Page 200 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

She could not have asked a more unexpected question. And after she’d brought up Orlaith, I was suspicious and had to do my best to control a horrified reaction.

“Have you been talking to someone?”

“No?” she answered, looking confused at my concern. “But I need to know whether they are something you will ever want because I… cannot have them. I made sure.”

I stared at her, uncertain where to even begin trying to dissect what she was telling me. What did it mean that she had “made sure” of it? Why would she do that?

“Is it… Are you… Does it change anything for you?” she blurted, fresh tears welling. “Because I would try and reverse it with blood magic if it really meant—”

“Hey,” I broke in, horrified beyond words at what she was about to say. “No,” I said sternly, cupping her face.

“No?”

“I never wanted them,” I explained, and she looked at first confused and then doubtful. “Is that shocking?”

“You just… You seem like you would be a good father. And your people seem to value that kind of thing.”

I forced a laugh at her words even when they scraped against something a little tender inside me.

“I am a gooduncle, Summer. It is not the same thing. And I have never lived my life according to what others wanted for me. I chose the Wild Hunt before I knew you, and it was with full knowledge at the time that it meant I would never have a family. It is… That was oneof the reasons it did not work out with Orlaith,” I admitted.

“She wanted children,” she guessed, and I nodded.

Summer was thoughtful for a moment, mulling over all that I had revealed, before she looked at my shoulder.

“So… does this mean that you would mark me too?” she asked me with the hint of a wicked smile.

I had wanted to ask her about what she revealed about how she had “made sure” she could not have children. But she wholly distracted me with this new suggestion, and it took everything in me not to grab her and sling her to the ground to claim her immediately.

“Yes,” I assured her roughly, and she giggled as her fingers threaded into my hair in the most delicious caress.

“Then do it,” she goaded, testing my restraint again.

“Iwill, but not here. I want to savour it,” I assured her, gritting my teeth against the impulse of her touch.

I could see it in her eyes when they dipped to my lips. She was asking herself if she wanted to take things all the way with me. And I could hardly breathe through my own impatience and anticipation for her.

“We should go back to the hot springs and—”

She stopped at the same time the hair on the back of my neck rose. My skin prickled in revulsion, the very air around us swelling with an awful dread that made me ill. Even the vargr had stopped grooming one another and whined at us with their ears erect and trembling slightly.

“Whatthe fuckwas that?” Summer hissed, breaking into my distraction, and I lifted her with me as I stood.

“It felt like something fractured,” I murmured, all my senses on high alert, but I could not perceive anything more than dread. The world was eerily silent, and yet it felt like there was something awful rushing toward us…

That was when we heard the screams at the camp.

“We have to go!” I urged myanamand our vargr, summoning my armour on my mate as I formed a portal. She tried to protest against it, but I ignored her.

What is happening?I thought to my brothers, but none of them seemed to have any answers yet either.

Summer and I stepped into the middle of the frantic camp where there were portals of every kind open while Spring Court fey ran through them. We narrowly missed being run over by a Carnauch Troll who came tromping through one gate, swinging part of a tree and knocking over orcs and tents as the creature fled in horror.

“What the fuck are they all doing here in Autumn?” cried my mate, but I did not answer her. I stared around at the chaos. At the fey all screaming, crying, andvomitingon the ground as I tried to find one that seemed coherent enough to speak to us.

“Hey!” I said to a selkie, grabbing her when she nearly stumbled to the ground. “What happened?” I demanded.

“He did it,” she wailed. “Balor abandoned us along with all his people! The Spring Court is lost. It islost!”

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