Aleka considered that as she poured steaming water into the pot. “Did you know that Stryke has a new division that’s going to start a colony on the moon?”
“What? Who the fuck cares?” Scotty surged to her feet and opened her sister’s fridge, looking for more food. Sex definitely worked up an appetite. “I have real problems.”
“Yeah. I know. And Dad is the biggest one. So, if I were you, I’d buy Mace and Blade tickets on the first moon flight. Because he is going to freak. The. Fuck. Out.”
“Oh, come on.” Scotty slammed the door closed. “Dad will be happy—”
“Two lust demons are banging his little girl.”
Shit. Yup. The guys were as good as dead.
Mace’s gut stirred a little as he entered the Charnel House, a demon club in a rinky-dink town in what used to be called Australia’s Northern Territory. Now, it was known as Scaldera, named after a river in Sheoul.
The former Northern Territory was home to Ufelskala Tier Three demons and lifestyles, and as far as demons went, it wasn’t…awful.
Still, no human was safe outside of what used to be New South Wales, now New Horun, where the Ufelskala Tier One demons ruled.
Good thing Mace wasn’t human. But he wasn’t Tier Three evil, either, and he watched his back as he sought his target.
He wasn’t even sure why he wanted to talk to Talon, and frankly, if his parents hadn’t basically ordered him to, he would have let Talon find out the news through the family grapevine.
Man, his parents had been funny, though. The moment they’d seen his mate rings, they’d freaked.
“Who is she?” Idess had been over-the-top thrilled, because her little boy getting mated meant he wouldn’t go insane in the future.
But Dad’s tone had been more wary. “Who is she?” Same question, but a whole lot of concern in that voice, probably worried that his little boy had gotten himself tied for over four hundred years to some heinous bitchbag like Talon’s girlfriend.
It had been his mom, though, who immediately saw the change in his personal symbol. “Mace,” she’d gasped. “Your eagle!”
He grinned. “Yeah, look at that. It finally perched.”
Lore got in closer. “It’s not perching on a branch.” His brows drew together. “A sword. Funny, that looks like Blade’s sword.”
Mace nodded. “Because it is.”
His parents stared in a combination of surprise and confusion. Mace considered drawing the whole thing out just for fun, but he decided not to keep his parents in suspense.
“I bonded with Scotty,” he said, and his parents erupted in smiles. Idess even squealed and threw herself at him in a big hug.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “Congratulations. It’s about time. And—” She frowned. “Wait. Why do you have Blade’s sword?” She gasped. “You didn’t…do something to him, did you?”
Apprehension darkened Lore’s eyes. He no doubt remembered the conversation he’d had with him and Wraith about how bad things were with the team. “Son, what’s going on?”
Mace laughed. “I didn’t kill Blade, if that’s what you’re thinking.” He turned to his dad. “Blade and I are both in love with Scotty, so we told her she had to choose—”
“And she chose you?”
Mace wasn’t sure if he should take offense to the surprise in his mom’s voice or not. “She couldn’t choose, so we let fate decide.”
“And fate chose you,” she said, clearly anxious to get to the end of the story. He’d watched his mom fast-forward to the endings of movies and read the last chapter of books before the first all his life.
“Fate chose all of us.”
Lore and Idess shared baffled glances. Finally, Lore said, “What, exactly, are you saying?”
“I’m saying that both Blade and I are bonded to her.”
It took a few heartbeats for his parents to grasp what he’d said, but when they did, their slow, genuine smiles were worth it. They’d been thrilled.
