He lowered himself to one knee and held on to her hips.
“Get off the ground,” she hissed, glancing at the others. “I just needed you to bend a little.”
“I am where I have always been, love: at your feet, waiting for you to claim me as your own.”
Amelia tried not to look at the drop of blood on Rennick’s neck. Of all things the fae could do to seal a mating bond, it had to involve blood. She tentatively leaned forward and quickly licked the oil and blood away.
The metallic taste hit her tongue, but she refused to gag like a child. Instead, she stood tall, proud of herself for not falling over, but her victory was short-lived.
A burning pain hit her chest, and she fell to her knees with a strangled cry.
“Rennick,” she rasped.
Rennick swore and reached for her. “What’s happening to her?”
“I don’t know, Your Majesty,” the officiant replied frantically.
That couldn’t be a good sign.
“She’s fine, son,” Callum said calmly. “Look at her chest.”
The pain ebbed into a distant memory, and she breathed a sigh of relief and held Rennick’s arm for stability. “It’s gone. I’m okay.”
She looked up and everyone stared at her with various looks ranging from shock to awe.
“Look at her chest.”
“What’s wrong with my chest?” She glanced down at her ugly dress to find dark lines on her skin. “I don’t understand.”
Rennick reached for her collar and, before she could protest, ripped it slightly, earning himself a glare.
“I told you I wanted to keep this dress,” she admonished.
He smiled a mile wide. “Look.”
More black lines swirled across the left side of her chest into a design. “What is it?”
“It’s yourfamiliarmark,” Amos said, unbuttoning his shirt. He opened it slightly to reveal a tattoo of a fennec fox.
She looked at Eddy and back to Amos’s chest. “I get afamiliar?”
The information sank in, and she reached for the top of her dress to rip it more, but Rennick stopped her. “If you show any more of your chest, I will have to kill every man here.”
She stood and brushed the snow from her dress. “You’re ridiculous. I need a mirror.”
“My room is closest,” Fawn offered. She looked at the others. “But it won’t fit everyone.”
A light blur caught Amelia’s eye in the distance. Squinting, she smiled at the tan lynx bounding toward her. “Charlie!”
He wove around the others and stopped at her feet.“Sorry I’m late.”
She spun around. It wasn’t a voice, and she massaged her temples. “Did anyone else catch that, or am I going crazy?”
Rennick laid a hand on her lower back. “Charlie is yourfamiliar,love. Whatever you felt was him.”
“They can talk?” she whispered, too stunned to say much else.
“In a way,” Callum confirmed, leaning down to stroke Charlie’s fur. “You can sense his thoughts through the bond.”
