Soar (Cold Mark Book 5) Read Free Page A

with you if I don’t want to be? Were you listening at all during the therapy session?”
    Malik’s head snapped back as if I had slapped him. “After everything, you still don’t want to be with us?”
    I waved a hand around my broken apartment, sighing in aggravation. “I can tell you that you two acting like this sure as hell doesn’t endear me to you.”
    He stared. “That’s not an answer.”
    “Because I need time. Time while I am free to get to know you better.” A head tilt to the Plumas of the east. “And to get to know them better.”
    His jaw muscles ticked. He glowered as his lids hooded his gaze.
    With the back of his knuckles, Leo wiped a drip of blood from the corner of his mouth. “You want to date us.” He paused. “And them. That’s what you said in the therapy session.”
    I lifted my attention to the ceiling. “Yes.”
    His words were quiet. “That’s not going to happen, Braita. We would kill each other first.”
    “Is that true?” I asked, peering at Killeg and Phila. Apparently, they were ‘coded’ differently, not just savages, as I had always believed. The Mian were true animalistic barbarians down to their DNA. “Is he lying?”
    Phila scratched at his chin. Blood was dripping from his hairline onto his forehead. “It’s true.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me that before?”
    He bent, and righted the couch and continued to absently pick up items. “Tell you what exactly? That for us to be together…that extraordinary circumstances would have to occur?” His dark gaze held on mine as it clicked to what he was referring. Their hybrid powers. They would, one hundred percent, have to use them if I chose them. “We did tell you that you needed to figure your shit out with your Vaq.”
    “If I wanted to be with them. Not you two.”
    Simple. “Yes.”
    Not so simple. “I still don’t know.”
    Or maybe I did. Perhaps…I had always known.
    Killeg chuckled softly. “I suggest you hurry the fuck up and decide before anyone dies.”
    Leo’s gaze snapped to him. “Two will die if you ever lay a finger on her again.”
    Killeg tilted his head to them while holding eye contact with me. “I think you get the point.”
    Bit by hesitant bit, my attention returned to my Vaq. My words were quiet and steady, unlike my nerves. “Will you give me a moment with them? They have done a lot for me, and I wish to thank them privately before we leave.”
    Malik instantly pointed to the kitchen. “We’ll be in there. We’re not going outside.”
    I nodded in agreement. “That’s fine.” My actions could always be reversed…if I was wrong. I watched as my Vaq sauntered into the kitchen, brushing past Stiller and Jax with more swagger to their step. Inhaling the largest breath I could muster, I made my feet move to stand in front of Phila and Kireg. The men with the power to free me. And possibly be the men in my life.
    With my gaze, I told them my wishes.
    My Vaq could not run from this.
    Phila cracked his neck, asking on the barest breath, “Right now.”
    I nodded once.
    “You’re sure?”
    I mouthed the words clearly. “ I don’t want them to remember me as their Soul. ”
    Killeg lifted his hand and stroked my cheek with the back of his bloody knuckles.
    My eyes narrowed, even as warmth rushed down my spine. “I’m not completely decided yet.”
    His lips twitched. “Yes. You are, Braita. You just haven’t spoken the words yet.”
    Licking my dry lips, I didn’t respond.
    But I did step back to allow them access to my Vaq.
    Phila rolled his shoulders as they moved forward, winking at me over his shoulders. “It’s a good thing we already convinced the litigators and their guards you’re not their Soul. Otherwise, I would be too dead tired to do what we plan with you in the coming days.”
    I snorted. Presumptuous—and cocky—bastards.
    As they grabbed hands, I wrapped my arms around my stomach against the frigid cold that whooshed throughout my apartment, their