Ryan
The family dining room in the private quarters of the castle where Ella and Ryatt spend their time outside of their royal duties is washed in starlight and the faint glow of a chandelier.
It’s probably edging on 9:00 PM, by my estimation. The dinner was long, drawn out, conversations yelled down the impossibly crowded wooden table.
Now, I sit on one end, nursing a glass of scotch, while my mate sits surrounded by my family on the other end, her eyes rapt as she watches Ella’s mouth move.
I’ve barely spoken to her in the past two hours. She was herded to a seat and immediately surrounded, and I ended up on the other side of the table from my mate, stuck between Sydney and Granger, Evander’s father. Granger eventually moved down the table as well, joining whatever conversation I was being excluded from, apparently. The kids were scooped up and tossed in bed an hour ago. It’s quiet now, which is rare for my family when we all get together.
Well, not all of us. We’re missing Grandma and Grandpa and Ryatt’s parents, all of them held up in Maatua for some reason. Misty isn’t here either, which I knew would be the case. She’s in Tarsian, spending her summer digging in the sand doing some research study for her degree program.
I take another sip of scotch, watching Aviva prop her chin in her hand as Amanda leans in, laughing at something Ella said.
Something obviously happened after I left the room with the men. I’d been cloistered away in Ryatt’s office and was interrogated about my marriage, how it came about, if I tried to stop it, for her sake, of course. Only after the rest of the guys left when dinner was announced did my dad pull me aside and ask if I truly felt the mate bond with Aviva.
I take another sip of my scotch, draining it this time.
I told him I did, and I do. It’s just… confusing. I’m trying to reckon with why my bond with Aviva feels so much different than it did with Hadley. Should I feel as guilty as I do about that?
“Here.” Fresh amber-hued liquid splashes into my glass. Sydney sits down beside me with a sigh, looking worse for wear, his shirt a little ruffled. He pours himself a dram, knocks it back, and pours a second.
“What happened to you?” I chuckle as I lift my drink to my lips.
“Blake,” he grumbles. “Putting him to bed has been a nightmare lately. Someone, we’re not sure who, probably a kid in his preschool class, has him convinced monsters live under his bed and are going to eat him the second we leave the room. He gets Liam all wound up, too.” Despite his frustrated tone, he smiles against the rim of his glass. “I wake up every morning and roll over to kiss my wife and find Blake between us, stretched out like a starfish in nothing but his undies, sleeping like a baby.”
I smile a bit wistfully at the image dancing through my mind. I’m happy for Sydney. I knew Sarah was the one for him the first time I met her. They just fit together like pieces of a puzzle. She understands his weird, tangled brain, and he soaks up her light.
“Are you guys thinking of having another one?”
“Another kid? Hell no.” Sydney sucks in a laugh, shaking his head. “Not for a while, at least. Liam’s a handful. Two boys is hard. It’s like a war zone every time I get home from the firm. Cosette keeps threatening to retire and move so far away we’ll never be able to find her. I’d love a daughter, though. Seeing Sarah with a girl… one that looks like her, acts like her….” His lips thin into a gentle, dreamy smile. “Yeah, I’d have another kid. A hundred of them. She’s the best mother. Evander and Kenna are done for sure, though.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, Maeve hasn’t been… easy.”
“She’s only one. How hard can that be? She can’t even walk yet.”
Sydney grits his teeth. “You know why we’re here, right?”
I sigh, crossing my arms over my chest as I slouch in my chair and look down the table at my wife. “Dad mentioned something about the plan for succession for this new generation. That’s what Ryatt called this… reunion for, I assumed.”
Sydney chews his lip, his eyes ghosting over Evander. Kenna must be with their kids right now. “Maeve has powers.”
“Already?”
Sydney nods. “You’ve missed a lot, Ryan.”
Before I can ask what he means by powers, Sarah slides into a seat beside Sydney, giving him a look. “Your sons are driving me up the wall.”
“Are they asleep?”
“Blake tried to stall, but he’s out, for now.” She reaches for his glass and takes a sip, winces, and sets it back on the table. “What are they talking about down there?”
I shrug. “I have no idea. I haven’t been able to talk to my own mate all evening.”
As if summoned, Evander starts walking toward us down the length of the long table. He sits down across from me, scratching his jaw as he reaches for the bottle of scotch resting between us. Sarah rises to investigate the group at the far end, bored with us already.
Sydney leans forward, sliding a glass in Evander’s direction. I notice the lost look in his eyes, though, and ask, “What’s everyone talking about down there?”
Evander drags his tongue across his lower lip. “Your mate,” he says, his sharp green eyes meeting mine. “Her mother.”
“What about her mom?” I remember Jerrod telling me about Gemma, who’d been a refugee from the Roguelands during the great war.
“She was loosely related to my mom,” he says like he isn’t sure he believes it yet. “A distant cousin, part of the same pack. Mom thought her entire pack was wiped out, that everyone died when Granite Rise was attacked by Kane’s army. Gemma was a very close friend, and even Ella knew her. I guess they traveled together for a short time, before Ella and Ryatt linked up. Gemma was attacked by a hellhound trying to get… what was her name? Hannah, that’s right. Trying to get Hannah to the coven.”
