Page 40 of Heir

“This is incentive not to. We all have secrets. This just needs to be one of hers.” He shrugged and chewed as a little rainbow flame danced along his moving knuckles.

“I’m going to bed. Gem, you should too. No more death oaths allowed.” Omaera glared at all three of us. “You three . . . fuck, I don’t even know. You’ll probably be here when I wake up, I assume. So . . . try not to fucking snore or break anything.” Then she stomped back to her bedroom and slammed the door.

Gemma stared at all of us, holding the mace like a gun as she skimmed the perimeter of the room. Then she made her way to her bedroom.

“Are the only bathrooms in their rooms?” Maxar asked. “I need to piss.”

I glanced at both of them. “Do either of you know what a Pooh Bear is?”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Drak

Vampires required very little sleep.

Humans needed between six and ten hours a day. Vampires were at full-battery power after two.

The blockhead bear and the unhinged fire mage snored in the living room. I took my phone out onto the balcony, closed the sliding glass door, and called my cousin.

It was already morning in New York, and I knew he’d be up with Fiorella. So I wasn’t rude calling him.

But I definitely needed insight. I needed help.

This was not going to plan at all. She refused to mate, so if we were apart for any length of time, I would get the Mate’s Ache and lose strength. But I also didn’t want to tell her—or about the Mate’s Ache. I didn’t trust this group of people and wasn’t about to expose my weakness or vulnerability to them.

When Omaera left to go for a walk, I was the first to leave and follow her. Her safety was my main concern, but also, the moment she left and the further she got, the more pain I was in.

It was a struggle to keep up with the bear whose strides were twice my own, and the fire mage who never shut up.

I needed a familiar voice. I needed guidance because right now, I didn’t know what to do.

My mate was in trouble. She had two other mates, and she refused to mate any of us.

What was I supposed to do?

“Good morning,” Howar greeted me to the sound of Fiorella giggling in the background. “How is your new mate?”

“She refuses to bond. Any of us.” I educated Howar on the three mates issue last night. “Any news on Lerris’s whereabouts?”

“None. We’ve assembled a council meeting for later today though. It would be prudent for our new queen to attend.”

I resisted the urge to laugh. “I will see what I can do to advise her.” I highly doubted Omaera would be interested in meeting with the other Realm leaders, considering she still didn’t believe, accept or want to be Queen of the Realm.

“She hasn’t mated any of you yet?” he asked with concern.

“It’s been less than twenty-four hours. Is that typical?”

Howar made a noise in his throat. “I mean . . . those that understand what the Mating Bond will give each of you, do it rather quickly. They know that their mate was not selected at random. The Fates do not work like that. We are carefully matched, which is why some have to wait centuries. But since she’s only just come into power . . . you may need to give her time.”

“How much time? Someone out there killed her father. She’s not safe. She needs the Mating Bond to protect her.” I dropped my voice down lower. “I need the Mating Bond to stop the Mate’s Ache. She left on her own last night and I could barely stand up.”

Howar hummed. “Yeah, the longer you let it go on, the worse it will become. It’s also going to be rough every time she leaves until then. Another reason why at least vampire mates bond quickly. Neither want to experience that pain or weakness any longer than they have to.”

“The bear and mage aren’t experiencing any loss of strength,” I said with disdain, turning around to glance through the sliding glass door at the heap of muscle and stupidity sprawled out on the floor with his crop top and tight sweatpants. The mage was on the couch, puffs of smoke drifting out of his nose as he slept.

“The mage will be experiencing something different. He won’t be able to touch another female without experiencing pain, at least until they mate. And as for the bear, I’m not sure. None of you will ever get aroused by another woman, I know that. The Fates are very strict in their mating rules, and making sure that mates bond.”

Turning around, I leaned against the railing of the deck and glanced over, down to the wet, empty street below. It’d rained again, but it wasn’t now. “Any more news on the mage I was interrogating?”

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