Stronger as One (#1, Completed)

68. Divide and conquer

RILEY

I gasped when I saw my mates emerge from underneath the archway. They were very much alive and unharmed, by the looks of it, and the tension that I had been bottling in for two days now was gone in the blink of an eye. The relief I felt could only be beaten by the happiness that took over my mind and my soul just from the sheer sight of them in front of me. What made me smile even wider was seeing my dad appear with them- it warmed my heart to see them work together to get me out of this place.

It was Markolf's voice that broke the silence. "Ah, I see that the two of you survived the fire. That's a shame."

"Don't sound so disappointed, Markolf. We might think you don't like us."

The sarcasm in Rafe's words made me chuckle- I could easily imagine myself telling the cambion the same thing. My mates were indeed my perfect match. Or was I just rubbing off on them? Whatever the case, the irritation that I could see in Markolf's eyes brought a smile to my face.

"You know, Rafe, the unspoken rule when someone is trying to get rid of you as insistently as I am is that you should be dead by now. So be a good dog and do as you are told for once."

Did cambion just call my mate a dog? That was a mistake that I was sure he was going to regret. Yet, to my surprise, Rafe remained calm and composed. I couldn't sense even a hint of anger through our bond. Pride hit me when I realised that, while we were apart, three of us had been working on controlling better our emotions as none of us wanted to give Markolf an advantage during our next encounter.

"It's not my fault that you clearly suck at this, Marky boy," Rafe replied with a satisfied expression. "And I am terrible at following orders. My mate and my best friend can attest to that if you don't believe me."

Smug bastard! I had cursed him so many times when I had been on the receiving end of his rebellious and cocky behaviour but, right now, I loved him a little bit more just because of it. And as much as he got under my skin and annoyed the hell out of me, I didn't want to change anything about Rafe. Or Aiden. Well, maybe there was one thing I actually planned on changing as soon as this fucking mess was over- making sure that they were both mine and that they knew it.

"My lord, would you like me to handle them?" Caleb asked menacingly but he didn't get a chance to hear Markolf's reply as my dad stepped forward and, without hesitation, hit Markolf's warlock with a bright red energy blast.

"You are mine, you sellout." I couldn't remember if I had ever seen my dad so pissed off in my life but then again, I also knew that my dad would hunt anyone who threatened or harmed his family down to the end of the world.

The blast created some link between him and Caleb, one which did not allow the other warlock to run away. "I'll be right back, sweetheart," he smiled at me, and they both disappeared into thin air.

"And then there were four," Markolf stated with a malicious grin. I wrapped my hand around the hairpin that I had twisted in my hair, ready to attack the half-demon and put an end to it all.  But the bastard beat me to it.

"If you will excuse me, Riley," he said just before I found myself blasted back into the mansion.

AIDEN

My rage at seeing Riley blasted by Markolf was like a hot fluid in a container about to boil over, and I could also feel Rafe's fury through our bond. The only thing that stopped us both from going berserk was knowing, thanks to invisible threads that connected us, that our mate was okay. The super-strength that she drew from my dragon abilities after we marked her had protected her, I knew that, but that didn't mean that I did not want to snap the cambion's neck for what he had just done. And yet, I had to remain calm. We both did, as we could not allow Markolf to control us again.