“He’s dead.”
Thorrin went quiet as he processed the news. My bear whined in my head because we could smell the bitter scent ofsadness emanating from Thorrin, but I knew Thorrin wouldn’t appreciate me trying to comfort him. That was his mate’s job.
He drained his glass before he spoke. “How?”
“The feral shifter disease took him. I was the one to put him down.”
Thorrin closed his eyes briefly. “I’m grateful it was you and not some asshole mage.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. He was a good bear before…” I trailed off, not needing to spell it out. Seamus had lost his way, but we both had happy childhood memories.
I glanced across the room. The others sat huddled around the fire without Raven and the vampire. Against my better judgment, I’d let him take her upstairs to bed. Knowing he’d need to drink from her life source made me want to tear his throat out, but as her soul-bonded mate, I couldn’t harm him.
Not badly anyway.
From the way the mage kept glaring at the undead bastard over the dinner table, I had a feeling we were in for a world of pain.
Raven had mostly ignored the mage and his histrionics. Once she’d sated her curiosity about the wood sprite, she’d picked at her food and stared into space.
Her sadness over the merman’s departure was palpable, and I knew she had yet to process his inexplicable trip home. My gut told me there was more going on than his brief note suggested, but for now, I planned to keep my feelings to myself.
“Let’s go sit down. There’s more we need to catch up on,” Thorrin said in a defeated voice. His sadness tasted like ash, and I wished with all my heart I’d not had to tell him about Seamus.
The incubus wandered around the living room, poking at various ornaments and being irritating. When he picked up a small ornament and promptly dropped it, I lost patience.
“Sit down, Zane! You’re driving me nuts.”
He rolled his eyes and dropped into a chair by the bookcase.
“I’m restless. I need…” His voice trailed off as his eyes lit up, but I ignored him. We all needed the same thing, but I wasn’t about to risk her health. My sweet little mate deserved a night of uninterrupted sleep.
Ignoring the incubus was always the best policy, so I turned to Thorrin, who sat in an armchair with his mate perched on his lap. She hummed as she worked on a needlepoint project, the point of which I failed to grasp.
“Why didn’t you send word once you settled?” Thorrin winced at my sharp tone, but having spent years thinking he was dead, honestly, he was fucking lucky my bear hadn’t killed him. “Ma cried for months when you disappeared without a trace.”
“Ouch, dude. That’s some piss-poor treatment of your relatives,” Zane commented. “Although I’d be more than happy to ghostmygrandparents. Or murder them if I weren’t likely to get caught.”
We all turned to stare at him with various degrees of surprise and horror.
“What? My family members are assholes.” He shrugged, completely unrepentant.
“No wonder his father went loopy,” Alaric muttered under his breath, but the incubus was out of his chair in a flash. He shoved Alaric to the floor and held a summoned blade to his neck.
“What’s that, mage? I’m clinically insane and prone to psychotic episodes?”
“Fuck off, Zane. We all know you are a lunatic. No need to be dramatic about it.” For a male at risk of being decapitated, Alaric feigned nonchalance, but the loud clap of thunder outside said otherwise.
“Pity you’re my pet’s soul-bonded mate,” Zane hummed. Blood trickled down Alaric’s neck, but he remained still even aslightning flashed through the window. “Aside from her, would anyone miss you? No?”
“Go fuck yourself,” the mage gritted out before Thorrin gently placed his mate to one side and stood. I watched as he lifted the incubus by his collar and tossed him across the room.
“Enough! We have bigger problems than some stupid rivalry,” he growled. Zane picked himself up and laughed. The blade vanished before he sauntered back to his chair while the mage cursed and wiped his bloody neck.
“Good thing the bloodsucker doesn’t like your vintage, sparky,” Zane taunted, because of course he had to have the last word.
Thankfully Alaric kept his mouth shut this time.
Thorrin turned to me once he’d settled his mate back on his lap.
