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He didn’t get more than a couple of feet before Marcus grabbed his arm and halted his progress. “No. Vampires are at the door.”
Alarm shot through Bel, and his hands tightened on both of his wolves. It didn’t feel like a good sign. Were they about to be attacked? He would not let any harm come to Wyatt and River. Not now. Not after he just got them back.
Bel looked over at Aiden and was stunned to see a sly kind of smile slide across his handsome face.
“Marcus, you answer the door. I believe the clan is about to meet Sofia Montgomery and her entourage,” Aiden said. He rose and walked over his thronelike chair.
“Truly?” Philippe said in a near whisper.
“I’ve been expecting to hear from her, but it’s fortuitous that she should come tonight. It will be nice for her to meet our two newest members.”
“Bel?” River’s worried voice drew Bel’s eyes to his upturned face. “What do we do? We don’t know vampire formalities and customs.”
Bel almost laughed out loud. He was the last person to ask about vampire society and customs. That was Marcus’s forte. He was the only one among the brothers who made a point of dealing with other clan leaders.
“You’ll be fine.” Carefully extricating himself from where he was tangled with Wyatt and River, he stood while Marcus exited the room to fetch their unexpected guests. “Just remember that you’re a Varik. The rest kind of falls into place.”
Bel crossed the room to the open seat next to Rafe on Aiden’s left. Behind Rafe’s seat, Philippe stood with a proud smile. Ethan took up his normal place standing behind Marcus’s seat directly on Aiden’s right while Winter lounged in the seat next to Marcus’s.
With shoulders straight and heads high, Wyatt and River took up places on either side of Bel’s chair. It was a powerful feeling to have them standing with him. They were there to protect him, protect the clan, just as he would always protect them. Bel looked over at Rafe and smiled at the knowing look his brother was giving him. Rafe knew this feeling all too well. As if to prove it, Rafe reached up and gently took Philippe’s hand in his, brushing little kisses across his knuckles.
“Charmer,” Philippe whispered.
“Mon ange, every beat of my heart is devoted to your happiness.”
“Now I’m going to be sick,” River muttered, earning a loud snort from Winter on the other side of the room.
“No, River, you need to pay attention to Rafe if you want to learn how to be truly sappy and disgusting,” Ethan teased.
“Not everything needs to be a cheap porno,” Rafe replied lazily.
“Nope, just your Instagram account.”
“All right, gentlemen,” Aiden interceded before Rafe could fire back. His voice waffled for a second as if he were trying to hold in a laugh. He continued when he could speak evenly with a little more force. “I pray you’ve gotten this out of your systems now. We have guests.”
Ethan cleared his throat, and they all shifted in their seats, sitting taller. They could pull on the guise of being respectable for a few minutes. It would all fall apart eventually, but they could fake it for a short while.
Luckily, they didn’t have to wait long. The double doors to the library were pushed open, and Marcus stepped inside first. He walked, followed by a tiny, adorable woman with rich black hair and bright emerald eyes. She couldn’t have been more than five feet tall with her heels, but she looked even more diminutive with the tall handsome man on her arm.
He drew Bel’s gaze. There was something strangely familiar about him with his dark hair and dark eyes. Maybe his nose. Or—
“David?” Wyatt gasped.
Bel’s heart skipped a beat. Wyatt’s brother David? His eyes jumped from this David to his wolf as Wyatt stepped around Bel’s chair. Sofia had stopped walking in the center of the room, but the man at her side continued, closing the distance with Wyatt, the same look of stunned wonder on his face.
“Wyatt?” David whispered. He stopped a few feet away and lifted a hand to his brother’s cheek. “Is it really you? I thought you were dead.”
Before Wyatt could even speak, David grabbed Wyatt’s shoulder and pulled him in for a hard bear hug while Wyatt released a choked laugh and hugged him back.
Bel looked over at Sofia to see her give a little roll of her eyes, but she was smiling. “And here I thought I had the interesting secret,” she murmured.
“Oh, Lady Montgomery, I think you do have the interesting secret of the night,” Aiden countered. He pushed smoothly to his feet and extended his hand to her. “I told you we were aligned with two wolves. Though I must correct that and say they are now both official members of the Varik clan.”
