“Bashert?” Aodhan’s expression altered, switching from mild interest to full-blown intensity as he took Pavel in as if seeing him for the first time. After a moment, the look changed again, he tipped his head. “Have I seen you before?”
“He’s part of the Retinue,” Zane reminded, only for his brother to wave him off.
“That’s not it…” Aodhan snapped his fingers. “You’re the boy who chased after our car when we adopted Zane!”
“You mean when you stole him,” Pavel disagreed.
Aodhan rolled his eyes. “It was all done through legal processing, just because you felt like you had a claim then doesn’t mean you really did. Now that you’re all grown up, I see you’ve come to make good on it though. Good for you. I didn’t take you for a Yurn now, but when you were younger, you looked more like one.
Zane frowned. “You know about the Yurn?”
“Sure,” Aodhan said. “I have to operate on all sorts of people on Emergence, sometimes we get a Yurn or two. Interesting folk. I’ve only ever seen a bashert pair once. It was…enviable.”
“Enviable?” Zane blinked at him, but his brother was still staring at Pavel.
“Yeah, I practically jumped Mercy afterward. We fucked in his office so long, some of the nurses started to bang on the door, worried he’d passed out or something.”
“Who’s Mercy?” Pavel asked.
“My boyfriend, Titus Mercer the fifth. But he’s just Mercy to me.”
“Your boyfriend’s name is Mercy?” Pavel’s gaze went pointedly to the body lying in a heap on the ground to his right.
“Ironic, isn’t it? And hot as hell.” Aodhan grinned, resting an elbow on his knee before planting his chin against his palm. “I like you, future brother-in-law. I think we’re going to be great friends.”
“You are not,” Zane told them both warningly. “And keep in mind this arrangement would be temporary.”
“It wouldn’t,” Aodhan said before Pavel, who was clearly about to voice the same opinion, could manage to himself. “Not if you’re his bashert. Honestly, I’m shocked he hasn’t already collared you.”
“Excuse me?” Zane almost took a step back.
“It doesn’t mean how he’s making it sound,” Pavel reassured and then turned to Aodhan to add, “And I can’t do that, unfortunately. Otherwise, I would have a long time ago.”
Aodhan pursed his lips. “I’ve never heard of a Yurn who couldn’t claim a mate?”
“I’m only part Yurn.”
“Ah.” If anything, his interest was only bolstered with this new knowledge. “Tell me more.”
Zane heaved a sigh. “I’ve changed my mind, kill him.”
Aodhan immediately raised the gun.
He shot between them, arms splayed. “I was kidding! Good Light, what is wrong with you?!”
“I don’t process sarcasm very well, baby brother,” Aodhan said. “You should know this by now. Anyway,” he leaned to the side to try and catch sight of Pavel again, as though none of that had happened, “what else are you then? If you can’t claim a mate, but you can still create the bashert bond…how does that work exactly?”
“I’m still figuring it out,” Pavel admitted.
“And this?” he tapped the side of his skull. “How’s this? I’m rather fond of my brother. I can’t in good conscience leave him with someone on the brink of insanity.”
“I’m fine. I take meds. My mother is a doctor and my father works for a pharmaceutical company. They both monitor me. We believe the mixture of my genetics will prevent me from ever meeting the same fate as many other Yurn.”
Admittedly, Zane did not like how he was currently feeling, listening to the two of them converse about things he didn’t know. He felt left out, and even though, logically, he shouldn’t care that Pavel was maintaining eye contact with someone else—a someone who happened to be his older brother, on top of it all—he found irritation snaking around his insides.
“Terms and conditions,” he stated suddenly, a bit more loudly than necessary. Once he had both of them looking his way, he cleared his throat. “I want to avoid becoming the Royal Consort of the Imperial Heir and—”
“I want you.” Pavel curled his finger through the belt loop of Zane’s jeans and tugged him closer.
