Watching Kai slice off one scale had been hard enough. I didn’t think I could stomach a repeat performance.
“You look pale, pet,” Zane commented.
“I feel bad for Kai,” I admitted. “He must hate me for taking one of his pretty scales.”
Zane grinned. “Oh, pet, he doesn’t hate you.”
Maverick growled threateningly. “What are you implying?”
“You know exactly what I’m implying, care bear. Don’t play dumb.”
My nose scrunched in confusion. Yes, I felt drawn to Kai, but I also felt drawn to Alaric and Zane. The goddess had clearly decided I needed multiple men in my life. Who was I to question her? Maverick was my true soul-bonded mate. The others? I was less sure about them.
Only Maverick had accepted the bond without reservation and claimed me as his own. The other idiots would need to do some serious groveling before I took things further.
Even Zane, who’d pushed my boundaries many times.
“Do you think he’s my mate?” I asked Zane.
“Doyouthink he’s your mate?” The incubus cocked an eyebrow while I chewed my lip, considering the evidence.
Kai had gone to great lengths to avoid me ever since I helped him and his troll friend escape the wolves. He’d also saved me from drowning twice now. And donated a scale for the locator spell, which he didn’t need to do, as well as making a big deal about teaching me to swim. He obviously cared about my safety, but did any of that mean he was my mate?
Alaric might also be my mate, yet he’d behaved like an asshole. Surely a soul-bonded mate wouldn’t treat their goddess-chosen mate like something they’d stepped in while walking through a pigpen?
My head spun like the girl in a movie about a demonic possession Willow had put on for us one weekend when Adam had disappeared on mage business. Willow truly had terrible taste in movies. I much preferred series likeThe Originals, which was way better thanThe Vampire Diaries. The humans made great paranormal content, even if they liked to pretend all wolf shifters and vampires were super sexy.
Spoiler alert: in my experience, wolf shifters were assholes and vampires dead.
Except one.
“Maverick is the only mate who wants me, so it doesn’t matter what he is or isn’t.”
Zane seemed pissed about my statement. He ground his teeth and opened his mouth to speak before something outside caught his attention.
“Fucking demon,” he muttered. I tensed at the word demon, but before I could interrogate the incubus about how he knew there was a demon nearby, he’d vanished.
Maverick dragged the brush through my damp hair one last time and then placed it on the table. “Let’s get you to bed, little mate.”
“Wouldn’t it be safer in the dorms?” The thought of a demon attacking us while we slept did nothing to relax me.
“The cabin is safe, Raven. I have it warded against everyone but us.”
“Then how does Zane get in?”
Maverick scowled. “The ward doesn’t work on him. I have no idea why.”
“Then how do you know it will keep a demon out?”
“Because my witch friend is powerful, and I trust her to do a good job.”
“She?” Violet sparks burst into life as jealousy made me want to cut a bitch. I wasn’t dumb. Maverick had probably slept with hundreds of females. Still, hearing him mention a female triggered all kinds of possessive feelings in me. Feelings I hated.
My bear smiled and wrapped his arms around me while nuzzling my neck.
“A colleague. Nothing more.”
Maverick had never talked much about his life before he met me, which made me wonder what he did for a living. His gruff attitude toward the students suggested teaching wasn’t his true calling. So I asked him.
