Page 117 of Our Sins in Shadows (Coven of Sin 2)

I sat up on Feral’s torso, my hands braced against his abdominal muscles as I gaped down at him. “You haven’t seen her in over a decade?”

He took his attention off the tower rafters to level my gaze. I didn’t blame him for not looking directly at me before. His mask had dropped away, and the emotions swirling in his green pools were stark and easy to read. The unguarded regret in his eyes made it easier to believe him when he said he’d do better by me in the future.

“I haven’t had the strength to make the journey to Fairie until now. It’s true that I went to get your birthday present, but I also wanted to see my mother and let her know what happened to my father. She’d assumed we were both dead, so my visit was mostly a happy occasion.”

“Why didn’t you say anything? I would have been a lot less pissed if I’d known part of the reason you went was to tell your mother you were alive.”

His brows dropped into a furrow. “Because it doesn’t change the fact that I hurt you.”

“He’s right,” Eros grunted from the window. “Yeah, he lost control, and when we lose control—hybrids with monstrous alternate forms, especially—shit happens.” He ripped his glare from the window to throw Sterling a pointed look. “But are we really going to let him off the hook for destroying your room and bleeding over half your shit?”

Vincent sat up, his arms keeping me gathered against him as he looked at the wreckage of the destroyed collections of encyclopedias we lay on, covered in blood and stray feathers. “Sorry about the books, Ster.”

Sterling waved away his apology with a flap of his hand as his other felt for my mom’s Helsing Guide to ensure it was safe. “Nothing important was damaged, so it’s no big heartbreak.”

“Really?” Eros scoffed, an incredulous scowl on his face. “And are we just going to ignore the part where he almost killed you?”

“All because of extenuating circumstances that won’t be repeated. And if they are, I trust our queen to handle the situation as flawlessly as she did tonight.”

“Yeah.” I blinked several times as I thought back on the shit that had happened. “What the hell was that scream I made? Eros’ balls exploded, and Sterling, you knelt and made this...” My belly heated at the memory. “Thissound.”

The priest’s lips quirked into the shadow of a sly smile. “It’s an alpha’s demand for submission, similar to a mating call. It’s rare among vampires, but not unheard of. My response was simply my acquiescence.”

My lower belly simmered as I watched Sterling rise to pick up the wreckage, starting with a stack of toppled books nearest to him.

“Let me help clean up,” Vin said, pulling us both to our feet.

“I’ll help too,” I offered. “Our night isn’t over, Ster. After we clean, maybe you can play me something on your piano, or I can read some of my mom’s notes to you.”

My heart thrummed as Sterling turned his moonstone eyes on me. “You are the princess. Household chores aren’t your responsibility, especially not cleaning on your birthday. I can do it myself, and if I need help, I’ll call for some of the human staff. They’re accustomed to cleaning up blood by now.”

I watched the enigmatic vampire glide to the other end of his room, sidestepping the destruction as if he already had this new layout mapped out in his head. Going to the dresser I hadn’t noticed before because of the mountain of newspaper covering it, he opened the first drawer and extracted a sweater and another pair of gray sweatpants.

“Bring her over here,” he instructed Vincent with a nod in his direction and a gesture to the bed.

The fae swooped me up in his arms and placed me into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. Sterling tossed Vin the sweater, and understanding the task, he tugged it over my head while his brother knelt at my feet, guiding my legs into the pants.

They were dressing me.

My cheeks flamed hot at the intimacy of the simple task. “But Sterling, the rest of my birthday—”

The next thing I knew, the priest’s lips were brushing against the interior of my thigh before he slipped the fabric over my hips. “Should be spent healing the gap between you two.”

Once I was properly dressed, he remained kneeling between my legs for a moment, like a knight swearing fealty to his queen. “You and I are just fine, Miss Baxter. Perfect even. We have the rest of eternity to spend reading and playing music and whatever else we wish to do.”

“But I want you to claim me.”

He found my hand and brought it to his lips, grazing a kiss to the back of my knuckles. “I will. When I do, it will either be when we are alone...or I want all my brothers here to witness the occasion. So for tonight, I suggest you take the remains of our night and add it to the time you have with Eros and Vincent before the council arrives.”

My mouth fell open as I stared at him blankly for a second, my mind reeling at the thought of spending alone time with these two together. We’d done it before, in prison. Although, circumstances hadn’t exactly been the same then. Eros was still pissed with Vin, and I hadn’t really forgiven him either, for that matter. But maybe that was all the more reason to spend the extra time with them.

“Ster, you can’t be seriously suggesting—” Eros didn’t have time to finish. Sterling didn’t give Deathwish an opportunity to argue. Stretching to his full height, the priest threw up a palm which everyone knew was Sterling code for “shut the fuck up.”

“It’s important that you three work on re-establishing some trust. Dagon is planning something. I don’t know what, but I feel it. Whether he’s doing this on his own or he’s got the Boston coven to back him, we need to be prepared for whatever card he has up his sleeve. For that, we cannot be divided.”

Vincent snorted as he folded his arms over his chest. “And what exactly do you have in mind for the three of us to ‘re-establish trust?’”

I didn’t miss the wicked glint in my silver prince’s eyes. “You three are creative. I’m sure you’ll come up with something.”

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