Chapter 9
nine
The ride back to Brentwood was magical. We flew so high, I imagined I could reach up and palm a star. Faint regrets lingered that I had blown my chance to have Rían to myself for an entire night, but there was so much more at stake than the reason I gave for going home early.
Rían and I had our actual feelings for one another to sort out before we put ourselves in a situation that, after a romantic evening spent under the stars, all but guaranteed that I would end the night peeling off his crop top and playing the xylophone on his abs.
As hard as it was to kiss the fantasy goodbye—not that I’m admitting I gave those gray sweatpants a lingering farewell glance—I had to go about this the right way. For all our sakes.
As I told Rían earlier, Goldie wasn’t an obstacle to me being with him. But she necessitated handling this situation with care. Convinced we were destined for sisterhood, I didn’t want to let her down, but I also couldn’t make decisions based on her happiness.
Big talk for someone dreaming of licking her brother’s scars.
No. Bad Ana. Focus.
Priorities. Yes. Those. I had to get them in order.
Sloane almost died choosing me over her alpha, and her future was a consideration too.
She was already a Walsh, thankfully, and that gave her security.
But Rían had been right to make me aware she was loyal to me above any other claim on her.
That included her new clan, and that made her my responsibility.
Then there was my own predicament. Wish dragon or not, I was in danger without a clan to protect me.
I couldn’t bear being a Sartori any longer.
I had granted Carmichael one last favor in letting his challenge unfurl without cleaving our bond.
Now it was time to cut ties with my past and forge my own path.
No sooner had Rían’s claws touched down than Liam burst through the park gate to greet us.
Beside him, Sloane sprinted with a donut in her hand. Weird that it had lasted this long. They must have been in town when they spotted Rían flying overhead and came running clutching their leftovers.
“Thank God you’re back.” Liam tossed Rían sweatpants and a tee. “I was worried sick.”
Sloane, whose attention drifted a tad close to naked Rían for my comfort, caught me glaring and held up her hands in a can you blame me for peeking gesture.
Yes, I responded with murder—or at least light maiming—in my eyes. I can, and I will.
While she and I argued wordlessly, Rían pulled on the clothes.
As rare as his transformations must be, he wasn’t any more modest than the average shifter.
Unlike me. This outfit hugged his frame in all the right places, but I almost missed his crop top.
Though I might have been lamenting the loss of the slice of pale skin exposed between his tee’s hem and the top of his sweats more.
“Ana.” Liam zeroed in on me. “You—”
Sloane shoved the donut in his mouth. Like all the way in. It was tickling his tonsils in there.
“I did that for your own good.” She slapped a hand over his lower face. “That buys you time to think before you speak because if you say the wrong thing, yet again, I will murder you.”
“Question.” I waved my arm over my head. “Could you always talk back to Mercer like this and chose not to or…?”
“Mercer would have smacked the taste out of my mouth if I had tried, so I’m not one hundred percent sure. Liam knows you would kick his ass if he stepped out of line with me, so I’m more confident in telling him exactly how I feel at all times about all things.”
Choking down the wad of dough, Liam opened his mouth only for Sloane to cram another donut in.
“That one’s a tad linty.” She patted his shoulder.
“I stuck it in my pocket when you weren’t looking.
” She skipped over to me, riding her sugar high, and linked her arm through mine.
“Let’s get home before he finishes chewing.
I had a third in the event of an emergency, but it had chocolate glaze, and I’m weak. ”
“That’s valid.” I linked my free elbow through Rían’s. “I assume Goldie is with Fayne?”
“Yup.” Sloane wiggled her fingers goodbye at Liam. “Fayne told her she had more training to do on the obstacle course, so she didn’t put up a fuss. I strung some white Christmas lights from last year’s Merry Crittermas open house to keep it nice and bright, so she’s good to go.”
“Well, now I feel silly.” I stroked my thumb up the inside of his wrist. “I wasted your beautiful gesture.”
“Ooh.” Sloane clung on even tighter. “What kind of gesture are we talking about here?”
“I wanted to come back and apologize for disappearing earlier,” I explained, skimping on the wilderness retreat, “but it sounds like there was more drama in my head than in reality. Not that I wanted to stress anyone out, but I—”
Impact sent me swinging forward, and I would have hit the sidewalk if not for Rían and Sloane steadying me via our linked arms. I grunted as a solid weight crept up my back, cinching around my throat. Certain I was being attacked, I almost screamed, but then the sobs registered against my nape.
