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Callum’s surprise shot through the bond. For some reason, it dropped the answer into my lap. I narrowed my eyes.
“Just how exactly had you planned on telling me you were pregnant, sissy?”
Sloane flushed that dark, dark red, and Jacob’s laugh gained a hungry edge.
“Well, I don’t know,” she hedged. “I’d thought of just kind of throwing it out there, but then you had your bond mark and I got distracted and then I had to ignore the fact you just spent five days fucking a prince because you went into heat. So now I’m scrambled and don’t remember how I thought to do it.”
I straight-up guffawed, doubling over with the force of it. It took me several minutes to gain my breath enough to sit up and focus on my sister in the mirror.
“I love how you’ve spent this entire conversation dancing around both of our sex lives and then just straight up dropped it like that. Gods, I missed you.” She flushed again, the red spreading down her neck and onto her chest. “You are, though? Really?”
Her smile was softer now, more wonder than simple happiness. “I am. It happened pretty much right away based on the healers’ estimates. We’ll have a baby bear around winter solstice.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You know that it will be a shifter?”
She titled her head. “Well, that’s what the healers say. I don’t have any magic, so it’s not like it would possibly receive mine and not his. There are a lot of shifters here who have a parent who is Salairian.
I felt Callum’s confusion, and I circled his wrist behind my back, trying to communicate with him in a way Sloane wouldn’t notice. If she didn’t believe she had magic, I wasn’t going to be the one to throw a wrench into that whole thing. And… and maybe she didn’t truly have any. Whatever had happened to her in that memory-dream had seemed pretty awful. Maybe it had done something to whatever magic she may have had when we were little girls?
None of that was a conversation while my sister was in earshot, though.
“Oh, that’s cool!” I put pep into my voice, leaning on the years I hid from Sloane the cost of keeping her happy. “I can’t wait to hug you and buy things for my sibling.”
She snorted.
“Nib…ling?” Jacob’s voice was about eight shades of confused.
She kissed his cheek. “I’ll explain later.”
Callum hummed and pulled me closer to him. “We need to get ready, Sterre.”
Dang it.
“Ready for what?” Sloane perked up at once.
“We’re having our marriage anointed in the Persynthian temple,” I explained even as I stood and picked up the mirror.
“Four weddings. That’s four, Mimi.”
I laughed and shrugged. “I’m very aware. I’m learning to live with the scrutiny. I kind of have to. It comes with the package.”
Sloane nodded, very serious. “It’s a worthwhile package. I’d figure it out, too.” Then she turned to Jacob. “Would you be able to get a sternum tattoo?”
His smile was feline for all he was a bear shifter. I cut in before I heard whatever he’d intended to say.
“I’ll call you once we’re up in Embercrest, all right? But you can call me before then if you’d like. Especially if something changes with the talks.”
“Sounds great.” Sloane leaned forward and grabbed her mirror, pulling it toward her. The visible frame changed at once, narrowing until it was only her face I could see. “I’m so excited to see you in another couple months. I need a Mimi hug. Have a good second wedding! I’ll talk to you in a little bit.”
“Love you.” The words didn’t burn this time.
“Oh, I love you too! Bye!”
50
AMETHYST
Sunlight was warm and bright, pulling me from sleep. Instead of sitting up, I snuggled closer to Callum, turning until my nose buried in the crook of his shoulder. Pine and wisteria filled my nostrils, and I went boneless against him. Well, on top of him, really. Most of me was draped like a sprawled blanket, covering the majority of his body. His legs were tangled with the thin quilt he’d used to cover us before falling asleep.
