Page 43 of Blood and Trouble

“I think I’m going to sleep,” she said, turning to flick off the lights on her nightstand.

“Yeah, me too.” My eyelids felt like anvils, and my bones ached with the weariness of someone who’d depleted every ounce of energy they had. It had been a long day. I scooted down in bed and raised an arm over my head as I tried to relax, tried to ignore the beautiful distraction next to me and the bigger one across the suite.

Ava rolled to face me, tucking her hand under her head so she was propped up on her elbow.

“I told him we were drunk,” she said. “He said it was none of his business.”

“It’s not,” I said, glancing at her.

“Sure,” she said. “He misses you. I saw it in his eyes when he walked through the door.”

“Doesn’t change anything,” I said.

“You miss him, too,” she continued, ignoring my protest.

“And?” I raised an eyebrow.

She pursed her lips and tucked herself into the side of my body, wrapping an arm over my stomach, her head on my chest.

“You’d make a cute couple,” she said. “A good team.”

“We did,” I admitted. “Until we didn’t.”

“I understand why you didn’t want to mate him,” she said. “Hell, I think we made the biggest mistake of our lives, doing what we did. But to break up entirely?”

“That was his idea,” I said, remembering the pain in his eyes and the stutter in his voice as he’d told me he couldn’t do this anymore. “I would have gone on the way we were. I would have stayed like that forever. He wanted something more. I can’t blame him for that.”

“He’s hurting,” she said. “So are you.”

“I’m in bed with a beautiful, half-naked female.” I traced the strap of her lace nightie over her shoulder, teasing at the lace on her breast. “Hard to be hurt in such a precarious position.”

She stared up at me with her big blue eyes, her other side peeking through as they shimmered and glowed in the dark. I met her animal with my wolf, letting him surface. He wanted to roll in between her thighs, slot himself inside her, and leave his pheromones all over this suite. He wanted Poe to smell it, to seek it out, to blast mating scent until he exploded.

Was it mating scent?

Had to be. But it wasn’t a warning…not really. Yes, it smelled possessive, and yes, it was him marking his territory. But it didn’t scare my wolf off. No, instead it felt more like an invitation, which made me wonder…which one of us was he marking? And why now?

Two years we’d been together. Two years and not a damned bonding scent between us. But now, he spent ten minutes in a room with Ava Vanderbilt, and he’s a Godsdamned perfumery?

Aw, fuck.

My instincts blared, my wolf howling as realization hit. What if he was mated to her? It could happen suddenly, out of nowhere. I’d seen pack members who’d known each other their whole lives wake up one day and suddenly know. It could be an amazing experience. It could rip families apart.

In the end, magic did whatever it wanted to; fuck the consequences. If Poe and Ava were mates, there was nothing any of us could do about it. I’d have to force the annulment. I’d have to step aside. I’d have to watch helplessly as Poe and Ava officially mated and swore their lives to each other and…

My inner beast roared. He’d have no part in that. After two years, some small part of him (and human-me) would always consider Poe mine. As of five nights ago, Ava had become a Mitchell. I’d married her, promised to stand by her side until I died, and given her my magic to ease her transition into being a shifter. She was mine…forever.

There would be no standing aside.

And yet, a shifter only ever had one mate. One. I hadn’t felt that cataclysmic change inside my soul telling me either was magically destined to be mine, and I couldn’t decide if that was mercy or punishment.

“I won’t be offended,” she said, breaking my train of thought, “if you two get back together.”

“What?” I blinked, trying to understand what she’d just said.

“Jealous, maybe,” she said, “if only because I wish I could find someone who looks at me the way Poe looks at you…and the way you look at him. But not offended. I’d understand. I’d get the annulment. It’s not too late for you two.”

I squeezed her tighter and kissed her forehead, tucking my finger under her chin to tilt her face toward mine. “I won’t leave you, Trouble. I swore a vow.”