He tugged his socks off and placed them on the dresser. He climbed into bed next to her and exhaled. "This does feel wonderful. I never knew lying down in the middle of the afternoon could feel so good."

Wait until I introduce him to nooners.

"So tell me about your job." She turned over on her side and propped her head up on her hand.

He turned to face her and did the same. "I manage the units here in Noctem Falls, reporting only to my prince and my commander. There are six units in the city: Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, and Mu. Our original function was to protect the city, but in more recent decades, we have not had to do much protecting, so we altered our roles a bit."

"How so?"

"We maintain a neutral stance in the city, often acting as arbiters. The Founding and Noble families know that as unit warriors, we do not show preferential treatment, so we can be trusted to be fair. We also help train young vampires to fly and manage their gifts. We rotate shifts patrolling the marketplace to keep the peace. Every once in a while, a fight will break out over a deal gone sour; we help calm things down. Hearing what has been going on in Lycaonia, I almost wish they had called on us for assistance. The men would have been climbing over each other to assist Alpha and the other units."

"Why did they keep things quiet? I'm not afraid to tell you that I'm pissed that we weren't told to be on guard. If we had had the time, we could have fortified our city, but it's hard to fight what you can't see. Did you know the ferals could turn invisible like that?" Eva was beyond pissed that they had been blindsided. She had nearly gotten killed because she wasn't able to fight an enemy she couldn't see.

"No. The only thing we were told was to be on the lookout for any missing person reports for neighboring cities. Aiden assumed that the information they were learning about the ferals in Lycaonia and releasing to the council was being passed on to the units.

"My prince has come forward and said that, at council level, the information was deemed as 'need to know' only. As the units here do not patrol outside, we were categorized as individuals that did not need to know. Even now, the message that Prince Magnus put out in the newsletter is extremely vague. He states there is a new threat to paranormals across the country and, if possible, relocate to or nearby a pillar city as soon as arrangements can be made."

Eva growled. "The people have a right to know," she fumed.

"Eva, sweetheart, where would they go?"

Eva looked at him. "What do you mean? They could come here, like we did." There was a pain in his eyes she didn't understand. "What am I missing?"

"Eva, ever since I met you, I have been thanking the Gods that you were amongst the first wave of refugees. Dearest, Noctem Falls is not big enough to house everyone. At a certain point, we will have to turn people away. That is why the message was so vague, if they alerted the entire paranormal world as to what was going on, there would be a panic and everyone would be rushing to the four pillar cities, even those paranormals that would have never been on the enemy's radar.

"In the end, you would have thousands of people milling around the pillar cities, possibly exposing us to humans, but ultimately creating the perfect circumstances for our people to be killed."

Eva gasped. "It would be like shootin' fish in a barrel."

"Your colloquialisms are like music; they add spice to the conversation."

"Glad you like 'em. So we just have to hope to Fate that the ones that need protection go to a pillar city?"

Adriel closed his eyes and rolled onto his back. "I think I understand my prince's impotent anger now. He knows that we are going to lose people; there simply is not anything that can be done about it."

"He should ask Meryn. I swear that tiny dynamo has an answer for everything. I bet you I already have those maps she promised."

"She is surprisingly organized and efficient. Considering her personality, I was expecting her to be a bit more scatterbrained."

"She's adorable."

"You like her already, do you not?"

"She's just so small and mouthy, how can I not like her?"

Adriel rolled back over to face her. "I heard from your former Alpha that the reason you got hurt was because you were saving a pregnant female from the ferals."

Eva shook her head. "Technically, that's not true. Josie was already out of harm's way. I got hurt pulling a feral off our beta."

"I also heard that you left a few dead in your wake."

Eva felt acid building in her throat. "Is this the part where you tell me to stay out of danger?"

"No."

She blinked. "What?" She had fully been expecting him to give her the 'you are my mate, I need you safe' speech she had heard other females get on more than one occasion.

"Actually, I was hoping I could persuade you to take over for Micah in guarding Meryn. I could really use him back in rotation, especially now with so many refugees needing both medical attention and transport up and down the tunnel."

"You trust me?"

"Of course I do."

"You believe I'm strong enough to keep her safe?" Was she dreaming? She never would have imagined her older, stuck in his ways, vampire mate would buck traditional gender roles and ask her to guard someone.

Adriel chuckled. "Sweetheart, I saw the bodies of the ferals you killed, I know for a fact you are strong. You can partially shift your hands, correct?"