Page 36 of Radiant Shadows

“We never do,” Shea commented, making me giggle.

“But then I ran into Niko, and he was a dick, so I decided, fuck him.”

“And, so you did.”

We both laughed.

“I dragged Jackson out of the ball, and he was all too eager to take me back to his room,” I continued. “I had meant for it tobe just the two of us, you know. But, um, apparently, weres are polyamorous—”

“—Code for huge slots,” she interjected.

“Pretty much,” I agreed, getting more animated as I remembered the events of that night. “Well, I guess his friends could smell us getting into it, or whatever, and they just kinda…joined in.”

Shea’s eyes were burning with interest as she looked at me, and it made me wonder if she had dabbled in group action herself.

“That’s nuts,” she said. “But also…I mean, just, wow! How many was it?”

I bit my lip. “Um, it’s kinda hard to remember. But I know there was at least one girl in there—besides me, obviously.”

Shea pressed both hands to her cheeks. “Did you like it?”

“Well, yeah!” I blurted. “But it was crazy intense. I kinda want to do it again.”

“So why don’t you?”

I frowned, remembering Arya’s comment about weres. “Weres are kinda seen as lower class citizens in the shifter world, and polyamory is considered super taboo to everyone but weres.”

Her excitement seemed to falter, her gaze darting down to her lap for a moment. Then she bent an arm over the back of the couch and leaned against it. “Fuck it. Don’t bother with caring about what other people think. The only thing that matters is what you think.”

I nodded, then cocked my head. “Well, that’s just it. I don’t really know what I think. I know that I had a really good time. But I don’t think I like Jackson in any real way, and that makes me feel sort of…dirty.”

The admission made the muddy feeling I’d been shoving down rise to the surface, saturating me like swamp water.

“I guess I understand that,” she said. “But on the bright side, that makes it easier for you to walk away when you lose interest. No one’s feelings get hurt.” Something in her tone told me she was speaking from experience and that it wasn’t a particularly happy one.

“Something happened with those guys,” I guessed, her words and expressions making more sense after I said it out loud. “The two you were texting before Christmas.”

She nodded without looking at me.

“What happened?” I asked, mimicking her posture to give her my full attention.

She let out a heavy sigh. “It’s a long story.”

I shrugged. “I’ve got time.”

She looked at me for a moment, debating whether or not to tell me.

“Okay, fine, but only because keeping all this secret has been driving me insane!” she finally said in a burst. “But you really have to keep every single thing between us. Promise.”

Great, another thing I had to keep to myself. First Arya’s ursa, and now whatever this was.

But how could I possibly resist?

“Okay, I promise,” I said.

She blew out a breath with puffed cheeks, seeming to psyche herself up for this confession. Damn, it had to be even juicier than mine.

“So, the first guy is a shifter, and he’s started out as kind of an asshole,” she began.

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