The dull ache in my chest sprung to life, burning like a wildfire.
You can’t exist, I thought sadly at the mating bond fighting so hard to be acknowledged.
I summoned my axe and threw it at the circular wooden board thirty feet away. The bladed edge sank into the wood, cracks forming around it.
“Bullseye,” Selene murmured from where she stood a few feet away from me. She at least was settling in quite well. We’d arranged for a whole new wardrobe to be brought for her, and she’d taken over cooking dinner most nights. Turns out she was excellent at gardening too and had planted some herbs on several windowsills in the kitchen so our food actually had flavor again.
I’d sent Remy an update yesterday on how she was doing, keeping the letter brief. I had included a note at the end that read, Oh, and if you’re reading this Bastian, your abs are still weird and hideous.
An hour after sending it, Bastian had cornered me in the library and demanded I take it back.
So that had confirmed my suspicions about the Alphas monitoring my letters after Cade’s comment about all communication going through them. The only reason I wasn’t more pissed was because I was so focused on finding the crest. And because, in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter. I wouldn’t be staying with the Alphas forever, so I’d just deal with it for now.
“Do you need anything?” I turned away from the target to face Selene. As always, she looked stunning. Today, she’d left her hair down, and it fell in waves to her waist. The deep blue dress she was currently wearing made her golden-blonde hair look even brighter.
I was getting better about not blushing around her, but I was still terrible at small talk, so I mostly just inquired about how she was settling in.
“You know you can ask me about other things?” She gave me a polite smile. “Might I suggest the weather?”
I looked at her for a long moment. “You’re teasing me, aren’t you?”
Amusement shone in her eyes before she laughed. “I am. All of you are walking on eggshells around me, and it’s unnecessary.”
“You may not have noticed, but we’re a bit dysfunctional around here when it comes to social etiquette,” I said dryly.
Her smile became softer and felt more genuine. “I understand. The Alphas lived here by themselves for decades until you came along. And while I admit I don’t entirely understand the dynamic between you and them, it’s clear there are problems you all are working through.”
“That’s a nice way to put it.” I snorted.
“And now I’m here, further adding to the problem.”
“You’re not a problem,” I assured her quickly. “My baggage with the Alphas will not bleed over to you. I promise.”
Selene hadn’t been any more forthcoming about why she hadn’t fit in with her previous packs, and I hadn’t pried. But she had made it very clear that she needed things to work out with the Alphas. The implication being that her family would be extremely displeased if she were to return again.
Despite the polite distance she seemed to hold between herself and all of us, she fit in nicely and didn’t seem to mind being essentially ignored by everyone but me. Except at dinnertime. We’d gone back to having dinner together, mostly because Selene had insisted and we all wanted to eat her food.
I had to admit it was nice. Conversation might be a bit stilted at first, but we usually managed to find some safe topics. For an hour a day, I could almost pretend we really were a pack. That quickly ended when Bastian and Cade had to run interference to keep Ryker from following me back to my room.
“I take it that whatever you’ve been researching isn’t going well?” Selene’s eyes darted to the pieces of the target boards I’d already annihilated.
“No,” I admitted. “Just a bunch of dead ends.”
The frustration I’d been feeling all day resurfaced, and I pivoted back to the target. In one smooth motion, I pulled my arm back, summoned the axe, and threw it. It slammed into the wood a few inches next to the center.
And this was why I was practicing. Samara had a natural talent when it came to hand-eye coordination. I had to work for it.
“Are the axes courtesy of the Moroi?” Selene moved to stand to my side, several feet away, giving me space. Her gaze was curious as she watched the axe disappear into thin air from where it was stuck in the wood before reappearing in my hand.
“Yes.” I summoned the other axe in my left hand and held it out to her. She stepped forward and took it before moving back. I continued practicing with the other one. “I went to Drudonia with Samara but also one of her now mates, Astaroth Devereux.” I used Roth’s full name because that was how most people outside their friends and family knew them.
“I'm familiar with Roth,” Selene said dryly.
“You’ve met?” I lowered my arm before attempting another throw and glanced at her. “Did you study at Drudonia?”
Selene was several decades older than me, so we wouldn’t have studied at the same time, but I didn’t see any other way she would have met Roth.
“I did,” she confirmed. “And a couple of years ago, I did a short stint there to study and also teach some seminars. Roth was still living there at the time. My interests lie in interpreting the art left behind by the Fae.”
