“You’re very eloquent when you’re wrong,” I whispered, a tear tracking down my cheek.
“Practice,” he said, mouth quirking. “I get a lot of practice when it comes to us.”
Indigo pressed close, not quite snarling, not quite purring.“He will not chain us,”she said, voice tinged with suspicion.
“No,” I said.
He tucked a curl behind my ear. “No, never again.”
I sucked in a breath. He smelled like rain and pine. It was grounding. “I don’t know how to forgive you.” And that terrified me more than anything my grandmother was cooking up. I wanted to forgive them all, but I had no map of how to achieve it. Anger was an exhausting emotion.
“Then I’ll keep turning up until we figure it out. I’m not going anywhere, Cora. Through the bad and the good—that’s what it means to be a mate.”
The weight of the secrets between us pressed down on me. The deal with Donn would be revealed soon. Whatever Hudson had done with my uncle needed to be brought to light. But not today. One step at a time.
“TripAdvisor thinks we’re a brothel,” I grumbled finally, because if I did not ease the taut wire inside me with something ridiculous, I would snap.
He huffed a soft laugh. “We can add it to the amenities. Free Wi-Fi, continental breakfast, ghost mooning, ethical brothel.”
“Put that on a leaflet, and I will feed you to my aunts,” I said. “Aunt Sophia brought cabbage rolls.”
“Enemy action,” he deadpanned.
“Rebecca has been accused of seducing half the state, and she is very offended someone implied she has no standards.”
“As she should be. That would also mean half the state would be dead, given she is being hunted by a shifter with no boundaries.”
“Sounds familiar.”
He chuckled. “She’s already off the market, even if she doesn’t realize it yet.”
“She should get a say.”
“Has she seen anyone new since Ezra?”
“No.”
“Then she made her choice. Like I say, she just has to catch up.”
I leaned my forehead against his chest and sighed. His arms wrapped around me. Safe. Warm. Home.
“The aunts are digging into the Roberts curse for me.”
“Why? I thought we already worked out the curse is moot in a mating. I would never take your power, and you don’t need mine.”
“True, but they think there may be a way to break it.”
“An easy way?”
“Is it ever?”
His hands tightened the smallest amount, not in fear. In refusal. “No.”
“You didn’t ask what it would cost.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “We have bigger fish to fry.”
“That’s the whole reason I got them to dig into it in the first place. My grandmother altered that curse with her magic and blood.”
