“Averly, if the Fae Lords are unsure that you are my Lena, then they might do something drastic to figure it out. I want to head that off.”
My Lena.Every time he said that my thighs clenched and need shot between my legs. He pulled the car up to the house and I just nodded, then looked back at Leah’s sleeping figure.
“So by now you would know who Lena was and be spending your last few months with her as your wife…?” I asked him. He put the car in park and looked over at me.
“By now I would have married her, taken her to Paris and made her breakfast in bed dozens of times. She always remembers us. Always.” His voice broke and I reached out and grasped his hand.
“You’re pretty unforgettable. We will figure it out together,” I told him.
His eyes went from my hand clasped over his to my face, and he nodded. “Wren breaking the curse certainly changes things. Lena might not die at all this time, but she also might never remember our life together. Maybe I need to come to terms with that and just…”
He let himself trail off.
Just what? Pick one of us?
My stomach flopped over at the thought.
Pick me. Pick me.
“We’re home?” Leah’s sleepy voice came from the back seat and I yanked my hand away from Brayden’s as if I’d been burned.
“Yep.” I opened the car door and leapt out of it.
I needed to stop flirting with my sister’s possible husband until we figured this out. No more looking at, touching, or ogling the alpha.
TWELVE
The next afternoon I awoke to a few texts from my mom. Crap. I needed to have a talk with her about moving out. I got up, showered, and brushed my teeth, peering at the hallway clock. It was after one p.m. and I had a two o’clock class. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to take Brayden up on his offer to have me quit school and train me as a vet. He’d probably been to college a dozen times. With his age, I probably would have too if I went in every incarnation.
Stepping out into the living room, the sounds of laughter greeted me. Leah and Brayden were smiling at each other while eating breakfast. I recognized Leah’s famous waffles. She put so many chocolate chips and walnuts in them, it spilled over the side of the waffle press.
“What’s so funny?” I asked, and they both went still.
Brayden caught my gaze and a guilty look crossed his face. “Leah had another memory, a particularly embarrassing one for me.”
Another memory?
My gut tightened.Is she Lena?Did they both now know? My gaze flicked to their hands to see if they were intertwined, but they weren’t.
Leah looked back at me with a smile. “I didn’t remember who I was, but I remembered Brayden daring Axel to a sparring match. Brayden slipped and fell into the muddy lake.”
I’d been holding my breath the entire time she spoke, and when she said she didn’t remember who she was in the memory, I released all the air I’d been holding.
I tossed Brayden a joking look. “Sounds like something he would do.”
Brayden shook his head and then frowned. “I miss my brothers, and your sisters. We were all so close. Living in the same castle. Each couple had their own wing. Every day was a party.” He looked wistfully off into the distance.
“No children between any of them?” If we were, like, hundreds of years old, I wondered why we never had children. Or maybe we did. The thought suddenly struck me and I waited for Brayden’s answer.
A haunted look crossed Brayden’s face and I immediately regretted asking.
I exchanged a panicked look with Leah. “I’m sorry, that’s personal, I—”
He shook his head. “No, it involves both of you. You have a right to know.”
He patted the seat next to him at the table and my stomach dropped. He was asking me to sit down for this. That wasn’t good.
I pulled the chair out and plopped down, peering nervously at Leah, who looked like she was holding her breath.
