Page 136 of Cathmoir's Sons

To avoid Carver finding another bone to pick, I slide my hand down the back of Caileán’s arm and cup her elbow. Although I can’t see them, my fingertips sink into the softness of feathers.

“Ready, my queen?”

She nods gratefully and rises. Her mantle spills around her, feathers sweeping the floor. Her face is cool, distant, but the appearance of her feathered cloak tells me that beneath her façade, she’s in the grip of strong emotions.

Once I have Caileán moving, I take a parting shot at Carver. “Since I no longer have any academic concerns, my sole focus now is the welfare of my family. Any issues you have with Professor Wyndham, my brother, or Rhodes Hale, you will direct to me. Anything that concerns Bevington and Faery, Cait or no, you will direct to me. Fail to involve me and you won’t retain your position long enough to regret it.”

Carver snarls at me, showing long incisors, hinting at what I’ve long suspected from his scent. Somewhere, buried under chemicals and decades of denial, Carver is a predator, too.

“I don’t answer to you,” he says.

I smile as I open the conference room door and usher my queen through. Before I close the door behind us, I shoot back. “You do now.”

I’d intended to return to Jane Serpa’s office with Caileán, to let my queen spend more time with her mentor. However, in the wake of Carver’s threats, I feel the need to retrench. I take my queen’s hand and lead her out of Bodeman Main into the bracing air of a Massachusetts winter afternoon.

She looks up at me as we descend the building’s wide steps. Trustingly. So trustingly. I slip my arm around her shoulders and thank the Mother for the long hunt that’s led us to this point, where my mate gazes at me with such trust.

“Luca and Rhodes are at the den,” I tell her.

I barely have to feel for my twin in my mind now. I stretch out a paw and he’s there: warmth, comfort, safety, blood, fur.Luca. He’s curled up with Rhodes, admiring the man’s stupidly broad shoulders, as they talk about everything and nothing.Ugh. Post-coital relaxation with the human. Disgusting. But joining them will relax Caileán, so I’ll endure naked-human time.

She smiles. “I can hear what you’re thinking.”

Can she? I wouldn’t put it past her.

“I’m thinking that my brother and the humanshouldbe done with their alone time, but they have an alarming propensity for remaining naked afterwards. If we find them still naked, you’ll help me bleach my eyes?” I ask hopefully.

She snorts. “No. Be nice to Rhodes.”

“Iamnice to the human.”

I haven’t tried to kill him in ... months. Well, perhaps weeks, but close enough.

“Benicerto Rhodes. I could hear you thinking you wanted to find Luca and Rho and regroup.”

“Ah, yes, I do. I don’t pretend to know when this happened, but the two of them have become a steadying influence. Don’t tell the human I said that.”

Caileán bumps her cheek into my shoulder. “Acknowledge the good parts about the four of us being together. It smooths over the less-good parts.”

“So, you acknowledge thereareless good parts, like the human’s nakedness?”

“Law.”

I chuckle. “I will admit in private, and only to you, that I am very satisfied with our foursome. Luca and his human provide a perspective that I’ll admit I lack sometimes when I become overly focused on your safety or that of the Cait.”

Caileán stops and stares at me. She digs in the pocket of her coat, takes out a coin, and drops it to the icy pavement.

I narrow my eyes at her.

“You’re checking that gravity is still online, aren’t you?”

She breaks into wild giggles.

Chapter 39

Grave Disturbance

LAW

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