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Nero rolled his eyes. “No. She really wouldn’t. She’s just going through something. Pretty traumatic too. Give her a second to adjust, will ya?”
“Do we evenhavea second?” She took another bite. “The council is going to come to town looking for Nikolas, and we will have to tell them that he’s dead,” Valentine said.
He shrugged. “Let me worry about that.”
“Not a chance. This ismyproblem. I need to find a way to fix this.”
“Well, seeing as how you are my mate, I think that we’ll both agree that it is actually my problem.”
She flinched and stuffed more noodles into her mouth to keep from talking about the mate thing. It had sort of faded out of Val’s mind after the whole Nikolas debacle. Sort of. Not really. It was just easier to pretend that Nero hadn’t told her. But there he was, bringing it up like it was nothing.
Like it was basically a done deal.
“You’re not going to stop saying it, are you?” she muttered to her spaghetti bowl.
He blinked up at her. “Huh? That you’re my mate? No, Valentine.” The way he spoke her name sent shivers up and down her spine. “I am not going to stop calling you my mate because that is what you are.”
“Not officially,” she argued.
“Not yet,” he countered.
“It can’t be. You can’t actually expect me to believe that we’re mates. Not after Celestine and Reece.”
“That’s not a bad idea. Youshouldtalk to Celestine about the mate stuff.”
“I didn’t say I would talk to her about it.”
“But you should,” he said as if they were talking about the weather. As if she wasn’t a murderer.
“But …” she clamped her mouth shut. She actually didn’t know what to reply. There was too much going on for her to even consider being Nero’s mate. How could she face Celestine now? How could she explain to her big sister what she had done?
“I can hear the wheels in your head spinning out from all the way over here,” Nero teased. “I already told Reece and Celestine to come over later on.”
She gasped and glared at him. “Why would you do that?”
“Because Lilliane is here, and Celestine would probably like to see her. And given that a vampire was dusted on the border between Greenlee and Blackwood, I needed to warn Reece of the potential repercussions from the vamps.”
“Oh,” her anger deflated. “Right. That makes sense.”
He beamed at her with a wink. “Keep eating. You need your strength.”
She pushed around some noodles, but her appetite was gone now that she knew Ceecee was on her way. There was no telling how her overprotective sister was going to react to this new development. Val thought it would be bad.
Bad, likebad bad.
Like she hadkilled a vampirebad.
“Lilliane!” Celestine’s voice could be heard from the front porch moments later.
“So much for waiting until after dinner,” Nero grumbled.
The cabin’s door burst open, and there was Celestine, barging into the house with fumes of anger coming out her nose. She scanned the cabin before her eyes settled on Val. “I’ll deal with you in a second,” she growled with her hands on her hips. “Lilliane Longborn, get your ass out here.”
“Ceecee?” Lil asked, bewildered as she finally left the bedroom. The two sisters blinked at each other, and out of nowhere, Lilliane burst into tears. Celestine sighed and rushed forward to hug her youngest sister. Val watched this unfold with her jaw dropped in shock. She exchanged a quick look with Nero, only to notice that the man in question was whispering quickly with Reece.
“Why in thefuckwould you leave with the council?” Celestine asked Lilliane with her best mom voice.
Lil shrugged and repeated what she’d told Val and Nero. As Valentine listened carefully, she was sure that her sister was keeping something from them.
