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“Relieving stress with my mate; thanks for asking. You look like you could use a littlestress reliefyourself,” I drawled back.
She spun around and stormed away, her brown curls bouncing behind her as she moved.
I glanced up at Priel to make sure he wasn’t checking out her ass or anything, but he was already grinning down at me.“You’re sexy when you’re mean.”
“Keep it in your pants until we’re out of the shark tank,”I murmured back, squeezing his bicep tightly.
Ervo had been staring at the second floor, so it was safe to assume that was where I would find Mare, and hopefully Sunny and Dots too.
His chuckle made me grin as we headed toward the staircase off to my left. The place honestly still looked almost as cold and unwelcoming as it had been before they expanded it and added furniture. The living room and kitchen were set up almost exactly the same way they had been back in the old Stronghold, but the space lacked life. No one was down there, watching a movie, reading a book, or even cooking.
We climbed the stairs while still holding on to each other. At the top, I looked around.
All I could see was another long, cold hallway, and two rows of doors.
“Damn,” I whispered.
“Hmm?” Priel looked at me.
“It just feels empty and angry in here. Back at the Stronghold, it was a family. I was the pissed-off black sheep, but I still knew I was welcome,” I explained quietly.
Looking around, I debated knocking on doors but just decided to go with the seelie way of locating people.
“Mare?” I called out. “Sunny? Dots?”
“In here!” Sunny yelled from the door furthest from the staircase.
Dots opened it a few seconds later, as we headed their way.
“Hey!” She threw her arms around me for a quick hug. “Come on in.” When she grabbed my hand and tugged, Priel and I let her pull us inside.
My eyebrows shot upward when I saw three mattresses staggered around the room. It wasn’t a big room, so there wasn’t a whole lot of space. Between each of them, there was only four or five inches.
Mare was curled up on the bed in the corner nearest to the window, her thighs to her chest and a book resting against her knees. She gave us a faint smile before returning her eyes to the pages.
Sunny was sprawled out on the mattress in the opposite corner of Mare’s, but she was sitting up and grinning at us. “Look at the two of you, all matey and cozy.”
I snorted, and Dots laughed.
“What are you all doing in here?” I asked, letting go of Priel’s arm. He leaned up against the wall, releasing his grip on me so I could go over to them and plop down on the end of Sunny’s mattress.
“Hiding from the unseelie chicks,” Sunny admitted.
I frowned.
“Not hiding,” Dots corrected. “We’re just… avoiding them.”
“AKA hiding,” Sunny agreed.
“They’re not very friendly,” Dots admitted. “When you do talk to them, they just go on and on about how much they hate the fae. They’re hoping you can find enough fae chicks to distract all of the men. Even the mated ones.”
My eyebrows shot upward.
I’d seen and heard enough of Priel’s thoughts to know that wasn’t even almost a possibility. Mated fae were completely devoted to their mate, even if they didn’t show that. Ervo and Mare weren’t even fully mated yet, but I’d seen him out there. Someone was going to die if he didn’t see her soon.
Priel snorted. “Pipe dream.”
“We think so too,” Dots agreed.
