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YOU’RE A DAISY IF YOU DO

HUCKLEBERRY

Something about the story the vampire told is tickling my senses. I know our leaders don’t tell us shit at my level, despite the fact that I’m older than a good deal of demons living on the surface. They used to communicate more than they have since the fucking sweeps, but I figured it was because they’d managed to peace out to the homeland in time to avoid that shit.

But what if they didn’t make it?

I can’t imagine the kind of power and continual supply one would need to not only imprison, but keep the elder supernaturals from multiple species for years. It would require a strenuous, difficult to maintain kind of magic and power, plus beings who can withstand the effects of being around that for a lengthy amount of time. They’d need day-to-day sustenance and care, which means a lot of black market shit is being funneled to the location without anyone being the wiser. The operation has to be massive, very secret, and overseen by knowledgeable supes—humans wouldn’t know the details we keep from public knowledge and those things could kill ancients like the leaders.

Digging my fingers into my hair, I pace back and forth in the room as I consider how I can find out more about what’s going on in the Underworld. We don’t have the ability to contact one another in the camps because the necessary materials for summoning a messenger are hard to come by, and therefore, expensive. I’ve relied on incoming demons and gossip along the criminal grapevine to get what I need for a while, but that may not be enough. I’m going to have to figure out some way to contact demons who aren’t constrained by the humans’ dominance on this continent.

It will have to be hidden in the social media or TV shit—that will be tricky.

“Some days, I wish I’d fucking skedaddled like a lot of the other old guys. Others, I realize that would have prevented me from finding the person who will eventually make my long-assed life bearable.” I pause in my pacing, blowing out a breath slowly. I haven’t told Thad, much less Sydney, what I know about her and me. We both have a thing for her and that’s about the extent of what we’ve discussed—and not much about it, either. He’ll be pissed when he finds out, especially since he’s mentioned his own thoughts on the matter and I stayed quiet.

This sort of thing for shifters isn’t the same as it for demons, though. Besides the very different things that will happen in the acceptance of that—physically, magically, and biologically—his claim won’t involve immortality. It won’t require the sacrifices mine would, and I’m not ready to talk about that with our girl a’tall. She’s not ready to hear it, either, which is why I’ve kept my interest through flirting a bit.

But Sydney Jolie is most certainly my mate—even if she truly is Thad’s as well.

My brows furrow as I consider the belly-ups I’ve seen from the other supes in our new clique. I don’t get why any of them are complying with her demands other than wanting to survive this shit. However, they could easily have stayed clammed up and made underhanded deals to fuck the three of us over during the team-wide events. They didn’t and that makes me wonder why—have they, too, figured out something about my sweet pea that would benefit them? Is that why they’re accepting this far more easily than I would ever have expected?

“Thad and I need to get them alone and try to ferret out their intentions, especially the vampire. His stories have rocked my world, too, and I didn’t think that was possible anymore.”

I’m not going to solve this without some help, but I don’t want to involve people I don’t trust yet. Frowning, I walk out of my room, heading to the living area to pour myself a hefty drink. Once I’ve got mine and a second for Thad, I walk back to the rooms and knock softly on Thad’s door. We’ve had a secret pattern for years so we could visit one another at night if we felt we needed to chat without our girl in the middle. He opens the door in sweats, his big frame taking up most of the doorway as he tilts his head curiously.

“Huck? What the hell, man? It’s getting late and those alarms are fucking brutal here.”

I roll my eyes at his whining, handing him his whiskey as I push inside of his room. “We need to talk about the shit that’s gone down without the new faces and Sydney clouding the discussion, friend.”

Thad closes the door, sighing heavily as I walk in and flop on one side of his bed. “How did I know that was why you came tapping at my door at this time of night?”

“Don’t be such a grumpy old bear, Thaddy. You love when I come tip-toeing to your room.” I wink at him playfully and he looks up again as if I’m the most trying thing in the universe.

“Huck,” he says as he joins me on the bed with his glass. “You’re being ridiculous. Just tell me what the hell you want.”

My lips quirk as I eye the big guy. I know he’s a little interested in my flirting, but has no idea what to do with it. As a demon, I’m as pansexual as they come, and he’s definitely one huge hunk of beefcake, so I’d happily teach him a few things if he responded. Based on his responses, though, Thad isn’t ready for that conversation any more than he is when I bring up Sydney.

The poor dude is repressed as fuck because his sleuth leader is a stodgy dick when it comes to sex.

I blink as it strikes me that the gorgeously bulky bear next to me might be a virgin in every way, not just the dirty thoughts I’ve had in the past. That’s… well, appealing isn’t the right word, but the vision of my sweet pea and me initiating him together makes my entire body sing with excitement.

“Why do you look like someone just handed you a ‘get out of jail free’ card?” he says as he eyes me suspiciously.

