I glance over my shoulder at my grandfather, who morphs into his Crow and takes to the skies, possibly to chat with my father, possibly to snatch us midair should we disregard his command.
“You mean, overprotective and meddlesome?”
“Yes.”
“I want to say no, but odds are we will be just like them. At least they’re not arranging marriages for us.”
“We’re shifters, Isles. Shifters don’t have arranged marriages. They have mates.”
I slow to tell Naeva about Behati’s ploy. Her lividness on my behalf stops her in her tracks, stopping me in turn.
“It’s really time she goes to slumber in the Mahananda,” she fumes.
“Why do I have the impression that one day, I’ll wake up to the news that you’ve elbowed her into it?”
A corner of her mouth tucks up. “Because I just might.”
“Well, you missed it,” Elio says, tone overly dramatic.
“What did we miss?” I ask when we finally reach his side.
“The whale. It was right there.” He juts his thumb toward the liquid sapphire licking the hull.
“Good thing Ksenia isn’t here,” Katya murmurs, her arm wrapped snugly around Enzo’s middle.
“Why do you say that?” Naeva asks.
“She may just have pushed one of us in for funsies.”
Enzo’s eyes grow extra-large.
“Relax, baby. None of them speak Serpent.”
“We don’t know that, Katya,” Antoni says from where he reclines against one of the masts, plucking pine needles from a fir branch he must’ve snapped off one of the trees lining the dock.
“He’s ri-right,” Enzo says.
Katya’s expression dims, and her arm falls away from her mate’s waist. “Of course he is. He’s always right, isn’t he?”
Enzo runs a jumpy palm over the green hair he keeps neatly trimmed on the sides and longer on top—like Antoni. “That’s n-n-not fair, Kat.”
“Not fair? Why can’t you ever put me first?”
“Be-Becauseyoualways p-put me first?” Enzo glares Alexei’s way.
“Alexei’s my twin brother. Antoni is…” She blows a frustrated breath out the corner of her mouth, which lifts her verdant hair. “You should’ve fucked him instead of me. Maybe your bodies would’ve raveled.”
With that, she pivots on her heel and goes to join her brother and Izolda, who stand amidst a cluster of Faeries and Serpent shifters.
Though I feel for Katya, I also feel for Enzo, whose bond with Antoni she cannot seem to accept. Just because the two males didn’t share the same womb, it doesn’t mean their link isn’t as strong as the one she has with Alexei. I’d know, since that is the sort of bond that tethers me to Naeva.
After one more pass at his hair followed by one more huffed breath, Enzo takes off after his mate.
“She strives on conflict,” Antoni says, still plucking at his branch.
“Just because she strives on it,” Naeva snaps, “it doesn’t mean you should encourage it.”
“Encourage it?” Antoni’s fingers freeze on a needle. “How amIencouraging it?”
