Page 31 of Rook Takes Queen
Maxon stirs and lifts his head. His eyes have cleared, the fever is spent this is just him now, my Maxon.
He moves one big hand, slow, and spreads his clawed palm flat and gentle across my lower belly.
“Mine, you’re both mine,” he murmurs, and lets out a long, satisfied sigh, his thumb moving once over my skin.
It takes me a second.
And then I understand exactly what he’s already scenting, what’s already begun, what I said yes to over a cup of traq this morning.
We’ve started a family.
“Mine,” I agree.
Chapter 12
Rook
“He lives,” Hook announces when I proudly stride into the kitchen with Hallie’s hand in mine. “I owe Heavy ten credits. I said we wouldn’t see you for a week.”
“You still won’t, mostly,” I growl.
The whole table laughs. Hallie’s cheeks go the deep pink I’ve already decided is my favorite color in the Four Sectors.
We’re only out here for an hour. Maybe less. The bond is a live thing under my skin, a low constant hum that pulls toward her every second she’s more than an arm length away. The first week after a claiming is a fever of its own, a pair of newly mated fools who can’t keep their hands off each other while their bodies finish deciding they’re one thing now.
We actually showered and dressed, which is a win. We are being very mature, reasonable adults who wanted a meal and the sight of other living beings before we go back down the hall and don’t come out.
I can’t stop touching her. Her hand, her wrist, the small of her back. I don’t try very hard to stop. This is the female I saved by standing in front of her and taking a blast from a ferocious Royal Pigment operative in high tech armor. And then she returned the favor, attempting to save my life by clasping myhand when the power went out, using my own personal crystal to recharge the surgery shield. What she did was super charge my recovery. The Queen saved the Rook.
And now she’s my mate and we’ve planted our first offspring in her womb. Despite all the treachery and violence of the last few days, I have to admit I’m still happier than I’ve been since before my parents both passed away.
“Sit before you fall over, both of you,” Jana says, shoving a plate at us. “You’re swaying.”
We sit. Hallie’s thigh presses warm against mine under the table and I have to concentrate on the plate.
“You’ve got that look again,” Hallie murmurs, low, just for me.
“What look?”
“Like you’re three moves ahead of everybody and it’s making you sappy.”
I bring her knuckles up and kiss them. “All my best moves are for you.”
She grins. “Very true.”
Chief makes a disgusted noise from the end of the table that does not match the small, pleased look on his face.
It’sHallie who turns the morning serious.
She’s got her data slate out, the one she shielded with her own body in the attack. She sets it on the table and the mood in the kitchen shifts.
“Sorry, but I was hoping we could take a moment to talk about this again.” She looks over at my brother. “Scar’s seen all of this, of course. But I think I might’ve found something I wanted to bring up. I want to say it out loud, with everyone here, because I think I’m reading something none of us said plainlyyet.” She looks at me, then at Chief, then around the table at my brothers. “And it’s about your parents.”
Scar leans forward. He’s been quiet in the corner, the way he always is, that ruined face giving away nothing, but his eyes are sharp on her. “Tell me.”
“As we all know, the House sent those three operatives. House Vaszneth, on Chronos—that’s confirmed, that’s not in question anymore.” She pulls up something on the slate. “But here’s what I keep coming back to. I was the Keeper of Records. I spent three years reading documents like these, and what I see here, which was covered by dense technical language, is that your parents were the target from the beginning.”
“Years ago, your father found the seeds of this plan of theirs to change the way Illibrium is mined,” she says, gentle and relentless. “Someone on Chronos was building a plan to phase the Margol out of Illibrium mining entirely, to push every Margol miner off the work and replace them with Royal Pigment. To take the most valuable resource in the universe out of the hands of the people the Illibrium actually chooses and put it in the hands of a House.” She swallows. “Your father figured out what was coming. And your mother was helping him gather the proof. The two of them, quietly, trying to expose it before it could happen.”
