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“MY Rajni. Human and injured. I found her living in a crevice above a column near the library. I’ll need someone to collect her things in the morning. Now, she needs a healer. She is still bleeding.” And cold. She was so cold. “And she’ll need heat, blankets. Someone needs to tend to her pet, as well.”
Adric carried her down the hall toward the private family quarters. His suite was the last on the left. His brothers’ surrounded his. She would be safe there.
“How badly did that sonofabitch sire of ours hurt her?” Aodhan was there, his female at his side. Like Adric had expected.
“I cannot tell. Her arm still bleeds and her head pains her. Her arm is bound. I thought it best to leave it that way until the healers were near. She’s in great pain.”
“She looks a great deal like Cass and Jade and Jordan,” his brother’s female said, after leaning over the girl in Adric’s arms. “But the hair is redder, I think.”
“Much like yours,” her male said. “She is probably a Taniss, then. And Adric—do not keep her inert for too long. I learned that the hard way on the night I converted my Mallory to our Kind.”
“That’s an understatement,” Mallory said. She moved toward the wing the Adrastos were occupying. There were eighteen of his father’s progeny in total, from Aodhan down through young Arenora. Adric was the fourth, with only Aodhan, Marcos, and Rion before him. Marous, Havrich and Dalric were next, born within a decade of one another, before Aureliana the Laquazzeana. She occupied the demon capitol Relaklonos City with her demon lover. But most of his siblings had been chosen for Thrun. They were a Warrior caste, and Adric suspected that was why they were tasked with protecting this new Dardaptoan city. Thrun had once been occupied by nasty little Rhacshas demons before they were annihilated in this world by the Beansidhe Laquazzeana Phaenna when his sister had joined the Laquazzeana.
The crowd parted for his sister-in-law. Most of the Adrastos males were unmated. As the Rajni of the eldest brother, Mallory held a position of some authority within their family ranks. Not that she would ever take it. Everyone else knew her ranking, though.
Adric carried his female toward his suite, conscious of the feel of her breathing against him. Her eyes were the only part of her that could move.
He felt a small rush of guilt for that, but it was expedient. He would release her from the bonds of the small Dardaptoan spell once he had her in his bed, where she could be tended properly.
His suite was next to Aodhan and Mallory’s and across from Rion and Mara’s. And too damned far away from the healers that resided on the floors below. They had no healers in the Adrastos line in Thrun, except for Lana, his brother’s Rajni. “Get a healer here.”
Mallory’s cousin Cass, Rajni to his own cousin Nalik, walked at Mallory’s other side, her young son Dylin strapped to her chest. “They’re coming. Aodhan told us you were out looking for her. We’ve just been waiting for you to get here. Do you think she is a Taniss? One of my father’s half-siblings?”
“I do not know. We’ll have to ask her some questions later. I’m afraid I did not get her name. She took exception to my being in her home and did not share that information. The dog is named Petey, though.”
“Well, gee, what a place to start. You Dardaptoans really need a crash course in romancing a human.” His sister-in-law’s irritation was hard to miss. “Aodhan was just as big an idiot—as were Rydere and Cormac. Theo—he was somewhat better than they were. Nalik and Barlaam win, though. They at least considered Cass’s and Jade’s wishes.”
“We are not human, my love. Our cultural beliefs are our own.” Aodhan ran a hand down his female’s arm lightly.
“That’s no excuse.”
Aodhan looked at him. “My Rajni will one day forgive me for the way our courtship began. When it is convenient for her, I think.”
“Oh, I’ve long forgiven you. Do you think I’d have signed up for this—” She motioned to her rounded belly. “If I hadn’t? Only someone I trust more than anything can get this far, you know?”
She smiled at his brother, a beautiful, loving, wonderful expression that made Adric once again think his eldest brother was the luckiest son-of-a-bitch in the world. The worlds. He looked down at the woman who greatly resembled Mallory.
Perhaps he was just as fortunate?
He had found her, when so many others had yet to find the mate the goddess had decreed for them so long ago. Very fortunate, indeed.
Adric brushed a light kiss across her forehead, ignoring the dirt and grime and drying blood matting the front of her red curls. He had found her.