Leaning closer, I returned the favor, tracing the defined edges of his abs, the muscle hard and chill beneath my fingers. “You’re definitely on the right track.”
“The game is only fun if we all play.”
Peripheral vision clued me in to what I would see if I turned my head, so I didn’t. “Lethe, you’re buck naked.”
“Did you miss the dare? The creek and the rotten egg?”
“I’m not a huge fan of flashing my goodies, even if Mother Nature is the only one watching.”
Except we all knew gwyllgi patrolled my property line as well as theirs. Just because I couldn’t see them, didn’t mean they weren’t there.
“How about if I strip down to my underwear?” I could debase myself that much. “Will that work?”
Panties and a bra weren’t any different than a bikini, and we had pool parties at Lethe’s all the time. That had been the one modification she made to the property after purchasing it. She had an Olympic-sized inground pool installed, along with four twelve-person hot tubs. I was shocked she gave up that much land, but she was quick to remind me she, and therefore her pack, had plenty of room between her property and mine.
That was friendship for you.
What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is mine.
Friendship with Lethe anyway.
“This is why I’m in charge of your bachelorette party.”
“Wait.” I swung my head toward her. “Neely told me he was in charge of planning.”
“Um.” Pivoting on her heel, she sprinted for the trees, buns jiggling. “Gotta go.”
“Lethe.” I bolted after her. “Get back here.”
“Kiss my shiny heinie,” she yelled over her shoulder. “Oh, right. You’d have to catch me first.”
Tempted to exploit my connection with the land, with Savannah, to send Lethe into a sprawl, I sucked it up and let her beat me to the creek. I allowed her victory dance, which, for the record, was impressive. I’d had no idea she was that flexible. Even the packmate who brought us clothes stopped to watch, though it might get him bitten later.
Noticing her audience, she waded into the water and dove under to rinse out her hair.
Having finished my quick wash, I was waiting when she surfaced, and I dunked her so fast she never saw it coming.
Lethe came up growling and sputtering, choking and flailing, but I was already gone.
“You’re on your own,” I called to Linus from the bank as I wrapped myself in a towel.
Only then did I pull on Savannah to lend me speed to reach the den before she caught me. I was taking my life in my hands, but I couldn’t deny it was worth it when her garbled swears for revenge chased me up the hill.
Three
Sunlight gilded the hardwood in Lethe’s guestroom when Linus’s phone screen flashed with an incoming text. The reflex to snatch it up itched his palm, but he wasn’t on call anymore. It would take time to get used to that. Grier was the potentate now.
Grier, whose head was a warm weight on his chest, thawing the cold that forever seeped into his bones. He angled his chin to indulge in one of his favorite hobbies, mentally sketching Grier during her unguarded moments. Now his fingers twitched for charcoal and paper to sketch the sharp line of her jaw, the soft part of her lips, the way her bangs fell to one side, exposing a faint starburst scar she got from fencing with oak switches when she and Amelie were kids.
The screen flashed again, and this time habit overruled heart.
He reached for his cell and read the message. His lips thinned as he set the book spread across his lap—a fascinating treatise on cellularly revived brain tissue—on the nightstand. The woman in his arms he eased gently onto her pillow with an expertise that no longer woke her. Then, just as carefully, he stood without causing the mattress to dip.
Dark hair cascaded over her pillow, and he already missed its silken caress. Her cheeks were flush from snuggling against him like she wanted to burrow under his skin and live there. Her eyelids twitched as she dreamed, her fingers curling into the sheets as she reached for him. Her lips parted, and a line gathered across her forehead. A punch of breath shot out of her lungs, and she whimpered like a child as tears gathered on her lashes.
The dream came less often these days, usually when she slept alone, but the past still exacted a toll on her in unguarded moments.
Crossing to her side of the bed, he crouched next to her and began to sing, his voice barely a whisper.
“The night birds are calling, calling, calling. The princess she’s falling, falling, falling. A stone for a heart and a blade for a tongue, fair beauty she slayed all her suitors but one. His armor was love, and his weapon this tune. Their battle was fierce, the casualties great, but fair beauty, she smiled as she lowered her gate.”
The knotted muscles in her legs relaxed, and she rolled on her side, facing him in sleep as he sang.
