Page 113 of Gemini Queen
Lucius himself, of course, is still hella skittish.
And then there’s the fact that I’m leaving.
“Yeah, love, he is that,” Ronin murmurs in response to Neo. “There’s, uh, someone else too.”
Now I definitely hold my breath. Vasili hovers like a ghost in the air between us, but I work on shielding my thoughts, because it really should be Ronin who tells Neo.
If he’s going to.
“Really?” Neo’s tousled head pops up from Ronin’s shoulder. “Someone else you’re committed to?”
“Deeply,” Ronin says softly.
My heart gives another ping.
“Wow.” Neo’s brow furrows. Clearly his encyclopedic brain is scrolling through the various options. “Who?”
Ronin pulls in a breath. “Well, uh, it’s actually…”
For a second there, it seems like maybe he’s really going to say.
Until right outside my bedroom door, someone fuckingscreams.
There’s a reason Ronin Pendragon’s the top-ranked fighter at Icarus. I’m still clawing my way through ten tons of bedding and trying to force my heart out of my throat so I can breathe again by the time Ronin’s rolled out of bed, unsheathed two knives from his boots, and strode to the door.
Buck naked.
Neo’s on his feet too, wearing black briefs and a determined expression, standing defensively between me and the door. I’ve just leaped out of our love nest and armed myself with Vasili’s knife, which he never reclaimed and which I liked having next to me on my nightstand while I slept, when Ronin unbolts the door and flings it wide.
Turns out it’s Racetrack who gave that godawful yell, because she’s still standing there looking totally freaked out. And the obvious reason she lost it is lying across my doorstep in a horrific mess of matted chestnut fur soaked and clotted with old blood.
It’s a dog… no… it’s a wolf.
There’s a fucking dead wolf on my fucking doorstep with its carcass slit open from throat to anus and its insides spilling out.
My stomach plunges to the floor and my head starts spinning.
“No,” I whisper.“No.”
Just no. No to what I’m seeing. No to the whole concept.
But no one can hear me. Because there’s no air in my lungs.
Ronin staggers and just about sinks to his knees. He grips the doorframe to hold himself up and rasps one word in a horrible voice.
“Lucius.”
Chapter Thirty
Neo
It takes me less than three seconds flat to race across Zara’s bedroom and get my shoulder under Ronin’s arm to brace him. And Zara’s literally right behind me, because my mate doesn’t let anyone fight her battles.
I barely have time to think about my own feelings, because the two of them need me. But my stomach is heaving and my hands are cold and my face is numb with shock as I struggle to absorb this unbelievable horror. Really, there is no absorbing it. Memories flash through my brain way too fast to track. Memories of this wonderful and fascinating mentor who’s always been rock-solid there for me.
This can’t have happened to him.
Not Lucius.
