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Just like they’d destroyed my mother’s life. Just like they’d treated the rogue the fae woman in the mountain had claimed they’d found stalking us. That was how the fae worked, apparently. Quick andbrutal.
Not the kind of enemies I really wanted tokeep.
“The conflict between us and them isn’t over, is it?” Isaid.
Aaron’s mouth set in a grim line. “No, I don’t think it is. But we’re better prepared for whatever they try next than we’ve ever been before. And now my kin have all seen the sway you hold over themtoo.”
He looked at me and smiled. I couldn’t help smiling back. Maybe it was okay to pretend, just for a little while, that all our problems weresolved.
The celebration wound down as night thickened around us. My eyelids were heavy by the time I found myself meandering down the estate’s hall toward my rooms with my four alphas intow.
When I caught sight of my door up ahead, a longing squeezed tight around my heart. Some part of my mind tripped back seven years to the nights curled up in the otherwise-empty apartment that had been my mother’s, waiting with less and less hope every time to hear her key in thedoor.
I never wanted to feel that alone again. I shouldn’t, now that I’d found my mates. But just knowing they’d be on the other side of those walls suddenly didn’t feel likeenough.
Nate moved to head to his own rooms, and I held out my hand. “No. Stay with me?” My gaze slid over my other mates: Aaron calm and steady, Marco amused but slightly uncertain, West as gruff as ever. “All of you. I want you to stay. Please? I’m not asking anything more than that. I just don’t want to sleepalone.”
I knew Aaron and Nate didn’t really need to be asked. Marco gave me his sly smile and said, “As you wish, Princess of Flames.” West looked as if he’d bit back a scowl, but he inclined his head, as if to say he’d go along with the requestbegrudgingly.
Apparently he decided he needed to actually say it too. I held the door while they all filed in, and he paused in front of me. “Look, Sparks, what I said in front of the fae monarch doesn’tmean—”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course,” I said. “No commitments assumed. Now come on. I’m exhausted—aren’tyou?”
I climbed into the middle of the massive bed and settled amid the spread of pillows. The guys surrounded me, Nate and Aaron cuddling right up to me on either side. Marco and West kept a little more distance, but I hadn’t expected anything else. I could still feel our bond winding warm and solid around me. The five of us altogether, the way I knew down to my soul it was meant tobe.
My nerves settled. My body relaxed into the bed. I drifted off into sleep, encased in the certainty that no matter what troubles lay ahead, I was exactly where Ibelonged.
* * *
Afrantic knockingshook me awake. I blinked in the dark room as my mates stirred around me. With a huff of breath I recognized as West’s, one of the guys pushed off the bed and stalked to the door. The rest of us sat up. I rubbed my bleary eyes, my hearthammering.
“What is it?” West muttered as he opened thedoor.
A quavering voice carried through the sitting room to the bed. “We’ve just gotten word. There’s been an attack on the bear alpha’sestate.”
* * *
* * *
