Page 62 of His Atonement

"You want to get high and watch Netflix with me?"

"I'm pretty sure I saidalone."

"You lied for me."

"I did and I have no idea why." I scoot so I'm sitting on the edge of the bed. "You make me do stupid shit, Zan."

He smiles proudly as he lifts his head toward me. "Because I is your mates. We will do all the stupid shits together because of the other."

"Where are your clothes?"

He shrugs. "Somewhere hopefully burning to crisps because of the way they makes mys skin feel." Then Zan's eyes get huge and his light blonde brows lift. "Do you have crisps? Ugh, I could eat the shit out of some crisps right now."

I get to my feet, and hold out my hand. "Come on Drunky McDrunkerson. As long as you keep Nic where he is, we can go raid my kitchen and after I change then smoke no less than two bowls, we'll sit in my bed and watch Netflix until you sober the fuck up."

"I hope I ams drunk forever." Zan gets to his feet, entwines our fingers and manages to hold the bottle and pillow over his crotch. "Drunk for all the days if that is to be how I spend them."

Yep, there goes my heart.

That stupid thing swelling at his inebriated words.

Zan is going to be a problem for me, a big problem, I can feel it.

Problem is, I'm totally ok with that and it scares me shitless.

When You Know, You Deny

Igenerally do not get what is referred to as ahangover,but right now I believe I'm the closest to that as I will ever be.

My head feels stuffy.

My ears ring.

My eyes seem to be made of sandpaper.

My mouth is dry as though it is full of cotton balls and I have a niggling of regret lingering in the back of my mind, but despite all of that, I am happier than I have ever been, all thanks to my most idiotic and drunken behavior.

I stretch my arms above my head, reach until I can grip the headboard and when my shoulders pop I let out a small sigh.

Yes, I may have acted the fool but I am rather content, which is why I must leave immediately.

After my visit fromhe who shall not be named, I went on a bit of a bender.

I returned to my dungeon and proceeded to cope with my most gruesome task on my own, shut everyone out and battled the pesky morals and values I've acquired over the past year alone. I thought perhaps I'd be able to just accept what I am to do, pick someone outside of the core clan and be satisfied with that since it would not be one of my friends, one of the brothers or their closest kin, so I did so at random.

Decided on Jack, the grizzly shifter, and left it alone.

But then I thought about his mate, thought about how he would change once I took his soul, how that would affect Kady and their sons, their grandchildren.

So I picked Harold, the lion shifter. His mate has been gone for years now, so surely that would not be an issue and since his son was grown he didn't need to be around for him, especially since he had just recently mated himself and has no cubs yet.

But I remembered his twin, remembered the bond he shares with Will and changed my mind once again.

I spent hours running through the members of the clan, weighed the pros and cons, tried to come up with a solution that did the least damage and by the morning of my deadline, I was so distraught I could barely stand it.

Still though, my soul is at stake so I knew what I must do and when my most unwelcome visitor showed up, I agreed willingly despite not having a fucking clue how I'm going to do this.

He specified the terms, reminded me that it has to be one of the clan that resides on Dragovihk land, how a shifter or another creature of mysticism is preferred but one of their human mates will suffice, and then gave me one month to complete the task.