Chapter 41 Raven
Raven
Snow swirled down from a leaden sky as we popped back into the small square facing the harbor. Much to my great relief, Zane had been able to teleport us all back here, which meant we’d avoided the long, arduous trek.
Maverick’s body sheltered me from the worst of the weather as Zane scanned the area for threats. I avoided looking at the churning gray ocean. It reminded me too much of my merman mate.
I still couldn’t believe he’d left me. I’d read the note he left me at least fifty times and still didn’t understand why he couldn’t have waited until we came back to the cavern to say goodbye.
A tear slid down my cheek. I hurriedly wiped it away before it froze. If Maverick caught me crying, he’d get even madder at the merman. Mad enough to bite his head off.
A threat he’d made several times already.
Rasmus stood close by, wrapped in a thick fur, his red eyes fixed on me.
“I need to feed,” he purred. The thought of him sinking his fangs into my neck made me shiver, distracting me from my miserable Kai-related thoughts.
Rasmus feeding from me was orgasmic, but it sapped my energy, and I needed time to recover.
Maverick had warned him he’d have to feed responsibly. Until I figured out how to use magic to boost my blood, it wasn’t safe to let him take too much. I already felt weak as a kitten after feeding him at the cave, and I was desperate for food and a long sleep in a comfortable bed.
But first, we needed to get off the island.
“Is the boat here yet?” I asked Maverick, deciding it was better to pretend I hadn’t heard my vampire. He could wait.
“No, so I better go find the—” Maverick broke off as a mountain of a male wearing a thick fur coat appeared out of the gloom.
The male shot forward and wrapped his arms around Maverick before any of us could react. Zane swiped a blade out of thin air, but Maverick waved him back.
“How do you do that?” I asked Zane. It had to be magic.
“Pocket realm,” Kenji replied.
“What’s one of those?”
“Not now.” I glared at him, but he ignored me.
“I’ll explain another time, pet.” Zane winked at me as his blade disappeared into thin air.
“Thorrin?”
The new male grinned. “Cousin. It’s good to see you.”
To my surprise, Maverick punched the male in the face, sending him stumbling backward. But instead of reacting angrily, the male just rubbed his jaw and laughed.
“You fucking vanished without a word, Thorrin! We all thought you were dead!”
Thorrin’s amusement faded, and he shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Mav. I had a good reason. We have a lot of catching up to do. Come, let’s go back to my cabin and talk.”
Maverick shook his head. “I can’t. We have to get back to the mainland. Our boat should be here shortly.”
“It won’t arrive until morning. The captain sent word earlier. An unexpected security check delayed his departure.” What was that all about? We had no issues when we left before.
“Fucking mages,” Maverick muttered.
“Indeed.” Thorrin glanced over at me and frowned. “Your mate looks exhausted and in need of a hot meal. You’re not taking care of her, Maverick. I’m disappointed in you. That’s not how a bear behaves.”
Maverick’s deep growl made me scowl. It wasn’t my bear’s fault I looked like death. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.
“Raven had to feed the vampire,” Maverick gritted out while glaring at Rasmus.
Thorrin tensed when he belatedly realized we had a vampire with us.
“Fuck, we definitely need to get out of here. The presence of a vampire will cause a stir, and the last thing we need is to attract unwanted attention. Follow me.”
Maverick nodded and then scooped me up into his arms. I sighed happily, grateful for his body heat in the biting wind.
“I hope the new bear has lots of food,” Kenji grumbled in my head. “It’s been too long since my last meal.”
“You ate something less than an hour ago!” I pointed out.
“A cereal bar does not count as food, witch. It tasted like cardboard.”
“It was more than I had after you ate the last one!”
I rolled my eyes and tuned out his further complaints as we followed a narrow pathway through the snow.
Rasmus stayed close, his head dipped low beneath the hood of his fur coat, while Zane brought up the rear.
My heart ached once again when I thought about my merman. He should have been with us. He was the crown prince, so why would he need to register a mate claim?
I also didn’t like the bit where he had written: All being well, I’ll return to campus in a week.
It sounded like he wasn’t sure whether he’d be back, which worried me. The tether in my chest tingled when I first tried to find him, but I could barely sense his presence now. If he’d returned home, he would be deep under the ocean. Out of reach of all of us.
Was he safe?
He hadn’t spoken about his family, so I had no clue whether they were good people. I wanted to believe Kai’s parents were like him, sweet and empathetic, but for all I knew they were monsters.
So out of five goddess-blessed mates, two had abandoned me.
Clearly I was the problem here.
“You’re overthinking things as usual,” Kenji piped up as the glowing lights of a cabin broke through the murk. He bounded through a thick pile of snow and yipped gleefully when some of it collapsed on his head. I fought not to smile at his antics and failed.
“He’s right,” agreed Zane. “Fish boy will be fine. His mother is a raging bitch, but as far as I’m aware, she loves her son.”
“Not at all comforting,” I grumbled.
Zane shrugged. “He left. There’s not much we can do now. If he doesn’t return, it means I get more time with you, so I’m not complaining.”
“I’m not a timeshare apartment!”
“What’s a timeshare?” Rasmus asked.
“No idea,” Zane admitted, “but I’m always happy to share. Or watch.”
The thought of Zane sharing and watching had me squirming in Maverick’s arms.
“Little mate, calm down. I will make sure you’re satisfied once you’re fed and have had a nice hot bath.”
“Care bear, can you feed me and also run me a bath? I feel like being pampered after teleporting you all. My magic has run dry.” Zane pulled a pathetic expression before laughing when Maverick shoved him into a snowbank.
