Page 103 of Grulen

“Some.”

Abby handed her a glass of Chardonnay.

“You can share the chair with me or pick somewhere else to sit.”The nurse scooted over to make room.

“Thanks.”A plate of cookies passed by, and she took one.Biting into it, it tasted like oatmeal raisin but with a different texture.“This is good.”

“Ava introduced the Svesti to cookies.They can’t get enough of them.”Talia grabbed one for herself.

A few minutes of idle chitchat went by before Emmy addressed the elephant in the room.

“So what idiotic thing did Jevax do?”

“I’m not sure I want to talk about Grulen.”Damn, it hurts so much.

Talia tipped her head to the side.

“It’s weird to think of him by his first name.We all were friendly with him on theInvictus, but he wasn’t in the inner circle with some of our mates.”

“Are you all mated?”

Everyone nodded.

“Every single one of us found our fated mates out here.Me and Vared, Emmy and Devik, Lin and Ash’n, Natasha and Ronan, Karid and Ava, and finally Rachel and Traxen.We’ve got the clan markings to prove it.”She pulled at the collar of her knit shirt and revealed an intricate gold design.“Vared, Devik, Karid, and Ash’n have been best friends since the Warrior Academy, and all serve on theInvictustogether.Oh, if you didn’t know, Vared and Traxen are cousins.”Morgan tried to keep up with Talia’s explanation.

“So you got tattoos to match their clan markings?”

Rachel shook her head.

“No, they just appeared on our skin and kinda look like Earth.It’s weird and makes you wonder if their Goddess is real.”

“So far, I haven’t found a scientific explanation for the spontaneous change in our bodies.”Natasha frowned.“I don’t believe there is one.”

“Back to Jevax.Do we need to take a baseball bat to him?”Emmy persisted.

Natasha snorted.

“You are like a dog with a bone.”

“This surprises you why?”

Morgan found herself relaxing at the easy banter between the women.

“None of us had an easy time with our mates in the beginning.”Kara’s blue eyes were serious.“We really do want to help you.Whether it’s to come up with a plan to illustrate to him how stupid he is or to let you move on depends on you.”

All the women nodded and waited.Morgan’s fingers twisted in her lap.

“Does it have to do with him getting his memories back?”Ava asked.

“Yes.”

“Don’t tell us he had a sidepiece we didn’t know about.”Rachel’s eyes narrowed.

“No, that would be too easy.”She inhaled deeply.“His mother and five sisters died within days of each other when the virus hit.”

“That’s sad,” Lin murmured.

“Grulen saw how devastated the adult males were and how long it took before they began to recover.He vowed never to take a mate so he would never be in the same position.”

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