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“A pirate! Argh!” Emmy blurts out, brandishing her butter knife like a saber, causing Rowan to growl.

“Quiet down, Anne Bonny,” Nimue admonishes her daughter. “That’s part of my Affinity, Luca, and hard to explain. I see with more than my eyes…Does that make sense? For example, I can see that the eight of you are incredibly special. Across the weave of time, I see the same faces, just at different times and places, always the same roles to play. Sometimes the King is a shepherd or revolutionary.” She meets Gideon’s eyes and whispers, “But always one who can turn the tide.”

Turn the tide?That’s the ability to shift the course of events toward good, toward victory. Gideon sincerely doubts Nimue’s words about his character, but sees the truth when she speaks about his mates. Gideon won’t be turning any tides alone, but hopes that the strength they have as eight can triumphover whatever life throws their way.

“So cool,” Rowan says as he wraps two extra biscuits in a lovely hand-embroidered cloth napkin. “Was I a pirate, too? Were we pirates? Because that would be awesome.”

Emmy gets up, fetches a plastic bag, and offers it to him instead.

He offers her a blinding, dimpled grin. “Thanks, Em.” As usual, it’s unclear whether he’s being friendly or causing shit with Nix.

Gideon groans because where Nix had thought Emmy was the GOAT before, he’s now glaring at her. “Down, Kitten. He’s yours, remember? You like Emmy.”

“I really, really do. I’d hate to have to remind her that Rowan is taken, you know?” he whispers.

Emmy’s eyes go wide, and then she laughs. “I’m gay. No worries.”

Nix grins. “Me too!” he exclaims as if it weren’t obvious, and offers her a fist bump in solidarity.

“I am so glad to hear that,” Jay mutters, only half listening. He looks haggard and his bowl is still half-full.

Unusually, Jay would be charming and engaging. An extrovert who loves new people, it is out of character to see him so silent and distracted during the entire meal. It has to be big for Jay to not have a list of questions a mile long about magic in general and the risks to Grayson in particular.

“But, no, not a pirate.” Nimue picks up her story again. “You arethe Wolf.”

Gideon isn’t the only one who misunderstands because his mates are confused as he is. “We areWere.We’re all wolves, no?”

“Yes, of course. As the Goddess intended, Were are her children. Created in the image of her beloved wolves. But Rowan is still a Wolf. He has always been instinctual, dominant, protective, wily, and…theWolf.” She shrugs like she can’t explain it any more clearly.

Leo freezes, clearly having been listening, with his spoon halfway to his mouth. “Are you saying that Rowan was aWolf?Like a furry, four-legged wolf?”

“He couldshift?” Finn asks in disbelief.

Well,thatexplains a lot.

In Love’s Embrace, the Broken Mend (Jay)

Jay’s fingers slide over the piano’s keys; he’s not playing anything particular, just letting music soothe him a little, as it always has.

Today was bad. He’ll not fool anyone by saying otherwise.

Not the worst day he’s ever had, and boy, is that saying something.

Seems he’s always setting the bar lower and lower, when last fall, he’d thought it could only get better and better.

He slides into a melancholy version of Lewis Capaldi’sBefore You Go, which now that he thinks of it, is maybe a poor choice.

There’s an almost soundless patter of bare feet on the wood floor down the hallway from the nest room, and he knows without looking that it’s Nix. Jay doesn’t stop moving his fingers, though, until he feels his beloved’s hand on his bare shoulder.

“Can’t sleep, Baby Boy?” Jay scoots over on the piano bench so Nix can sit his tiny butt down.

Their babies press up against the edge of the piano gently, and Jay stumbles through the hook at the realization that they’ve been in Florida long enough that he’s grown so much.

And Jay hadn’t noticed.

“Can’t sleep when I can hear you so loudly…”, Nix shakes his head, pretending to bite Jay’s deltoid.

“I’m playing too loudly?” He eases his fingers on the keys, coaxing a new melodyinto a whisper.