A growl sounded, and the blankets once again covered her flushed body.
“No,” she moaned. “Too hot.”
“I know, love. I know. But you don’t want to show Briggs your naked body, do you?”
“Don’t care,” she moaned.
“I do,” Pyre murmured, once again stroking her cheek. “This is what happens when you make deals with dragons and ride them.”
His words became gibberish, and her world dulled until there was nothing but darkness.
Twenty-Five
Pyre
Tempest moaned, her pale skin flushed pink. He stared down at her, wondering what in the blazes was he doing here? Nyx and Briggs were more than capable to care for the female Hound. Yet, he couldn’t leave the bed.
“I can hear you worrying from here,” Briggs muttered from his chair beside the bed. “She’s fine. It’s just a cold.”
Pyre nodded and then rested his fingers on the pulse beating at the base of her throat, counting her heartbeats. For such a ferocious creature, his Hound looked awfully pitiful at the moment.
“Humans are so weak,” he murmured, eyeing the blue veins standing out starkly beneath Temp’s skin.
Briggs snorted. “Don’t let her hear you say that. We’ll never hear the end of it.”
Pyre cracked a smile that felt a little too stiff. “True.” The moment of mirth passed. “She should never have been on that dragon.” Every time he though of Damien’s smug smile, Pyre’s hackles rose. Even now he could smell the dragon’s scent on Tempest.
“You’re being unreasonable.”
Pyre arched a brow at the healer. “How so?”
“Damien provided her safe transportation.” The big man crossed his arms and rocked in his chair. “Would you have rather had her trying to traipse through the storms outside? Shifters die in weather like this all the time. What do you think it would have done to our girl?”
A valid point.
Temp thrashed and the sheet slipped, catching on the tip of her breast. His jaw clenched at all the flushed snowy skin on display. Pyre growled and yanked the linen up passed her shoulders and tucked it around her body. Maybe that would keep her from trying to flash the other male in the room.
“When are we going to talk about it?” Briggs asked.
“Talk about what?” Pyre bit out, still wrapping the female up.
“About the fact that you’ve taken a mate.”
He jerked at the healer’s blunt words. “I haven’t.”
Briggs guffawed. “You wreak of aggression and every time she’s shown even an ounce of skin your scent gets stronger. I’m a healer, Pyre. I’ve seen many female parts while assisting with the birth of babes. Tempest doesn’t have anything I haven’t seen before.”
Sweat beaded Pyre’s brow, and he licked his upper lip, feeling edgy. “She’s a private person. She wouldn’t want anyone looking upon her person when she’s so vulnerable.”
“True, but you forget that I already have cared for her. I’ve seen everything the little Hound is hiding beneath her clothing and it’s just flesh. Nothing more, nothing less.”
A low growl rumbled Pyre’s chest, and he glared at Briggs, hating that his friend had seen Temp naked. You’re jealous.
Briggs held his gaze, not flinching. “I will not tiptoe around you. I’ve always spoken my mind to you, have I not?”
“You have,” Pyre ground out.
“Then hear me now. The woman you guard so staunchly now has no appeal to me. Her scent stirs nothing.”
Pyre’s shoulders slumped. One less male to deal with.
The healer continued, leaning forward. “But if she had stirred my beast, I promise you that I would have made her mine before she left the cabin.”
Pyre tensed, his upper lip curling at the idea of Briggs claiming the Hound. “She’s mine.”
“I know, which is how I don’t understand why you are letting her roam around unclaimed. Mates are a rare thing.”
“We aren’t compatible.” He stared down into his Hound’s face, her eyes flickering behind her lids. She was the light, and Pyre the darkness. “I can’t afford to be distracted.”
“That’s rubbish, and you know it,” Briggs barked.
“Even if I tried to court her. Tempest would refuse me.” His gut clenched as he remembered the look on her face when she’d left him after he revealed his second human form. Betrayal. He knew the look well. “She will never fully trust me.”