“I told Liam not to be mean,” a muffled voice pressed into my skin. “I told him, and he did it anyway.”
“Goldie.” I freed myself from my saviors as soon as I regained my balance, hooking my hands under a pair of bony knees to keep Goldie from falling. “Does Fayne know you’re here?”
“I wrapped a blanket around my beanbag chair in the fort.” She sniffled. “She thinks I’m napping.”
“The wards will come down soon,” I warned her gently. “You can’t run around without an adult, okay?”
“But you were gone. I heard that Liam made you sad and that’s why you left.
Then I couldn’t find Rían to tell him we had to get you back, and then I was scared he left me too.
” She hiccupped from the outburst as her little heart pounded against my spine.
“I went to Gran, and she told me to go play like I was some dumb kid.” Her fists twisted in the fabric of my shirt.
“Please don’t leave, Ana. Please. And if you have to go, don’t take Rían with you. ”
“Your brother would never leave you. He loves you too much.”
“But you’re his mate.”
“We’re not mates, Girlboss, just engaged.” I boosted her higher. “You’re his little sister, and that’s much more important.”
“No. You’re his mate. That’s why he made the bargain to—” Her voice cut off midsentence as her weight vanished from my hold with a grunt. “Rían, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to tell.” Her sobs resumed, her voice hoarse. “Don’t be mad at me.”
“I’m not mad.” He tucked her against his broad chest. “It was wrong for me to keep secrets from Ana.”
Mate? Bargain? Secrets?
Oxygen whistled through my nose, but my lungs refused to expand, and my heart rioted in my chest.
“Ana.” Rían couldn’t look at me. “I’m going to take her to Fayne’s and put her to bed.”
“We need to talk,” I forced out, lips gone numb, and started walking toward his house in a daze.
Two whole minutes later, a record for Sloane, she couldn’t hold it in anymore. “The mate thing is freaking you out, huh?”
“Goldie told me he would tear the world apart with his bare hands to find his mate. I thought she had assigned me that role, you know? Like we were betrothed, so of course we must be mates. But I spent my whole life believing I was a latent. I never let myself dream of having a mate, let alone a fated one.”
The betrothal? That, at least, made sense. I had seen other alphas’ daughters sold to the highest bidders in the name of forging alliances or cementing business partnerships. But this? I wasn’t prepared for this.
“It’s so rare, even with more common shifter breeds, that no one believes it will happen to them.”
For me, it had been biological fact. Latents didn’t have mates.
“Rían didn’t dispute it.” I couldn’t blame it on a child’s slip of the tongue. “It’s real. Like really real.”
“Don’t melt down until after you talk to him.” She tipped her chin. “Any idea what the bargain thing was about?” She frowned. “Goldie’s called you his mate before, so was that what made Rían snap? He didn’t grab her until she mentioned the bargain.”
“Okay, I missed that, and now I want to throw up.”
“Secret bargains do come standard with the alpha package, but you’ve got nothing to worry about, Ana. Rían told us day one you can ask him anything. So, ask. Don’t torture yourself wondering. Let him do the explaining. Give him a chance to make good on his word.”
“You’re right.” I convinced myself that was the truth. “I’m already in information overload, and my brain is pretty cooked, so he’s not wrong to dole out the details as they become relevant.”
“Exactly.”
We reached the house and let ourselves in. The quiet was odd. I should have been used to it, after living alone for so long, but I had come to expect Goldie rushing around underfoot and Rían passing me in the hall.
“Go shower.” Sloane shoved me toward the bathroom. “You’ve got time before Rían gets back, and you smell like dead fish. I would prefer you not stink up our bed, so kindly go scrub the lake off you.”
From the sound of it, I wasn’t going to get my bed, or my room, to myself anytime soon.
Loaded down with pajamas and a towel, I entered the bathroom and turned on the hot water.
Once steam fogged the mirror, I stepped in and began scrubbing the long, miserable day away.
I stayed under the spray until my fingertips pruned and my skin glowed from the temperature.
Arm thrust out around the edge of the shower curtain, I groped the air for my towel.
And when my fingertips slid off the waffle texture, it moved with them. Closer. Within reach.
What the actual hell? Is this how it all ends? Death by Turkish cotton?
Fists curling in the fabric, I slung the curtain wide open and came face to face…
…with Goldie.
I hit my knees, stacked my arms on the edge of the tub, and dropped my forehead on top of them.