Unstable by Lacey Carter Andersen
15
Kiera
I’m notproud to say we found someone’s vacation cabin, broke into it, and set ourselves up for the night, but that’s exactly what we did. At nearly three in the morning, I’d seen a small sign about a lake up ahead and pulled over. The guys had taken a couple turns driving at that point, but we were all exhausted. Tomorrow, we’d have to face whoever the hell was guarding the relic, and I knew my stubborn men would say they were fine, but there was no way we were in shape to take on whatever force Maxen had appointed to guard something that could cost him the war on the demons.
We all take showers as Drake gets a pot of chili cooking and Emory builds up a nice fire in the fireplace. Princess goes to sniff the area around us, and I sink into the bed, glad to be clean and relaxing. Adam left the door open a crack, the last of us to shower, and he sings a song while he showers. Despite how tired we all are, I think we’re all smiling at the sound of his sweet voice.
After Emory is done staring at the fire for a while, he comes over and lays on the big bed next to me.
I can’t help it, I curl against him. He smells nice, like smoke and the piney shampoo.
“We’re going to be okay,” he says, running his fingers through my hair.
The motion draws my eye to the black streaks that are nearly to his wrist. “Are you sure?”
“Some spell isn’t going to be the thing to finally kill us. I promise you that.”
I close my eyes, wishing I could erase my memory of those black lines. “It’s not just the spell. It’s actually getting the relic, returning it, making sure the demon’s keep their end of the deal. Oh, and finding some way to be free of Maxen forever.”
He releases a slow breath. “I thought about that…”
“You have an idea?”
“Yeah,” but he doesn’t sound confident.
I open my eyes and roll so that I’m half on top of him.
His eyes open, those brilliant blue eyes of his taking my breath away. “What if we got married?”
“What?” I know I sound shocked, but I can’t help it.
“I don’t want you to feel pressured, but what if we got married in a… in a kind of public way? The prophecy would say I would be the king. Sure, Maxen could kill me and marry you after, but it might be enough to kill all this prophecy crap.”
I roll until I’m lying on my back, staring at the logs that make up the ceiling. The truth is that it logically makes sense, but all this stuff with Maxen has left a real bad taste in my mouth concerning marriage. And then there’s the fact that just a short time ago a big part of me hated Emory. It didn’t feel like I resented him, or was still angry with him, but it felt like too much was happening too fast.
“What do you think?” Emory asked a little louder, staring across the room.
I glance at Drake, who is stirring the chili slowly. “The dragon within me hates the idea of seeing my woman marrying another man. But the logical part of me thinks that something like that, with how superstitious berserkers are, might be huge. I bet it would cause problems with his war plans and have a lot more people questioning the would-be king.”
The shower turns off, and a minute later Adam comes out of the bathroom, still wet, rubbing a towel into his hair. My mouth goes dry, and I let my gaze sweep from his toes, over his muscular legs, big dick, smooth stomach, and huge arms.
“You’ve got a little drool,” Emory says beside me.
I force my mouth to close.
“What are we talking about?” Adam says, and his voice is a little husky.
When I glance at his face again, he’s pointedly staring at me, and his dick has risen to let me know he doesn’t mind the sight of me one bit. Sigh. I should not be letting my thoughts get so dirty right now, but my men just have this affect on me sometimes.
Okay, who am I lying to? All the time.
“I was telling Kiera that maybe I should marry her. That maybe it would give some protection from Maxen. Especially if we could do it in a public way.”
Adam gets a thoughtful look on his face as his towel moves down and begins to dry the rest of his body. “It’s actually pretty smart. And maybe we could set up a live video of it and invite a lot of people with links, so it’s very public, but as safe as it can be.”
A live video? “Okay, that’s kind of genius,” I say. “If I could get on my computer, I have most of the berserker lords’ email addresses. I could send out the link to them, and all my friends back home.”
Emory doesn’t look relieved. “And it doesn’t have to be...real. Once we’re done with all of this, we can get it annulled.”
“Is that what you’d want?” I ask, strangely hurt.
His brows rise in surprise. “No, Kiera, but I damn well know you deserve better than me.”
“Stop,” I tell him, feeling frustrated. “I’ve clearly chosen all of you. Actually, I don’t know if I’ve even chosen all of you or if we were all just meant to be, but I’m not walking away, no matter what.”
“I just don’t want to do anything to lose you,” he says softly.
Leaning closer, I kiss his cheek. “You won’t.”
Our eyes lock, and I run a hand lightly over his face, touching the scruff of a beard on his chin. His eyes, blue with flecks of silver, hold a wealth of unspoken emotion. It feels like I don’t want to breathe. I don’t want to do anything to break this moment where things finally feel right between Emory and I again.
“It’s settled then,” Drake says, and the moment is gone. “Now, get dressed, Adam. Kiera won’t be able to eat with your hard dick out.”
My cheeks feel hot. “I can focus on food!” But then I glance back at Adam. Did his dick get bigger?
I almost groan. Yeah, maybe I’m not strong enough to focus on anything other than his dick.
Adam throws on a pair of boxers, and then we all gather around the little table. The chili is surprisingly good after all the diner food, and we all have several bowls before Princess shows up on the windowsill looking pleased with himself.
Lots of rats out here.
Ugh, but at least he’s happy.
“Kiera is going to marry Emory and ruin Maxen’s plans,” Adam tells Princess in a cheerful voice.
Humm. Okay. That could help a bit.
“It’s not a perfect solution, but it is something,” I say.
“But not tonight,” Drake follows his words with a yawn.
“No.” I smile. “Tonight, we sleep. Then, we have a quick wedding, steal a relic, get these damned marks removed, and end a war.”
Humans, always so busy. Princess huffs into my mind.
I shake my head and dig into the food. Because, yeah, this was so much fun for us.
