Page 27 of Witch Unbound
I blinked and the feeling dissipated, leaving me shaken. “I’m fine. I just…I was thinking about when you guys have to procreate. I shouldn’t think about it, but I can’t help it.”
“I won’t be,” Rune reminded me. “Halle took that responsibility, remember? It was an official ceremony.”
I scanned his face, relief cooling the heat in my chest. “You won’t?”
He took my plate and set it on the table before taking me in his arms so we were chest to chest. “Nope. Does that mean I’ll be your favorite now?” he teased.
I pressed my palms to his pecs. “Rune…This isn’t a joke. I hate that they have to do that. I was okay with it before, but now, it makes me…angry.”
He pulled me to him and rested his chin on my head. “Trust me, it’s the last thing they want to do. You’re our mate, mind, body, and soul, and lying with someone else is…It will be an unpleasant chore that must be completed.”
When he put it like that…No. Nope, it didn’t make me feel any better.
“But they’ll put it off for as long as they can, trust me.”
Part of me was glad about that, and the other felt that maybe it was best they get it over with now. Just rip off the bandage. And that same part reminded me that although they were exclusive to me, I hadn’t exactly been exclusive to them, making me a big fat hypocrite.
I looked across the lawn at Sloane still chatting to the same group of shifters. As if sensing my regard, she glanced my way. Our gazes collided for a moment and the memory of her lips on mine drew a sigh from me. The corner of her mouth lifted, as if she could read my thoughts, before she turned back to the group.
I’d showered before coming here to make sure her scent was gone, not to hide what had happened but to avoid riling up my mates’ beasts. My stomach quivered because I still needed to tell them about Sloane and me, though.
Hell, there may be no Sloane and me. I mean, we hadn’t actually discussed it, but we’d gotten intimate, and the guys deserved to know about that.
“Cora…” Rune gently pinched my chin and tilted my head so he could look at my face. “Did something happen between you and Sloane?”
My back prickled with that sensation of being watched, and sure enough, Tor had his attention fixed on us from across the lawn. He stood with his arms crossed defensively and his expression unreadable.
Oh, shit. “You guys know.”
“You might have washed off her scent, but she still carries yours,” Rune said with a wince.
Dammit. Of course. “I made her feed off me. She needs blood from the vein, and she was refusing to take it off the others. I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist me because…”
“She has feelings for you,” Rune finished. “Another kind of hunger.”
“Yes, and so she fed and…things happened.” My cheeks grew warm and I ducked my head.
“It wasn’t planned,” Rune said softly.
“No, but that hardly makes it okay. I never meant to cross that line with her, but…I’m not going to lie. I have feelings for her. Strong feelings and an undeniable attraction. It’s been there from the start, even before we mated.” I pressed my forehead to his chest. “Urgh. Did the guys ask you to speak to me?”
“It was either me or Leif, and I won, on account of it’s my party and all that.” His chest vibrated with a chuckle.
I looked up at him in surprise. “You’re not mad?”
“I’m not. We’re not…well, Tor’s a little…territorial, but he can’t help that, none of us can. But like we said to you before, we want you to be happy. We like Sloane. She’s a good person, one of the few witches Tor can tolerate. Would have been better if you’d come to us about your feelings before anything happened, but…I get it.”
His words were a weight being lifted off me.
“In fact, Tor and Sloane used to hang out a lot before he left,” Rune continued. “She was the liaison between pack and coven, along with Pen. He considers her a friend, so you need to understand that he’s going to want to speak to her, friend to friend.”
Ice trickled down my spine. “Speak to her? What do you mean?”
“Just that. Talk. That’s his only condition to Sloane potentially becoming a part of our family.”
I had no idea why anxiety was squirming in my belly. Tor wouldn’t hurt a woman, but Sloane…Sloane was a vamp now, and he was a shifter, and vamps and shifters naturally rubbed each other the wrong way.
I looked over to where Tor had been a moment ago to find him gone. Sloane was also no longer with her group.
