Page 38 of Mantle

“Some of that is your issue with being the most powerful being on the planet.”

Of course he’d see that as well. But it was more about not wanting that dynamic to play out with the four of us. I liked us all being on an equal footing. It worked best that way, especially when the egos of Kai and Vorzyr were factored in.

“Perhaps,” I told him. “But I don’t like there being a hierarchy with us. Being on equal footing is one of the things that makes it work in our relationship.”

“Fair enough,” he said, easily, then checking out the food again,

And then I was stilling, as the rest of what he’d just said computed. “Move in together?”

“Yeah. Of course.” He looked over his shoulder at me after leaning down to breathe in one of the croissants. “I mean… sorry, I just thought… I figured it was a given.”

“We just haven’t talked about it. With everything happening, plans like that kind of fell to the wayside.” I smiled out at him. “But I’d really like that, too.”

Before more could be said, Papa and Pops pushed on into the room, Pops with his phone out and texting rapidly, while Papa, clad in a black tailored suit even this early in the morning and just for family breakfast, informed him, “I’m going to head out with Jaxon’s Lupan Stabilization Unit after this and assist with the tracking of Ketheron.”

Pops shook his head as he continued typing away, distractedly. “You’re gonna be needed atPolaris, my love. With Blackline Protocol in effect, the populace will be anxious andheading there will be a salve to all that concern and fear. You’ll be facing an influx. Even in the day.”

“I can do both. Anton and Warlow will also assist in my stead.”

“It’s not necessary.”

Papa grasped his arm and it had Pops giving him his full attention, looking away from his phone. “We both know it is. They haven’t even registered a single viable trail yet. My senses are next to none. I can get the trackers on the right path.”

Pops sighed.

“I know you’re worried.”

“I am.”

“I won’t get too close. Neither will Jaxon’s wolves. You have my word that I will see to it.”

“Okay,” Pops conceded. “Okay. And, yes, honestly, we could use the assistance. Especially from somebody with your abilities.”

Lucian kissed his cheek, making Pops smile, even despite all the stress of holding things together while the supernatural world was in lockdown mode.

“It’s been nice to see you master the art of delegating. Don’t let that slip away with it being a crisis situation in play now,” Papa told him, gesturing at his phone, and the fact that he’d been urgently texting away.

“I won’t, but I’m still the person that the buck stops at. Everything goes through me.”

“Are you going to be able to take an hour for our family breakfast?”

“I’ll make it so, yes. But I need to leave for the Compound right after.”

“All right, my beloved, then let us make the most of the brief calm before you return to the storm.”

Pops took in the breakfast spread. “Thanks for doing this. How come Jaxon didn’t help as well? He loves cooking alongside Mia.”

“He needed another run. Seeing Ariana suffering like that… it aggravated and pained his animal side. He also noticed that it did the same to Vorzyr, so he’s also using it as an opportunity to assisthim. A being with a powerful animal nature who’s also come into great power. No one knows more about that than Jaxon.”

Pops took his words in. “I’ll have him keep me posted where that’s concerned. Vorzyr possessing those abilities must remain only between us, our family. If the Celestial Plane got wind of it… he’d become a chief target of theirs.”

“Indeed.”

Papa stiffened.

With the urgency of their conversation, I guess he hadn’t been employing his intuition and vampiric senses to their full capacity, because he only then swung his head our way and noticed Nyx and I standing over on the other side of the room. “Early for breakfast as usual, I see,” he commented.

The two of them came over to us, and Pops told Nyx, “Breakfast was always Ari’s favorite time. The beginning of a new day, her telling us everything she’d planned to do from sun-up to sundown.”

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