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“Wait, was this like, a consensual non-return, or…?”

Nantier cleared his throat. “We don’t know how it started, but by the time they were discovered by her sister, Thistle was already pregnant with you two and refusing to go back. Her sister reported the pregnancy to His Majesty, who was deeply interested in the half-shifter twins she was carrying. However, they disappeared soon after. We had long assumed they were dead, to be honest, until His Majesty brought Ezra to court and announced he was Thistle and Jaelis’s son.”

I wondered how they’d managed to escape. Had they found a portal that hadn’t been closed from the war? Or did they create a new one themselves?

“So how does the fam feel about the two of us, then? The bastard half-shifters?”

We made our way down the stairs, the front door in view. I saw Alaroth, Ezra, and a few other guards waiting.

“I loved Thistle,” Nantier whispered. “As her daughter, I believe I shall love you too.”

My heart felt so full. I was about to give him a hug when his expression soured.

“But I do not think I’ll be able to forgive Ezra for what he did to her.”

I nodded. “I know, he was a real jerk to her growing up.”

Nantier shook his head. “No, I mean he killed her, Marlowe. Her and Jaelis both.”

52

ELIAS

We’d managed to take down something that closely resembled a deer, eating our full. As a wolf, it tasted delicious.

Now that I was shifted back, I felt a little nauseous.

We washed up and drank at a stream, the water fresh and cool, while Kian kept watch up high on a nearby branch.

The vamp was growing on me. He was younger than us, but his powers were impressive, and I was a little jealous of how quickly he’d been able to acquire them with Marlowe’s second-hand blood.

I called up to him from the ground. “What do your vampyr eyes see?”

He jumped down, light on his feet. “Just a whole lot of shifter dick.”

“Well, quit staring, then,” I grinned.

At first, it had also been awkward for me to just be naked with my pack like this, but now I barely registered it. Not that I necessarily wanted to go start a shifter nudist colony or anything, but it felt surprisingly natural.

And I could definitely get used to Marlowe hanging out in the nude.

As though she could read my thoughts, her love came shooting through the bond, and collectively we breathed deeply, sending it right back. I wanted to talk to her so badly, but with the King close and with his ability to speak through her, we needed to keep explicit communication to a minimum.

Julian trotted up and shifted back. “I smell smoke and peopleabout two miles that way,” he pointed. “I don’t think they’re vamps, but we could check them out at least.”

Cam grunted. “Okay, drink up and then let’s head out.”

I almost winced at the order. It wasn’t a bark, but it strangely carried the weight of one. For all his blustering, he’d never actually used his position as pack leader to command us to do anything. Was the pressure of getting Marlowe back helping him ease into that role? Or was it something else?

I looked briefly at Archer and Nolan, seeing a similar confusion in their eyes, before shifting and following Cam’s lead.

Kian hid us with his shadows as we spied on the small village. There were fae of all sorts, with different tones of skin color, and strange combinations of animal parts mixed with more human anatomy. They wore simple clothes and went about their daily routines while laughing and talking with their neighbors.

The shadows around us deepened as a child’s toy came perilously close to where we were hiding, but luckily the boy didn’t even look in our direction as he came to grab it and go back to his friends.

Well, we’d found peoplenotimprisoned, but I wasn’t exactly sure what our next move would be. If other vampyrs were nearby, they probably weren’t living in the village since they were “persona non grata.”

“Should we shift and split up?” I whispered to Cam. “Try to sniff out the vamps?”