Page 99 of Knight’s Dominion

Rocco walked over and swung Grace into his arms. "Let's get you to the compound. I need to get back and tear this shit apart.”

It wasn’t hard to miss how much weight he’d lost. His skin was pale, his eyes sunken. He looked sick. This was the physical effects of a knight after losing his female, and Rocco and Kyler hadn’t even gotten the chance to properly mate before she was taken from him. Grace’s stomach gripped tight, an uneasy feeling taking hold of her. She ignored it and looked up at the big male. “Are you coming back…to the compound, I mean?”

He shook his head, eyes flashing between black and deep blue.

“They’ll need you. The demon I met in there, he’s powerful, Rocco.”

“I’ll come back when I have to and not before.”

She wanted to hug him but didn’t think he’d welcome it. “Can you take me to my apartment instead? I need to get changed first. I’ll drive to the compound.”

His massive white wings snapped open, the silver tips glinting under the starlight. “I wouldn’t waste time getting there, Grace.”

She rested her hand on his chest. “Chaos will be fine.”

He looked down at her hand, then back at her, and an expression that looked very much like pity crossed his hard features. “Whether you like it or not, he would die protecting you.”

“I don’t need him to do that…”

“He has no control over it. He won’t be okay with this. He can’t be. It doesn’t matter how capable you are. He’s a mated male and you are his female. Losing you is his biggest and only fear now, no matter what he’s said to you.”

Deep down she’d known it. She just hadn’t wanted to believe it. “Shit,” she muttered.

Rocco actually smiled, it was small and didn’t reach his eyes, but she was glad to see it, despite being fleeting. “He’s going to lose his shit, I have no doubt about that, but maybe you could…I don’t know, try to cut him some slack? He’s new to this, like you are. His angel half wants to protect you at all cost, and the demon inside him would lay waste to this city to do it.”

Fire trucks and police cars filled the street below, and they watched as people from The Esquire swarmed out. The false alarm goth girl had pulled to get the demi out wouldn’t protect them forever, they’d all been marked, like Grace had, for whatever twisted role they would play in the coming war, but she’d bought them some time.

Then they were airborne, and all thought disintegrated while she hung on for dear life.

CHAPTER 27

The thud of Chaos’s boots thumped against the carpeted floor as he paced his living room, checking his phone for the millionth time in ten minutes. This was how it felt to lose your mind. He still hadn’t heard from Grace. Where the fuck was she? Why wasn't she answering his motherfucking calls or texts?

Every kind of scenario had been going through his head, and currently his mind had settled on the one where Grace was lying facedown in a damn ditch, skin gray and emaciated.

He’d tried to be cool and let her do her own thing like she’d demanded. But everything was different now. She wasn’t some faceless, masked vigilante. She was his. His mate. His female. His to protect.

"Fuck this." Shoving his phone in his back pocket, he pulled his short sword off his bedroom wall and started for the door—

The sound of a lock disengaging reached him.

His heart gave one heavy thump in his chest, then lodged in his throat.

It opened and Grace stepped inside.

He dragged in a rough breath when he finally had her in his sights. She was safe…alive. Christ, his knees went weak.

His demon roared to the surface, right there with him as he tracked her movements. Take. Claim. Mine.

There was only one light on, and he was standing on the other side of the room in shadow. She didn't see him right away, and he drank in the sight of her, trying to soothe his frayed nerves.

It didn’t work.

She wore jeans and a black tank top that showed a lot of creamy skin and finely honed muscles. Her long blond hair was down and he had an incredible urge to twist it around his fist, pull her into him, and make her promise to never put him through that ever again.

His independent female wouldn't appreciate that, though.

She hadn’t seen him yet, and glanced up to the wall where his sword should be and released a relieved breath.