Chapter 6 #3
“Yes,” I said, far too quickly. He closed his eyes for a breath before stepping in front of me and putting his hands on either side of my neck, warm and steady, thumbs brushing my jaw. He didn’t pull. He didn’t demand. He just… held me.
The noise behind my breastbone dialed down a notch, and the room came back into focus. The scuffed skirting board, the tiny chip in the desk where Bella had pushed a paperweight once out of spite, the ridiculous flamingo with its ridiculous beak.
“I am sorry,” he said, and the words were so clean I tasted salt.
“For leaving without saying I was leaving. For not answering. For making you carry something heavy and then acting surprised that you were tired. I’m sorry for taking your choices and your memories.
But most of all, I’m sorry for not believing in this incredible strength you’ve shown us again and again. ”
“You’re very eloquent when you’re wrong,” I whispered, a tear tracking down my cheek.
“Practice,” he said, mouth quirking. “I get a lot of practice when it comes to us.”
Indigo pressed close, not quite snarling, not quite purring. “He will not chain us,” she said, voice tinged with suspicion.
“No,” I said.
He tucked a curl behind my ear. “No, never again.”
I sucked in a breath. He smelled like rain and pine. It was grounding. “I don’t know how to forgive you.” And that terrified me more than anything my grandmother was cooking up. I wanted to forgive them all, but I had no map of how to achieve it. Anger was an exhausting emotion.
“Then I’ll keep turning up until we figure it out. I’m not going anywhere, Cora. Through the bad and the good—that’s what it means to be a mate.”
The weight of the secrets between us pressed down on me. The deal with Donn would be revealed soon. Whatever Hudson had done with my uncle needed to be brought to light. But not today. One step at a time.
“TripAdvisor thinks we’re a brothel,” I grumbled finally, because if I did not ease the taut wire inside me with something ridiculous, I would snap.
He huffed a soft laugh. “We can add it to the amenities. Free Wi-Fi, continental breakfast, ghost mooning, ethical brothel.”
“Put that on a leaflet, and I will feed you to my aunts,” I said. “Aunt Sophia brought cabbage rolls.”
“Enemy action,” he deadpanned.
“Rebecca has been accused of seducing half the state, and she is very offended someone implied she has no standards.”
“As she should be. That would also mean half the state would be dead, given she is being hunted by a shifter with no boundaries.”
“Sounds familiar.”
He chuckled. “She’s already off the market, even if she doesn’t realize it yet.”
“She should get a say.”
“Has she seen anyone new since Ezra?”
“No.”
“Then she made her choice. Like I say, she just has to catch up.”
I leaned my forehead against his chest and sighed. His arms wrapped around me. Safe. Warm. Home.
“The aunts are digging into the Roberts curse for me.”
“Why? I thought we already worked out the curse is moot in a mating. I would never take your power, and you don’t need mine.”
“True, but they think there may be a way to break it.”
“An easy way?”
“Is it ever?”
His hands tightened the smallest amount, not in fear. In refusal. “No.”
“You didn’t ask what it would cost.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “We have bigger fish to fry.”
“That’s the whole reason I got them to dig into it in the first place. My grandmother altered that curse with her magic and blood.”
“Which means?”
“She is bound to it in ways she might underestimate. All magic comes at a price, and the power it must have taken.” I shake my head as he skims his hands down my aching spine. “There’s something I can use. I just know it. But to utilize it, I need to know the details.”
“You aren’t going to find those in some stuffy books, Cora.”
“I know.”
“So think outside of the box... or in this case, inside.”
I tilted my head back to catch his gaze. “Go to the source?”
He bopped my nose and winked. “Now you are getting it, little witch. Always know your enemy.”
Guess I was about to play house and happy families with the architect of my misery. Lucky me.
“I’m tired, but there’s so much to do,” I grumbled around a yawn.
“We should take the reviews down.” He glanced toward the laptop with a frown.
“We can’t. Freedom of speech and sponsored slander arm the keyboard warriors with a false confidence to type shit they wouldn’t dare say to my face.”
“Then stop reading them and concentrate on what you can change.”
Pete chose that moment to inflate his throat like a smug balloon and croaked. Hudson stared, then laughed, real and bright, the sound bouncing off the walls and making the candle flame shimmy.
“Why do you have a frog in your office?”
My lips twitched. “The result of a witch with glitter eyeliner who accidentally toaded her fiancé.”
He blinked. “This house is never boring,” he said, leaning his forehead against mine.
“No, it’s not. But right now, I need to unpack the supply delivery and pay some bills. The epitome of boring.”
My phone buzzed on the desk with a message.
Sophia: Leftovers in the fridge. Cabbage is love.
Hudson snorted.
“Stay?” I asked, my voice small as I prepared myself for his departure into what I was sure were a million more important things he needed to do.
He kissed my forehead. “Try to make me leave.”
My chest warmed, and a small crack sealed. “You are very dedicated.”
“I’m very in love,” he corrected.
I closed my eyes, because he’d said the thing and the curse listened to truth, and I refused to let panic be the first thing it heard. Hudson’s thumbs traced my jaw.
“Now, about your TripAdvisor stars. How do they feel about the full moon?”
“Stop,” I groaned.
“And we are going to respond to those reviews with grace and dignity.”
Ugh. I had neither in abundance.
“And then we are going to make Rebecca bake apology cookies for the entire internet.” He paused. “Actually, we’ll get Maggie to bake them and Rebecca to hand them out.”
“Perfect. It’ll distract them.” My heart settled, and my mind stopped trying to solve fifteen problems at once.
Even if the house was part brothel, part clinic, part frog spa, and part war room.
Even if my aunts plotted with herbs and footnotes.
Even if my mate left sometimes to be the leader the shifters demanded.
For now, he was here. For now, I didn’t have to carry this burden alone.