“I don’t have a car . . . ” Or a license. First thing tomorrow, I’d stop by theDMV.
“I’ll give you and Jeb a lift. Let me say goodnight to everyone,” Liamsaid.
“Liam, the elders and I need to go over many things with you,” Franksaid.
“I’ll just drop her off andthen—”
“I can drive them. I was leaving anyway,” Augustsaid.
Liam narrowed his eyes. The friction between the two males was so heavy that if I stuck out my finger there would probably bestatic.
“That’d be great. Thank you, August,” Franksaid.
I clasped Liam’s hand, spread his fingers with mine, because his jagged expression told me he didn’t find this arrangementgreat.
“And, Ness, Evelyn’s at my house. Just so you don’t worry when you get back to theinn.”
Thinking about Evelyn, the woman who’d taken care of me during the six years I was living in LA with my mother, stole my thoughts away from Liam and August for a welcomed moment. Did that mean she and Frank were rekindling what they’d had at the time she was still married to the werewolf-hating hunter who’d shot my father? I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that Evelyn had once been a woman named Gloria Michaels, wife of Aidan, lover of Frank, citizen of Boulder, Colorado. I wondered if I would ever come to terms withthat.
“Tell her I’ll come by to see hertomorrow.”
Frank nodded as he slipped between August andLiam.
Liam let go of my hand and wound his arm around my waist, pulling me against himpossessively.
“I’ll get Jeb and wait for you in the car.” August backed out of theroom.
Like a spool of thread, I felt him retreat. But then I felt something else, a hand travel up my spine, settle on the nape of my neck, tip my faceup.
“It’s just a car ride. And like he said, he’s leavingtomorrow.”
“I’m aware of all that, but I’d rather be the one taking youhome.”
I kissed the puckered spot between hiseyebrows.
Finally he sighed and caressed my cheek, nails scraping gently over the pale scars left behind by his claws during our last trial. I could tell that, although unintentional, hurting me still tormentedhim.
He hovered his mouth over mine. “You are stillmine.”
Was he reminding me or himself? “Iam.”
His tongue skimmed the seam of my lips, prodding them open, while his deft fingers massaged the back of my head, eliciting a groan from me. The sound had him deepening the kiss, deepening the kneading. After a delicious minute, our mouths cameapart.
“I’ll stop by as soon as I’m done here. Leave your balcony dooropen.”
“’Kay,” Ibreathed.
He lowered his hand to the base of my spine and guided me back into the main room. Although people were still chatting boisterously, I felt gazes dart our way, saw pupils pulse with intrigue, caught nostrilsflaring.
“Everything’ll be okay, Ness,” Liammurmured.
I glanced up at him, wishing he hadn’t uttered those words, because they felt like a curse. If fated mates were real, then curses were too,right?
2
When I walkedout of Headquarters, August was closing the door to the backseat of the pickup. He must’ve secured the seatbelt across my grief-stricken uncle’s chest, because Jeb was wearing it and looked in no state to have put it onhimself.
I slid into the passenger seat and clipped in my own belt. “Thanks for theride.”
