As wrecked as I felt, I still couldn’t help but smile up at him.
“You sound as ethereal as you look. Are you super-sure you’re not a moon god?”
A flicker of amusement. “Sadie, I’m sure.”
Then he sobered. “Your pupils are fully blown. Tell us what you need to complete the cycle.”
“I don’t know,” I sobbed, feeling so weak.
“Ask your bear, Sadie. She’ll tell you.”
TADHG
I felt like a true piece of shite, watching the Shadow King tend to her. There I’d been, fapping off and feeling sorry for myself, while she was in real trouble.
“What are you…?”
Beside them, Declan blinked at Sadie and Cian—like he also thought the Shadow King might be a hallucination.
Then his cold gray gaze flipped like a switchblade to me.
I held it. Daring him to pull the First Claim card.
The Mad Mountain King bear inside me was stalking back and forth. Just looking for a reason to punch him in his smug High King face.
DECLAN
All I felt was worry. I’d already started suspecting something was seriously wrong. And I knew I was right when the other two kings came charging through the new hallway door like paramedics on a human medical show.
Just as I’d suspected, they’d been watching.
And they wouldn’t have interrupted my First Claim unless they suspected something was wrong, too.
“What’s the matter?” I asked Cian. “Why can’t we complete the cycle?”
The Shadow King didn’t answer. I had a feeling this once-in-a-decade speaking event was reserved exclusively for Sadie.
CIAN
Only for Sadie. I would speak for no one else.
Thank the gods, she’d taken my advice to consult her bear. Her eyes were fully shifted to the side. Like a child who hadn’t yet learned to hide when they were speaking to their bear.
In a way, Sadie might be the equivalent. The bear who hadn’t known she was a bear was only seven weeks old as far as her consciousness was concerned.
I cursed myself for not thinking of this sooner. I should’ve paid more attention to the interior nature portion of her education.
It likely hadn’t even occurred to her to speak with her bear until now.
“What is she saying to you?” I asked, drawing her gaze back to mine.
Sadie’s expression filled with apology. “You’re probably not going to like this.”
TADHG
That was the only warning the Shadow King got before she bit the hell out of him, sinking her teeth into the flesh between his neck and shoulder. Binding him to her forever with a mate bite.
A beat. That’s all we three kings got with our sanity.
