Page 62 of Season Warriors & Wolves

The dining room was busier than usual. Everyone important to me was sitting enjoying their food—food that our cooks usually took the time to prepare during festivities.

Alaric almost gave himself whiplash with how fast his head whipped to me. “Ah, finally. Come on, kid, take a seat. I…I had the cooks make all you like. No funny vegetables and all that.”

Nia huffed, shaking her head in disappointment.

“Thank you, old man,” I offered, patting his shoulder when I went past.

Mal lifted a hand up in a wave, smirking at me, and I rushed to him, hesitating a little before throwing my arms around his neck. “Sister-in-law,” he purred, cradling the back of my head gently, his hand shaking against me.

“Princeling.”

He chuckled and I pulled back to inspect the rough scars around his eye. “I’ll have the best of my healers have a look.”

“It was made with Adriatian steel, and I am not bothered,” he said, patting my cheek. “They made me look even more irresistible.”

“Perhaps bring that healer to have a look at his head,” my sister said quietly, slurping on some soup and Mal cocked his head to the side to give her a look.

Kilian sat beside me at the head of the table, laying down cutlery, food and filling me a cup of water. He still held my hand, his thumb skimming my palm.

Alaric cleared his throat. “I would like for this to become a usual…occurrence. Once a week, at least, I’d like for us to all gather for a meal.”

Caiden set his fork on the table and narrowed his eyes on the old man. “What have I done to you?”

A loud bang came from underneath and my friend glared at Mal who raised his brows and said, “Something wrong, my muffin? Did you leave that stick up your arse again?” He cocked his head in my brother’s direction. “Did he?”

Eren sputtered water all over the table, coughing, but the rest of us had turned red from holding in laughter.

I could feel a few hard looks on me. With a sigh, I put the spoon down though I had barely tasted the food and looked up at Alaric, Cai and Eren who had narrowed their eyes on me. “Might I help?”

“Stop planning war, we are eating,” Cai said.

“Don’t be silly.”

Eren lifted a brow. “What were you thinking so hard for?”

“Not war.”

Kilian shifted in his seat to look at me, frowning like the rest of the table and I smiled a bit too innocently. It seemed like I shouldn’t have because he frowned even deeper. “You look like Lila when she asks for sweets before bedtime.”

I winced. “I look like a beggar?”

“Sneaky.”

I scooted my chair closer to his and hooked my legs to wrap around one of his.

He lifted a hand to my face, his thumb caressing my cheek. “It won’t work,” he said, twirling my hair with a finger. “The thoughts are practically twisting your hair into curls.”

“It is all I have thought the past few months, Kil, I can’t seem to help it.”

“All?”

“If I thought of you, Mal would have turned into an honourable sacrifice, and I am a dishonourable woman. Couldn’t taint my reputation.”

He chuckled. “It might be compensated, my light, I’ve thought of you and of us enough to drive the Goddess of Thought out of her job.”

I clutched his shirt. “This is a bad place to talk poetry to me.”

“My beautiful girl,” he said, running the back of a finger down my cheek. “Tell me you’re here. Tell me I'm not sick.”