Page 94 of Last Gift: Supernatural Battle

Boy, would that have made a difference to our journey. Though being the first, I wasn’t sure I would’ve believed it until later in the piece.

“Is that the mating ritual done then?” Sage spoke.

“No idea,” Wild admitted. “The next few days will tell.”

“And can we ask why you put it off?” she replied. “If the urgency gets worse each day, then why didn’t you just fulfill the next step?”

Serene answered, “Because we were attacked by demons and the high esteemed was so busy protecting us.”

The coven murmured and nodded at her answer.

Uh… sure.

I was glad neither of us had to lie our way out of that one. Yet I was sorely tempted to get everything in the open, my demon nature included. The vibe felt welcoming. More than that, now we’d shared our mating with the coven, concealing more felt disrespectful. I was torn. My life was my own. Also, if magus mating could only occur between a woman who was half demon and a male magus, then Wild and I were creating false hope of other magus finding their mate.

“How long were we in the eating chamber?” Wild asked in the general murmur of conversation that had broken out.

“Try two days,” Corey told him.

Combined with the time spent reuniting with my demon, I’d been out for five days. Nearly half the time I’d been leader. My bad.

“That’s why I’m hungry.” Wild glanced at me. “You must be starving.”

I fucking was too. “Let’s eat.”

“Be nice not to have our meals outside,” Barrow said wryly. Moving over, he hugged me and then Wild. “You two have been dealing with a lot. I wish the coven could have helped you, and I understand this came at you like a hurricane too.” He was almost blinking back tears. “The first mated magus in our coven. What an honor.”

My stomach churned at his words, and Wild’s hand slipped into mine, calming my discomfort.

“Thank you, Barrow.”

He’d broken the charm on the other magus, and a flood of our coven members pushed forward to congratulate us.

Ty clasped both of my hands in his. His eyes roamed my runes. “Fascinating. Close to Nordic runes, but not quite the same.” His perusal was clinical, and his gaze locked on the lowest rune on my stomach. “Fertility.”

The word was passed back like a drunk crowd surfer at a concert.

Nope. None of that.

Ty released my hands. “Perhaps now you will accept your new seat.”

Had this stood in the way of accepting my authority? I’d dismissed Ty’s word at first, but I could feel what he meant now. I was holding back. My secrets had held me back.

Would I accept the authority in truth?

“They’re acting like we’ve had a union,” I said under my breath in a brief lull between hugs.

Wild hummed, sending me a surge of desire at my words. I staggered back as an image of me in a short black, tulle dress—my legs long and smooth and my feet bare—hit me in the forehead. In the vision, Wild was waiting, all his pendants and runes on display.

My new view of the sky was obstructed by Wild.

I was on my back in the meadow and concerned coven members edged in my periphery.

“Tempest, what happened?” Wild half growled, cradling me to his chest.

My frown deepened. “I… What were you just thinking of?”

“What do you mean? I’m wondering why you just collapsed.”

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