Wade left the kitchen, Riordan tracking his footsteps to the front door and beyond. He heard Donal, too, as his older brothercame around the kitchen island to stand in the same spot Wade had, staring at him.
“Riordan,” Donal said carefully.
“It’s nothing,” Riordan bit out.
“You’re fixated.”
Riordan scowled, teeth feeling too sharp in his mouth for a brief moment, jacket pulling tight, melding with the lines of his body before he forced it loose again. “I’m not.”
“Boyo. Look at me.” Riordan sighed, flipping the latest pancake first before obeying his older brother, looking Donal in the eye. Donal’s gaze was steady and searching, familiar from all the years where he’d made sure Riordan could stand on his own two feet and swim with the best of them. For all that Donal was the oldest, he was kinder than Riordan, and they both knew it. “You couldn’t stop looking at the kid back at the god pack’s home.”
“He’s twenty-three.”
Donal snorted softly. “You’ve lived lifetimes he hasn’t.”
“He’s not human. He’s something else, I just don’t know what.”
“That doesn’t mean he will stay. You heard him. His pack is in New York City.” Donal reached out and ran his hand up and down Riordan’s arm, the way he’d rub at Riordan’s back in seal form. “You’ve known him not even a day, but you’re fixated, and that means he’s yours. You know that.”
“I won’t give him my skin,” Riordan got out roughly. He couldn’t, even if he wanted to. Not when it was the only thing that might get Saoirse’s back.
“Sometimes we don’t have a choice when it comes to our mates.”
Fixation was different than skin hunger—instinct drove it just the same, but one’s heart could be irrational at the best of times. Sometimes kin found a person they wanted, craved,desiredto give their skin to, and it ached when their love was rejected or they weren’t in a position to attempt to be kept.
For Riordan, his clan and his kin had to come first, not his heart.
Not his potential mate.
“Are you burning my pancake?” Wade asked as he wandered back into the kitchen, phone in hand but not pressed to his ear.
Riordan hastily flipped the pancake in the pan. “No. How did your call go?”
Donal moved away, and Wade immediately took his spot. “Patrick is still in DC, and Jono said I wasn’t supposed to get into any trouble while out here.”
“Did you tell him you’re going to meet up with some vampires?”
Wade made a face at him. “Do I look stupid? I’ll tell Jono after the fact.”
He said it blithely, like he wouldn’t be punished for going into danger without notifying his pack. Riordan wondered if he should make overtures to the New York City god pack behind Wade’s back just to ensure his clan survived whatever happened. “Go sit down. Your pancake is almost ready.”
Wade went readily enough, sitting himself at the nearby dining room table and tapping away at his phone. Donal joined him after getting the syrup from the pantry, the butter already on the table in its covered dish. Riordan made as many pancakes as the batter allowed, saving the last two for himself. When he finally sat down at the table, he was unsurprised to see Wade’s plate was empty.
“I don’t know where he puts it,” Riordan said when Donal just stared at him across the table.
“Bit of a mystery,” Donal muttered before finishing what was on his plate.
Saoirse came downstairs when Riordan was eating the last bite of pancake, absently braiding her hair in one long plait. “Trunk is ready.”
“We’ll be right up,” Riordan said.
“Trunk?” Wade asked. “Is it full of weapons?”
Saoirse stared at him. “Why would we have a trunk full of weapons?”
“What else would you have one for?”
“Certainly not that. We keep our guns in the lock boxes.”
