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“Something you can’t miss?” I asked, my voice heavy. Everything was over, right?

I heard him sigh as his arms tightened around my body, holding me close. “I can’t really say much, and no one can know this, but the legion gathers once a year, and as the head of the family, I must attend.”

“Hmm.” I ran my fingers through his soft, long hair. “Where?”

“It’s undisclosed. I can’t say.”

“Fine,” I muttered, nuzzling closer to his warmth. “How long will you be gone?”

“Not sure, it depends. It could be days, sometimes weeks. Even months.”

I sighed as he lifted his forehead and dropped it to mine. “Keep our bed warm till then,” he whispered, softly running his thumb over my cheek.

“Mm-hmm.” I nodded, smiling when his lips pressed to mine. I knew not to ask questions when it came to Alacteon. Arkane said the less I knew, the better. It was his way of keeping me safe, and I didn’t argue. Yes, I was curious, but he was more important to me, and I didn’t want anything more.

“Be safe,” I whispered when his lips left mine. “And come back home to me.”

“I will,” he said, smiling as he took his time pressing kisses all over my face while his hands curved along my waist.

“I’m leaving Mikhail with you.”

Something heavy filled my heart in an instant. “No.” I shook my head. “Please, take him with you.”

He gave me a look that said he had already decided.

“Fine.” I nodded.

“Good.” He smiled, giving me one last long kiss before he disappeared into the night, and I felt empty.

That night, I curled deep into the sheets that smelled like him, missing him already.

Although my sisters now lived with us, nothing was the same without him.

I didn’t know it was possible to miss someone this much, but I did.

And it’d only been seven days since he left.

But not a word since.

“Anything?” I asked Mikhail for what felt like the hundredth time this week.

He simply gave me his usual shrug as he arranged the table. “No.”

“Don’t worry, sister-in-law, Kane will be fine, or I’ll go haunt him down from hell,” Jon joked, and it didn’t make me any better.

It only scored him a glare from Ella, to which Jon grinned, loving that he was getting a reaction out of her. I didn’t know what was happening there, but something was going on between them.

Because the other day, when I asked Ella about Jon, she stuttered, and my sister never stuttered.

It wasn’t just her. My eyes shifted to the scene in the corner of the room where Ari and Gray were whispering to each other. And when I asked her about it, she simply said Gray was her friend and that nothing was going on between them. Only my sister was a terrible liar.

Just then, Chiara and Amelia walked in, and I smiled, welcoming them in.

Somehow, over the past months, weekly dinners became a thing at our house. It started with just my sisters and Jon and Gray, since they lived with us, but it soon turned into a whole affair after we started inviting more of the family.

“Hey, Belle,” Ame said softly, so unlike the first time I met her. “Thanks for having us over. I needed a much-needed day off from the twins.” Although her eyes filled with love at the mention of her children, there was deep sadness beneath it all. But Amelia was admirably strong. She took Marcus’s death the hardest since she was closest to him, but instead of wallowing in the terrible betrayal he caused, she turned her life over from being the elegant socialite to a literal boss by taking over the CEO position at Stormhold Tech.

Everyone seemed to be getting over Marcus’s betrayal in their own ways. Arkane’s parents did it by finally seeing their eldest son for what he was. His father held a lot of regret, and so did his mother. Although they couldn’t fix what they did, they tried their best.