My face flamed as I realized what he meant, and I buried my face in the crook of Zane’s neck, embarrassed.
“Sleeping with one of the women you were sent to spy on,” Casimir tsked. “Not your wisest move, Foster.”
“Sex with any willing woman isalwaysa wise move. Besides, her pillow talk is illuminating.”
Zane’s hand rubbed soothing circles on my back as I processed what I’d just heard. Foster was sleeping with Eluned.Eluned, who had once forced me to eat ashes while she giggled, who had dumped boiling water on my arm, who had mocked my tears when Arabesque siphoned me.Thatgirl was sharing her bed with this wolf, doing what my husbands did withme?
The thought was wrong. Just wrong. I couldn’t imagine Eluned experiencing anything like the tenderness, the passion, and the connection I’d found with my mates.
“Anyway,” Foster continued, pulling me out of my thoughts, “Arabesque is meeting with some witch cronies next week. Planning session for whatever she’s cooking up.”
“Where?” Casimir asked, his voice businesslike again.
“Chicago. Tuesday through Friday. She’s not stupid enough to invite that many practitioners to her current hideout. Too many variables, too many ways it could go wrong.”
“Are the twins attending this meeting as well?” Koa asked.
Foster shrugged, his wide shoulders rising and falling with casual indifference.
“Unclear at this point. They’ve been pushing to go, but Arabesque seems reluctant to bring them. My guess? She doesn’t trust them not to screw something up. She pits them against each other and…”
“And?” Zane coaxed.
“Look, I ain’t itching to get my head busted in by a Cimmerian, but, uh.” Foster rolled his lips inside his mouth for a moment, then those dark eyes fixed on me. “She keeps them focused onyou,Serafina. Hatred for you unites the twins faster than anything. It’s almost laughable how Arabesque encourages them, keeps them too occupied to challenge or questionher.”
I nodded. I’d figured that out long ago. My husbands didn’t like hearing that, though, judging by their quiet growls and clenched jaws or fists. Zane’s muscles tightened to steel under my thighs, and I pried his fist open to thread our fingers together, lifting our joined hands to kiss the back of his until he relaxed again.
The conversation continued for several more minutes, with Foster providing details about guard rotations and other information. I listened, trying to absorb it all, but my mind kept circling back to the image of my stepmother opening a box to find a severed head and a note of some kind.
These were the men I’d married. Men capable of such calculated violence, of sending such brutal messages. And yet, they were the same men who held me through nightmares, who protected my heart and body as well as my mind and soul, who made love to me like I was water and they’d spent a lifetime in the desert.
I wasn’t sure what that said about them, or about me for loving them despite, or maybebecauseof, all they were willing to do to keep me safe. What Iwassure of, though, was that we were meant for each other, because I’d protect them just as fiercely as they would me.
I let out a small squeak of surprise as Zane scooped me into his arms the moment Foster’s face disappeared from the screen. I gave Zane a questioning look, but he merely grinned and carried me out of the security room, Koa and Casimir following us like shadows.
“We need to talk about something,” Zane said as he navigated the hallway toward our bedroom.
The seriousness underlying his playful tone made my stomach tighten, but these were my husbands, not Arabesque. They wouldn’t hurt me. I knew that.
I waslearningto know that.
Our bedroom was bathed in the soft gold of early evening light, filtering through gauzy curtains before Casimir pulled the drapes closed for the night. Zane set me gently on the edge of our enormous, comfy bed, then settled beside me, the mattress dipping under his weight.
Koa claimed the space on my other side, while Casimir remained standing, hands clasped behind his back in what I’d come to recognize as his “discussion stance.” It made my heart skip a beat.
“Am I in trouble?” The question slipped out before I could stop it.
“No, darling, never.” Zane took my hand and curled it up to kiss along my knuckles.
“We just realized something important that we should have addressed sooner,” Koa said with a soft smile. “Alpha Jace Beaudreau reminded us of it while he was visiting.”
“We haven’t been using protection,” Casimir said bluntly.
“Protection?” I glanced between them, thoroughly confused. “Like wards?”
Zane made a strangled sound that might have been laughter, and Koa’s lips twitched. Even Casimir’s stern face softened a bit.
“Notmagicalprotection, dingbat.” Zane flicked my forehead with his free hand. “Babyprotection.”
