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“What? What happened?” Riaz asked. “Are they okay? Should we … wait for them to return?”
Once the alpha finally stopped roaring, he looked around the room with glittering eyes. “Oh, they won’t be back.” Another smile full of teeth. “At least not for a few weeks.”
“What?” This time, it was Drake who asked the question, as puzzled as the rest of them. “Why?”
And then Aidan dropped the bomb: “The Raeths are all in heat.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
A week and a half later, the Raeths were still missing in action. Aidan, having been adopted by Raeth parents at the tender age of two, had notified the remainder of the immortal dignitaries about the temporary gap in communication.
Apparently, following the influx of heat hormones, each Raeth would be instinctually drawn to another. Mate-bonded couples would isolate together, and single Raeths would approach someone they trusted and spend the duration of the heat with them.
Laughing, Riaz shook his head. No one had heard from the Raeths—or their other-species mates—since that fateful day during assembly.
“What are you laughing about, Fido?”
Twinkling eyes caught his as his mate looked over her shoulder from where she was gathering personal belongings. Smirking, he replied, “At our Raeth friends. Aidan says they won’t get any respite for another week at least.”
One corner of her mouth pulled up. “Poor, poor Raeths. Fully given over to the wild side of their nature during the heat phase. Must be truly horrendous.”
“Oh, I’m not worried about the Raeths. I’m worried about their mates; the ones who aren’t of their breed like Rukia and Blair and Lucius. Who even knows if they’ll survive two or more weeks stuck with a Raeth in heat?”
“I guess we’ll find out.”
Zipper grinding up another bag, the vampire huffed a sigh, and Riaz looked her over in earnest. He could see the melancholy that clouded her expression, the slight rigidity that accompanied her movement and tensed her shoulders.
“Cortana.”
“What did I do?”
Riaz offered her a sad smile and pulled the bag from her grip before setting in on the bed, forgotten. “If you don’t want to leave the City—and your House—we can make it work, Pet. I know you had a life before me, and I won’t begrudge you for wanting to keep it.”
In a rare showing of vulnerability, her eyes misted. “It isn’t that, Riaz. I just feel awful leaving after everything that’s happened. Drake is still suffering from the sunlight poisoning and his penthouse will take weeks, if not months, to repair after the fire. I’m his second in command and I feel like I’m abandoning him at the worst possible time.”
When her resolve crumpled and she rested against his chest, Riaz pressed a kiss into her hair. “Then don’t leave yet. Nothing says you have to abandon them. I’m not pressuring you to relinquish everything you know and love. I’d never do that.”
Grasping her shoulders, he gently pulled her away from him to look her directly in the eye. “These are your people, your pack, and I would never stand in the way of you caring for them. You want to stay, you stay. We’ll make it work.” With a smirk, he added, “And if we have to pay Remmus for professional taxi services, I’m sure we can work it out.”
“That Raeth is obsessed with food; all we’d have to do is feed him in payment.”
“There you go. A wet smile is better than no smile. Ava probably won’t be happy with the development, but I think it’d be good for her to get used to having a Raeth around. Especially someone like Remmus.”
“Yes, she’s used to goofballs who are cookie-motivated. I wonder where she got that extensive experience?”
Riaz grunted a laugh. He was more worried for Ava than he cared to say. The woman had spent most of her life deathly scared of the other immortal breed, and as a good alpha and friend, he would do everything in his power to help her process it and increase her comfort level with them.
“Yes, I think of all the Raeths, having Remmus around could be good for Ava.” At Cortana’s responding smile, he straightened. “Come on, Pet, time’s a-wastin’. Besides, if we don’t pack up at least a fourth of your obscenely large heap of shoes on this trip, I swear my wolf will have a coronary.”
“Ha!”
Cortana’s hip connected with his, shoving him off balance before taking advantage and knocking him backward onto her queen size bed. Leaping atop his chest, her knees bit into his shoulders, holding him against the comforter.
“My totally reasonable heap of shoes and I were quite content before you entered the picture, Mr. Wolf. Don’t stand between me and my favorites.”
“I thought I was your favorite.”
“There’s quite a difference between my favorite footwear and my favorite mate.”
