Page 43 of Castings & Curses

“Sad, but true,” Muezza agreed.

“I don’t know,” Soraya said. “Cleocatra wasn’tthatvicious.”

Tivali, Bygul and Muezza all stared at her.

“She wasn’t!”

“If you say so,” Muezza said.

“How quickly we forget,” Tivali said.

“She was just a tiny kitten, whereas Moonbeam’s amonstercat!”

“True,” Bygul said. “We were just lucky we made those matchesbeforeCleocatra fully grew into her claws. Unfortunately, our luck has clearly run out, which means we have to somehow convince Moonbeam to stop torturing the wolf.”

“Impossible,” Tivali said. “I saw the look on Moonbeam’s face and there’s no doubt in my mind. She’s officially claimed that wolf as her new alligator.”

* * *

Corwin spentthe evening with a bag full of ice on his dick.

Thank all the goddesses in the heavens, he’d been wearing jeans at the time.

If he’d been wearing any other fabric, he was absolutely positive that demon-cat would have drawn blood.

As it was, his dick was feeling mighty abused.

He’d checked it out thoroughly and there wasn’t even a bruise, but he blamed that on shifter healing because based on how it felt, his whole dick should have been bright purple by now.

Of course, he wasn’t about to admit that he was bruise-free.

Instead, he took advantage of the sympathy all the pack women showered upon him and ignored how the pack men grumbled and glared at him.

They’d be taking advantage too if their dick had been caught in the jaws of that hell-beast.

He hung out in the pack’s communal spaces all night long, enjoying the many treats the women brought him, and sulking over the fact that Natalie had called him a big baby and how she’d crooned to her demon-cat, praising her predatory instincts, rather than offeringhimany sympathy.

What kind of mate was she, anyway, to ignore his suffering in favor of the cat who attacked him?

It was shameful, utterly shameful!

Especially since he was convinced she was actually amused at the entire situation.

Rude!

He spent most of the night trying to convince himself that he could live without his mate. Who needed one?

Not him, that’s for sure.

Look at all the pack women, fawning all over him.

All he had to do was crook his finger and any one of them—well, the non-mated ones, anyway—would be delighted to fall into bed with him.

Unfortunately, he didn’twantany of them.

He wanted his mate.

Natalie.

---