“No reason.” I beam at him, shrugging as I take a sip of my whiskey. “I just enjoy your company, brother bear.”

“ Huck ,” Thad grinds out as he gets comfortable. “Come on, man.”

Touchy, touchy furry man.

“Fine.” I grin and take another sip before I continue. “We need to know more about the new guys. They’re definitely trying to worm their way in with our girl and the shit they’re sharing puts our lives at risk even more than the Games themselves do.”

Thad taps his fingers on his stomach, his expression turning thoughtful as he contemplates my words. “You’re probably right. I didn’t expect the vampire to unload that much truth ever, much less so soon.”

Pressing my lips together, I think about how much I want to share with him after the shit dropped this evening. The bear can handle more than Sydney, but most of the lesser supes have a limit. Sebastian’s information was a lot to process for the beings who really didn’t pay much attention to global hierarchy and systems. Shifters aren’t known for doing so, which means Thad won’t have a damn clue about any of this shit. When I’m ready, I look over at him.

“I knew some of his shit—not all or even a lot. Demons, deities, Fae, and demis stay pretty dialed into global supe politics. Non-mythical shifters don’t and only the most connected of the magical humanoids do. So, yes, I knew a fraction of that, but the vamp shit? No clue, man.”

Thad frowns, groaning softly in a way that makes my cock twitch. “Syd is gonna murder you when she finds out. She’ll be pissed at all of us because you held back.”

“What good would it have done to tell you two what was going on before the sweeps. Before Taterman, and before I came to live in a camp? How would it have helped either of you?” I shake my head, scoffing softly. “It wouldn’t. There was nothing we could do about the bigger picture once we were imprisoned, and frankly, species groups can’t communicate between camps. And I didn’t know shit about the assumptions made about her father. He’s dead, so pissing on his memory wouldn’t do her any good.”

He nods slowly. “I suppose that’s true. Until the Games shit came about, we were living in this massive bubble where hurting her wouldn’t have done any good. Whether she was mad at the world in general or mad at them plus her dad wouldn’t change the situation. But now… Now, we have to be more honest because the secrets could get us fucking killed.”

“I know,” I say as I sip my drink again. “Which is why I’m here in the middle of the night chatting you up about how we’re going to keep our girl safe now that the others seem to be sniffing around her.”

His growl tells me exactly how his bear feels about that and I wing a curse to the depths before I broach the harder topic. I’m going to have to talk to Thad about what he and I feel, what we believe, and what might be the truth in the future. If he’s having trouble while we’re alone, he’s going to need to get his shit together. I know what I’m afraid of, and what I believe to be possible. He needs to know it, too.

“Thaddy, I know this is gonna make you madder’n a wet hen, but we gotta beard the lion.”

“That’s a lot of metaphors, Huck. What the fuck are you talking about?”

Swallowing hard, I blow out a long breath then continue. “Thad, I know you think Syd might be your mate and fuck knows, I didn’t think I’d ever have one, but the minute I met her, I did, too.”

Thad sits up straight, his eyes flashing with the gold of his bear, and he grips the comforter with his big fists. “Shut your mouth, Huckleberry Monroe.”

I chuckle, giving him a sympathetic smile. “Thad, she doesn’t know, but I’m far too fucking old to pretend with you. I can tell when someone is pining, and even more, I can see it written on your face now. We have to be honest, remember?”

“Fine.”

That’s all I’m getting, I suppose, but he’s a stubborn son of a bitch sometimes. “Well, our fighting group is about as disparate as one could get. It’s full of strong, even royal, dudes and centered on a girl who we can’t verify the lineage or species of. Doesn’t that sound like something only destiny or Fates or some shit could plan for? I mean, it’s like a goddamn plot line on a TV show or in a book.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Ignoring his pout, I go on. “Which means that it stands to reason that the others are here for a reason, too.”

His eyes widen and he snarls, “No fucking way. The vampire? The playboy mage? A sea dragon royal?”

I shrug, looking at the bottom of my glass as it gets closer. “If she’s even more special than we thought, she’d need fierce protectors around her. Her destiny might be to break the supes free. There’s probably a reason why she hasn’t been able to access her powers, why she ended up in our camp, and why we were drawn to her immediately, man.”

“She’s going to fucking hate the idea that her life might have been planned by something out of her control.”

“Uh, I don’t know that we need to tell her that just yet. Maybe we just need to check these fuckers out before she gets closer to them?”

“Why does that matter if you think they could be fated?”

I forget sometimes how dense the shifters can be.

“Look, being fated is great, but if their damage on the way to her is so bad that they won’t keep her safe and not sell her out? Then I don’t care what the universe says. They’re not getting within an inch of the vulnerable side she doesn’t show people. I won’t let some jackasses hurt her more; will you?”

He flashes me a smile full of ursine teeth and I chuckle.

I guess that’s a ‘no’.