Page 44 of Tortured Royals

“Hey! I am not pervy!”

I shoot her a look.

“I simply appreciate,”she defends.

Dante’s lips curve upward. “Well, I for one, like her more already.”

I smile at Shade, but my brows lower when I notice her claws. “Shade, what is that?”

She looks behind her in an exaggerated manner.“What is what?”

“That,” I say, pointing to the sticky orange residue she’s left on my shoulder. “Please don’t tell me that’s worm guts or something disgusting.”

“All right, it’s not something disgusting,”she says, shifting uneasily.

Making a face, I reach down, touching the sticky residue and bringing it close to my nose. I breathe in. “Shade,” I say sternly. “Why the fuck do my fingers smell like Dante?”

She makes a grossed-out noise in my head.“Hey, where you stick your fingers in your mates is your own?—”

“Shade!”I snap via our mental connection this time.“You know what I mean. Why is there apricot juice on your claws? And not just any apricots, but the same incredible ones we can only find at Dante’s mansion.”My jaw drops.“Have you been eating them…without me?”

Dante smirks, and the others look simply clueless.

Shade sighs in my head.“I was going to bring you back some. But then I heard them, and I guess I got distracted.”

“Them?”I give Dante a worried look. “We’re supposed to be laying low. What happened?”

It’s only then that I think about how fast she’d been flying through the forest toward us before Nate caught her. I’d been too distracted to question it.

Shade peers around at all the inquiring faces and huffs out a breath.“So, I know you said not to go to the city just yet, but I figured I could sneak to Dante’s house and grab some apricots to go.”She pauses.“It was going to be my happy bonding present for you.”

“I don’t think demons usually give bonding presents,”I point out, but my heart still warms.

“Well, they should,”she counters.“Gifting is some people’s love language, you know.”

“And Blake likes…apricots?” Mason muses thoughtfully, and I get the feeling he’s stashing that information for later.

“But you didn’t bring any,” Dante says. “So what happened at my clan house?”

“Well,”Shade continues,“I was busy finding the best apricots.”

I grin. “You mean, you were busy eating them.”

“Yeah, that,”she agrees without missing a beat.“And that’s when I heard them arrive—Luna and Noah.”

Dante’s eyebrows rise. “Are they all right?”

“They’re fine,”Shade assures him.“And I would have continued right on with my business, except it’s what they were talking about that concerned me.”Her beady black eyes go to the side of my face.“They were talking about someone who’d propositioned them. Sounds like it’s not the first time either. They were saying that they weren’t sure what to do, and that they wished Dante was there. Something about if they don’t turn up at the meeting they’re dead, but if they do go and the king finds out, then they’re also dead.”

“Could this be about the witches?” Prince Callan asks.

“Maybe,” I answer. “Or this could simply be about who is going to succeed the throne when the king retires, and the power shift between the clans.”

Dante curses. “I need to speak with them. We have to find out what the situation is. I’m the Coilan Clan leader, and the responsibility should be on my shoulders. Not theirs.”

I rub the back of my neck, wishing I had the eyes of my crows. But again, the moment I think about sending them out there, just the thought of commanding them makes me feel sick. “I let us have too much time here, when I should have been in the city.”

“Now that we’re bonded, can’t we go to the castle and speak with the king?” Nate suggests. “Whatever power is being hidden in the castle, I’m sure we can face it.”

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