Page 7 of Shattered Stars

She yawns and lowers her head back to her pillow.

“I hope he was sorry,” she says. “I hope he begged for your forgiveness for all the shit he’s put you through this term.”

“He had his reasons.”

Winnie tsks. “They always do. Don’t forgive him too easily, Rhi. No matter how good he may be in bed.” She grins. “And he’s good, right? Please don’t shatter all my illusions about that man and tell me he is a dud. Although, I guess room for improvement is not a bad thing. Teaching Trent some things has actually been a lot of fun–”

I whack my friend on the shoulder. “Winnie, last night was amazing. I don’t think there’s anything to teach the man.”

“Yeah, I bet,” she says, giggling. “I bet half those books on his shelves are sex manuals. I bet he knows tantric sex moves and how to make orgasms cosmic and–”

“Winnie!”

“Yes, Rhi,” she says, grinning at me.

I take a deep inhale. “What if Stone and Azlan aren’t the only ones? What if … what if I do have other mates?”

She giggles again, but the sound dies on her lips when she sees how serious I am.

“Who?”

I give her two names. Not the third, because … because … that just can’t be right!

The incredulous noise she makes when I tell her has Pip jerking awake in his bed and scuttling towards us both.

My best friend gapes at me as Pip settles himself in my lap, then shakes her head in disbelief before snorting loudly.

“You can’t be serious?”

“I don’t know,” I say, hiding my face in Pip’s upturned tummy.

“But … but they’ve been treating you like shit.”

“Well, the man in black and Stone didn’t exactly welcome me with open arms, did they?”

“Yes, but they never set out to torture you, to make your life miserable, to actively belittle you.”

“Hmmm,” I say. Because Stone did chain me to a bed, throw ham sandwiches at my head and try to infiltrate my mind by force.

Yeah, none of my fated mates are exactly earning themselves gold stars here.

“Then again …” she says, rolling over onto her stomach and reaching down to tickle Pip’s exposed chin. “They do seem to have a rather unusual infatuation with you. Tristan especially. I’ve never seen him pay any girl any particular attention. Not even Summer. But you … I mean, it’s negative attention, but still attention.”

“I’m probably imagining it. It’s probably just my bond, all unsettled from the recent sealing of the bonds with Azlan and Stone,” I say, not one bit convinced by this explanation. “More than two fated mates? That can’t be possible.”

“I mean it can be.”

“Really? In fairy tales and–”

“Wait,” Winnie says, “that reminds me of something.”

“It does?”

“Uh huh.” She reaches down to the floor, scrabbling for her phone and then typing away. “I might be misremembering … it was a long time ago …”

“What was?”

She looks up from her phone. “Huh?”