She winced, squeezing her eyes shut. “Oh? I wasn’t aware mind reading was one of my gifts. I’ll have to practice it more.”

Giving her a mock glare, he reached down with his free hand and pinched her side, drawing a satisfying yelp from her enticing lips.

They’d walked back to the palace, Veralie all but running to get there, only to be immediately tracked down by a set of palace guards who insisted on taking “King Vesstan’s guest” to her new quarters.

As if her father thought there was even a chance she’d be staying there alone. Jaren had just flashed them a terrifying grin and walked in the room right along with her.

King Vesstan could assign her a single-body, medical cot, and he’d still find a way to fall asleep with her in his arms.

But luckily for them both, her official room—clear across the palace from where they’d originally been—was the size of a small, city home, and had a bed large enough for four grown Maygki to fit in. Which he had every intention of taking advantage of very soon.

By the time Veralie had toured the room, mooned over the large windows and equally large bathing chamber, and gasped in horror over the gown-filled closet, she had dark circles under her eyes, and her tunic had all but crusted to her skin.

She’d wanted to sink into a hot bath, but he worried she was too tired, the image of her face down in the inn tub flashing through his mind like a whip. So instead, he’d taken her by the arm and led her to the bed, wanting nothing more than to take care of his mate before curling up behind her.

Hair a fan of dark, frizzy curls about her head and gloriously topless, she lay sprawled in the center of the bed as he checked for debris and cleaned the dried blood away from her cut.

She winced again when he pressed around a deeper part of the cut, scraping off flecks of blood where the dagger had first pierced her skin. “I’m almost done.”

Cracking open an eye, she sighed. “If you’d have just let me heal myself, I’d already be done and asleep by now.”

He grunted, believing it. Her exhaustion was so heavy it was even weighing him down. Between feeling hers and his own, he was barely keeping his eyes open, and it was only after mid-day.

“I told you, if you heal wounds before they’re clean, they will still scar. Your power speeds up and enhances your body’s naturally ability to heal; it doesn’t pick out dirt and pebbles first.”

“Is that why Doren’s nose looked like it’d been broken? He’d just healed before setting it or something? And why Reniya has that scar down her cheek?”

Jaren’s lip curled at the mention of them, especially that gods damn male who’d eyed her like a ripe fucking fruit, but he nodded. “It’s possible. Although Reniya has had that scar for as long as I can remember. Since before she was old enough to be able to heal it.”