“If you think that’s weird, you probably don’t want to know what all wewolvesget addicted to when it comes to our mates,” Costin said with a small smile. “Sally is a human. For most of her life, she knew nothing of the supernatural world. Even knowing what she does now, she still thinks I’m creepy. And that’s only because of the things she actuallyknowsI desire.” Costin tapped his forehead. “The really kinky things, I keep locked up tight. She’d run away, then I’d have to chase her, which would make meastalker and even more creepy. Believe me, you’re practically normal compared to one of us.” He motioned to himself and the other wolves.
Fane couldn’t help but chuckle. “In other words, no. It doesn’t sound strange, abnormal, or anything else. But if you need more reassurance, we could getreallystrange.”
“So, it’s not weird that I sometimes stare at her mouth for hours?” Adam asked. “Or that I’m to the point of begging her to let me kiss her? Or begging her to touch me, even if her touch is violent? I don’t care. She could slap me or beat on me. I just want her.”
“That’s pretty much foreplay toCanis lupus,” Costin said. “I think we’re going to have to make a mating handbook for the mixed-race mated pairs.”
“How long has it been?” Decebel asked Adam.
“Thirty-two days”—he glanced at his watch—“thirty-five minutes,and forty-eight seconds since I last kissed her.”
“Are you sure you’re not part wolf?” Costin asked. “Because that was extremely specific, likewolfspecific.”
Lucian nodded his head, agreeing with Costin. “My wolf knows the number of hours since we last touched Perizada. He gets snappy when it’s been too long.”
“How long is too long?” Adam asked.
Lucian’s smile made Fane smile because he knew what his uncle would say. “The moment we’re no longer touching her.”
“Okay, you males are definitely making me feel less neurotic,” Adam said, but the frown lines on his forehead didn’t show reassurance.
“So, for the first two months since my parents’ deaths, Crina allowed you to be her comfort?” Fane said. “You were her security. She turned to you for everything? And now, she doesn’t come to you for anything?”
Adam’s face darkened as his eyes flashed with something dangerous. “Are you suggesting she’s going to someone else for those things now?”
“Please tell me you did not let that thought get through the bond,” Decebel growled.
“True mates don’t cheat. Ever,” Costin said, his voice no longer light and playful. It was a painful topic for him. Fane knew it was not because he felt like Sally cheated on him, but because she still had moments of horrific guilt, even though they weren’t deserved. Costin had shared that with Fane when he and Sally had returned from Texas. She was doing well, and getting better every day, because Costin was there reminding her constantly that nothing had changed for him.
“Then what are you getting at?” Adam asked Fane, the anger still lurking in his eyes.
“I think she’s pining, for one thing, but I don’t think that’s all of it,” Fane replied. “You mentioned you tried to take some of her pain through the bond.”
Adam nodded.
“You did that because youneedto care for her. You don’t have the ability tonottake care of her.” Fane tried to work through his thoughts to explain this in a way that Adam would understand. “How much ofyourpain have you shared with her?”
Adam frowned. “Why would I share my pain with her when she has more than enough of her own?”
“Ahh.” Costin nodded, looking at Fane. “I see where you’re going with this.”
“It’s natural for Crina to turn to you as her mate. You’re two halves of one soul. But that goes both ways. Her wolf expects you to turn to her for your comfort. She also needs to know thatyouneed her.”
Adam started to speak, but Fane shook his head. “When you tried to take her pain, your bond would have been fully opened, like soul-bearingly open. She would have felt everything.” He paused and then tilted his head as he looked at the fae. “You knew my parents.” It wasn’t a question, simply a fact.
“I did.” Adam’s tonesoftened. “For a long time. They meant a lot to me, for many reasons. One being that they’d kept my mate safe until she was given to me.”
“You also had a bond with them. Maybe not the same as a wolf, but you still felt their death.”
Adam nodded.
“What did you do with that pain? How did you deal with it?” Fane narrowed his eyes on Adam. “Who helped you bear the loss?”
The fae male looked confused as he gazed into the male wolves’ faces. “Butsheneeded me,” he said, his voice desperate for them to understand. “I wanted to make sure she knew I could be what she needed.”
“She needed to be the same thing for you, just as much as she needed to lean on you,” Fane told him. “Her wolf, she feels every bit as possessive as you do for her. When she felt you open the bond and realized you were hurting and you hadn’t come to her, hadn’t sought outhercomfort the way she’d been doing with you, she most likely felt very inadequate.”
“And useless,” Costin added, as he picked at a blade of grass, his own demons having surfaced, no doubt.