“I’ll be home soon.” He risked a gentle kiss to her forehead once he was certain she wouldn’t wake. “Sleep well.”
He pulled on last night’s clothes then padded out into the winding hall past Lethe and Hood’s closed bedroom door. From there, he exited into the bustling foyer.
Aware they were hosting necromancers, the pack kept things quiet as they ate breakfast and headed off to their jobs for the day.
“What are you doing up?” Bo did a double take when she spotted him in passing as she carried plates piled high with food out of the kitchen. “I thought you guys were nocturnal.”
Bo was a short black woman with a passion for Southern cooking she inherited from her father. A recent addition, she worked in the lavish kitchen to keep the pack fed and earned a generous salary doing it. She hadn’t been here long, but her skill had made her a favorite overnight.
“I got a call.” He relieved her of the plates she had balanced on her forearm then opened the door into the dining room, which sat fifty people and was about half full this morning. “I need to meet the cleaners at Woolworth House.”
“I’ll send Ty with you. Lord knows he’s been no help in the kitchen this morning. That boy eats twice as much as he cooks.” She snapped her fingers at her son, a lanky youth with scrambled egg hanging from the bristles in his sparse beard, who had been booted from the kitchen for his gluttony on more than one occasion. “Go help Linus.”
Done serving the dishes, Linus straightened. “I’m perfectly capable of—”
“Sweetie.” Bo turned a kind smile on him. “You’re about to marry my alpha’s best friend. Grier is pack, and that makes you pack. Pack never walks alone.” She dusted egg crumble off his sleeve. “And Lethe would kick my ass if something happened to you this close to the wedding.”
Rather than injure Bo’s feelings, he conceded to an escort. “All right.”
Ty shot up, a hop in his step, and bounded over to Linus.
“Where are we going?” He bit into a rolled-up pancake with a sausage link center. “Are you going to scythe someone when we get there?”
“Woolworth House,” he said, amused. “And not if I can help it.”
The ice in his core grew thicker each time he took a life, and only Grier’s belief he was a good man had kept him from giving in to the cold that pulsed in time with his heart.
“Cool.” He stole a muffin off a friend’s plate then shot out the door, pausing to yell, “Later, losers.”
A half-dozen boys his age hurled parting obscenities back while stomping their feet to make it sound as if they were in pursuit. Ty should have known better than to run. Not because it would trigger their prey drive, but because no self-respecting gwyllgi would abandon a plate of food.
Linus exited the den and began the short walk back to Woolly.
“So.” Ty fell in step with him. “How many people have you killed?”
The question, even when delivered with youthful guile, caused his skin to crawl. “How many have you killed?”
The boy ruffled his floppy hair with a nervous hand. “Rabbits or…?”
“People.”
“None.” He stumbled over his feet. “I wouldn’t…” He caught his balance before he fell. “I mean…” He fumbled to correct himself. “I would to protect the pack but…”
“You wouldn’t feel good about it later.”
“No,” Ty said slowly. “I guess you don’t either?”
“There would be something fundamentally wrong with me if I did.”
“I get it.” He jingled the chain anchoring his wallet to his jeans. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
The body count Linus had amassed while acting as the Potentate of Atlanta was a burden he alone would bear. Not even Grier knew his tally, an act of cowardice he wasn’t brave enough to rectify. “Do you have any other questions?”
Eyes bright, he jumped right in. “How did you land a girl as hot as Grier?”
“I don’t know,” he said, and he meant it.
“Oh.” Ty deflated. “I thought maybe you cast a spell on her.”
“Love isn’t real if it’s forced.”
“Theoretically, though.” He forged ahead. “It’s possible?”
“Most things are possible,” Linus allowed. “A thing is only impossible until you’ve done it.”
“You’re a pretty wise dude.” Ty nodded with respect. “I bet that’s why Grier chose you.”
A flurry of activity on the lawn at Woolworth House distracted Linus from the teen’s interrogation.
“Wait here.” He indicated a bench set well away from the property line. “Keep watch, but don’t come any closer until I give you the all clear.”
The cleaners worked fast, but you could never be too careful when it came to gwyllgis and bronze.
“Sure thing.” He stretched out the length of the concrete. “Mind if I play a game on my phone?”
“Go ahead.”