For the first time in all the years I’d known him, Zier nearly tripped over his own feet. “Taeme…”
I grinned at him. “Don’t panic, old man. Wouldn’t want you to have a heart attack. It’s okay, though. My Soul Tie wants you too, and I think I should get a gold star for my ability to share.”
Zier looked at me like I’d lost my mind, and I guess on the outside, perhaps it would look like that. The Third Line were territorial beasts; it was the generally accepted viewpoint that the Third Line were animalistic. And in some ways, they were right. But we weren’t animals, and I wanted Avalon’s happiness far more than I wanted to soothe my pride.
“You can’t possibly be okay with it,” Zier said, sounding even more perplexed. I felt like I’d had this conversation every single time Avie added another guy to our little group.
I shrugged. “Most of this feels like fate, you know? I can go with it, have the girl I love and some seriously spectacular orgies, or I can fight against it, break her heart, and hoard her in misery. Seems like a pretty easy decision to me.” I turned to look at himseriously. “Will you have a problem with this? Because I’ll accept anything but Avalon getting hurt.” I let the beast rise up in my eyes. “Hurt her for any reason, and I’ll fucking eat your insides like spaghetti noodles. Got it?” My voice was more beast than man.
Zier blinked. “Got it.”
I grinned at him again. “Good. Besides, we probably need someone with a slightly cooler head and a little more experience. Quite frankly, we’re making this shit up as we go along and trying not to burn Ebrus down around us.”
We stopped outside the formal living room. “Well, you’re definitely shaking things up,” Zier muttered.
Stepping inside, I smiled at my family. My father and mother were already at the table, along with all my brothers. “Sorry we’re late.”
My father raised a brow at me, but smiled pleasantly at the rest of my group. “Not to worry. Please, sit, eat. The cooks enjoy it when we have people over from different Lines. It spices up their lives.”
“The whole keep heard how sorry you were,” Razyr, my younger brother, teased.
Mom reached over and smacked the back of his head. “Manners!”
I subtly flipped him the finger, before pulling out the chair for Avie. “This is my younger brother, Razyr. He didn’t get the looks, the brains, or the brawn.”
Remy tried not to laugh, and Lyle snorted back his coffee. Razyr threw a muffin at my head, which I caught with my mouth.
I raised an eyebrow at Avie. “See?”
Mom put her fingers to her temples, a gesture so familiar. She must’ve been doing it every day since she gave birth to Remy. “Can you fourpleasebehave while we have guests?”
I sat down beside Avie, and the rest of the guys sat in a random assortment around the table. Oftentimes, we’d have Lucio and his family here, or one of my aunts and their family. We were big on family mealtimes, and it was something I’d missed about both home and Boellium. I loaded up Avie’s plate with all the stuff I knew she liked: a large chocolate muffin, eggs, sausage, and a fresh bread roll. Fruit of all kinds, because she loved fruit.
Razyr huffed. “Seriously? No one’s going to ask?”
“Raz…” Remy warned, but my little brother wasn’t easily dissuaded.
“What? You want to know too.” He looked back at me. “So, do you all, like… fuck? And is Hayle a top or a bottom? Because I bet Rolo ten coins that he’s a bottom.”
Avie choked on her muffin, and Vox reached over to thump her on the back as I leapt across the table, tackling my little brother to the ground. Even as I pummelled him, I could hear my mother’s sigh over the crack of the chair back.
“Just one breakfast—that’s all I asked.”
Yeah, it was damn good to be home.
Eighteen
Avalon
After that truly horrifying breakfast, Hayle led us down to the Third Line library. It didn’t have a Librarian, but it did have a surly old man who knew every single person and book inside those walls.
“If I catch you with a match, Hayle Taeme, I’m going to tan your hide until you can’t sit down for a month.”
“Yessir,” Hayle quipped back.
“Why would you have a match?—”
“Shhh.” Hayle hustled us to the back of the library. “I lit one match inside the libraryone time,and I swear he’s never forgotten. Curmudgeonly old bastard,” he grumbled, but his voice was barely a whisper.
