Page 86 of Mated to the Enemy
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“This certainly isn’t as gloomy as Moonshadow, that’s for sure,” Zoe remarked as they wandered out of the elevator from the parking garage onto the main level of Ursidae Manor.
There wasn’t much to do besides show her sister around. Neither of them would be leaving the house anytime in the near future, not until things had blown over, so they may as well get used to it. Plus it was a good opportunity for them to talk.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” she asked, giving Zoe another once-over.
“I’m fine,” her little sister insisted. “Seriously. Lorran was rude after you left, but he did ensure nobody harmed me. At all. I was even free to wander the Manor, but I never went far from our—his—rooms,” Zoe said, forcefully changing the tense of her sentence.
“And what about here and here?” Jess asked, tapping her sister over the heart and the side of her head. “How are you dealing there?”
She shrugged. “I mean, you can’t undo seven years of marriage in a week, Jess, but I’ll be okay in the end, I know that much. Right now, I think I’m still in a bit of shock, and yet also realizing that I knew things weren’t as they seemed. Maybe I kept myself a little closed off from him all these years, and just never realized it because he did the same?”
“Maybe,” Jess agreed thoughtfully. “Just make sure you talk to me, okay? It’s not gonna be easy at points, but I’m here for you.”
“I know Jess,” Zoe said quietly, embarrassed at the show of emotion. “You always have been.”
“That’s a big sister’s job. Torment you when alone, and beat the shit out of anyone who tries to do that job for me.”
“Well you succeeded on both parts,” Zoe said, laughing loudly as Jessica pushed her away with aharrumph.“It feels so good to be out of there though, Sis. What a miserable place it is these days. It’s like the entire House can sense things aren’t right, but nobody is willing to do anything about it.”
“Not our problem anymore,” Jess announced. “Let them sort themselves out.”
Zoe smiled, but it wasn’t a true smile. No matter what she said, Jess knew her sister still cared for Lorran at least a little bit. It would take time to move past that, and she knew there would be grieving at some point as well. Jess didn’t know for sure, but she had a sneaking suspicion Lorran wouldn’t be returning from the cemetery once Klaue was through.
“What’s it like?” Zoe asked after they wandered a few more minutes, ending up at the kitchen.
“What’s what like?” Jess asked. She pouted at the lack of selection of wine currently on the rack, grabbed a bottle of something that would have to suffice, and poured them both glasses. She didn’t recork it.
“Living here. They just let you stay when you showed up?”
Jess looked hurriedly into her wine glass. “Um, something like that.”
Zoe wasn’t an idiot. “Jessica Hanes. What did you do?”
“Nothing!” she protested. “It wasn’t my fault. I didn’t try to do it or anything.”
“Oh, my God,” Zoe said, face widening as realization sank in. “You’re sleeping with one of them, aren’t you!”
She winced, and suddenly—just like that—her glass was empty. Refilling it, she finally answered her sister’s question. “It’s a bit more complicated than that.”
Zoe frowned, then laughed. “And you said you could never be with a shifter! Is it that one who was with you at the exchange? The handsome one with the black hair and blue eyes?”
“Mmm hmm,” Jessica said dreamily, drawing up a perfect picture of Klaue in her mind.
“You really like this guy, don’t you?” Zoe observed. “Has he, um, claimed you yet?”
“Claimed me?”
“You know, as his mate?” Zoe leaned forward, taking some of her own wine.
“He’s said that I’m his mate, yes. But there didn’t seem to be any sort of claiming. Is there? Is he going to like, bite me? Did Lorran bite you?” she asked, suddenly realizing she knew nothing about the process of becoming a shifter’s mate.
Zoe spat out her wine, unable to stop laughing. “No, of course not!” she howled. “They’re borne the way they are, Jess, they don’t bite you and transform you into one!”
The two sisters shared in the hilarity of the moment; for the first time in over a week, they were able to just relax.
“I should have come sooner, Zoe,” Jessica said at last. “After what you did to help me escape. I waited too long.”
