Page 77 of Robb

Tahnee felt torn, wanting to call out to Robb to reassure him, while also not wanting to show weakness or that they were definitely on the right track to making her agree to basically anything they asked. Of course, she knew she couldn’t do that – but all of her instincts and the mate bond itself were screaming at her to do anything she could to keep her mate safe and unhurt.

I can’t do what they want me to do, whatever the hell that turns out to be, she tried to argue against her own shifter instincts. But Robb –

She knew that in the grand scheme of things, it was the kind of hit that a shifter like Robb would usually shrug off – but this wasn’t the usual kind of situation. He was already weakened from the wyvern venom, and the anti-shifter cuffs would also have reduced his powerful shifter healing abilities.

“You’re a bit of a stoic one yourself, when you want to be,” the wyvern said, and Tahnee glared at it. “But that was only a very small demonstration. There are so many other things that I’ve been looking forward to trying out.”

“How about you tell me what it is you actually want?” Tahnee demanded. “You can’t just make threats and beat him up without letting me know why you’re doing it. Seems a bit counterproductive.”

“Well, I don’t think that you would agree to go through with our plan without us first doing him some pretty serious harm, just to demonstrate that we mean what we say,” the wyvern said in an oddly reasonable tone. “But I suppose I can tell you, in case you’re actually not as attached to him as it first appears. He did try to arrest you and then left you alone for over twenty-five years, after all.”

How do they know all of this?!

She set her jaw.

“So tell me.”

“So demanding.” The wyvern smiled. “We require gold. A lot of gold. We believe that you can assist us with this requirement.”

Tell her she’s dreaming, the brolga bit out. We do not provide gold to murderers and torturers.

I’m way ahead of you, buddy, she thought grimly.

But it was clear that they were going to use Robb to get to her powers, and she wasn’t about to just sit by and let them torment him.

I’ve just got to find a way to stall them for a few hours until help arrives.

She still didn’t know why they wanted the gold, though, and she needed to know.

“And why do you need this gold?” she asked levelly.

The wyvern sighed in a strangely human fashion. “I’m not going to go over all of this again. I’ll let your mate explain it all to you.”

With that, the wyvern shimmered and then shifted, turning into a completely unremarkable middle-aged woman with an instantly forgettable face.

While Tahnee was glad to see the back of the wyvern – not to mention its horribly sharp teeth the size of her forearm, and its noxious breath that made it hard to breathe – she couldn’t say that she felt much more secure around its human form, either.

She’d met way too many faceless corporate types over the years, who hid their abhorrent behavior behind the mask of whatever business they worked for. She didn’t trust any of them as far as she could throw them.

“Come,” the woman said, beckoning to her goons and the lyrebird.

The three of them followed her out the room, the lyrebird looking faintly unhappy. Tahnee was good at reading bird expressions, being able to turn into a bird herself, and she wondered if it was working for Hargreaves by choice.

But she wasn’t going to spend any more time on it, because Robb was there, and he was alive, and she wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around him and never let go, their stupid fight on the beach be damned.

She couldn’t do any of that, though, the cuffs completely hindering her movement, and so she knelt down beside him, resting her cheek gently against his knee and trying to reassure him through the mate bond.

The sheer relief of touching him, even like this, was almost overwhelming.

“Tahnee,” he croaked. “Not that I’m not grateful, but you shouldn’t have come.”

“Bullshit,” she said cheerfully as she straightened up and looked at him, completely unwilling to let him ruin this moment. “You would’ve done the same, and you know it.”

Robb opened his mouth – possibly to lie obviously and tell her he wouldn’t – but then seemed to realize just how obvious of a lie it would be and closed it again. But she couldn’t entirely blame him. He really was in a bad way, and she didn’t blame him at all for wishing, at least on one level, that she hadn’t come. She would’ve felt exactly the same way if she’d been in his situation, and she would have told him so.

She leaned over so that she could whisper directly into his ear, hopefully unable to be picked up by any lipreaders or recording devices that Hargreaves might be using.

“Anyway,” she murmured under her breath, “my people are talking to your people. They know where I am. I’m sure they’ll be coming for us.”