“Fae rum?” I tilted my head as I sipped. I had never had alcohol. Alice had forbidden it. She was afraid I’d get attacked or something if I was impaired in the village, and I never questioned it. Besides, she drank rum like water, and the stench had always made my stomach curl. But I couldn’t scent an ounce of the rum in this drink.
“Fae rum is different than the rum in Kalista. It’s a lot more potent than any other supernatural alcohols, actually.” Her lips quirked up as she drank, but her gaze didn’t leave mine.
The straw made a suction noise as I sucked it, and my mouth fell open as the sweet flavor lingered on my tongue. “Frayla, it’s potent?” I hissed. “I've never had alcohol before. Tell me this isn’t going to mess with me too much.”
She belted out a belly laugh, placing her hands on her stomach. “Oh, Fates! The fae rum is drowning in fast-acting magic, Wren. Thorn should’ve said something! I didn’t know, and he knows I’m a drinker.”
Lightness flitted over my head, and my body flickered from corporeal to incorporeal. The glass in my hands flickered with me before I handed it back to her. It took a few attempts because every time she went to grab it, the glass went incorporeal along with me.
“That is such a cool power,” she said as she snatched the glass at just the right moment. “Thorn mentioned it, and I’ve been wanting to see it.”
Thorn. My ice fae…
My pheromones trickled out of me. “Oh.” I pressed a hand to my chest, willing them back into my body, but the stubborn pheromones wouldn’t cooperate. My ears and tail sprouted, and I slammed my eyes shut as I tried to gather my bearings.
“Oh tulips, Wren. If I knew you couldn't handle your alcohol, I would have never given it to you.”
I giggled, waving my hand back and forth. “I'm handling it just fine. Hey, where did you say Thorn went?”
“He's just back there with Birch.” She pointed to the large doors behind us. “Actually, there he is.”
Thorn stepped out, and his gaze locked on mine as our bond tugged, but a woman stepped into his path. A woman that I remembered as Madison. A woman that Thorn had been intimate with before me.
Anger crawled over my skin.
Frayla let out a low whistle. “Roses, Wren, I'm sure—”
A low warning growl rumbled out of my chest before my powers flickered again, and I stomped toward them.
How dare she approach my mate? I’d tolerated so much disrespect in my life, but I wouldn’t do it anymore.
Frayla wandered behind me, but I wasn't focused on her. I focused on the woman trying to speak to my mate without me,again.Thorn had told me she approached him when he visited after the festival, and it was clear to me that the woman didn't know how to leave well enough alone—whether she was someone with bad intentions or not. She did not need to be talking to him. I didn’t care how pretty her hair looked or how silky her red dress was.
I stopped next to Thorn and crossed my arms as clarity flooded back to me.
“I just thought that you would be my mate, Thorn… I never thought that you would take another mate. I thought it would be me.” Tears filled Madison’s eyes as she stared up atmymate.
Thorn gritted his teeth as he looked down at her. “I’m not your mate. My mate is Wren, and you are not only disrespecting her, but you are disrespecting me and our bond by continuously coming up and trying to talk to me, Madison.”
“I'm just trying to get closure. I mean, youtook my virginity,and then you just stopped talking to me altogether.”
“I did not just stop talking to you,” he gritted out.
I went to grab his shoulder, but I passed through him. Ah, that was why they hadn’t acknowledged me. I had stayed incorporeal.
“I told you that it was a mistake, and that I loved someone else.”
“You told me that you loved someone in adifferent world. I thought that you were lying just to get rid of me. Or maybe it was an excuse because we were young and you didn’t want to settle down.”
“I didn't lie, and I don't lie. I was in love with Wren, I’m in love with her now, and she became my mate. Take your closure from that, and stop disrespecting my bond with my mate.”
“I'm not trying to disrespect you or your mate or your bond,” she backtracked, her lip wobbling. “I just don't understand why you don't realize that your actions hurt me.”
“I take accountability for hurting you.” The muscle in his jaw tensed. “But you need to take accountability for continuing to pursue me when I made it clear I am uninterested in you or any woman that is not my mate.”
Frayla stumbled in between them with panicked eyes. “Wren’s incorporeal, and I gave her fae rum, and she’s missing!”
“What?” Thorn snapped, ice forming a thick coat over his hands that balled at his sides.