“Fuck off, incubus.”
“I see we have similar issues with our mate’s mate,” Thorrin grunted. I frowned, not knowing what he meant but too tired and horny to ask. Besides, the large male scared me a bit. Sure, he was Maverick’s cousin, but he made Maverick look normal-sized, so goddess knew what kind of shifter he was.
A yeti shifter? Was there such a thing?
I didn’t dare ask.
“Home sweet home,” Thorrin announced as we stepped onto a wide snow-dusted deck decorated with sprigs of evergreen ivy. Just as Maverick placed me back down, the door swung open and a tall male bounded out, grinning like a loon.
“More guests! What fun!”
More guests? Was this some kind of Airbnb for magicals?
I followed Maverick inside and stopped dead when a familiar figure rose from an armchair next to a blazing fire.
Maverick growled while Zane scoffed loudly. “What a shame. We hoped you’d drowned on your way back to the mainland.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” Alaric said with a shit-eating smile. He slid a sideways glance at me, but I focused on the fire because looking at his stupidly pretty face made the magic tether in my chest ache. With Kai having abandoned me, I didn’t have the energy to deal with Alar-dick’s bullshit.
Rasmus moved out of Maverick’s shadow and stared at the mage. I watched his aura darken from a rich magenta to near black. Great. Looked like these two wouldn’t be best buddies either.
The male who’d greeted us bounced on his toes like an excited puppy before he caught sight of Kenji. His jaw dropped.
“Um, what’s that?”
Kenji growled and bared his teeth, which caused the male to growl back. I pulled away from Maverick’s grasp and scooped up my kitsune before he got hurt.
“I’m more than capable of protecting myself, witch,” Kenji huffed, puffing out his tails and swishing them angrily at the obnoxious male.
“What sort of magical is he?” I asked Kenji, figuring he’d know from the way they reacted to one another.
“Wolf shifter. A truly pathetic specimen.”
“Ugh.” My lip curled up briefly before I forced a polite smile. Perhaps the wolf wasn’t so bad. Judging him before I got to know him was impolite, especially when he and his mates had kindly offered us hospitality.
“Leave the fluffy fox creature alone, Rex. My cousin and his mates are cold and hungry, so go dish up some reindeer stew for them.”
With one last baleful glare at Kenji, the wolf bounced away.
“The wolf better not try eating Kenji,” I muttered to Maverick, who smiled.
“He’d regret it if he did, little witch.”
I put Kenji down while watching him closely to make sure he didn’t go pee on the furniture. The tree incident had scarred me for life. Once I was certain Kenji wouldn’t embarrass me, I removed my boots and coat and placed them neatly by the door.
The cabin was stunning, with dark timber cladding on the internal walls and a central chimney breast built from stone.
There were cute little accessories everywhere, evidence of a female’s loving touch.
Lots of plants and greenery too, which surprised me given the climate.
I even spotted tubs of herbs, which made me miss the kitchen garden and hot houses back at campus; it had been ages since I’d spent time there, and I longed for a peaceful morning weeding the herb beds.
While my bear, incubus, and mage talked in low voices, I followed Kenji to the fireplace to defrost my extremities. The moment we reached the thick rug in front of the grate, Kenji made himself at home. I took a seat on a comfortable sofa and tucked my feet under my legs.
“You’re exhausted, little witch,” Rasmus said in a low voice as he sat down next to me. I blinked, not having seen him approach. Was that a vampire trait?
“I’ll be better after a good night’s sleep.”
“I’m sorry.” He took my hand in his much cooler grasp. “This wouldn’t have happened if Alexander hadn’t perished.”
“How did he die?”
“He was old, little witch. Being a vampire’s blood source gives humans longevity, but age eventually catches up with them. Alexander was 189 when he finally passed.”
“You must miss him.” He squeezed my hand and nodded.
“Before I sensed your existence, I had reconciled myself to the true death. I’ve lived a long life, and death takes us all in time. But then I felt your presence out there in the cosmos, and I knew I had to be patient. That you would come to me.”
“Have you lost other mates?” I wasn’t sure whether vampires had multiple mates like shifters did, but I hoped not. My love life was complicated enough without other mates coming out of the woodwork.
“No, my darling. Although I’ve lived for centuries, until you, I assumed she or he had died or did not exist.”
My brain froze over his use of he. “He? You, um, like males too?” My cheeks flamed with embarrassment.
“Little witch, I’m a vampire,” he purred. “Our species, like the incubus, are highly sexual beings. Feeding and sex go hand in hand. Why would we limit ourselves?”
“I know little about vampires,” I admitted before his words sank in. “Does that mean you’ll be feeding from others?” I tried really hard to maintain a neutral expression, but the thought of him biting other people made my magic flare. The fire exploded up the chimney, fed by my jealousy.
Alaric shot over immediately, a worried look on his face.
“I see you’re still a magical disaster,” he muttered. “Please calm down before you burn the cabin to the ground.”
His words fueled my anger, making my magic explosion ten times worse. Sparks flew from the grate while the stones around the chimney heated until they were red hot. Kenji stretched and moved closer, apparently unconcerned about his fur singing.
Rasmus ignored Alaric and squeezed my hand tighter. “Focus, little witch. Use me to ground your magic. You can’t hurt me.”
He was wrong. I could hurt him. But I concentrated on his cool touch, ignoring the angry raised voices from behind me.
The glowing threads of my magic slithered back into my chest, and I sank back against the soft cushions, utterly wiped out.
“Well done, mea amica. Let me look after you.”
Rasmus lifted me into his arms and did as I was told.