Page 31 of Awakened Gifts
“What for? I’ve already signed the treaty. There’s no reason for us to meet.”
“Prisoner exchange, sir. They’re releasing all the prisoners of war, but they want us to bring all of ours and exchange them on semi-neutral ground.”
Jase turns back toward the window, looking confused. “I’ve already spoken to their commander, and we agreed to exchange the prisoners in small spurts. That way we can be cautious. Doing a massive exchange is a little dangerous, considering all the attention it will draw to our location. Not all of the Unaligned or the United are ready for this time of peace. Some still want blood for those they’ve lost—understandably so.”
“I understand, sir, but his people are pressuring him to do a full exchange. They want their loved ones back, and they don’t feel like waiting until each wave is released to know if they’re husbands, wives, sons, or daughters are still alive. So, he’s demanding a full exchange. Tomorrow. It’ll be close to midnight. Daylight will draw too much attention. He wishes to have your answer before nightfall today.”
Jase hangs up without saying anything else to the man. “Can he just demand something like that?” I ask, scooting to the edge of the bed.
“He just did.”
“Why?”
Jase moves onto the bed and pulls me to be right up against him. “Let’s not talk about this right now,” he murmurs against my neck, kissing a line up to my jaw.
As much as I’d love to let him continue, reality isn’t dissipating or climbing under a veil just yet.
“Do you have to go along with it? And if so, why is it such a bad thing?” I ask, eliciting a groan of discontent from him.
“If I refuse, then what will our people think? They want their loved ones back just as much as I would. It’ll make him look like the merciful, loving ruler, and it’ll make me look like the cold and heartless tyrant. I almost think the calculated bastard set this all up, because he thinks I’ll refuse and then chaos will ensue. People will turn on me. It’s actually a pretty brilliant plan.
“In an effort to keep things secure, we’ll have to essentially bring an army. With this limited time frame, it’ll be hard to fully scan the histories of each person to find out if they’re carrying a grudge or not. Which, since he’s probably been planning this for a few weeks, he’s already scanned all his people to ensure he has a safe squad. And, if one of our people goes and does something stupid—such as shoot at the Unaligned to exact their revenge—the terms of the treaty will be broken. United territory will become compromised, because the terms state that if the treaty is broken, the wall is torn down, and the offending party loses control of their borders. They’ll seize control of our borders, and the war they were losing will tip in their favor.”
It does sound like a calculated plan. “Then we’ll go with you. Rex can strain for a vision to see if he can give you a warning. Mom can put any of our people to sleep, should you hear them ready to pull the trigger. They’re underestimating you.”
He pushes me onto my back and covers my body with his, and then he silences me with a hard kiss. Just as I wrap a leg around him, he withdraws, but just barely.
“Baby, I wish I could prioritize right this minute, but I spent over two weeks thinking you were dead. Now you’re in my arms, and it’s not a dream. I don’t want to talk about the reality of our lives right now. I just want to enjoy this. Since we found you beside that canyon… I thought you killed yourself because of what you saw, and I didn’t even have the chance to tell you what was going on. I didn’t want to liv—”
His words are cut off when my lips crush his, and he pulls me to him as weeks of pent-up frustration pours into this one kiss. His hands become needy and grip me to the point where it’s almost painful.
I tug his shirt over his head, and he tugs at my pants until they are down. We ignore the buzzer when it starts ringing, because the only thing we care about right this second is each other.
“I love you,” I say against his lips as his kiss and hands grow to be more desperate.
His mission to remove my clothes becomes almost frantic, and after a few sounds of fabric tearing, we’re both bare. Jase kisses along the side of my neck as he teases me with his body.
“I love you,” he breathes, dusting my lips with the unspoken promise.
He pulls my hand down to kiss my ring, and I reach up to cup his cheek. He leans into my touch, and his emotions roll over me, giving me a taste of the pain and misery he has suffered through over the past two weeks.
It almost suffocates me, and a tear drops from his eye as mine start pouring out. He sinks into me slowly, filling me as we continue to ignore the buzzing box. Whoever wants him will have to wait, because right now he’s mine.
“Always will be,” he murmurs against my ear as he rocks out and in, taking his time.
It isn’t as wild and unkempt as I expected, but I almost see our souls intertwining as he stares into my hybrid violets.
The door blows off the hinges, and Jase jerks the covers over us, his body still impaling mine, and he holds himself over me as Kellan and Uncle Brazen, along with several United officials, storm into our bedroom.
Awkward is too frail of a word to describe this particular moment.
Kellan’s jaw grinds the second he sees us, but Jase doesn’t move. “What the fuck are you doing in our room?” Jase growls.
Uncle Brazen’s eyes are wide as he looks anywhere but at us, and several of the tagalongs are snickering into their hands, averting their eyes as well. Jase’s expression changes as he reads the minds of some of them, and I grow anxious while his pale blues block out the revelations he has discovered.
“Sorry to bother you, sir,” Kellan says with venom dripping from his tone, biting out every word as though it’s painful to speak to Jase, “but they’ve just caught Hedin. We’re going out there now to retrieve him from Silan, but they said you demanded to be present when he was questioned.”
“Just let me get on my clothes,” Jase says, his jaw set in a hard line as he glares challengingly at Kellan. “Five fucking minutes ago they didn’t even have a lead.”