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“Not them I’m talking about.” I swallowed hard. Was this too soon? I hadn’t even told Karelis in so many words what I was about to express to my brother. But he was as much a part of me as my wolf. And when something very important happened, I needed him to know. If we were closer together, sometimes he seemed to understand as if via osmosis. We didn’t quite read one another’s mind or have access to them as some mates did. It was different…but hard to explain.
“I know, Blaze,” he said. “Tell me about her. Or them?”
“Her. But she is also my friends’ mate.” I glanced back toward the school, wondering how much time I had beforesomeone missed me or security noticed me. “And I’m not sure she feels the same.”
“That’s tough. But if she’s really your mate—the plural your—then she will figure it out eventually.”
“She is. But your relationship is so smooth. Raven and Onyx adore you and each other.” He and his mates were a little different from the reverse harem situation we were facing.
He choked and I heard a female voice, Raven I thought, asking him if he was all right before he came back on the line. “Smooth? You have met my mates. They fought the very idea of coming together with me for quite a while. Kind of hurt my feelings, actually.”
“Give me the phone,” I heard, this time from Onyx. “Hello, brother-in-law. If you have met your mate, don’t let her get away. I know for shifters it’s supposed to be a no-brainer meet-and-mate, but Raven didn’t feel that way.” And Onyx was the descendant of the Goddess Circe, not a shifter but magical nonetheless. “And I had my reservations. I agree with Asher that she will come around, but maybe if you and the others are open and honest, you can save time. I regret every minute we missed before we all accepted one another in this family.”
We talked for a bit longer, but there was starting to be activity in the building, windows lighting up as students got up and ready for the day, and I had to say goodbye before I had no shadows to hide in. Talking to my twin always gave me a lift, and this time was no different. I felt encouraged and decided to stop by Karelis’ room on the way to ours. See if she’d like to have breakfast together. Slipping into the building by a side door that rarely got used—and that I’d propped ajar with a handy rock—I headed through the hallways to the one where both our room and our mate’s were located. Open and honest. Time to tell our mate exactly what was going on with her and with us. If she was our mate, she’d have to recognize the truth, right?
My hand was raised to knock when I saw the streak of blood on the wood of her door.What the?
Taking a step back from the door, I strove to steady my breathing before I punched right through the bloodstain on our mate’s door. It was more than a stain, rather a row of streaks that were not only the reddish brown of drying blood but also appeared to have been scratched into the finish. The handle appeared undisturbed, but how could something like this have happened without us hearing? Something with claws had tried to get into their room. Had it been silent?
Chapter Seven
Adan
I opened the door to our suite only to find Blaze standing in front of our mate’s, across the hallway. His body vibrated with tension, and he did not turn away from whatever he was staring at. “Blaze? Is something wrong?”
I woke up to find his bedroom door open and no sign of him in the suite, which probably meant he’d snuck out to call his brother, as he did from time to time. Being an identical twin was a bond that I’d never be lucky or unlucky enough to understand. I knew it was painful for him to be separated from Asher, and no matter how much Cas and I valued our friendship, we would never be his twin.
But now, I wondered how long he’d been standing there in front of Karelis’ door with his hand in the air. And he wasn’t answering me.
“What’s up?” Cas asked from behind me. “Are we all going to visit our mate?”
“I don’t know.” Moving forward, I took Blaze’s arm. “You’re scaring me, bro.”
He shuddered and stepped back. “I’m pretty scared myself. Look.”
“Oh hell.” I leaned in and reached out to trace the lines. “Are the girls all right?”
“The door is still closed,” Blaze said, shrugging me off. “But I haven’t knocked yet.”
“Well why not?” Cas briskly rapped. “Karelis!”
After a heart-rending few seconds, the knob turned and June appeared in the opening, bedhead not her friend. “What is all the caterwauling about? We were up very late because of the…oh, you’ve seen it.”
“Where is Karelis?” Blaze demanded.
“I’m right here.” She appeared behind her friend. “And I—it really happened, didn’t it?”
“Yes.” June stepped back. “You were hoping, huh?”
“So much.”
Glancing from one to the other, I didn’t like the glassy look in their eyes. Whatever happened, it had them really shaken up. “Listen, instead of standing here in the doorway, why don’t we go get some breakfast and you two can fill us in?”
“All right—” Karelis began.
“I have an early class,” June interrupted, “and a test, which I have not studied for. So, I’ll leave it to my roomie to give you all the details.”
We agreed to meet Karelis outside the room in a half hour, after we’d all had a chance to clean up and get dressed, and soon we were seated at a table in the dining room. It was early enough that we’d been able to find a corner where nobody was too close. “All right,” I said, taking one of her hands across the table. “Spill it, and don’t leave out a single detail.”
