Page 57 of Heir of Blood and Moonlight

Ash’s head shot up and he stiffened above me, concern transforming his bold features. “Did I hurt you?” he asked.

I grazed the fingertips of one hand down the side of his face, running them through the short, coarse hair of his beard. “Not in any way I didn’t like,” I told him.

His features smoothed out, his gaze searching mine. “You’re not what I expected.”

I let out a breathy laugh. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

Ash was quiet for so long that anxiety fluttered in my belly. Was he disappointed? Did he regret bonding with me? Or, at least, did he regret taking the next step with me?

“It’s a thing that frightens me,” he finally said, leaning down to press a tender kiss against my lips. I waited for him to say more, but his next words were completely unexpected. “We need to speak with Gavin.”

Ash rolled off me and sat up, then stood, pulling his underwear and jeans up and quickly fastening his fly. Belt hanging open, he bent over to retrieve my robe from the floor. I hadn’t evennoticed when it fell from my body. I sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed, helping him guide the sleeves onto my arms.

“Why do we need to speak with Gavin?” I asked, dread knotting in my belly.

“Because he’s been keeping something from you,” Ash said. “And the time for secrets has passed.”

34

“What’s Gavin hiding?” Iasked Ash, standing from the bed and knotting the belt of my robe around my waist.

Gavin was keeping a secret from me? I wasn’t sure how such a thing was possible, what with bits of Gavin’s thoughts and emotions leaking across the bond we now shared. And based on Ash’s tone, Gavin hadn’t been hiding something small and trifling from me. This was abig, badsecret.

“A consort shouldn’t withhold anything from his queen,” Ash said, the muscles of his chest, shoulders, and arms bunching as he buckled his belt. “It’s not right.”

The confirmation dampened the lingering bliss from our joining, and my overwhelming awareness of the brand new bond faded until I could feel the others tethered to my heart as well. I became all too aware of the two men out in the hallway, hovering at the door to Ash’s sitting room. I had gone from feeling perpetually alone to drowning in people who cared about me, and it was all a little overwhelming.

“I need a minute,” I muttered, hurrying toward the cracked-open bathroom door.

Really, I needed about a decade before confronting Gavin about whatever he had been withholding from me, but a minute to clean myself up would have to do. I could hardly be poised and dignified in my demand for answers with the remnants of Ash’s and my passion seeping down my inner thighs.

For a long moment, I stood at the sink, staring into the mirror and attempting to reconcile my inner self-image with the woman reflected in the glass. But my reflection looked more like my mom than like me, with gleaming auburn waves, bright aquamarine eyes the color of a tropical sea, and alabaster skin that seemed to shimmer with an ethereal incandescence. The woman reflected back at me had a wild, unrestrained beauty, like a volcano or a lightning storm. She wasn’tme.

But she was who I should have been. Who had been hiding within me all along. I knew that, but it was going to take some getting used to.

Laughing under my breath—because, really, what else could I do?—I turned on the faucet. I splashed cold water on my face, then dried off with the hand towel hanging on the towel rack wall. Using the same hand towel, I wiped my inner thighs clean before tossing the soiled cloth into the hamper tucked under the counter.

Again gazing into the mirror, I combed my fingers through my tangled waves but could do nothing to tame the unruly mane. Thankfully, Ash kept a small ceramic dish filled with hair ties on the counter. I plucked one free and pulled my hair back, tying it in a low ponytail. Not even close to classy or sophisticated, but better than bedhead.

Feeling a little more dignified, I pulled open the bathroom door. And shrieked, stumbling back a step.

Ash stood at the threshold, his hands pressed flat against the wall on either side of the door frame like he was restraining himself from coming into the bathroom after me. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice a low rumble. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” He pushed himself backward until he no longer blocked the doorway. “Are you all right?”

I nodded and released a breathy laugh. “I’m fine. I just wasn’t expecting you to beright there,” I said, gesturing to the doorway in front of me.

Now that I had three active bonds—plus the tenuous, imperceptible connection to Javier and the blood link to Thane—it was becoming much harder to differentiate and interpret my inner awareness of my consorts. I had been so focused on Gavin and Bastian waiting impatiently out in the hallway that I hadn’t noticed Ash had nearly followed me into the bathroom.

“Gavin’s out there,” I said, hugging my middle and looking toward the sitting room and the hallway beyond.

“I know,” Ash said. “I can hear him—and the shifter, if I’m not mistaken.”

My eyebrows rose. “Can you feel them, too?” Did my bond with the others somehow connect them all to one another as well?

Ash shook his head. “Shifters’ hearts beat faster than those of any other humanoid,” he offered and extended a large hand toward me. “Give Gavin a chance to tell you himself. If he won’t, I will.”

Tentatively, I stepped forward and placed my hand in his.

Ash curled his fingers around mine, engulfing my hand completely, and pulled me closer to him. He settled his other hand on the crook of my neck, his thumb skimming up and down the column of my throat. “The fourth consort in a queen’s harem is traditionally her vengeful blade, smiting all who have wrongedher,” he said, gazing down at me with fierce intensity. “I will gladly fulfill this role, unless you have another in mind for me.”

---