Annoyance flared through her. Essentially, he was picking and choosing what parts of the anchor situation he wanted, wasn’t he? He wanted access to her. Wanted her acceptance. Wanted to claim his right to protect her. But he didn’t want to bond with her, he didn’t want to be the anchor she’d been waiting for, which hurt like hell and made her demon want to throat punch him. This here and now wasn’t about Raini or her entity, though. It was about Khloë.
A face-to-face meeting once a month wouldn’t be so bad. She could still keep him in the dark about a lot of things. Raini shrugged. “Fine. Okay. Deal.”
“I’m not done. There’s something else I want you to agree to. And you’re not going to like it.”
He told her his final condition, and her mouth fell open. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m perfectly serious.”
She frowned, flapping her arms. “But … why? Why would you ask this of me? It’s not like I’m important to you.”
“Just because I don’t want the bond doesn’t mean you don’t matter to me.”
“Funny. Because it doesn’t feel like I do.”
“And other than not form the bond, what have I done to suggest that you don’t matter?”
She opened her mouth … and then realized she had nothing. He truly hadn’t done anything that would indicate she was insignificant to him. Quite the opposite, in fact, given that he continued to telepathically reach out to her despite that his efforts came to nothing. He’d never once vilified her for ignoring him. And even now, when he’d have every right and reason to send her on her way, he was agreeing to help. Yes, he had conditions, but it was better than him turning her request down altogether. Still … “Can we not scrap this last condition?”
He slowly shook his head. “If it was related to anything other than your safety, I might consider it.”
Doubtful. Maddox was a man who’d insist on having his way in all things. She flexed her fingers. “It would give you too much power.”
“I don’t want power over you, Raini.”
“Sure you do. Anyone can sense you’re a guy who likes to control his environment, and I suspect you’re very skilled at it.”
He gave a small shrug, not bothering to deny it. “This wouldn’t enable me to control you, though, would it? The only power it will truly give me is the power to pull you out of any form of danger.” He toyed with a few locks of her blonde, pink-streaked hair. “I don’t intend to hide who you are to me. Few people are aware of it right now because we haven’t been seen together. But that will change, and the news will soon spread. I have enemies who may think to strike at me through you. So no, I won’t consider dropping this final condition.”
Raini bit back a curse. She understood his reasoning, but she didn’t want to agree to this. Khloë would have done it for her, though, if the situation were reversed. She would have agreed to just about anything to save Raini.
“I will heal your friend, I will rid her system of every ounce of death essence, but this is my price.” His brow inched up. “Are you prepared to pay it?”
Raini didn’t hesitate to answer, because there really was only one answer, even if it wasn’t one that she liked. “Yes. Whatever. Deal. As long as you heal Khloë first.”
His eyes narrowed, but he inclined his head. “I can agree to that. Tomorrow, however, you will come back here to me so I can—”
“I will, I promise. So can we please go now? I don’t think she has much time left.”
His eyes searched hers for long seconds. Finally, he nodded. “We can go.”
CHAPTER TWO
Four months later
Khloë slammed down the phone and whirled around, placing her hands on her hips. “That is the fifth cancellation we’ve had this week. The fifth.”
Harper tilted her head. “Be honest, what bothers you more? The number of cancellations, or the fact that it’s an uneven number?”
The OCD receptionist sniffed. “I don’t see how that’s relevant.”
Raini rolled her eyes and went back to wiping down the checkered partition that stood between her station and that of her business partner, Harper. Devon, who did both tattoos and piercings, had her own station adjacent to theirs. They were all readying the place to be shut down for the night, which was why the scents of citrus cleaner and disinfectant now almost completely overrode the smells of paint and ink.
“Seriously, this isn’t good,” Khloë pressed. “It’s one thing to know that someone’s trying to get people to boycott Urban Ink by sending our clients gift cards for other tattoo studios. It’s another to know that it’s working.”
Putting away her equipment, Harper sighed. “I know. I’m still struggling to understand why anyone would bother to make this play. Well, I can see why the owners of the other tattoo shops around here would bother. But Knox confirmed that it wasn’t them.”
Probably by scanning their minds, Raini thought, adjusting the position of her station’s black leather recliner. “Whoever’s behind it could be someone that one of us pissed off.” She exchanged looks with both Harper and Devon, who each nodded.
Khloë frowned, her head jerking back. “Why are you all staring at me?”
“You fuck with people like it’s your job,” Devon pointed out.
“It’s good for the soul,” defended Khloë. “Anyway, I’m leaning more toward the theory that it’s an indirect attack on our lair.” She looked at Harper. “I mean, three of the four people who work here are part of said lair, and you’re the co-Prime of it. Moreover, you also own half of Urban Ink.”
Raini kind of missed the time when they were all part of the same lair. But after Harper met and mated with her anchor, Knox, she transferred to his lair and now ruled it alongside him. Devon had later mated one of his sentinels, Tanner, and Khloë had mated another of the sentinels, Keenan, so both girls had also switched lairs.
Knowing her girls were so happy with their mates, Raini was thrilled for them all, but she suspected she would have felt somewhat … left behind, maybe, if Khloë had moved out of the neighborhood and into Keenan’s apartment. Instead, he’d moved into the imp’s home, which was very close to Raini’s.
“Knox thinks the same,” said Harper. “He’ll keep looking into it. We’ll find out who’s playing these games eventually. They seem seriously petty to me.” The sphinx’s gaze slid to Raini. “Speaking of petty … is your sister speaking to you again yet?”
Raini felt her lips thin. “No.” But Demi had frozen her out so many times over the years that it no longer stung.
Harper shook her head. “If she’s going to be mad at someone, it should be Dwain the Dweeb, who needs to go home yesterday.”
Oh, Raini couldn’t agree more. Her sister’s anchor was an irritating asshole at times. “He wants to spend a little more time with his family and my sister so they can get to know his brand spanking new mate.”
“Grams said she got the impression that Dwain wants it to bother you that he’s now mated,” said Harper, whose grandmother—Jolene Wallis—was the Prime of Raini’s lair.