She urged her likeness to titter at something Magnus said, since everyone else was doing it. Brandir’s lids fluttered closed for the briefest second, his heartbeat actually stuttering before he aimed a bittersweet glance at his boisterous brother.
Then, the Demon Son took a deep breath, loosing it slowly through pursed lips, and a wash of guilt swept over her.
She wouldn’t deny the flutter in her chest at being secretly perceived by so fierce a male, but she was crossing a line. He would probably be mortified if he knew she’d seen him this way, without his knowledge.
Just as she would be.
An ache bloomed from deep within—for the Demon, yes, but also for herself. The Sisters had truly blessed him when they’d delivered him into the arms of this family.
Let him be. Go home, guard yourself, and forget any of this ever happened.
Shaking herself, Lunara released her hold on him and seamlessly re-entered her body, the muffled conversation returning to full volume.
“…how I freed myself from the flesh-eating mushrooms of Nachthelliae,” Magnus was finishing proudly.
She joined in the applause to avoid suspicion—and when the invisible caress of Brandir’s gaze flitted over her again, she didn’t want to go to bed quite as much as before.
“Please. You must have at least one more tale of my home.”
Oh, you hopeless eejit. Why invite the trouble?
Because she’d be back in her lonely cottage, just a ghost in the dark woods, soon enough. What harm could a single night of living do?
“There is one.” He hesitated, running a hand over his beard.
“Go on then!” Nyri encouraged.
“Aye, alright. Nachthelliae only briefly features in this story, but it started with me and some of my brothers deciding it was time to impart an important lesson on a young lad.” She almost missed the way his eyes flicked to the side, in Brandir’s direction. “Suffice it to say we left the wee shite in the Evesong’s Northern Forests.”
Lunara gasped. “You didn’t!”
That wild region had been her home for more than fifty years, and even she struggled with the landscape from time to time.
“Oh aye, we did. Trust me, he deserved it.”
He had to be speaking of Brandir, tension rolling off the Demon in waves.
“A few days later, I was nosing around some leftover plates after supper—shifted, mind you. I’m only an animal when I’m an animal,” Magnus said, winking. “Except, I wasn’t wise enoughyet to realize the food was off. Turns out, the wee bastard had slipped in a sleeping draught! I learned my own valuable lesson when I woke up the next morning. You see, he’d shaved me bald from head to tail, and when I shifted back, well… Apparently, what happens to me as a wolf, happens to me as a male, because I was naked as the day I’d been born, down to my very balls!”
Everything bubbled up all at once, and Lunara couldn’t help it. She threw her head back and laughed.
You’re a fool.
“You know,” she wheezed, “I honestly think I feel worse for the one who had to do the shaving.”
Even Hedda and Faldir finally lost it, their dour facades crumbling.
“Tell us who did it.” Nyri clasped her hands in front of her, pleading. “I have to know.”
Oh, no. Embarrassment for Brandir bled over her in a hot flush. She’d never meant?—
“Ah, lass, that’s not my tale to tell,” Magnus answered softly, his gentle tone belying his affection.
Oh.
Just like that, Lunara felt the Wolflord’s allegiance towards his younger brother like a tangible thing. The fact that this sort of loyalty, this sort of love, actually still existed within the realms…
Sisters, if only she could be so lucky. So blessed as to have a family like this one.
