But first, I need information.
“Let me understand this correctly.” I speak slowly, precisely. “Three days ago, you volunteered. And in all that time—seventy-two consecutive hours—you’ve been with my brother, and this is the first time you’re seeing me awake?”
She nods, eyes wide. “He told me all about your other brothers. But he wouldn’t talk about you.”
Of course he wouldn’t. Was he afraid saying my name would summon me? And how—how—has he managed to keep me unconscious for so long?
The answer crystallizes with uncomfortable clarity.
Of course he made a play for a consort. Ever since Abaddon and Kharon claimed theirs, he’s wanted one. Been obsessed with the idea.
Well. I’m awake now.
Time to do what I always do: restore order to whatever chaos my brother has created.
I look at this beautiful, foolish, brave woman standing before me in her nightgown, and I say what must be said.
“It’s time to get you back home.”
TWELVE
LAUREN
I stare at him.“Oh, so you’re the funny one. Got it.”
He glares down at me. “I’m being serious.”
I decide right then that I don’t like his face. It’s toonormalcompared to Remus’s. Less angular. Remus has a human face too, but it’s like someone took all his features and stretched them juuuust slightly. His jaw a touch too wide. His forehead angled deep. And that grin—that wild, wicked, unnerving Cheshire cat grin that could swallow the world whole.
But he wasmywild man.
And while I don’t think Remus could ever be tamed—wouldn’t want him tamed—in our intimate moments together, it was like he was discovering what genuine connection felt like for the first time. Just like I was.
The connection was so powerful, soreal, that I can’t help the fury burning through me at this sanctimonious twin who’s suddenly taken his place. Different face. Same body. And that makes everything so much worse.
I’d been having the longest orgasm of my life. Not just physical—spiritual. Remus had been making love to me. There’s no other word for what we’d been doing. Him clutching my face like I was precious. Our bodies cemented together as he demanded and I gave and gave and gave.
I’d never known pleasure like that could exist. Especially not from penetrative sex. But it was like his shaft dragged along every spot inside me and lit me up from a thousand places at once. And watching his face when he finally gave into the pleasure I could tell he was fighting?—
The wild shock of euphoria that hit him.
Us locking gazes. Bodies singing together. Chests heaving as we cried out in perfect, devastating pleasure.
But then fear crossed his features. His hands stiffened and went lax around me. His head spun one-eighty.
And suddenly a different man was on top of me, eyes wide with shock as he immediately pulled out—even as I instinctively clenched, trying to pull that familiar body back in, not finished, not ready to let go?—
That was shock enough.
Then came Romulus’s words. All of them.
And now he has the audacity to tell me he’s taking me home?
I spit the words with every ounce of venom in my body. “You’ll take me home over my dead body.”
Romulus stares at me like I’ve grown a second head. “You can’t stay here.”
I cross my arms. “I’m not going anywhere until I talk to Remus again.”
