Free Set In Flames (Morningstars Book 1) by Sam Destiny

head held high. He liked her inner strength a lot and yet, he couldn’t shake the need to pull her back in his arms. He knew he needed to walk out of the door, but his feet stayed rooted to the spot.
    “Come on, buddy, you’ve done enough damage for now,” Kaden remarked, pulling him out and away from Maya. It was obvious that Kaden was more than pissed.
    Hell, he even hoped Kaden would try to beat him, but his twin only glared at him, not easing any of Jaden’s tension at all.

    “What was that about?” Matt asked while Maya walked around the room. She didn’t really see anything, but couldn’t help noticing that the room was more like a full apartment.
    “Thank you for not killing me,” she decided to say, not feeling in the frame of mind to explain to Matt what there was – or rather wasn’t – between her and her mate. That connection was too complicated; too emotional and just too hard to explain. For a moment she wondered how it would feel to talk to Lara, the only other Origin she really knew. Had her feelings been all over the place in the beginning, too?
    Maybe it was best that he pushed her away. She felt herself hoping for his presence when she was afraid and confused, and she didn’t like that feeling. She had been on her own for a long time and she knew how to handle herself. She didn’t need a mate to do that for her.
    “You know?” Matt asked, sounding slightly worried. For a second she wondered what he meant, then she remembered that she had thanked him for letting her live.
    With the new knowledge it was easy to place his face on the hot guy she had met years ago.
    “Why didn’t you do what you came to do?” she wanted to know, sounding calm and collected. She was surprised at how carelessly she could discuss her own death.
    “I… you … I was new with them. I had met a few male Hellraise, but none were like you… Not that you are a Hellraise yet, but … you were beautiful, incredibly so, and I couldn’t do it.”
    “I see,” she said, even though that was a lie. Things like that didn’t exist in her world. Brothers who sent warriors to kill their little sisters shouldn’t exist in any world.
    What she did understand though was that laws were needed to keep Hellraise babies like her from being born. They all were monsters in the making. She knew that better than anyone. She knew her mother after all. Still, Maya never had shown killer tendencies herself; hadn’t even known what she was.
    “Well, what do you feel like doing?” Matt wanted to know, trying to lighten the mood.
    “How long have you known the twins?” She needed to know more about them, needed to know how Jaden acted when you weren’t forced on him. Not that she had actually planned for that.
    “I’ve known them only since I joined the Morningstar warriors. In the beginning it was very hard to get close to them. Ryder, Jaden and Kaden are usually a closed off unit. Nothing gets between them. That is, nothing until now. Once I did get to know them though I couldn’t have wished for better friends. Loyal, honest, fun. Most of the time. The dynamics have changed now though. No matter what will be thrown our way, Jaden will always protect you first and foremost. And I think so will Kaden. At least until Kaden finds his Origin, too,” Matt explained and Maya slowly nodded.
    She absent-minded touched a leather bound book on his desk.
    “Kaden seems like the type,” she agreed.
    “Jaden even more so. This whole thing caught him off-guard. Hell, it caught us all by surprise. Colbin always had foretold that something like this could happen, but we never believed him. And now look at you. Here’s an Origin,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.
    “And a pretty one, too. Can I steal her?” Colbin asked, suddenly standing in the door. Maya had been too engrossed in her thoughts to hear him enter.
    She could tell Matt was torn between keeping her out of obligation to Jaden and handing her off to Colbin, the