Page 111 of Knight’s Absolution

He pulled her in tighter, and fuck shaking, he was quaking, breath damn near rattling from his lungs, muscles jumping, veins pulsing, ears buzzing. “You love me?”

“Yes,” she said without hesitation or reservation.

Gunner pressed his lips to the delicate skin just below her ear and squeezed his eyes closed, breathing roughly through his nose to hold it together.

He pressed another kiss there, then lifted his head, his gaze locking on hers. “I love you too, Luna. But that word seems too small to describe the way you make me feel, the way I feel about you.”

They stared into each other’s eyes, neither one saying a word but saying so damn much at the same time.

“We need to get going,” Chaos said, breaking the spell.

James was with his brothers, had filled them in.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips, then lowered her to her feet. Grace was there, Mia with her, and both females wrapped their arms around Luna before leading her away.

Luna turned back, not taking her eyes off Gunner until she walked through the door and he was out of sight.

Gunner stood in the room that Luna had been held in—he could still smell her scent—and kicked over the bedside table. The room was already trashed.

The whole apartment was fucked, furniture broken and tossed around, curtains torn down, and blood, lots of blood smeared everywhere.

He had no idea who it belonged to, Luna’s brother or Azel. But with the amount of blood around the place, whoever had been injured would be either dead or would need a fuck of a long time to recover. He hoped for Luna’s sake that the blood wasn’t Ronan’s.

Gunner was searching the room while his brothers checked out the rest of the place. This wasn’t someone’s home. There were no personal touches. But it was close to where Azel had lived with Luna in his hidden McMansion.

Gunner moved to the next room. The master bedroom. His gaze moved to the bed. The sheets were rumpled. He moved closer, and there was a little blood smeared on the white sheets as well, only this blood had dried. It was older.

Ronan had fed from someone here. Screwing up his face, he leaned in and sniffed. There was something familiar about it. This scent had been on Luna when he first found her, when she still had Azel in her system.

Gunner straightened. The angel had used her brother here. Had convinced the male he needed to feed from him. Maybe Ronan’s dependency on Azel's blood was as strong as Luna’s had been.

Azel was a fucking monster.

A sick, twisted predator who had preyed on Luna and her brother. Who had taken advantage of them, of what they are.

He strode out and helped search the rest of the apartment, but there was no trace of the angel or Ronan and no clues as to where they would have gone.

“Go to your female,” Chaos said, planting his hands on his hips. “There’s nothing here. Laz and Kryos will stay and watch the place overnight. I’ll let you know if we find anything.”

Gunner didn’t need to be told twice. He’d come to kill Azel, and since the fucking coward had disappeared again, there was no reason for him to stay.

Not when Luna had just told him she loved him, and not when he’d been separated from her for close to a week. A separation that had almost killed him.

Without another word, he walked out and took to the skies.

He needed her.

He needed her now.

CHAPTER 31

The door banged shut, followed by the thump of heavy boots.

Tightening the towel around her, Luna rushed out of the bathroom.

Oh god, please, let him be okay.

The bedroom door was already open and Gunner was walking through, amber eyes slicing to her. Her knees actually wobbled as his gaze ate her up hungrily, a wildness in his eyes she’d never seen before.