Page 22 of Mistake of Magic
“That someone is in deep trouble, and for once, it’s not me.”
I sit up in bed, tugging the blanket to cover my bare chest and crossing my arms. Shade, damn him, wisely stays in wolf form. It’s an effort of will to remind myself that Tye can’t read my thoughts. Or my memories. “Have you heard of knocking?”
The smile on Tye’s lips widens, his nostrils flaring delicately. “The door is beside the point.” He drops his voice. “I can smelliton you from out there, Lilac Girl. We all can.”
Flames consume my face, mixing together with a stomach-clenching guilt. My gaze darts around in search of a dark hole to hide in and comes up empty. I stick my chin into the air, in hopes that my mind will catch up with my show of confidence. I asked Tye to bed me after the piranha battle, and he—the male who thinks a bed filled with any fewer than two beings is a criminal waste of space—declined, wanting the whole quint present for our first joining.
Things didn’t turn out that way, clearly.
“Fine. You smellit.” I swallow, making myself meet Tye’s gaze. “My bedding decisions are not a democratic process. And are, therefore, none of your bloody business.”
“What, noneat allof my business?” Tye purrs, the glint in his green eyes growing even brighter. “That could be up for debate, though perhaps not this very morning. At any rate, I didn’t really come here to watch you squirm, lass. I came to watch that flea-bitten stray squirm. And to tell him that if he thinks remaining in wolf form is going to save him from River’s wrath, he is very much mistaken.”
“I repeat,” I say, my voice firmer. “My bedding decisions are—”
“It isn’t your bedding decisions that anyone is questioning.” Tye’s voice drops its humor. “It’s Shade’s. And no, he doesn’t get to make certain choices alone.” Hopping down from the windowsill, Tye strides toward the bed and addresses the wolf directly. “Friendly advice, Shade. Get the hell out of here before River decides he’s not going to wait until Lera awakens, and comes in here himself.”
I frown.
A flash of light has Shade sitting in my bed, his broad shoulders shifting with a heavy sigh. “Thank you, Tye.” His eyes dart to me for a moment before finding the floor. “But unlike fine wine, River’s temper isn’t going to improve with time. I might as well get it over with now.”
Tye winces. “I wouldn’t want to be in your place.”
Wrapping a sheet around myself, I slide off the bed and stalk to the door, the stone floor cold and uneven beneath my feet. Instead of making a swipe for me, Tye moves to the other side of the room, which is odd in itself—as is the rest of this morning. Closing the latch, I turn to face both males. “What don’t I know?”
Tye snorts. “A great many things. In this case, however, I imagine it isn’t so much a lack ofknowledgeas a lack of appreciation that the fleabag on your bed is a predator. Shade’s wolf mated with you last night.”
I press my lips together. “Yes, I was there.”
“Not just bedded, cub.” Shade’s voice is a low rumble. “Mating is more, well, permanent.”
Fire rakes through me as I wheel on the shifter. With me standing and him sitting on the bed, I can for once look him in the eye. “And did you not think I might want a say in the matter?”
“Shade didn’t get a choice—why should you?” Tye says in such a reasonable tone that my fingers curl into fists. Tye’s eyes flick to my clenched hands and he holds up his own, palms facing toward me. “I said Shade’swolfmated. It’s an instinct, and it asks no one’s opinion. It places no obligation on you.”
I stalk over to the dresser. Clothes. I want clothes. And coffee. And a much better explanation than this charade. “If that were true, Tye, Shade wouldn’t be in trouble, now would he?” I grab a set of undergarments and put them on beneath the cover of my bedsheet, ignoring the males’ amused stares.
“I knew how close the mating bond was.” Shade rises to his feet and rubs his face, his smoothly muscled body sending a familiar—and currently unwanted—need through my core. He slips into his black pants, still damp from last night. “I should have made it a point to stay away from you. At least until we could work out a plan.”
“A plan for what?” I demand, tying the sash around my burgundy uniform tunic and bracing my hands on my hips.
“A plan for this.” With no warning, Tye rushes forward and tackles me smoothly to the floor. His hands cup the back of my head, cushioning my fall, but there isn’t time for more than that before a wolf’s deadly growl pierces the room.
I gasp as Tye is knocked off me with enough force to make the redhead wince at the impact. Sitting up, I find Shade’s wolf pinning Tye to the floor, white, salivating fangs snapping at the male’s jugular.
“Stop!” I scream, my heart pounding. This is not a friendly fight, but a true, fevered assault.
Tye jerks and Shade’s teeth miss his neck, piercing his shoulder instead. Blood soaks through Tye’s tunic at once, dripping to the stone floor.
Fists pound against my latched door, and I sprint to open it, my breath catching as River and Coal burst inside.
River strides to the fighting pair, gray eyes thunderous, command oozing off him like a thick fog. “Leralynn, get out,” he orders without looking at me.
I open my mouth to object, but Coal herds me out into the corridor, shutting the door behind us. Through the thick walls, I hear River command Shade to shift, the order so filled with power that even I shudder from the words’ impact.
Something crashes.
“Move away.” Coal pushes me toward the common room. Unlike me, tousled and still barefoot, the male is already crisply dressed and painfully handsome in his full uniform and black boots, his hair pulled back into a tight bun. He is also his usual, talkative self. “Your scent is little helping.”
