Page 36 of Hateful Prince

“I can’t sense her,” Cain agreed. “You did good, baby doll.”

Kai and Cas rushed over to our little group.

“Dahlia,” Kai breathed, ashen. “Are you all right?”

“Yes?”

Cas hip-checked the others out of the way—a bold move if ever I saw one—but all I felt was relief as he slung his arms around my neck. “Don’t scare me like that, darling.”

I patted his back, unsure what else to do, but when he pulled away and looked into my eyes, I saw real fear there. “I’m okay.”

“Good. That’s good,” he grumbled, clearing his throat and straightening as he put on his dashing captain facade.

“I’d feel a lot better if we got her out of here,” Kai said, taking my hand.

“Agreed,” Tor said, his hands reaching for my hips. Before he could grasp me and bodily remove me from the room, which I was sure was what he was intending to do, Cas’s face twitched in confusion.

“What the bleeding hell is wrong with him?” he asked, looking at someone over my shoulder.

There was barely time for more than a glance as screams erupted throughout the room again, and a vacant-eyed man lurched toward me.

Chapter

Eleven

KAI

Ididn’t sign up for fucking zombies.

I could deal with nearly anything thrown at me. Vampires? I’d turn them to dust. Berserkers? We’d fight to the death. Shifters? Don’t threaten me with a good time. But zombies? That was my hard line in the sand.

Why? Because they were impervious to basically everything but fire, and I couldn’t afford to play with my fire. Not here in a room filled with creatures, with my mate so near. If my dragon got control, he’d burn this place to the ground, and we’d be lucky to get Dahlia out in one piece.

He was oddly silent in my mind, but I could feel him hovering. He wasn’t taunting me with his presence so much as waiting. It was an odd shift between us. I was so used to him forcing the issue. Maybe Dahlia had cracked the code when she suggested we work as a team.

“Get behind me, beauty.” Tor’s booming voice ricocheted off the walls as he shoved her behind him.

Together we created a wall between our mate and the shambling creature. The problem with zombies wasn’t that they were mindless ghouls intent on eating brains. No, they were rage-filled mindless ghouls, stronger than they should be, and they were intent on eating brains, not to mention any other part of you they could get to.

“Wait, this is my fault. Get out of my way. I need to pull the spirit out.”

“Never gonna happen, love. Let those two be your meat shields,” Caspian said from behind us.

It might be the first sane thing I’d ever heard him say.

“We are born protectors, lass. It’s our privilege as your mates to keep you safe.”

“You are not fighting my battles for me,” Dahlia argued.

“The hell we’re not,” Tor grunted.

When I glanced his way, he was fucking grinning. A little shudder of self-preservation rolled down my spine. I dinnae fear the Berserker, but I recognized a threat when I saw one.

“Please, you have to let me try. Don’t kill him. This isn’t his fault,” Dahlia protested, her hands shoving at me because she likely knew moving Tor would be akin to attempting to move a marble statue.

“It’s no use, baby doll. He’s already gone.” Cain said, and I wondered how he knew.

My eyes shifted to my mate, her expression ravaged by guilt. She was focusing hard on the creature making his way toward us, her teeth gnawing on her bottom lip. I caught the second she realized Cain’s words were true. It was like the guttering of a candle.