"If she loses her chance at being with her fated mate..."Kat trailed off.
She hadn't lived enough to understand the true consequences, but there was no world in which I would allow that to happen. Even if Merrily fucking hated me for it, I would intervene, meddle, and downright burn the city to the ground before I let her fated mate bond with someone else.
"We won't let it happen,"I said."Liv and I haven't discussed it, but we're more likely to abduct her and haul her to the demon's lair ourselves than let him mate with someone else so she can keep longing for Dare."
"You could just tell him that they're fated mates. That encounter was steamy enough to make me think he'd abduct her himself."
"I'll consider it."
"Jonah saw Liv put her arm around him and wants to know what's going on,"Kat said, as I sat down with her on my lap.
Sable always came out so we could all scratch her fur during the challenges, rather than leaving Kat to sit on my thigh through all of the challenges. There still wasn't an extra seat. Probably because I hadn't pursued it. I preferred having her close.
"Tell him Liv's planning to marry Grayson in Gwen's place,"I drawled.
Kat grinned."I'm not playing with his emotions. He likes Liv, even just as a friend."
"I hope that situation doesn't go poorly."
"You and me both."
Gwen announced her year-long arranged engagement to the demon king, and was met by deafening silence from the crowd around us. After her speech, I glanced at Grayson and found him staring at the back of Merrily's head, shadows dancing around him more dramatically than usual.
He clearly didn't give a shit about my mate's sister. There was a simple loophole that would allow him to get out of thecontract for any reason, so he didn't have to go through with the ceremony, either.
Maybe I wouldn't need to get involved after all.
twenty-five
KAT
The challenge went justlike the others.
Gwen asked me if I could do the family dinner that night, but I'd already exceeded my quota of drama for the day, so I told her we'd have to do it another time. We went to the cafe for dinner again, like usual, and headed home after.
I'd already eaten too much cake at the cafe, but there was an entire one in the fridge when we got back, so Ihadto have another slice.
I sat on the countertop while I ate it, Callum's sports coat basically engulfing me while he stood in front of me, rerolling the sleeve of the coat that still looked perfect from the first time he'd rolled it after helping me into it.
I'd been eyeing it after shifting back, and he had clearly done his research. He hadn't worn it in days, but he'd left it on the back seat of the car. He never left his clothes anywhere other than where they belonged, so it was obviously planned.
I'd be wearing his clothes and borrowing his stuff a lot over the next few days.
"We have to talk about heat," I said.
"I know everything about it."
"It's different after you have a mate bond." I cut into the cake and lifted the fork to his mouth.
He studied me for a moment before letting me feed it to him.
"The drive to breed will be more intense. Heat hits mated couples a lot harder. That won't affect you, obviously, but it will affect me. Your mouth and hands won't be enough. As gross as it is, my body will need your release inside me to soothe it."
His eyes narrowed. "Are you trying to manipulate me into fucking you?"
I rolled my eyes. "No. If not having sex is a hard boundary, that's fine. I don't agree with you, but I understand your argument. I'm just warning you that it's not going to go like it did before we had our bond. I'm going to be heat-crazed. You'll need to leave if you're not up for actual fucking."
He stared at me.
