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Cort lifted his chestnut eyes to Grey, and there was no mistaking the wealth of skepticism in that look. But Grey smiled at him. He wasn’t retreating. No one in that room would expect Cort to be happy about any of this.
“First off, I’m the one going into that mall with you,” Cort announced.
Several people tried to speak at once, but Grey’s barked “No!” was louder than all of them.
Cort’s expression hardened and his eyes narrowed. “A hell of a lot of this is hinging on John thinking you’re blind. You think you can effectively fake that right now? I’m sure you’ve already forgotten half of what that was like. How you moved. How you held your head, your body. I’m your expert. You need me there every step of the way. I mean that literally. Every. Step.”
Grey swore softly. Cort was right. It had been easy to fake it in the driveway because Grey hadn’t been required to move. Walking through the mall where he could be watched by John meant that he needed someone with him who could help him fake his injury. Cort was their best option even if he absolutely hated the idea.
“He’s right,” Baer said softly and Grey nodded.
“What else?” Grey inquired.
“I want us to be bonded before we walk into that mall.”
Grey’s head snapped up, and his mouth fell open. For a moment, there wasn’t a single clear thought in his head. His heart hammered and his mouth went dry. There was nothing in the world that he wanted more than to be bonded to Cort for the rest of his days, but he hadn’t wanted it like this. He didn’t want his mate to feel pressured into this.
“Cort,” he rasped, trying to pull enough brain cells together to formulate coherent thought.
His lover pushed from his chair and walked around the island to wrap his hands around Grey’s biceps. “I’m not rushing this.”
“I think you are.”
Cort’s face scrunched up a little and he released an annoyed sigh. “Yeah, okay. Maybe a little, but I know that whether I decide to do this now or in two years when normal people jump into the whole marriage thing, the end result is the same damn thing: we are bonded. Maybe I’m just deciding to skip all the angst and silly drama to get to the important thing here. You are my mate. Even without all the hocus pocus, I can feel that in my soul. You are mine. The idea of you walking out of this house without our bond makes me sick to my stomach.”
Leaning his head toward Cort, Grey pressed their foreheads together. “Magic or not, we are soul mates. The bonding ceremony doesn’t make it more true. You will always be mine, and I will always be yours.”
“Then let me have this,” Cort whispered, his voice trembling slightly.
“I’ll give you anything and everything I can.”
For the first time since they’d returned to the house, Cort gifted him with a playful smile. “You give me too much power.”
“You can have all my power. I’m nothing without you,” Grey said before taking Cort’s lips in a sweet kiss that was broken all too soon.
Someone cleared their throat—possibly Wiley.
“Speaking of power, Cort would get something from you after you were bonded. That could help.”
Grey sighed. “That’s true.” He grabbed a quick kiss and then pulled away from Cort to find all his brothers watching him with varying degrees of smug or sappy looks on their faces. Yeah, yeah. Whatever. “But we don’t know what Cort’s power is going to be.”
“Plus, the bonding ceremony is conducted by the goddesses. Not us. We have to wait for the aunts to pop in,” Clay said.
“You can’t contact them?” Cort asked.
Wiley shook his head. “They’re not big on cell phones.”
Grey wrapped his arms around Cort and pulled him in close. “They’re usually pretty good about showing up exactly when we need them to conduct a bonding ceremony. I’m sure they’ll appear soon. We’ll be bonded.” He turned his attention to the rest of the Circle. “In the meantime, we’ll come up with a viable plan for Cort and me to go into the mall and how we’re going to take out John.”
It felt damn good to say the words, but Grey wasn’t entirely sure how they were going to make it a reality. What worried him more was whether John would be able to get into Cort’s brain if his mate walked in there and they weren’t bonded already?
No one was going to hurt his mate. He’d crush every mind, wipe them all clean, if he had to. No one was walking out of that mall if his mate was harmed.Chapter 24Grey’s fingers flew over his keyboard as the story poured out of him. His main character was in quite the jam, and Grey was having a blast getting him out of it. One of his favorite parts of writing was figuring out challenging situations.