I raise my brows. I’ve heard this story before. Ella used to tell us stories of her early adventures in Eastonia when we were kids whenever we gathered in Maatua for the Winter Solstice.
“Gemma was the friend who couldn’t travel with them again because she was injured, so she stayed behind while Ella and Amanda left alone and got picked up by bandits, right?” Sydney asks.
Evander nods. “Mom still talks about her sometimes, so this is… shocking, to say the least.”
I look down the table at Aviva, tucked between Amanda and Ella, Amanda’s hand resting on her shoulder.
“I should have it seen right away,” Evander says with a sigh. “The red hair, the dark, coppery eyes… they were pack traits. According to my mom, she and Gemma were the only ones without the red hair their pack was known for.”
Aviva mentioned to me once, lying side by side in bed, that Mercy took after her mother with her dark, thick brown hair.
“Is Aviva doing okay?” I ask thickly. This has to be a lot to take in. Hell, I’m struggling with it myself. Is this why we’re mates? It’s a silly thing to wonder… why certain people are matched. Why people like Kenna and Evander became mates when they grew up in the same castles, raised by parents who were friends and also ruled together. There has to be more to it than fate, right?
Was Aviva chosen for me so I could lead her back to Amanda, giving Amanda and Ella a sense of peace they hadn’t known for over two decades?
“She’s tired,” Evander says, tilting his head down the table.
“Yeah,” I say into my drink, draining it, feeling the effects of it starting to hit my head, numbing the anxiety that’s been simmering in my chest all day.
I rise, and Aviva instantly senses my movement and looks at me. She says something to Ella, Amanda, and my mother that I can’t hear, and starts walking in my direction. I look around the room, taking in the familiar faces. Weeks ago, when I found out about this meeting, I’d dreaded it. The idea of being here with my family, the people who worried for me, cared about me… it was a lot. It was too much for me because, if I couldn’t see past what I’d done to Hadley, how could they?
But no one looks at me like I’m a head case, like they still have to tread lightly around me, biting their tongues. In fact, I briefly meet my mom’s eyes as I rest my hand on Aviva’s back to guide her out of the room, and her smile mends something I hadn’t realized was broken.
We walk through the private home of Ryatt and Ella, a mansion built within the castle itself. I guide an exhausted Aviva through the network of hallways and stairways leading to the levels of private apartments on the west side of the castle where my family has their own lodgings.
“How come you don’t stay with your parents when you’re here?” she asks sleepily, rubbing her eyes as I open the door to my private apartment. It’s nothing more than a bedroom, a sitting room, and a bathroom, but it’s beautiful.
“Getting your own quarters here in Moonrise was kind of a rite of passage in my family when we were growing up,” I tell her, guiding her through the dark into the bedroom.
She moans slightly, shrugging out of her dress. “I’ve felt weird all day.”
“It’s the travel and… meeting my family, and all.”
“Bed?”
This is something Aviva asks every night. It’s like a reflex, and I’m not sure she even knows she’s saying it to me when she does, but I nod. “Bed.”
She falls asleep practically before she even hits the pillows, but I’m thrumming with nervous energy. I leave her in bed and head back out, walking three entire floors down to the sweeping veranda overlooking the city and the lake.
I’m not shocked to find my brother, Sarah, Kenna, and Evander on the veranda, resting in lounge chairs in the warm, night air.
“I thought you went to bed,” Sarah says with a smile.
“Thought about it. I figured I’d find you all out here.” I sit down on one of the plush chairs, rubbing my face before running a hand through my hair. They’re all looking at me. I know what they’re waiting for. Am I back? The old Ryan? “So, what do you think about her?”
Kenna and Sarah beam smiles bright enough to light the night sky. Evander and Sydney just stare at me, slightly smug, smirking their approval.
“I think we should go out to celebrate,” Kenna says brightly, shifting her position to look at Sarah and Sydney. “A new club opened up this summer.”
“Your father's been complaining about it,” Evander cuts in, shaking his head at his mate. “He says it’s seedy, and I agree.”
“It is not! It’s beautiful!”
“I could use a night out.” Sarah breathes, clutching Sydney’s hand. “I know you could, too.”
Kenna is on pins and needles. I can’t remember the last time we did this together–went out on the town. Danced. Partied.
It would have been that ball several years ago, when Sydney snuck Sarah back to my house, and Kenna nearly got kidnapped by Gabriel and was then saved by Evander.
“Wait, are you pregnant by chance?” Kenna asks Sarah.
“No. I’m not.” Sarah shakes her head furiously in emphasis. Sydney snorts a laugh. “Are you?”
“Goddess, no.”
“This is the first time in a long time one of us hasn’t been pregnant,” Sarah says, grabbing Kenna’s hand. “We have to go out. There’s no question about it.”
Evander throws me and Sydney a pleading look to help put an end to this, but….
“I’m in.”
“Me too.” Sydney’s eyes slide to Evander, the only hold out.
“Fine,” he says, grumbling, but I can tell he’s trying not to smile as he looks at his mate.
“Does Aviva like to dance?” Kenna asks.
I’ve only seen her dance once, at our hand-fasting. It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. “Yeah, she does.”