“Shit,” I hiss, slowly dropping my hands to my sides. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t supposed to tell you all that.”
With extreme stillness, he extracts himself and sits back on his feet. The mania is highly present in his expression—his eyes owlishly wide with pupils dilated enough to look like dinner plates.
“Which part were you not supposed to tell me?” he asks, his voice distant. “The fact that you’re a stand-in goddess, that you literally made several supernatural species, or that one of my best friends is magically bound to you for the rest of his life because some ancient magic voodoo compelled him to want to be near you?” His eyes narrow, the icy blue so cold it burns, and his tone shifts to something hard and cruel. “You’re Connor’s mate, and you still showed up here wanting more. Does he know how fickle the woman he gave his soul to is?”
Breathe, Nolan isn’t himself at the moment.My hands curl into bloodless fists as I fight to keep them at my sides.We don’t punch sick people... even if they are being super assholes ten minutes after telling me how perfect I am. And he callsmefickle.
“Ididn’t create the shifters, my ancestors did,” I say, keeping my tone as even as possible. “And you have no idea what happened between me and Connor, so—”
“And whose fault is that?” he growls, his body shifting to look more like the predator than the scared prey he did earlier.
“Yours!” I snap, frustrated and exhausted in my own right. “You just said that your fear is your problem, but it’s not just your problem. It’s our problem. Iwantedto tell you everything, but the guys told me you wouldn’t be able to handle it. Looks like they were right!”
Knowing there is a real possibility I’ll punch him if I stay any longer, I attempt to stand up, except my legs are half asleep, and my ankle twists under me as I fall hard onto the ground. Tears make an encore visit, leaking out of my eyes while I roll over on my back.
Nolan is immediately leaning over me, concern replacing his asshole glare. “Are you okay?”
“No,” I answer with a hard pull of my lips, echoing his response from earlier. “I love you, but you can be a real dick sometimes. And I swear to the goddess, if you agree with me, I will punch you.”
He nods that he heard me, wisely deciding he doesn’t want to get punched, and instead turns his attention to my injured ankle, prodding gently with his long, nimble fingers that I love so much. “So everyone else knew but me?”
Willing to throw them all under the bus so I can keep a few more minutes of compassionate Nolan, I answer with the truth. “Kaleb knows the extent of my... abilities, but not the stuff about the shifters. Connor and Donovan were in detention with me while I was reading the Volkov journal that explained the Call and everything. Felix knows more about me than I do, honestly. Part of witnessing my nightmares in full technicolor.”
Before I can say more, there’s a whoosh of a door opening and closing, followed by the creak of leather boots. Within a couple of seconds, Donovan is looming over us, his muscular arms flexing as he crosses them over his chest. “Angel, what the hell are you doing on the floor covered in grease stains?”
Nolan seems surprised to find that my once immaculate pink sweater and white tights are now various degrees of smudged black. “She, uh, fell and twisted her ankle.”
While crouching down so he isn’t towering so far over us, Donovan nods like Nolan’s explanation makes perfect sense. Casually, like I didn’t essentially 911 the man, he asks, “Is there a particular reason you’ve decided to hold onto that injured ankle instead of healing it?”
“Right. Magic,” Nolan mutters, putting my foot down and sliding away.
I quickly heal my ankle and try not to be annoyed, because the whole point is that I need Donovan’s help. Unfortunately, his help tends to work more like a machete than a scalpel. When I get to my feet, he runs his hands along my sides, quickly taking advantage of our more official status.
“You look cute covered in grease,” he purrs, a salacious smile pulling at his full lips, “but you’d look hot covered in something more edible. I’ve been told you like chocolate sauce.”
My cheeks turn vibrant shades of red as I try to figure out if he knows about the orgy sex dream I had.Shit, did I mutter it in my sleep or something?
His vibrant, blue-green eyes flick to Nolan, sizing him up quickly as Nolan stands awkwardly near the back of the car. “You, on the other hand, look like shit. When was the last time you fed... or bathed?” Before he can respond, Donovan looks back down at me. “I’m guessing this is why you ASAP’d me.”
I nod and whisper, “I didn’t know who else to ask, since I can’t help him anymore.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Nolan shouts, looking equal parts confused and angry.
Donovan sighs like he’s being kept from doing more interesting things. “What’s going on is that you had a chance to be with Callie, but like a dumbass, you turned her down, so now I’m here to feed your starving, vampire ass.” He mumbles something about “threesomes,” but Nolan is the only one who hears all of it if the whispered curse is any indication.
Ignoring Nolan’s scowl, Donovan kisses me like he wants to make a thorough examination of my dental work, leaving me weak-kneed and wobbly when he’s finished. “Don’t worry, Angel. Felix will be smarter, and in the meantime, I’m sure Connor and I can keep you entertained.”
“You’re enjoying this too much,” I murmur like he didn’t just kiss me stupid.
“Wait, Felix too?” Nolan demands, closing the space between the three of us. “Are you trying to collect the set or something?”
With lightning speed, Donovan grips the back of Nolan’s neck like he’s a six-foot-tall puppy that needs his face rubbed into something to learn to behave himself. “Let’s get you fed while you still have teeth to feed with, and stop acting like some fucking prude just because you can’t get your shit together. Vampires are polyamorous by nature, so I don’t know what’s got your panties in a twist.”
“I’mnota prude,” Nolan insists, grumbling as Donovan leads him toward the door. “And just because vampires have multiple partners doesn’t mean everyone is down for that.”
“And despite knowing that and appreciating what Callie is offering, your dumbass decided to fuck it up and turn her down,” Donovan counters with grim amusement.
“Stop calling me a dumbass!” Nolan growls, that dark predator creeping into his voice.
