30

KNIGHT

“You are maybe her mate, but she doesn’t trust you. So, it protects itself,” Zarah said.

Kailin grinned. I thought she had something funny to ask. “So if he, like, touches without her consent, the mark will protect her?”

“Yes,” Zarah confirmed my theory last night. I didn’t have any bad intentions. It was just out of curiosity, but it still protected Nirvana.

“Well, shit.” Kailin had a lot of fun learning about her best friend.

“With bad intentions,” Nirvana added with little emphasis on the word bad.

“Then we’ll put it to a test.”

“No!” Zarah, Case, and I said in unison to Kailin.

“Don’t even try, Kailin,” I warned her. “We don’t know what this mark is capable of or the extent of its power.”

“But it didn’t happen before.” Nirvana shrugged.

“Because no one has ever tried to hurt you,” I told her.

“Yeah, I guess so.” She rubbed the site of the mark on her neck.

“So you’ll gonna have another mark soon, then.”

Fuck. I hadn’t entirely thought about that. I just wished