The memory came back sharper than he expected, dragged forward by her body against him, by the quiet certainty of how she fit there. Not blurred by sleep or softened by distance. Precise. Intimate. Her hands on him, deliberate and unhurried. Her mouth against his skin. The way she’d looked at himlike she wasn’t discovering anything new but committing something to memory.
That realization tightened his chest.
She hadn’t been tentative. She hadn’t been reckless. She’d been present in a way that seemed… complete. As if she’d already accepted an ending he hadn’t seen coming. The thought unsettled him more than it should have. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, analyzing the possibilities.
That was when his phonerang.
Alaric stared at it for a beat before reaching for it. The caller ID made him frown. Magnus. Which meant this wasn’t casual and it wasn’t going away if he ignored it. He answered on the secondring.
“What?” he said, already standing.
“Good morning to you, too,” Magnus said dryly. “You’re late.”
“I won’t be in right away.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. Not confusion. Shock. Magnus didn’t pause often.
“That’s not funny,” Magnus barkedout.
“I’m not joking.”
Another pause, longer this time. “Alaric, we’re already in motion. The DNAresults came in twenty minutes ago. Leif’s here. We’re convening.”
“I know.”
“You know?” Magnus repeated. “Then where the hell are you?”
Alaric glanced toward the bed and the woman sleeping in it. The Brand pulsed faintly, still wrong.
“At home,” he said.
Silence. Then, sharply, “That’s not acceptable. What’s the hold up?”
Something stripped away inside Alaric. Not control. Polish. He welcomed it.”That’s none of your fucking business,” he said evenly. “I’ll come when I’m damn ready.”
Magnus exhaled hard. “You don’t get to—”
“Yes, Ido,” Alaric cut in. “I always have. If that’s a problem, Leif can say so himself.”
The line went quiet again, tension humming through the silence. When Magnus spoke, his voice was lower. Careful. “What’s going on?”
Alaric closed his eyes for a brief moment, then opened them. “I’ll handle it,” he said. “You handle everything else.”
He ended the call before Magnuscould respond.
Turning, he found Sera standing beside the bed, staring athim.
She was barefoot, as naked as he was, her hair loose and sleep-soft around her shoulders. Her expression wasn’t guarded or coy. It was stunned. She was looking at him like she was trying to reconcile what she’d just heard with the man she thought she understood.
“You’re not going in?” she asked.
“Not yet.”
Her brows drew together. “The DNA results are back.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes.”
“And you just told Magnus Severin you weren’t coming in right away and the reason was none of his… business?”
