Page 320 of Primal Bonds

Yeah, the clan had accepted Evie, Jace’s mate, but everybody liked Evie. And she’d turned out to have a Gift that helped the healers, so she was an asset to the clan.

Marjani’s mate, Fane, had been a harder sell, but Adric had made it clear the clan had better accept him or else. After what his sister had been through, she deserved to be happy.

But Adric was alpha. The clan needed him, and after the Darktime, they didn’t trust easily. He’d worked his ass off to win over the doubters, convincing them that the only way forward was to work together. But choose a river fada as a mate—and worse, a Rock Run river fada—and that fragile accord could be blown sky-high.

Still, none of that mattered anyway. Because despite what he’d told Rosana, he didn’t expect to get out of Virginia alive.

Inside his cougar lashed its tail, furious that he’d let Rosana just drive off. The cat was a simple beast. To it, Rosana was theirs and Adric was a fool for letting her go.

But he was a highly disciplined man, so he ruthlessly wrestled the cat under control, and then slowed enough to blend in with the human traffic.

Chapter 11

Rosana returned home to find Rock Run on high alert. A Baltimore fada had been seen near the base, a wolf. A sentry had given chase, but the wolf had evaded capture.

Dion was coldly furious. In recent years, he’d made concessions to the Baltimore clan, accepting the clan’s mining operation on sun fae lands and allowing Jace Jones to visit Merry near the Rock Run base. In return, Adric had agreed to stop trying to steal Rock Run’s territory.

Now Dion felt betrayed. He and Rui do Mar, his second-in-command, were in the war room, discussing the situation with his tenentes.

At least they knew it couldn’t be Adric. Unlike water fada, earth fada took only one form and everyone knew Adric was a cougar. Rosana took advantage of the confusion to sneak through the back tunnels to her quarters so she could wash off his scent before anyone noticed.

She and Isa had their own bathroom, carved out of the wall between their bedrooms. The counter was marbled granite, the toilet a solid black ceramic. Two shelves chiseled into the granite wall held her and Isa’s toiletries, and the shower spilled out of the rough gray rock like a waterfall.

Rosana turned on the shower, stepped under it. She washed her hair, and then soaped up and leaned against the wall, letting the cool water wash over her.

She felt empty. Scooped out, one big hurt beneath her ribs where her heart should be.

What did you expect? One night with you and Adric would start to trust you?

She blew out a breath. Because yeah, she supposed she had expected it.

Not because they’d had sex—she might’ve been a virgin, but she wasn’t an idiot—but because the two of them had finally had a chance to spend some time away from the disapproving eyes of their two clans.

She’d learned better. For him, it was just sex. End of story. There was nothing else between them.

Oh, he’d said he wanted more, just not enough to put her before his clan. Rosana respected that; for an alpha, the clan should come first. But if he really loved her, wouldn’t he work out a way for them to be together?

Everybody leaves. Rosana had learned that early.

She’d begged her mom and dad to take her with them on that last trip, but they’d gently but firmly refused. Then her papai had handed her to Isa and told her to be a good girl.

And that was the last she’d seen of them.

She turned off the shower and reached for a towel.

The mirror over the sink had steamed up. She cleaned a circle in the center and stared at herself. Nothing had changed—and yet, everything had. She expected to look different, older. In the twenty-four hours she’d been gone, she felt like she’d aged at least a decade.

But she looked exactly the same. Same black hair hanging in wet curls around her face. Same full lips and slightly pointed chin. Same deep blue eyes that everyone said were just like her mom’s. Even the love-bite Adric had left on her throat was almost gone.

Chest aching, she touched a finger to the small red mark.

Her shoulders slumped. She hung the towel on a peg, light-headed with exhaustion, and stumbled into the bedroom.

When she awoke a few hours later, Isa was bustling around in their little sala, or living room, humming to herself. Rosana pulled on a tank top and shorts and joined her.

Isa was wearing one of her usual simple dresses, this one dark blue. Her thick, graying hair was wound into a crown braid that framed her round face, and her sturdy feet were bare.

“Boa tarde.” She leveled Rosana a look. Isa might look like a kindly, cookie-pushing grandma, but not much got past her. “Are you hungry?”

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