Page 41 of Cursed

When were done, Arden carries me back into the main room. All eyes are on me. I blush with the memory of how my mates keep defiling me… and how much I love it.

“Are you hungry?” Branden asks, and I’m surprised it isn’t Arden who is concerned with feeding me. All his devotion to my well-being is going to take some getting used to.

“What have you been eating while you’re here?” Rourke asks Arden. He stands, stretching, and his shirt comes up, showing off a delicious slice of his washboard abs.

I might be drooling. What’s wrong with me? Maybe my soul just wants to claim them all now.

“I’ll be right back,” Landis says, then returns in a few moments with arms full of berries, fruits, cheeses, and loaves of bread. “Gifts from the little ones.”

“That’s so sweet!” I say as I allow Arden to slip his sweatshirt over my head to keep me warm. Not that I’m able to get cold with him holding me, sharing his body’s heat.

I don’t even need pants when his shirt is so long on me. I curl up and pull my legs under the long shirt. It feels like an extra hug.

Landis sets the mini-feast on the small table, and he hands me a citrus fruit dipped in honey.

Branden grins wickedly.

Then they all do.

“What?” I demand. I want to be in on this joke too.

“You smell like ripe citrus and honey,” Quade huffs, but he’s suppressing a smirk.

“I do?” I blink with my mouth open. I sniff under my arm.

“No… down below.” Arden has the decency to look chagrined.

“Evenyoucan smell me?”

“Well, when I was all up in there while you rode my face.”

I pout that I didn’t know I had a scent, and everyone chuckles. But I secretly love the banter and laughter. They know I do too.

We all eat for a few minutes. The tension begins to build again. Furtive looks are directed at Quade. We all sense he’s going to shake our world. He wasn’t missing for no good reason.

Then Quade paces in the small cottage. We watch him, waiting for the floor to fall away with his news.

Guilt swirls in my gut. We are all hiding out in the middle of nowhere because of me. “So what happens now that I messed things up?”

“You didn’t mess anything up.” Rourke quickly kneels down and clasps my hand. “You shouldn’t have risked chasing after me, but I’d probably be dead if you didn’t.”

“I shouldn’t have used my magic,” I add. “And now we are all on the run because of it.”

Quade says in his commanding voice, “Rourke’s right. And you shouldn’t have to hide your magic. We shouldn’t have to worry that our own kind hunts us… hunts you. This isn’t your fault. Am I upset that it’s put a target on your head? Yes. But I’m not blaming you for protecting your—” He stumbles on the word, then says, “…fated.”

Rourke strokes my hand. “He’s right. Don’t blame yourself foranyof this.”

“Good news first. Kat’s safe. Or as safe as she can be,” Quade starts again. “An old friend, who I can trust, took her somewhere so she won’t be used to manipulate you.”

I let out a breath I have been holding. “Good.” But I eye him, knowing there’s more. “So what’s happened?”

“I… uh…” Quade pauses, and I’m beginning to panic. “Kidnapped and tortured Millie and Chara.”

There’s an instant roar of shouts of astonishment, maybe a cheer, and an attaboy.

“Are they alive?” I ask. As much as I despise those deadly jerkwads, I don’t want Quade’s conscience to suffer.

“When I left them, yes.” He runs his hands through his short, dark hair, and it’s completely wild in moments. “I enlisted the aid of a mind-diver. And he retrieved…answers, but along with that, new questions. New problems.”

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