“You think he’s ready to be reasonable?”
“Won’t know unless we give him a chance, right?”
I’m torn. I don’t want another fight with my brother. Especially not right now when bad news about Mom could be waiting for us when we return to the hospital. But that’s just it. Surely we need to be a united front ready to help her and Dad with whatever this new phase looks like.
I sigh. “Yeah. Guess not.”
I text Riley the name of the hotel and tell him to meet us there in an hour for a drink, which sadly gives us enough time to go change into our new clothes but not to do anything about the promises Bas made this morning. It’s early evening. Things are already winding down as the sun begins to set and shops start closing up, their Sunday hours cut even shorter for the winter season.
I choose the sweater dress over the top of my tights. My old sneakers kind of ruin the look, but I still enjoy the way Bas can’t take his eyes off my legs.
The hotel bar is empty apart from us. We find a quiet table and sit. I only realize I’m tapping my leg when Bas slides his large warm palm up my thigh beneath the table. “We don’t have to do this now,” he says quietly.
“Yeah, we do.” If I’m honest with myself, this has been on the back of my mind all day, and it will be until I resolve things with my brother.
A cough from behind us makes me turn. Riley is standing with his arms folded across his chest, looking every bit as stiff and angry as when we saw him last. “Oh sorry. Am I interrupting something?”
I narrow my eyes. “If we’re doing this, it’s going to start with you apologizing to Bastien.”
Riley’s mouth drops open. He wasn’t expecting that from me. We’ve always had a hot-and-cold relationship. We fought often as kids, but it usually ended with me crying. After finally shifting, I’m feeling a new sense of strength. “I mean it.”
His expression softens a little. “You’re really serious about this, huh?”
In answer, I pull aside my hair, which is loose on my neck, revealing the mating mark.
Riley’s eyes widen, and his face reddens. For a moment his hands fist at his sides, and I think he’s going to hit Bastien again or storm out.
Then he sighs and does something even more surprising. He pulls up a chair and sits, folding his hands in front of him on the table, looking down at them rather than at us. “Seeing you shift this morning made me realize maybe there’re a few things I don’t know about you, Ver. Maybe a few things I don’t know in general. So I’m listening, but, Bas, you’d better have a fucking good reason for doing this the way you did.”
I’m about to tell my brother to fuck right off again when Bastien’s hand squeezes my thigh. I pause and look sideways at him.
Bas clears his throat. “I don’t. Not one that’s good enough to cover what I did. The way it happened. There’s more than one reason I didn’t hit you back this morning.”
Riley huffs a laugh. “Glad you didn’t. Not sure my ego could have taken the beating you could have given me.” Then he grows serious again, steepling his hands and looking at each of us. “Do I want to hear this?”
Bas looks at me, a question in his lifted brow.
I shrug. “His problem if it’s TMI.”
Riley winces. “I guess I deserve it.”
There’s a pause, and I realize they’re waiting for me to start. “Well, this morning was actually the first time I ever shifted. I didn’t know I could. Mom kept telling me it was coming, but you know what she’s like. I thought she was telling herself as much as me. I thought she was ashamed her daughter was born without the magic.”
“Aw, come on, Vera. Mom loves you. She’s so proud of you. Shift or no shift. It’s me she’s disappointed in.”
I have to swallow around a thick lump in my throat, but I push on. “I mean, you make it pretty hard for her not to be sometimes. Anyway, she warned me, but I didn’t listen. But then I went into heat while Bas and I were snowed in up at Black Pines. I never saw it coming, though I should have.”
Riley’s eyes go like saucers. “Fuck.”
“In Bastien’s defense, he wasn’t going to rut me until I practically begged him—”
“Aaaand skip to the end.”
“And I guess we got carried away—”
“Are you sure this is the end?”
“I bit her.” Bastien’s low rumble cuts through the back-and-forth between me and Riley.
