Page 38 of Royal Vampire's Fake Mistress

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

The words felt hollow as the name reverberated in her head. She knew Sunny. Summer Willow had gone by Sunny during her first land in Ostrov Krov, with the hopes of finding the missing Winter. The bear shifter who had helped Summer out, Dante Hamilton, had eventually become Summer’s mate…and somewhere in all that fiasco of them eventually finding Winter, they had punctured Nate’s wings and scarred him for life.

“I’m okay,” she repeated when it registered that the silence had gone on. “I’m just imagining how awful it must have been.”

“Oh, it was. He was rescued in the nick of time, but he had to recover for a while. But oh, if I had my hands on the culprits….”

“It’s a good thing he’s okay now,” Winter interjected, sipping her tea and avoiding the woman’s eyes. The topic shifted yet again as Nicola continued talking about her adventures, most of it correlating with the knowledge stored in Winter’s brain. She asked questions and dreamed about going to some of the places mentioned. She ate and sipped her tea until Nicola was nodding off, and they both decided to call it a night—or a morning.

“We have to do this again sometime,” Nicola said, then hesitated. “I know we don’t come off as the nicest people, and a lot of things here have to change. But Nate’s trying to get that change to happen. Just trust him, okay? Therearenon-assholes and non-judgmental pricks around here.”

And that was the pivotal moment that cemented where Nicola stood, however subtle she was about it.

“Yes. Okay.”

“And Winter?”

“Hmm?”

“If you ever hurt my brother, I’m not going to kill you. But I might hurt you.”

Winter gulped, then smiled. “Okay.”

“Your sister’s a lovely person.”

“She’s a sassy rebel who gives my parents the worst headaches with her non-conservative approach to life, but yes.” Nate’s lips quirked, the fondness visible. “She’s lovely. You should see her when she’s in her element.”

“Define in her element.”

“Adventuring with the scholars or kicking ass. The brat’s unstoppable under all that silly façade.”

“She’s not a brat,” was the automatic defense, which had Nate chuckling.

“It’s a jest. She calls me a jerk all the time. We are your typical siblings, I suppose.”

Guilt charged through her body. “Yeah.”

“If you have siblings, you would understand.”

“I do.” The guilt intensified until she couldn’t take it anymore. “I have a sister.”

“Oh, that’s nice.”

“She came to the Otherworld looking for me when I was missing in our home for half a year. She enlisted the help of a shifter.”

“Oh?”

“They destroyed your wing. Wings.”

She watched the moment his amused puzzlement at where the story was going turn into a stupefying realization of what this story was about. A thunderous expression settled over his features as he shot up from his seat and approached her with a frown. She backed away, unprepared for the sudden movement, and fisted her hands at her sides.

“Sunny. Sunny’s your sister?”

“Summer. Sunny’s an alias.” When he was inches away from her, she lifted her chin. “I’m not going to tell you where she is.”

“I’m not going to ask. How is she?”

“She’s alive.”

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