Renard watched his sleeping partner, took in the smooth features, still marked by the pain and the cold he had suffered, running sharp eyes over the bruised body, and finally the last knots inside him unraveled. He let his head sink back against the couch and sighed.
He had nearly blown in.
He. A seasoned regnant. One who had expected the visit of his older sister, Guardian of London. An official appointment, planned way in advance, organized and structured to the last minute.
Damn!
This had never happened before! At least not before Nick.
His eyes were on his mate again and he smiled, soft and warm and loving. Renard knew that he wouldn't change a thing even if he had the chance. He would have to smooth things over with his sister.
x x x
He did find the lizard creature within forty-eight hours of Nick waking up and panicking. Renard didn't really have to guess what he was facing, he knew the other was a nilwaran. Dangerous, very rare, and shy. Unless threatened, the few that were known in the creature world hid themselves, mostly in tropic regions. For him to come to Portland, far from being a tropic area, it had to have been important.
Enter: the kidnapped boys.
Renard couldn't fault him for chasing the kidnappers and taking his kin back, especially since it had been the boys of his cousin, but he couldn't forgive the attack on his Grimm and the fact that neither he nor his kin-brother had come to the Guardian of this territory. Him.
He towered over the two men, both pale and shaking with terror. Their human facades had shattered when Renard had slammed the first into the wall and had, without even looking, drawn his gun and pointed it at the second waran.
Glacially cold eyes regarded the creature at his feet, feeling no mercy.
"We didn't think," Benjamin, the one Nick had chased and the one who had killed the two kidnappers of the boys, said, voice reflecting his terror.
He should be terrified. He should be making a deal with his maker. While Renard hadn't dropped his façade, there were enough signs for even the thickest of wesen to realize that they were in the presence of a Guardian.
"Please… your highness…" He whimpered when Renard rumbled softly. "I knew he was a Grimm, and the tales about them were gruesome… and I wanted my cousin's children to be free…"
"Did he or did he not identify himself as a member of the Portland police force?"
The second nilwaran cringed. He had been the one to tear into Nick's back. He was Benjamin's brother.
"He did," Benjamin answered.
"Still you chose to attack."
"He's a Grimm!"
Renard's eyes changed, golden and still cold, his whole demeanor became lethal. "He is mine."
The two men shrank back, exchanging panicky looks. "We didn't know…"
"You knew Portland was protected territory when you came here. You knew it was mine to rule over, that I am its Guardian. Do you think I would let a Grimm live and hunt unless I knew of his loyalty?"
They shook their heads, by now reeking of fear for their lives.
It would be so easy. End it here and now. The children didn't even come into his thinking. He would find a home for them, but these two adults had dared to attack Nick! Fangs threatened to grow and he wanted to so badly give in. Never before had Renard felt this anger. Not with Leo Taymor. Nor with Marie Kessler. Not with anyone at all.
This was as personal as it could get for him and any other time he would not think twice. No one could blame him for killing the two men; no one could judge him.
"I'll let you live because you helped him. I'll let you go because your kin have suffered enough. But I warn you to ever come back without my approval, though."
They swallowed.
"Take your children and leave Portland."
Benjamin nodded frantically. "We will, sir. We will. I… I apologize. For all of us. We never meant for this to happen. Please… please tell the Grimm… we never wanted to hurt him."
"But you did," Renard said coldly, wanting so much to tear into them, show them the error of their ways. "I should kill you for what you did! Leave!"
And they did. Ran, actually.
The regnant snarled softly to himself, then turned on his heels and walked away. Renard had this insistent urge to creature out, to follow them like the an avenging angel to spread their remains in the winds. He wanted to hear them scream in pain as they learned not to hurt the mate of the one in charge of this territory.
But he didn't.
Nick would find out eventually and he didn't condone senseless killing. His little Grimm… tamer of a regnant.
Renard smiled darkly.
Yes, he wouldn't follow his instinct, hard as it was, because he loved his mate and Nick wouldn't be able to live with this.
Adalind would make sure that the two men and the children would leave safely. After passing his territory's borders, Renard didn't care any longer.
He had a mate to take care of.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Nick didn't really have to ask what Renard had been up to. When he had come home the waves of anger had still radiated off him. Home was Renard's expensive condo that overlooked Portland and had probably cost more than Nick would ever make in his life-time. It was a clean-cut, sleek but still warmly decorated place that had become the Grimm's second home within the last year.
