Page 39 of Primal Bonds

“He’s fine,” Adric replied. “He was back at work today.”

She set her head back on her paws. Discussion closed.

He let out a growl of frustration. Marjani was one step away from becoming feral, lost in her animal—and forever lost to him. Because he’d have to put her down if she became truly wild. He couldn’t have a feral cougar with her intelligence roaming Baltimore.

He fingered his quartz, tempted. He was one of the rare fada with two Gifts. He was a tracker, one of the best in the world. But he had another, secret Gift—the ability to hypnotize others with his quartz.

Marjani was one of the few people who knew about his second Gift. He could hypnotize her, compel her to forget what had happened last year. But she’d made him promise that he wouldn’t.

“No,” she’d snarled when he’d suggested it. “This is me. My life. I need to deal with it. You can’t make everything better, Ric—not this time.”

For Marjani, he’d break a sworn vow, even if the backlash killed him. But she was the one who’d extracted the vow, and that was what stopped him.

He dropped onto the rug. It was a plush orange shag like something from the sixties, one of his few indulgences. He’d installed it as much for Marjani as for himself—a reward for the times they’d shivered all night in some boarded-up house, or crouched in the chilly rain because Leron had ordered them to stand watch.

He sat cross-legged and stared into the fire. The fake flames danced, bright flickers of warmth. Even in the summer, their cats craved heat.

“I need you, Jani. I need all four of my lieutenants. There’s something I’m not seeing. Lord Prick was behind Jace’s attack, but it looks like he might’ve been working with one of us.”

He swallowed something acrid. He’d done some terrible things to end the Darktime, including assassinating his own uncle rather than challenge him to a duel for alpha. But he hadn’t been able to risk losing. Leron had been out of control, and Adric was the only one strong enough to take him. It was either kill Leron, or see everyone he loved die.

When he’d first taken over as alpha, he’d cleaned up the last pockets of resistance and declared the Darktime over. Most of their elders were dead, and the ones that weren’t either swore allegiance to Adric—or were executed. That should’ve been the end of it. He’d turned his attention to rebuilding his ragged, war-torn clan, believing he had the full support of his remaining clanmates.

But six years later, he was still fighting an underground conflict that he suspected had been instigated by his own cousin, Corban Savonett. Marjani’s attack had been carried out by some rogue river fada—but the rogues had been working with some of Adric’s own people.

Corban had never accepted Adric as alpha. He believed that as Leron’s oldest son, he should’ve been made alpha after his death, but the fada didn’t work like that. An alpha had to earn the title. And strength wasn’t enough; an alpha needed his people’s respect, too.

Corban had challenged Adric anyway, and lost. But even though Adric had made his cousin a high-ranking sentry, a position just under his four lieutenants, Corban hadn’t given up. Instead, the bastard had struck at Adric’s weak spot—Marjani. His sister was strong—a hard-ass soldier—but they’d drugged her and smashed her quartz so she couldn’t fight back.

Adric’s fingers curled. If he’d had any proof that Corban was behind it, he’d have slit the bastard’s throat, but his cousin was too smart to get caught. He hid behind others, and every single one of them had either died or killed themselves before Adric could question them.

He gazed broodingly at Marjani’s silent form. He questioned his decision to let Corban go every day. Every single fucking day.

But—“I couldn’t execute Corban without proof,” he told her. “I swore when I became alpha things would be different.” Plus, Corban and his brothers were still a power in the clan. Adric had been afraid that if he pushed too hard, he’d set off another clan war.

So instead, he’d sent Corban out of the country on a job for the ice fae, after first forcing his cousin to swear he wouldn’t come back until the job was complete. Corban was to capture a rogue ice fae and return her to her king for justice. Corban would be lucky to come back alive, and they both knew it. A powerful ice fae could literally freeze you where you stood. They fed on the energy of motion, meaning they could stop your heart, your lungs…or simply lock your muscles in place until you died of starvation.

Marjani’s head swung toward Adric. His breath hitched. She was listening.

He hurried back into speech. “If only we knew what the fuck happened to Corban. But he’s gone missing. I can’t even raise him through his quartz. He could be dead—but I don’t think so.”

And why wasn’t the ice fae king more concerned? Sindre had listened to Adric’s explanation with an inscrutable expression and then said, “The agreement is void, then.”

Adric had inclined his head, relieved Sindre wasn’t demanding he send another man out on what amounted to a suicide mission. But it was damned odd. Sindre was an old, cold fae, and the fae had a thing about honoring a contract. The king should’ve been out for blood, but instead he’d given up with barely a protest.

Marjani rose to her feet, gave herself a shake and padded out of the room.

“Jani?” he asked, but she didn’t acknowledge him. Disappointed, he scrubbed a hand over his face. He was so damned tired.

But a short while later, she returned, a woman once again. She paused a few feet away and gazed down at him with shadowed eyes. She’d put on gray shorts and a T-shirt. Once, she’d worn bright, colorful clothes like Suha. And just the other day, he’d come home to find she’d given herself a buzz-cut.

But she was up, and the eyes gazing down at him were the rich brown of her human form. For now, that was enough.

She stuck her hands into the back pockets of her shorts. He’d thought she was too thin as a cougar, but this was shocking. Her arms and legs were bony brown sticks.

His breath whistled in. He rose to his feet, trying to conceal his dismay.

Marjani didn’t seem to notice. When she spoke, her voice was rusty from disuse. “Tell me what you know.”

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