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My bestie nodded, turning away and weaving strands of multicolored magic until it resembled an oval doorway. “We’ll be in touch,” Mo said, smiling at Grimnyr, then her eyes darted to the captain’s. “With you as well.”

CHAPTER 30

Bittersweet Reunions

BANE

“This is no longer entertaining,” Marv stated.

“Agreed. His mind is so fucked even I don’t want to be here,” Freddy replied.

I growled, silencing them. My sincerest apologies that you’re not more comfortable in the body you infiltrated. Best turn in your squatter’s rights.

The paws of two slightly rough pads of two paws encouraged my face to turn until I met Huff’s worried stare with my frenzied one. “You’re not okay.”

“Thank you for stating the bleedin’ obvious. Very useful. I'll get you a gold star later. Although, I don't know if it will stick that well to your fuzzy body.” I noted that my voice held no inflection, sounding off even to my own ears.

It wasn’t natural for mated pairs to be separated, especially when newly acknowledged. As a result, the distance spanning from Miko to me burned up the bond, making it sear like an exposed nerve. Without her, I could no longer seek the happier, brighter outlook of life, and the darkness swiftly resumed its residence.

My eyes drifted over my family scattered along the shelves and study tables, pouring over ancient grimoires and thicker, ancient tomes. Weak moonlight drifted through the stained-glass windows high on the front walls of the library, casting distorted colorful shadows on the oak floors where I laid spread out like a starfish.

My sensitive cat ears twitched violently as a crackling swiftly followed by a pop, echoed off the exposed beams in the arched ceiling. The sound always reminded me of bubbling sap on a freshly cut log, burning away in a bonfire, said wood splitting loudly as heat forced pressure into charred cracks.

I burst to my feet, wings flapping as a counterbalance. My eyes darted to Huff.

His lilac eye widened. “We can sense it, too. The library has alerted us of a portal opening and closing inside the wards.”

Before he finished speaking his sentence, I raced to the third floor. My connection with Miko singing along my sternum and spreading out over my ribs, brightening to the point of eye-squinting brilliance. My wing clipped a bookcase, sending it nearly toppling into the next like a set of dominos, but I willed my tail to steady it.

I skidded to a halt, talons gouging into the hardwood, and breathed in Miko’s cherry blossom scent as she stepped into the library through a pink and blue swirling portal. My feet sprinted to her before I made the conscious decision to do so, a breath later I folded her into a tight embrace.

For a moment, it didn't register that someone was standing by her side, too overwhelmed with relief to care. Instincts forced my attention to the potential threat. I shoved Miko behind me and growled at the intruder, curious as to why the library allowed a portal to open within the building if she was not alone.

“Don't you dare growl at Monstera like that, Grotesque,” Miko snapped, shoving at my side.

I bounced on the balls of my feet and shook my head aggressively to clear the urge to cleave the other woman apart. Huff winked onto Miko's shoulder, sending a blast of magic in my direction and enabling her to round my side and stand between the witch and me.

My mate’s eyes narrowed to slits as one hand balled into a fist and the other rubbed her sternum. “You have some fucking audacity.”

My head jerked back, confusion zipping along my nerves.

“Miko,” Huff warned, “he hasn't been himself.”

“No,” she replied, cutting off the Heechu and handing him off to Monstera. She ignored Huff’s words, folding her arms across her chest.

“I'm not sure what you’re going on about. What is it you think I've done to put you in such a state that you won't even let me touch you?” I stretched my neck side to side, the tendons straining under my fraying control. My body lurched forward a step, the mate bond vibrating between us. “It's been too long since I've held you in my arms.”

Miko scoffed cynically. “That's your own damn fault, isn't it?” She raised a brow, but I didn’t miss the shimmer of tears highlighting her lower lashes. “Where were you? Why didn’t you try and come back for me?”

For once, her grumpitude did nothing to lift my spirits. In fact, her outward, angry reactions greatly differed from the hurt I saw gathering behind her shielded expression, and on her side of the bond. My heart rate faltered, then stopped altogether. “I did, Honeybee. What kind of gobshite do you think I am?” I paused, pressing my lips together and thought better of it. “Truthfully, I would absolutely leave others, literally anyone else, to fend for themselves but never you. Never my fated mate.” My voice cracked, betraying the tumultuous emotions crumbling my body from the inside out.

“Sure,” Miko commented, sarcasm thick in her voice. “That's why you left me to decide if I should risk waiting for you where the portal closed, featuring as wolf bait, or try and find a different portal on my own.”

My tail lashed behind me, then arced in her direction as if it intended to curl around her whether she wanted it to or not. I caught it before it could reach her, wringing it between my hands. For several moments, no words were spoken between us. A frown so deep I feared it would permanently etch onto my granite face twisted my lips as I spied Huff and Monstera whispering to each other in my peripheral.

I stormed forward, coiling my tail around Miko’s throat in what I hoped was a loose but comforting hold, and cupped her cheeks in my palms, careful even in my manic state not to scratch her soft skin with my claws as I was too emotional to retract them. “You are mine, Miko. I promise I didn’t leave you by choice. The Heechu Hunters⁠—"

Miko closed her eyes, ripping away part of the connection buzzing between us, speaking over the end of my sentence. “I saw the portal,” she blurted. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that you weren’t there when I needed you.” She opened her eyes, stare immediately centering on the floor. “In fact, the horrors didn’t end with me alone and terrified in the woods. In fact, we had a one-on-one meeting with a HHC coven member, didn't we, Mo?” Miko said, prying at my tail until I loosened it and she slipped out of my reach.