“Ummm, leaving,” I supply, matching his disbelieving tone.
“Not like that, you aren’t,” he scolds, and I look down to see what has him concerned.
“It’s fine, I’ve accepted the nudist way of life,” I tell him casually like that’s all the reassurance he needs.
“You should only be bearing yourself to your mates,” he tells me on a purr that makes a lick of desire run up my spine and goose bumps rise on my arms. “Good mates do that often,” he adds, fanning his fingers on my stomach and pushing me back against hisgood morning.
“Good to know, when I get some, I’ll remember that,”I chirp as I push away from him.
He groans. “So we’re back to that again? You wake up naked and needy in our tent and still want to pretend like we mean nothing?”
“Needy?” I object, hanging on to the only part of his statement that I can disagree with.
Ryn taps the side of his nose. “Yes, very needy,” he retorts.
Treno chuckles, and I don’t miss the deep inhale he takes.
“Since when are all of you friends?” I ask in an effort to distract them from picking out the scent of my apparent needy vagina from the air.
“Since we gained a common enemy,” Zeph states.
“And a common goal,” Treno adds, his eyes fixed on me intently.
I’d aw at the adorable way they just finished each other’s sentence, but I’m pretty sure Pigeon is awake and pumping me with hormones right now, which means I need to get the fuck out of here. I feel her chuff in amusement inside of me, and I swear I’m going to pluck out all of her feathers with tweezers just as soon as I get a chance.
“Fuck, that reminds me,” I exclaim. “I think I know how to break the Vow,” I tell them, and all hints of dirty thoughts and lust filled fantasies disappear from their eyes, and each of them gets very serious.
“How?” Ryn asks, stepping toward me, his features hopeful.
“Memories have been slowly coming back to me since I woke up in the Eyrie. I think most of them were blocked the way my magic was. But I remembered something my dad taught me when I was younger. It’s the key,” I admit, relief and exhilaration washing through me.
“Cum on a tree sprite, that’s it then. We have what we need to win,” Ryn crows, picking me up and swinging me around excitedly.
I can’t help but giggle and hold onto him as my world swirls and blurs.
“Cree will need at least another week to get all of her fighters armed, armored, and organized,” Zeph states.
“And how exactly are we planning on getting to the Hidden without getting picked off by Lazza and his men?” Treno asks.
Ryn sets me down, and I turn in his arms. “I think Wekun can help us with that,” I answer. “I’m not sure how many people he can take at one time, but he should be able to portal us to where we need to go.”
The three of them all growl in unison, and Treno mumbles, “Fucking Ouphe.”
I would congratulate him on his excellent use of my swear word, but using it in reference to Wekun overrides my pride.
“You three really need to let go of the Wekun hate. He’s helped us every chance he could. We would have been fucked without him,” I scold.
“He took you away, flower, and then tried to sever our bond. That’s not helpful, that’s sabotage,” Treno argues.
“You three were already sabotaging everything just fine on your own, that wasn’t on Wekun. He was just doing what I asked him to do. I’m not saying that you need to be besties with him, but you could be kinder. At least make an effort to be mildly respectful, because we need to figure out what all of these new marks do, and he’s our best bet for accomplishing that quickly,” I point out.
They don’t look convinced.
“We don’t have much time, and we need to be as ready as we can for when it’s time to end the fighting once and for all.” I look over at Zeph. “Last night was a perfect example of why we need to make sure we have some control over these abilities before we go into battle.”
He looks away in thought for a moment and then fixes his intense stare back on me. “Does our learning how to use these abilities mean that we’ll be keeping them?” he asks pointedly. “Are you going to try to sever our bonds again?” Zeph asks, watching me from under his lashes.
I’m surprised by the bluntness of his question, but it’s Zeph, so really I shouldn’t be. My face heats with a blush, and I’m not sure exactly what to say.
