Page 269 of Primal Bonds

“Marjani isn’t just my sister, she’s my second. With Luc gone, I only have three lieutenants. I need her. And if that means we have to accept you, we will.” Adric stuck out a hand. “Welcome to the clan.”

It wasn’t the warmest welcome, but it was honest. After six decades at the ice fae court, Fane appreciated that more than the other man could know.

He gripped Adric’s hand. “Thank you.”

The alpha brought his left hand up to lightly clasp Fane’s throat. When he stiffened, Adric said, “I’m marking you with my scent. The clan will know you’re one of us now.”

“Okay,” Fane managed to say, although instinct urged him to knock the other man’s hand away from such a vulnerable place.

Claws pricked his throat. A delicate touch, not enough to break the skin. Fane held steady. Something like approval shone in the alpha’s metallic eyes. He raked the claws across Fane’s skin, leaving a thin mark, and then clapped him on the back.

“Let’s go give Jani the good news.”

Chapter 39

“Your Marjani mated with Fane Morningstar.” Blaer dropped her little bombshell at breakfast.

Luc continued chewing his toast, even though it suddenly tasted like sawdust.

Jani had gotten free, then.

“It’s true,” Blaer said when he didn’t reply. “I heard it from a member of the ice fae court itself.”

So she still had spies at the court. Not that Luc was surprised. The woman had her fingers in pies all around the world.

He chased the toast with a gulp of coffee and then smiled at the fae lady. “Good.”

Surprise flared in her midnight eyes. “But you want her for yourself.”

“I did. But here’s the thing about love, my lady. I want her to be happy. And if he”—he couldn’t bring himself to say Morningstar’s name—”makes her happy, then I’m happy.”

Blaer scowled. “I don’t understand you fada.”

“No,” he agreed. “You don’t.”

It was mid-September, almost two weeks since Luc had accepted her geas. He’d stubbornly refused her offers—power, money. She’d even tried to tempt him with sex.

“I’ll stay in the cage,” he’d told her coldly.

But that asshole Corban Savonett had told her too much. She knew the secret words that gave a fae power over an earth fada, as long as the fae was also touching the fada’s quartz.

She’d let Luc out of his cage and told him if he made one wrong move, Marjani was dead. Then she’d ordered him to remain still—like a fucking dog—and watch as her goblin horde attacked Marjani.

Just having her cold fingers wrapped around his quartz was painful enough. But he’d believed Marjani was going to die right before his eyes.

“Accept my geas,” Blaer had said. “And I’ll call the goblins off.”

Luc had dropped to his knees there on the mossy black rocks and agreed. He just hoped Marjani knew he’d done it for her, not for anything Blaer could give him.

Blaer had kept her word. She’d called the goblins off—and then thrown Marjani into a fucking cage.

Luc had cursed himself for being an ass. If a fae could twist things to their advantage, they would. Now he was bound to serve Blaer for a fae year-and-a-day.

Still, he’d endure that and more, as long as Marjani was safe.

And the cages were gone, destroyed at Sindre’s order—and Blaer had been banished from the court.

Now they were in Paris, along with a few of Blaer’s closest allies—Jon and Krysten, and a golden-haired male named Jagger—and several fada who, like Luc, had accepted Blaer’s geas.

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