Page 31 of Blood and Trouble

“Fuck, send her in,” Kodiak said in a muffled tone, like he was talking to someone else in the room with him. “Lycan, I’ve got to go. Explain everything to Avalon. Get some rest and check in with our brothers in Copenhagen. And for the sake of all the fucking Gods, watch your six, yeah?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Thank you.”

“Tell Ava that Maeve wants to talk to her. She’s been blowing up my phone since the transition started.” With that, Kodiak hung up.

I took a few minutes to get my head straight. Poe was on his way here, and I’d just married someone who wasn’t him. Even if it were a stupid drunken mistake, he wouldn’t see it that way. He’d be hurt. He’d be angry. Rightfully so.

But none of that stopped the skipping pitter-patter in my chest at the thought of seeing his bright brown eyes again. Maybe he’d sneer and smirk and say something mean, and maybe I’d laugh at how hard he fought to keep up his broody little mask. I always saw through it. I always saw the tortured soul inside, knowing how it thrilled him to sharpen his rough edges on my stone-cold surface. I was a rock, and he was my steel blade, and together, we lived to make each other bleed.

I called my twin sister next.

“Tell me you’re okay,” she said as soon as she answered.

“I’m fine,” I replied, rubbing my tired eyes. “Nothing a little time and whiskey can’t fix.”

“That’s exactly what you need right now,” she said, her tone smothered in sarcasm. “Get shit-faced the day after helping someone through their transition.”

“You got any better ideas?”

Ren sighed. “Word’s spreading like wildfire. Another Vanderbilt shifter in the pack.”

I rubbed the ache in my chest, the phantom presence of Ava in the shower squeezing my heart.

“When you went through your transition,” I asked, “did you…I don’t know…feel your partner afterward?”

I could almost imagine her suspicious glare. “You mean like…physically?”

“No, inside. Like…I don’t know. A soulbond or something.”

“Transitions are intimate,” Ren said. “You’ve shared your magic with her. Of course you’ll feel her for a few hours.”

“A few hours,” I repeated, telling myself I could deal with that. It would only be a little while, and then I could go back to my regularly scheduled programming. I didn’t need to worry about mating Ava because it wouldn’t happen. And yet, a deeply disturbed part of me regretted it. Maybe I should have marked her. Maybe I should have permanently bound her to me in magic, the same way I had in name.

No.

If I were ever hypothetically to consider that, I would do it right. I would make sure she consented enthusiastically and understood clearly what it meant.

“I heard Poe’s flying in as support.” The mention of him brought me back to the present.

“Christ.” I blew out a breath. “Is nothing sacred anymore?”

If anyone understood how deeply my break-up with Poe affected me, it was her. She’d been there with me through the worst of it in the days that followed. She’d felt the echo of my heartbreak through our family pack bonds, through our twin tie.

“The pack does love to gossip.” She laughed. “How are you going to deal with living in such close quarters to him?”

“I don’t know. Don’t have much of a choice, do I?” I could wring Kodiak’s neck for that. “How about you? Are you still seeing that girl, what’s-her-name?”

“Melody?” Ren let out a tired exhale. “No. It didn’t work out.”

“You know, being pansexual means you have all the options in the world,” I said. “It’s kind of tragic that you’re attracted to everyone and still can’t get laid.”

She paused, and I envisioned her flipping me off.

“I’m hanging up now,” she growled. “Try not to get into too much trouble, okay?”

“Love you, sis,” I teased.

“Yeah, yeah.” The line went dead, and I hung my head back on the couch to close my eyes. I missed my family. I missed my sisters. As tired as I was, I would give anything to be around the pack right now, to have their energy to sustain me while I recovered.