“But first, gotta get Moose back to my mate. She’s worried. She’ll wanna know he’s back and safe.”

“Take the SUV we came in,” Lucien offered. “I’ll ride back with Callum.”

Abel gave Lucien a nod and looked to Moose. “Let’s go, big man.”

Moose didn’t hesitate, obviously ready for soft sheets. Abel did the best he could to get him up-to-date on the way back to the compound and left him in a living room when they got back, deciding to find Delilah himself, give her the news, and get her to her friend.

He found her three living rooms down. He also found her alone, not with Jian-Li or any of the other women. She was standing at a window, staring out, completely oblivious to anything, including him walking into the room.

“Bao bei,” he called when he was close.

He watched her jump in surprise and turn to him.

“You okay?” he asked.

She kept her face aimed at him, but her eyes slid back to the window.

When he made it to her, he looked out and saw three dark gray columns of smoke heading straight up to the sky through windless air from beyond the dense woods that surrounded the sides of the compound.

He knew what those were. Those were the ultimate end to the dead golem. An end that included certain body parts that had been hacked to shit and then far removed from their mates, especially the heads, all this being burned to ash.

“They might have had women,” Delilah said softly, and Abel looked back to her to see her head again turned to the window. “They might have had kids.”

“And if they’d succeeded, there is no ‘might’ about what they were gonna do, which was something we couldn’t let them do. At all costs.”

“At all costs,” Delilah whispered to the window.

“Pussycat—” he started, lifting his hand to curl it where her neck met her shoulder.

This again got him her eyes. “Are you okay with all costs?”

He didn’t understand the question.

“What?”

She turned fully to him and rested her hands on his abs. “You took lives, honey.”

Now he got her. More than got her.

She was reflective and looking out the window because the bodies of men who likely multiple someones had loved were being reduced to ash. She was also reflective and looking out the window because she was worried about his state of mind.

“I’m good,” he assured her.

She wasn’t assured and he knew this when she tipped her head to the side and asked, “You sure?”

He slid his hand to the back of her neck, pulled her closer, and bent to her.

“I’m sure,” he said, soft and firm. “And you’re going to be good too, seein’ as Moose returned, he’s fine, and he’s waiting in living room three for you.”