Page 73 of Nightshade

Frankly, I was beginning to think he wouldn’t hurt me at all, ignoring that he’d just tripped me.

But there he was, standing over me too, and his glare was more terrifying than I’d seen it yet.

“What’s that?” he demanded, staring not at me, but at his brother.

Leo blanched. He crossed his arms. “It’s nothing.”

“He marked you,” Viktor growled.

I sat up, twisted around, and—and he was right. There was a scar, a bite mark, right where I’d bitten Leo the night before.

My stomach turned.

Oh no, I had hurt him. The proof was right there in that impossible scar.

CHAPTER 37

Leo

Damned annoying observant brothers and their even more annoying tendency to blurt things out.

Sure, there weren’t usually secrets in a wolf pack, but in this case, telling Altair about the bite in a public place was damned inconvenient. There had been a reason Mama took me off into the woods on a walk to discuss it. Because it was fucking private, and it should have been my choice when to disclose it, and who to tell.

Would they all know eventually? Sure. But this was my life, not theirs. They didn’t all have a right to it.

They sure didn’t all have a right to know that pathetic little Leo had gone and fallen in love, when I didn’t even know how Altair felt. At best, it put Altair on the spot. At worst, it chased him off it.

He was looking at me like a wounded animal, like he wasn’t sure whether I was going to bolt, or whether he should. Worse, there was something deeper in his eyes. Shame.

And that simply couldn’t be allowed to stand.

So I glared at Viktor, ready to dig in my heels. “And what does that have to do with Altair?”

Viktor’s scoff could have been heard from space, and he mirrored my stance, standing across from me, arms crossed and anger twisting his features. “You’re suggesting he wasn’t the one to bite you? The vampire you’ve been feeding? The canines on that bite are too pronounced for a wolf.”

“First of all, who bites me and who I bite are none of your damn business. My bedroom is none of anyone’s business. But you know as well as anyone in this pack how this works.” I said it as though I had also known before that morning, how mating bites worked. It wasn’t that it was scarce or privileged information, it was just . . . I hadn’t known many mated couples. It was kind of a huge commitment. More than human marriage, a mating bite meant forever. Mama didn’t have one, because as she’d explained, she had never truly, completely given herself over to Reeve.

It was understandable, since he’d been a complete dick. Marriage or not, “mating” or not, a permanent bite was something else. It was, well . . . permanent.

On the other hand, I had to think Mama had once had feelings for Reeve. It was strange to think of Aleks coming from a marriage that had never been loving, since Aleks himself was one of the most loving people I’d ever known. So how had she known even then, in the throes of an early relationship, that she would never love him entirely?

Maybe Mama was just more cautious than I was.

Clearly, though, I had Viktor at a disadvantage, because he looked slightly less certain. Not less angry, but his brow was furrowed in confusion as well as anger now.

“That’s very impressive,” Prudence said from the porch.

I hadn’t spoken to her other than a short introduction, and frankly, she terrified me. The local witches had never been quite so intimidating, even Ermengarde with her icy demeanor.

No, Prudence was something else. She’d grown up with power and money, and instead of it making her think she was better than everyone around her, she was quiet and observant and . . . apparently impressed? With . . . my bite mark?

Viktor and I both looked up at her, and frankly, it was probably as close as we’d looked to the twins we were in years. Same stance, same expression, same confusion.

She smiled like we were charming, which no one had done to Viktor since he’d returned. To her, he was just another member of the Wildwood pack. She didn’t remember the silent ghost of a man who’d returned home with us after his years of government captivity.

“I imagine it would be difficult, losing any part of your brother to love, but I understand sometimes it happens that way. You werewolves are passionate creatures, and my readings on vampires say they tend to be so as well. It’s not too shocking a bond could form that quickly.”

Viktor mouthed the word “bond,” but continued staring at her.