Because Renard had been hovering and had been so completely on the edge, Nick had almost voluntarily agreed to move in for the time being. If the regnant thought he needed his mate in his home, so be it. Nick was nothing if not sensitive to the other man's moods and right now the baser nature was very close to the surface. Renard would rip the head off whoever would come in unannounced or so much as looked at Nick wrong.
At least Monroe had told him so when they had talked over the phone. The blutbad had summed up what had happened, after profusely apologizing for not being there. Nick had told him it was okay, that it hadn't been Monroe's fault, but his friend was still chewing on what had nearly happened.
Nick, still clad in very warm clothes and looking like he was off to lead a North Pole expedition, just raised his brows as the regnant stalked in.
Renard growled. He actually growled. His features didn't shift, his eyes were still human and very green, but he was very close to losing control.
"Are you finished?" Nick asked calmly.
Hands clenched into fists, then uncurled as he forced himself to relax.
x x x
His mate was safe.
Still hurt, but safe.
He was at his own apartment, in Renard's very own private territory. He belonged here. His scent was everywhere.
Against the backdrop of the city's lit-up buildings, the night silent and undisturbed in their little sanctuary, Nick looked pale and still in pain from the deep wounds on his back. And cold.
Renard approached, steps measured, taking in the smaller form, the anger draining to be replaced by softer emotions; warmer emotions. He carded his fingers through the longish strands and Nick leaned into the touch, a knowing smile reflecting in his eyes.
The regnant leaned down, brushing their lips together, nipping at the slightly chapped lips. Nick grabbed a handful of shirt and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss and delivering a quick bite to his lower lip when he drew back. Renard felt a sliver of arousal race through him.
This wasn't the time, though. Nick wasn't strong enough. And his back was a mess.
He ran a feather-light caress over the slender back in question.
"I'm finished," he murmured, nuzzling the Grimm's temple.
"Good. Did you leave them alive? In one piece?"
Renard chuckled, looking into the gray eyes that held an edge of Grimm. "Yes." And damn, the man was attractive when he was letting the inner predator out. That aura of danger… it was like a magnet for the regnant. "Yes, they are alive and well, with all their limbs. They have by now left my territory."
"This will be an unsolved murder case then."
"It has to be. Unless you decide to follow them, bring them in."
Nick was silent, then shook his head. "No," he said quietly. "Even if every cop instinct screams not to do it. This time I can't be a cop, though. I have to be a Grimm." He looked at Renard, features set. "Your Grimm, an arbitrator of the law of this territory. I made my decision."
Renard blinked, caught off guard by the statement. His Grimm. He was the Guardian, the Grimm was his right hand. He felt a smirk on his lips, growing wider. Not that Nick would ever follow orders outside the captain-detective command structure. He was his own person and the regnant had no power over him.
"My Grimm," he simply repeated, his possessive streak rising.
He kissed Nick again, fighting back the instinct to drop his shields, to take what was offered.
But his mate was injured.
He wasn't a sadistic bastard and he didn't take pleasure from pain.
Carefully he wrapped an arm around the other man's waist and held him, his wings itching to curl around him. He stopped himself from giving in to this need and simply sank everything he felt into the kiss they traded.
When they finally separated, Renard gazed at the handsome man in his arms, wondering how he had managed to bond the Grimm to him, the most perfect mate anyone could have.
The cursed Coins of Zakynthos had brought them together, but everything after that had been their own making.
The Grimm had voluntarily bowed to him, but never surrendered. He wasn't a subject, he wasn't an inferior creature. He was perfect and beautiful and a regnant's mate. His other half. Never to be owned.
Sean Renard had his loyalty. A Grimm's loyalty.
It was a life debt, an honor, a rarity that could never be bought.
The reverence he felt when he thought about what this man meant, what Nick had done for him, to him, was incredible. It was breathtaking. It was all-encompassing.
"I need you," Renard said softly, so completely a loss for words to express everything he felt.
Nick smiled. "I need you," he echoed the sentiment.
And because of his emotions, because of what he felt for this man, he had let the two nilwarane go. The next wesen might not be so lucky.
tbc...