Page 104 of Blood and Trouble

We got there by midday, and Ava couldn’t put off work any longer. If we were to keep up the ruse, she’d have to meet with Scott Fitzgerald tomorrow, which left us very little time to plan and coordinate her safety. I was beyond relieved to walk into the townhouse and see some of my family waiting for me.

“There he is!” Aquila said when I walked through the door. He threw his hands out to either side and pulled me into a big hug. He was a few inches shorter than me, but it still felt like being manhandled by a kraken.

“Ava!” Maeve shouted, rising from the couch in the living room to rush toward her twin sister. They embraced and cried, and I softened, seeing my wife with her other half.

As if summoned by my thoughts, Ren stepped out of the crowd and pulled me into a hug. The moment we connected, I sighed, and the weight of the last few days lifted off my shoulders. The family bond flared.

“Okay?” she asked with a gentle smile.

“Okay,” I answered.

Sol and Guin walked around the corner, joining Maeve and Ava in their reunion.

“Jesus Christ,” Guin said. “I leave you alone for a few weeks, and you come back married, scarred, and…what the hell is that?” She pointed at the mark on Ava’s neck. “Are you mated?”

Guin shot me a glare, one I pointedly avoided while I scooped Sol into a big hug and twirled her around.

“Hey there, your worshipfulness,” I teased, using the nickname I’d taunted her with when she’d spent a few weeks stuck in the Fiver with us. She’d been privileged and spoiled at the time, but this version of her had come a long way. “Couldn’t resist the carnage, huh?”

She laughed and swatted my chest. “You know I’d never miss an opportunity to tear out vampire hearts.”

“Oh, so feisty now that you’re all mated and chock full of Orion’s magic.”

She rolled her eyes. “I was feisty before that.”

“Don’t we know it,” Poe added, scrubbing his hand over her hair.

I clapped hands with Mill. He’d officially gotten mated to Maeve a few weeks ago. Though to hear her tell it, they’d been mated since she was nine but weren’t around each other enough for it to fully seal.

Mating bonds were weird.

I turned to Moose, long dark hair hanging around his shoulders.

“You look like shit,” Moose said. “Fuck your way through half of Europe, did you?”

“Is that jealousy?” I said with a laugh. There would be time to explain everything that happened, but knowing the way this pack talked, he’d probably already heard the gossip.

Serpent, the pack’s enforcer, hugged me next. When he shook my hand, he glanced down, away from my gaze. At the time, I chalked it up to his wolf showing respect for mine, but I caught a familiar scent as he backed away, one that had no business being on him, not when it came to my little sister. I pushed that thought down. More important issues were at hand.

Orion entered the room next, his dark eyes taking in the scene before they landed on Poe and me.

“Glad to see you made it,” Orion said, pulling me into a hug.

“Thank you for coming,” I said, breathing in his familial scent. I’d never had a brother, but Orion probably came the closest, and he didn’t even like me that much. Still, he smelled like home, like Sol and pack and Helena. It grounded me, brought me back to reality.

“That your handiwork?” he whispered when we broke away, nodding to the marks on Poe’s neck. He stood across the room, one hand on Ava’s lower back while she caught up with her sisters and met the other brothers.

I cleared my throat. “It’s complicated.”

“Hmm,” Orion grumbled. “We’re gonna have to talk about that.”

Another guy I didn’t recognize came around the corner next, tall with a mohawk and a scar along his right cheek.

“This is Mick,” Orion said. “He’s on loan from the London chapter, courtesy of Smiler.”

“You already checked in with the prez of this territory?” I asked.

Orion nodded. “Mick’s going to hang with us, just in case we need anything.”