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“Oh, I’m sure you pulled yourself out,” Rune says with a pointed look at Finn’s book-covered crotch.
“That’s not what I meant,” Finn says, though I notice he doesn’t deny it. By the blush creeping up his neck, I doubt he was only a passive observer.
“I know what you meant, Fintan.” Rune’s stance shifts, his fists balled at his sides. “How about the next time Josie and I are having a private moment, you stay in your own head? My time with her is strictly invite only.”
Finn flashes to his feet with vampire speed, baring his fangs at his sire. “I told you—I didn’t have a choice in the matter.”
My breathing picks up as the sound of Rune and Finn’s bickering grows louder and then is replaced by a sharp ringing in my ear. The noise is piercing as the building pressure of their standoff comes to a head.
Manon was right. Josephine is driving a wedge between the three of us. She’s putting us at odds with each other.
“Sebastian?” Rune’s voice comes over the ringing, barely audible. “You good?”
Fintan prods at my mind with his own, attempting to peek inside, and I shut it down immediately, slamming all doors and windows into my psyche shut and locking them tight.
“Bas.” Rune’s voice is tight.
I blink and startle as my vision changes.
Finn’s bright green eyes are round and terrified, every part of him motionless, and I realize I’m snarling inches from his face, my teeth bared and poised to tear out his throat.
Oh, fuck. Is it my fault? Am I the one driving the wedge between me and my brothers?
My fingers tremble, yet refuse to let go as I try to reclaim control of my body.
“You came and chewed me out for a reason, boss. Remember?” Rune’s soft voice is placating, and only succeeds to make me want to tear into his throat. “How about you tell us why we’re here instead of us hitting the sack?”
I drop my grip on Finn’s shirt and step back, smoothing out the wrinkles of my own button-up so I don’t have to look either of them in the eye. “I don’t trust any Moon Witch, but I especially don’t trust Lilian Beauchamp.”
It would’ve been easier if she had stayed dead.
“She says the Moon Witches are looking to break the unity bonds and be free of the wolves,” Rune says. “Given how they treat their bonded mates, I don’t blame them.”
Finn backs himself up until he’s standing with Rune—a safe distance away from me. “Egan won’t want anything to interfere with the bonds. He benefits from the power of the Moon Witches, and the Unity Witches mated to his wolves make his pack stronger.”
“And the Sun Witches do the same for us,” Rune says. “The difference is vampires don’t fight the bond at every opportunity like the werewolves. We see it for the fucking windfall it is.”
“Windfall?” I repeat. “I haven’t had sex in twenty-five fucking years because a bitch witch rejected me and another killed her while our bonds were incomplete. I fail to see where I won the fucking lottery there, Viking.”
Rune’s expression falls. “Sorry, Bas. I didn’t mean it like that. What happened to you wasn’t fair. You didn’t deserve to suffer like that—it fucking sucked—but we can turn things around now. New beginnings and all that.”
I understand the wolves’ resistance. To be forced into a lifelong bond with someone the moon chooses for you is a sadistic torture. One that, in my personal experience, lasts long after the Unity Witch has died.
Witches aren’t immortal. Their lifespans are finite, and I don’t intend to get caught in a unity bond a second time.
My brothers don’t share that sentiment. They hoped for a match even before Josephine Dumont, and now that they have one, they are completely taken with the witch.
They think the sun shines out of her ass. That would take Sun Witch to a whole new level.
I shake myself inwardly and try to stay focused. “Lilian Beauchamp is either lying outright or hasn’t given us the entire truth.”
“What are your orders, boss?” Rune asks.
Great question. I study the two of them and sort through the sludge fogging my brain. “Fintan, you stick as close to Lilian and her rogue coven as you can without being seen. If she meets with anyone else, I want to know who. If she’s double-crossing us, I want to know her hand before we show ours.”
Finn nods, eyeing me warily like I might strike again. I wish I could promise him I won’t.
“What is our hand?” Rune asks.
