Page 20 of Cost of Courting

I allow my fingers to stroke his hair, sinking into his thick locks and running over his scalp. His hair is cool and silky soft and brings back a thousand memories of him laying in my lap, me idly playing with his hair while we watch TV or talk.

“You should have stayed here and been mine,” I murmur to the sleeping alpha. “You would have been safe.”

“But you wouldn’t have,” he mumbles back. “Not from us. Not from this life.”

What?

“What?”

He doesn’t answer me, and he doesn’t say another word. When the sun rises, I sneak out of my bedroom, grab my baseball bat, and cross the road with vengeance in my heart.

I kick open their front door and slam the bat against the bedroom wall. I know the layout as well as I know my own. We spent half our lives here. It was, after all, Kingston Noctis’ childhood home.

“Get up. You two owe me a night’s sleep.”

“I can give it to you tomorrow,” Kingston says sleepily. “Come to bed, Fisher, I need a cuddle.”

I think I breathe sparks of rage into the air. With an enraged shriek, I reach for the weapon I brought with me this morning. I throw it on the bed and then upend the bag of mashed banana beside it.

Edric throws himself out of the bed, gagging and trying not to vomit. It’s so good to see that some things haven’t changed. If Edric has one weakness, it's the smell and texture of bananas.

“What the fuck are you doing, crazy girl?” Kingston growls.

My nostrils flare. I haven’t heard that nickname since the day they left, but they are going to find out who crazy girl really is. I smash the bat into the leg of the bed and watch as the whole thing collapses.

Kingston shrieks like a fucking girl.

Call me crazy girl, I’ll bring it to your fucking bed.

Edric grabs a fistful of my hair, wraps an arm around my waist, and drags me back out into the kitchen. The house is spotless, which I don’t really expect. I kinda assumed they would be messy.

“I think we deserve an explanation.”

“You know I had that argument with myself for years,” I snap back.

Edric snarls. “You’ve got today to whine about this, and then I’m going to give you something to whine about.”

“Why are you defacing my property?” Kingston says with a yawn.

My eyes widen as I track the expanse of exposed skin, the low slung boxers, the way he absently scratches his chest, drawing my eyes up and down to the V of deliciousness that is pointing to happy town. He did not look like that seven years ago.

I rip my eyes away, but I feel shaky.

How can they still affect me like this?

“What happened to Mael?” I ask before I can stop myself.

Kingston stills. “Fuck! I thought he was okay. He was sleeping fine.”

Edric lets go of my hair. “We should have brought him home.”

“What. Happened. To. My. Mael?”

My Mael?

Edric clears his throat. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

“It is when he sent me flying into a wall!” I hiss furiously.

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