Total pages in book: 43
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 204(@200wpm)___ 163(@250wpm)___ 136(@300wpm)
“Hold on,” Leith rumbled, coming up beside me, pulling me away from Raphael and having me bend over. “Breathe. Just try and breathe.”
“What the fuck?” I managed to get out, doing as he said, but to no avail. I was hyperventilating.
“It’s okay,” Leith soothed me, rubbing my back, touching me more in that moment than he had in the entire time I’d known him. “This happens to me sometimes too.”
“What?” I croaked out.
“It’s like a weird hypervigilance about your mate. It used to happen to me a lot, and I’d go from being me to being this crazy person so fast… It was scary as hell.”
I wanted to tell him to go on, to keep talking, but my voice was gone.
“All of a sudden it would hit me how much I loved him and needed him and how stupid everyone else must be not to want him as well, and for a warder, it’s hard. I’d be afraid to let Simon go anywhere without me, and I definitely needed to put a mark or something on him so everyone would know he was mine.”
Yes. That was it exactly. Any of the beautiful celestial beings around me would want Raphael. That only made sense.
“Jael told me it gets worse outside your routine, in a different place, and this could not get any more different.”
I nodded.
“And you’ve already lost a hearth, so you know what it feels like.”
Closing my eyes, I felt the shudder tear through me.
“He’s fine,” Leith said, probably to Raphael. “But listen, we all heard the other day how bound to you Raph really is, so you need to let that sink in and then pull your shit together.”
Yes.
He scratched my head, gave me another pat, and then I was alone, still bent over, before Raphael was there, hand in my hair, tugging gently until I straightened and he took me into his arms, clutching me to his chest.
Strange to wrap my arms around him and feel the wings. When I touched them, I felt him shiver slightly.
“Tell me the wings don’t scare you or make you want me less,” he whispered roughly, his voice fracturing at the end.
I had told him they were beautiful and then fallen apart. From his side, all he saw was me being upset. I understood how I could be freaking him out.
“I love the wings,” I promised, and let him hear that the words came from my heart. “And I love you.”
His relief, evident in his exhale and how tight he held me, made me smile.
“I just had a slight meltdown, but I’m fine now.”
“A meltdown over what?”
“Maybe we should talk about it later,” I said, chuckling, easing back and turning from him to face the angel who was so obviously his friend.
She offered me her hand then, having been waiting to do so, it seemed, from how fast she moved forward. “I feel his love emanating from him toward you. Are you his mate?”
“I am,” I said, taking her hand. “I’m Jackson, and it’s such a pleasure to meet you.”
“And you,” she said with a sigh. “My name is Evangeline, and ordinarily I’m not here in this province, but I had dealings with Anahel, so that turned out to be fortuitous.”
“In what way fortuitous?”
“To see my friend again and find that finally, he has a keeper.”
“Wait now,” Raphael grumbled at her.
Her laugh was magical, absolutely enchanting, and made everyone around us smile, even the habitually grumpy Leith. Of course, when he did, she noticed him. It was like that with him. You missed him when he wore his usual scowl, but as soon as that smile came through, people were dazzled.
“And you are?”
He offered her his hand. “I’m Leith Haas, and this is my mate, Simon.”
The second her hand touched his, she gasped. “Warder?”
“Yes,” he said, glancing at me and then back at her.
That didn’t make any sense. She could tell Leith was a warder but had missed it with me?
“Warder,” she repeated, in awe, and clasped his hand tighter. “Amazing. I’ve never seen a warder angel. What a treat.”
“Oh no, we’re not angels, just—”
“Warders are descended from the watcher angels,” she told him, just as Deidre had. “The Nephilim were evil, but the rest were blessed.” She took Ryan’s hand next, clearly pleased with meeting both of them, then took the time to meet Simon and Julian.
“Humans,” she whispered, and the angels who’d come with her rushed over to meet them as well.
“What’s with that?” I asked Raphael, watching the angels fawn over them.
“Humans are first in God’s love. That’s in your book, isn’t it?”
I groaned. “Really? My book? I sit around and read the Bible a lot, do I?”
“Fine. But all cultures have the belief that humans are special and angels are supposed to guide and protect them.”
“Sure, but I had no idea they’d be so excited to see us.”