Page 107 of Dark & Dreadful Brutes

My eyes widened with horror.

“She was drunk, and raging out of her mind. I dragged her from the room and made her tell me what had happened. She had fallen in love with a mated man who claimed he would leave his female to run away with her.”

He continued, “When she went looking for him as the lust set in, ready to run away, he admitted he would never be able to leave his mate and asked her to spend the eclipse in bed with both of them. She murdered both him and his mate that night, and it turned her against not just them, but mated couples as a whole. When we went back in to release our parents, they were already gone.”

The revelation was so insane, I could barely breathe.

“She lost her damned mind when we found that room empty, and tried to kill me too, but was too drunk to manage it. I hauled her back to her room and spent the night getting her sober. When the morning came around, she acted sorry for what she’d done, to convince me it was alright to sleep. Then, as soon as I let myself rest, she slipped away. I hadn’t seen her since, until today.”

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

He squeezed me tighter.

Closing my eyes, I let out a shaky breath.

I felt better after I told Coarse some of what had happened. And I trusted Ravv even more than I did my bonded companion, as insane as that may have been. So… I had to tell him.

“My magic came in on my thirteenth birthday, and I woke up engulfed in flames,” I began.

Ravv held me while I told him everything. He wiped my tears when I cried, and when I apologized for the tears, he licked them off my face.

I could tell that was just to get a pathetic little laugh out of me, but I appreciated it anyway.

When I finally finished talking, he turned off the water we had never stepped beneath, then hauled me to the bed. We would shower in the morning.

Breathing felt easier without carrying the secrets of my past on my shoulders alone.

My mind felt clear, for the first time in far too long.

I curled up in Ravv’s arms, my bare body resting against his as he held me securely, and for the second time since we’d met, I let myself imagine what it would be like if we were fully mated.

And veil, it was perfect.

Chapter 24

Laeli

Ravv woke me up early the next morning with his face between my thighs, and then made love to me until I was so damn exhausted I was ready to go back to bed.

Instead of sleeping more, we went to a shop nearby, grabbed an assload of the fertility suppressant herb, ate a quick breakfast, and then went out with Gleam and Coarse to search for the cult’s hiding place.

Though Ravv didn’t say it, I knew the chance of us actually finding the hiding place were incredibly slim. There were dozens of other pairs of warriors scouting the glacier too, but the ice could be dangerous, and that made the search even more difficult than it already was.

We were so exhausted when we got back that night that all four of us collapsed in bed together. Gleam’s sweaty, furry back was nearly plastered to my face, but Ravv’s body was pressed to mine, so I didn’t care.

The next few weeks passed by in the blink of an eye.

The dragon flew massive loops around the glacier, as if he was studying all of the fae from above while we searched for the cult’s hiding place.

We got back to the house halfway through the fifth week of searching, ready to collapse back in bed with the food we’d grabbed from a shop nearby, when someone knocked hard on our door.

“We found it!” Elwynne called from outside.

Ravv didn’t waste a moment, throwing the door open and waving her, Orvay, and their bonded idorr inside.

Their eyes were bright, and there was dried blood on both of their hands and arms.

“How many?” Ravv demanded.

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