“And considering you punched Sawyer in the nose for just kissing me, I have my doubts that you’d be up for a threesome.”
“Mhm,” Sebastian mumbled, fighting back his laugh. “Have it your way.” He slid off the mattress to press his bare chest against my back.
“I don’t want anyone but you.” I huffed a breath, my body temperature rising to an uncomfortable level.
His mouth fell to my neck, his breath sending shivers across my skin. “Maeve, you know I’m just teasing you, right? I’m much too possessive to share when it comes to you. You’re mine, and only mine.”
I let him cradle me, then decided to try a littleteasingof my own.
Spinning in his arms, I dropped my voice to a low whisper and ran a finger down the midline of his abdomen. “I know you’re joking. But it’s too bad, becauseactually,the more I think about it, maybe we could ask Sawyer to join us tonight?”
His face fell flat as a piece of parchment.
Immediately after the words left my lips, I ripped away from him, covering my mouth to hide the smirk that I couldn’t fight off.
Sebastian caught on quickly, pointing an accusatory finger at me. “So not funny.”
I shrugged with one shoulder, imitating him once more. “You started it. Now go shower and put a damn shirt on before Kadeactuallywalks into something.” The way his muscles flexed with every movement he made was making me absolutely fucking feral.
Sebastian’s comment was enough to keep Kade from barging into our room when we surpassed his timeline. The funny thing is, we didn’t even do what he thought we were. We just spent some time talking and I helped him wrap his shoulder back up after he showered.
“Remind me to get you a watch for your birthday,” Kade sneered when we finally made it to the common room.
Sebastian just winked at him, the gesture enough to make Kade’s jaw clamp shut.
Sebastian winced as he took a seat on the sofa. I sat on the floor between his knees, resting my head against one of them.
Sawyer granted him a scowl, but hidden within it was a subtle look of concern. The two of them would be fine—I had faith in that. They just needed time.
After a quick search of the room, I noticed how Archer didn’t join us. He’d been tucked away in his office for days since hefound out the truth about Venay. I made a mental note to visit and fill him in, maybe after breakfast tomorrow.
“I’m sure Seb has a story to share, considering he is in a sling. Speaking of which—” Kohen gave Pia a questionable glance, to which she took a seat by Sebastian and began unwrapping his arm. “But Leighton, you go first. What did you find out?”
“You can heal a dislocated shoulder but not a broken arm?” I whispered to Pia.
“I was feeling under the weather the day of your arm. Plus I just didn’t want to,” she hushed back.
My scowl vanished as Sebastian carefully pulled his arm free of his sleeve, putting his bicep on display for me to ogle at.
Gods. I couldn't wait to be alone with him later.
Leighton looked a tad nervous as she leisurely maneuvered herself in front of the fireplace, where she reached into her pocket, pulling out a handful of crumpled papers. She sucked in a hearty breath then flattened them out, passing them to Kohen to look over first.
“I didn’t see Beaumont at all while I was there. I don’t know if he was off castle grounds or what, but regardless, that made breaking into his study fairly easy once I got my hands on the master key. I’m not sure if they are the exact notes Venay had written down for him, but I did find information about the creatures he's been creating. Finding them in the mess of his desk was probably the most challenging part of the job,” Leighton explained, her attention focused on watching Kohen read.
“Woah.” Kohen's amazement interrupted her explanation. “Is this for real?” His eyes widened and stayed that way as he passed the papers to Kade.
Leighton nodded. “I found out his process for creating the creatures and their true name. I also found out why he’sreallywanted Maeve so bad this entire time.”
I shuffled uncomfortably and straightened my posture, removing my cheek from Sebastian’s leg, who cursed from behind me as Pia worked on his arm.
“Please, before you go any further, tell me what they are called. Because if I have to keep referring to them as hischildren, I might never reproduce,” Sawyer begged, his palms pressed together in a prayer.
“Hykahs,” Kade said, looking up from the papers. “They are called Hykahs.”
“Ew,” Delani spat, accepting the parchment from Kade. “A gross name for a gross creature.”
“Well what the hell did you expect them to be called, Willawood two?” Sawyer snorted. “Daphne? Elizabeth?”
