Page 82 of Gemini Wicked

Zephyr’s still body fires into motion. He flows to his feet to loom over the table (which at least gets V’s boots outta his royal face.)

“There is no time for Zara to visit this student commons,” my Fae announces with a frown. “Has no one heard a word I’ve spoken? Zara must return now to Avalon with me.”

Maxim passes over his plate to Lucius and gives our pain-in-the-ass houseguest a ferocious scowl. “Zara will go nowhere while she is breeding and multiple shifter males in this domus are in rut. Frankly speaking, even the commons is a stretch.”

“Yeah, good luck with that, Godzilla.” Racetrack snorts at Max and beelines for her backpack. “Z calls the shots about her own life, not you. She’s got class and shit. Anyway, if you’re gonna start talking about being all horny, Dez and I are outtie.”

The two girls gather their books and papers, though Dez darts me an apologetic look over Neo’s protective shoulder and mouths Sorry!

I wave goodbye with a wry grin.

The two slip out through our vestibule for their walk through the village to the deconsecrated church where our Academy classes go down. Lucius slips into his office to finish getting ready for class.

After a minute of shared comfort, I detach from Neo and give my fated mate a gentle nudge to help Ronin finish cleanup in the kitchen. With Zephyr lurking around this domus and the minefield of unexploded ordnance looming between those two, I don’t want Ronin alone right now, and Neo’s super comforting.

While I organize my backpack full of textbooks and grimoires and transfer my stiletto from my jacket to my pack, I’m uber-aware of the Dark Fae King lurking in my living room.

He’s gone to stretch his lean sexy body casually against Xhev’s big scary muzzle, while that dragon dozes off in a seesaw of rumbly snores.

As Zephyr cautiously sips a mug of what smells to my shifty senses like mint-and-hibiscus tea (because the guy can’t stand coffee, it’s a Fae thing), he broods at me with his inscrutable gaze.

“You better not be planning another snatch and grab,” I tell him, just to be clear, while I muscle the zipper of my own straining backpack shut around my crapload of pre-exam schoolbooks. “No more of that Hades-Persephone shit. I mean it. Or else you and I are not gonna get along.”

For the first time since he turned up on my doorstep, one corner of the Fae’s mouth curls in a tiny smile. “Hades is your mythical god of the underworld, is he not? I am… flattered… by the comparison.”

Oh, man.

That smile of his… does things to me.

Always has, because he doles them out so rarely.

Even now, when he’s acting all standoffish and totally hasn’t given me a real answer, my tummy gets all fluttery and my face heats up.

Suddenly I wonder if the reason he’s all standoffish is because he’s uncertain too. I mean, we haven’t exactly rolled out the welcome wagon for the guy. The fact that he took a timeout and came through the portal at all, with a literal rebellion against his reign going down in Avalon, tells me I matter to him.

Even if he’s shitty at saying it.

I unbend enough to give him a little grin back. “Don’t let it go to your head, Your Radiance.”

“Too late,” he says softly. “Your Persephone fell in love with her terrible abductor, did she not? Thus, I am hopeful.”

I’m contemplating the idea of actually going over there and seeing if maybe that hello kiss we still haven’t shared might actually be in the cards when, from the table, Vasili utters a rude snort.

My Goblin King’s still lounging with his combat boots on the breakfast table, sipping his coffee and watching both Zephyr and me intently. He looks deceptively relaxed, but that snake is never relaxed.

He’s actually at his worst when he looks relaxed.

Despite what Max has been saying about shifty cycles, I totally don’t expect Vasili to go into rut. He’s always been adamantly anti-baby when it comes to his own little swimmers.

Still, V has been all intense and lurky (like the homicidal psychopath he is) since we started this whole breeding convo.

Then there’s the fact that his dick barely left my vag all night. That snake was literally hogging my pussy.

All my other guys had to, like, work around him.

Of course Max should be getting ready for class himself. But he can’t bring himself to leave me with a rival male. So he paces around the great room in his jeans instead.

“There is a rival queen on this island,” Max announces. “One who will have allies we cannot guess or guard against. You should remain here in our domus where you are safe, my sovereign. I will remain at your side to protect you.”

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