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"Negal," Gilbert motioned for him to step aside. "I need a word with you."
The god said something to his team leader and walked toward Gilbert with a drink in hand. "How are you holding up?" he asked.
Surprisingly, Gilbert felt much calmer than he'd expected to feel under the circumstances, and he wondered whether Negal had already thralled him without telling him.
"I'm doing well. Thanks for asking." He looked around, making sure that no one was paying attention to them. "I'm heading upstairs. I'll give you a call once everything is set."
Negal clapped Gilbert on the back. "Don't start anything before I get there. I need to thrall you both before you two get busy."
"Of course. Is there anything I need to prepare for you in the other room? Something to get you going?"
The only thing he could offer was a lingerie catalog, so he hoped the god would say that he didn't need anything or that he would take care of it himself.
Negal laughed. "I might not look it, but the Fates blessed me with a vivid imagination. I don't need external stimuli."
"That's good." Gilbert gave him a tight smile. "How about a bottle of wine or perhaps Snake Venom? You know, the beer the immortals love so much."
"I'll be fine." Negal squeezed his shoulder. "Go to your mate and offer her some wine to soothe her nerves."
"Thanks, Negal. You're a good guy."
The god chuckled. "Karen said the same thing. I guess that's what happens when you are mated for as long as the two of you have been. You form the same opinions about people and use the same phrases."
Gilbert wasn't sure whether it was meant as a compliment, but he took it as such.
"That's what a good partnership is like. I wish for you to get as lucky as I did with finding a great partner. Life is blessed when you have someone wonderful by your side. Someone you arehappy to wake up next to each morning and return to at the end of each day."
The god sighed. "I have given up hope of ever finding that someone special. I'm not as young as my teammates, and I've been all over the galaxy before getting assigned to patrol this sector. If I haven’t found her by now, I never will." He affected a nonchalant smile. "Not that I made a big effort to look for her. It either happens or it doesn't. I'm quite satisfied with my bachelor status and having the freedom to sample a variety of lovelies wherever I'm stationed."
Karen
On the way to the cabin, Karen's mind raced with the thoughts of what she was about to do. She was no longer worried about the awkwardness of having Negal bite her while she was having sex with Gilbert.
If she wasn't aware of it while it happened, she could live with the fact that it had afterward. With that settled in her mind, the worry of survival returned.
If it was only about her, she wouldn't have thought twice about it, but she had five children, and only one of them was an adult with a mate of her own. The other four needed their mother, and losing her would devastate them in ways that she was all too familiar with.
After losing Kaia and Cheryl's father, Karen had functioned on autopilot because she had two little daughters to take care of, and her girls had been suffering in ways that they couldn't even fully express at such a young age. Things had gotten a little easier with time, but that wound had never really mended, not even after meeting Gilbert and falling in love with him.
Immortality wasn't going to cure it either. If she survived, she would carry the pain of loss for eternity.
With a sigh, Karen entered the code to the cabin and opened the door.
As she'd expected, Cheryl was in front of the television with the twins sleeping in the crib and Idina sprawled on the couch, clutching her blanket in one hand and her favorite doll in the other.
"You're back early," Cheryl said without shifting her gaze away from the television. "What happened? Someone spill wine on your dress?"
Instinctively, Karen looked down to examine her gown and then shook her head. "No, I came to tell you that you and the little ones are spending the night at Kaia's and to help you move them. Gilbert invited a couple of friends over after the party."
She hated lying to her daughter, but Cheryl was too young for Karen to share the truth about tonight with.
Kaia had promised not to tell her younger sister anything about the plan, and Karen hoped she'd kept her promise, but given the knowing look in Cheryl's eyes, she knew exactly what was about to transpire.
"Are Kaia and William back in their cabin?"
"No, but they know you'll be there when they are done partying for the night."
Cheryl yawned. "I watched the ceremony on television. It was hilarious before it became boring, so I switched to something else."
