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"You look like you need this," another of them said, handing me a bottle of whiskey.
"Thank fuck," I snarled as I grabbed the bottle and took a long draw, and then another…and another.
The guys stared at me, shocked, but made no move to stop me as I proceeded to down the bottle for the next hour until I was sufficiently drunk. It was special whiskey, the kind that hit shifters hard, exactly what I needed while I endured the hell of waiting for Rune and Daxon to be done, my thoughts running wild.
Night had fallen before Ares showed up, casually strolling into the clearing.
My jaw dropped as they all appeared to recognize him, all of them shouting out friendly greetings.
"You know he's a vampire, right?" I slurred.
The looks I was getting, it was as though they thought I was an asshole. These bear shifters were idiots.
"My friends don’t care about that," Ares commented smugly as he slapped me on the back and settled next to me, smirking when he saw the almost empty bottle in my hands.
"How can you look so fucking happy?"
"What do you mean?" Ares asked, thanking the shifter who handed him his own bottle of whiskey.
"Why aren’t you sick at the thought of her with him right now?"
He shook his head confidently. "Because there's nothing that would prevent me from going after her and making her mine."
My eyebrows rose in surprise.
He stared at me, as if disappointed. "By all means, take yourself out of the race; less time I have to share with her. But I’d gotten the impression you cared more about her than that."
The world was spinning around me, and I was getting a throbbing headache. "It isn't my choice."
He shrugged his shoulders. "You must have missed that Rune hasn't quite gotten on the same page, but that's not stopping me."
“I’m probably going to kill you when I’m sober. There’s no way I’m allowing you near Rune again.”
The asshole laughed, like I’d told a particularly funny joke. I winced as the sound rattled through my head.
“Okay, killer. We both know that killing Rune’s blood mate would only hurt her…and that’s not something that’s probably best when trying to mate her, now is it?”
I flew off the log, swaying as I tried to keep myself upright.
I knew I was being an asshole right now. A petulant child, really. But there was something inside of me…something terrible…that said everything was not going to be all right.
And I’d learned to listen to those feelings a long time ago.
But unlike in the past, when I’d managed to survive whatever came my way, I was pretty sure what was coming…was going to be the end of me.
Because I was nothing if I didn’t have Rune.
* * *
Rune
My sleep was dreamless and deep. When I finally opened my eyes, it was to the tent’s canvas tarp the bear shifters had graciously provided us. I stretched my arms above my head and rolled to my side, promptly encountering a delicious set of chest and abs.
My gaze trailed up to his face.
"Wilder,” I purred, delightfully happy to see him.
His smile was warm, and I searched his face for any sign of the unease from yesterday.
