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Aaron snorts. “That sounds exactly like Tyrion.”
He sticks around a while longer to catch me up on the Witching Glen. There are new training programs for the students and renovations underway. The older coven families resent answering to a shifter-raised king, but the younger generation worships the ground he walks on. He lays all of it out without a complaint and keeps it moving.
He rarely comes out anymore unless it’s royal business with King Amir or a visit to his mother. I miss him.
Eventually he pushes back from the desk and follows me down the hall. I pull the front door open. Aaron stops on the threshold with his face tipped up to the night sky.
“What’s it like?” I ask over his shoulder. “Ruling over a bunch of witches and warlocks?”
He gives me a tired smile. “A lot of work, I’ll tell you that.” He steps out onto the porch and breathes in deep. “But it’s not that bad.”
He turns toward the dark tree line beyond my cabin, and his scent goes sour with homesickness. My dragon quiets at the smell of it. I don’t see this side of Aaron often.
“It’s sacrifice,” he says. “None of you will truly understand how badly I wish I could just leave the Glen sometimes and vacation in Wintermoon. Have family dinners with all of you. Catch up. Break up little battles between the packs. Help Jacob tame my wild mother.” He laughs at the joke, but his heart’s not in it.
We stand there without talking until he looks over at me. “You’ll be alpha of Ash Clan soon. You’re about to find out exactly what that costs.”
He’s right. Smoke stings my nostrils at the reminder, but I keep it in.
Aaron closes his eyes. “I’m thankful I have my Mara.”
Mara’s lion always knew he was hers, the same way my dragon recognized Aya from the beginning. But when Aaron was younger, he fixated on Nala and chased a bond that wasn’t there. Mara took his disinterest as rejection. That’s one of the hardest things a mate can recover from. The pain reaches the animal’s spirit. Some never heal from it. My dragon whines at the thought of Aya ever doing that to us. Aaron still fought for Mara until she trusted him again.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t thank Mother Fate she took me back,” he says.
“Go be with her.” I nod toward the tree line. “I’m sorry I lost my temper.”
Aaron waves my apology off. “I understand, brother. I’m no shifter, but I was raised by one. A pack of them, in fact. I know how important our women are to us.”
He starts down the porch stairs. I figure we’re done until he turns around at the bottom step to face me with no smile left. “Don’t threaten my mother again.”
I open my mouth to argue that I threatened Levi, not Angie. The air around us crackles with the same sharp charge I taste on my tongue before my own lightning comes down. Every hair on my arms stands up. Aaron hasn’t lifted a hand or called up a spark. He doesn’t need to anymore, and that shuts me up faster than any show of temper could. My dragon rises to meet the challenge and backs off again without a sound.
“Threatening House of Zorah is in fact threatening my mother.” He holds my stare. “Don’t do it again, brother.”
I nod. There’s nothing else to say.
The charge bleeds out of the air when Aaron lifts his hand. A portal tears open in a wash of blue-gold light. On the other side are field grass and pines instead of the grand hall of his home in the Witching Glen. That’s Axel Clan land. I frown at it.
“It’s been a while since I’ve opened a portal,” he says. He laughs to himself and flexes his fingers in the glow. “Funny, using my old magic.”
He shakes it off and gets back to business. “Just do a quick bow to Jacob and this is all over.”
I don’t love it, but I don’t fight it either. He’s grinning again. “Good. It’s settled, then. Because I really didn’t want to kick your ass. You’re one of my best friends, after all.” He backs toward the portal. “Tell Aya I said congratulations, and that my timing was trash. It won’t happen again.”
“Aaron.” I follow him down the steps. “Why Axel Clan?”
“There’s one more shifter on my mother’s shit list I gotta deal with.” He shrugs.
We crack up at Aya’s mortified groan through the upstairs window. “No need to be embarrassed, cousin!” Aaron calls up to her. “We are all adults now.”
He steps through the portal, and it closes behind him. Whatever bear it is has my sympathy.
I go back inside and fill a pitcher from the cold kitchen tap. I drink straight from it until my throat quits burning. No one is ever hearing that the claiming left my legs shaky. I top it off and draw another for her before I carry them upstairs.
I slow down in the hall outside the bedroom until my dragon nudges me forward. He’s done roaring for the night. I push the door open with my shoulder.
Aya hasn’t moved. Her legs are drawn up with her chin resting on her knees while she stares a hole into the mattress. Her scent is pure sulk. I rumble low at my claim mark on her neck. It’s swollen but already healing.
