Page 90

Loudly.

Candidly.

About love and sex and supernatural mating rituals like it’s just the same old same old.

And me?

I want in.

I want this.

This sisterhood.

This found family.

This place where being too much is just enough.

“What’s up, Buttercup? You’re lookin’ uber serious over there,” Penny drawls, arching one perfect brow.

I fidget, fingers twitching near my throat. “Um, I have to ask something. Personal.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“Well, you guys talked about your mates and how they claimed you.”

I whisper claimed like it’s a dirty word and immediately want to launch myself out the nearest window.

Penny doesn’t miss a beat.

“Yeah, during sex. Most supernaturals seal the deal with a love bite. Right at the height of the Big-O.”

She gives me a very graphic eyebrow wiggle that makes Jez blush and Avery burst out laughing.

I sigh. Might as well own it.

I push my hair aside, turn my neck, and reveal the faint scar from the bite mark Kian left behind.

“He bit her!” Penny crows like she just won the lottery. “Told you! Pay up!”

Avery and Jez both groan and hand over quarters.

Twenty-five cents. Each.

My jaw drops.

“You had a bet going?!”

“Hell yes, we did.” Penny beams. “I mean, Kian’s a Bull. Bulls aren’t predators like the rest of our mates, so we didn’t know if he’d bite or, like, headbutt you into love or something.”

What?!

My brain stalls somewhere between what the fuck and do Bulls even do that?

Jezebel, ever the translator, steps in. “What she means is that most Shifters are predators, hunters. You know, like Wolves, Bears, or Dragons. They mark their mates with a bite. But Bulls? There aren’t a lot of them. We weren’t sure how that worked.”

“But seriously, does he moo?” Avery asks again with a straight face, and I nearly choke on my own spit as I bang my head against the countertop.

“Girls, please! Let’s be a little sensitive, yeah? Arliss is still learning.” Jez says, finally reining them in.