Ronan

Ronan

I finished the foot race trial in second place behind Leif, so I was second to make my way back to the Lakehouse.

Dion had been easy to pass. I’d flown past him a few minutes after leaving Neela in the dirt. Gabrelle was a more challenging target, and she pushed her advantage hard, making me chase her down with everything I had, but I passed her at the fifteen-mile mark and came in an easy second.

By the time I reached the Lakehouse, Leif was already showered and changed into a fresh pair of gray sweatpants, lounging on his huge silver sofa with a massive smirk, throwing a tennis ball against a wall and plucking it out of the air. “Finally decided to join me, did you?”

“I’m still the fastest fae,” I pointed out. “You’re the fastest dog out of, let me count…one.”

As usual, insults breezed off Leif, and if anything, his smugness deepened. “I beat you fair and square, dude. You’re just jealous that I’ve Ascended and you haven’t.”

I perched on Gabrelle’s glass chair, not wanting to put my dirty butt on my own. “I’m not jealous of anything about you.”

Leif licked the tip of his finger, traced it down his bare chest, and played with his nipple. “Are you sure you aren’t jealous of all the sex I get?”

Leif’s House represented debauchery and fornication, and his pack certainly lived up to the name. Every single one of them would bang males, females, non-binaries, anything that moved. He proudly described himself as megasexual, so I supposed his desire extended to cardboard boxes and warm apple pies. He didn’t even deny it whenever I tried to rib him about it.

“I get as much sex as I want,” I retorted.

Every female in Verda wanted a piece of my ass, and plenty of them got it. They ranged from fake coquettishness with batting eyelashes, hoping I’d ask them out, to the other end of the spectrum with straight-up stalking or begging.

Except for Neela. Somehow last night, she had control. She had me watching every one of her moves and practically begging her to stay. Don’t go, I’d told her, and shame swept through me at the memory. If I’d known she was Sebarah’s sister, I wouldn’t have gone near her.

So yeah, I got all the sex I wanted…and usually on my own terms.

Leif grinned. “You still don’t get as much as me.”

“Nobody gets as much as you.”

He stayed on the sofa, smirking in victory while I showered and changed. By the time I returned to the main room, Gabrelle had arrived. Even with her jumpsuit torn, she managed to look beautiful. The rips and tears seemed strategically placed to reveal flashes of light-brown underboob and deep-brown thigh.

She was beauty personified but somehow seemed icier and more heartless now I’d met Neela. Neela was movement, life, and emotion, the opposite of Gabrelle’s perfection and control.

“Just three points for you this time, Gabrelle,” Leif smirked, man-spreading across his huge silver sofa.

Gabrelle swept past us to go shower and muttered, “Ascended,” somehow making the word sound like Cheat.

Half an hour later, she emerged with her hair freshly washed and falling in soft pink waves around her flawless face, wearing a white sheath dress that was tailor-made for her. “Good job with the usurper princess,” she said to me, sitting on her glass chaise longue and stretching her shapely legs along its length. “Zero points is exactly what that human-lover deserves.”

We explained to Leif what we’d done. How we’d pulled the log across the path at a steep downhill section, then Gabrelle had glamored it using the traces of Stealth she’d inherited from her father.

“I did a shoddy job, I’m afraid,” she admitted, trailing one tapered finger along her glass chaise.

“You made the log damn near invisible,” I countered. The beauty queen had done well.

She blinked up at me coquettishly. “Imagine what I’ll be able to do after I Ascend.”

Leif caught his ball and watched her every move. “Are you going to choose Stealth? I thought you’d pick Lure for sure.”

She shrugged lightly. “I haven’t decided yet, and I still have a few years before I need to.”

Leif Ascended last year, and Dion and Sebarah several years before that, but Gabrelle and I weren’t yet twenty-five. I was pretty certain I’d follow in my parents’ footsteps, and Gabrelle would definitely choose Lure—she was just playing coy.

“Well, Neela won’t last five minutes with you two on her case,” Leif said.

I growled. “With the four of us on her case, you mean.”

Leif shrugged. “Tripping her over and breaking her legs…I’m not sure I’m up for that. She’s not in my pack.”

Gabrelle uncrossed and crossed her legs, deliberately drawing the wolf’s gaze. “We are all in this together, end of story,” she said firmly.

Gabrelle and Leif had a special connection I didn’t fully understand. It stemmed from the natural pairing of their Houses, sensuality and beauty. So he took Gabrelle’s word more seriously than anyone else’s.

He shrugged. “Sure, of course. I always have your back, guys. You know that.”

He’d better.

Hours later, Dion turned up looking exhausted. Nobody said a word about him being last because we all knew it was inevitable that he’d get his two points in the physical trial and try to do better in the magical ones. Even Leif limited his smugness to a minimum, and after Dion had freshened up, he joined us in the main room as the sun set across the lake.

After sitting in his beanbag for half an hour, Dion climbed wearily to his feet. “Nobody is bothered to cook anything, I suppose,” he grumbled.

Leif snorted. “If I cooked, you’d whinge about the flavors for the next six months, dude. I fell for that once, but never again.”

Dion liked to complain about us never helping with the cooking, but the truth was he loved that shit. After an hour of whipping up a gourmet feast in the kitchen, he was in a much better mood, and we all sat down at the table to enjoy it together.

Gabrelle ate carefully and deliberately, the same way she did everything. “What was she like in bed?”

Leif whipped his head around, flashing his gaze between us. “Oh, that’s right! You screwed Neela. That’s a plan I can get behind. I’ll bang her too, then break her heart.”

Rage swept through me, violent, uncontrollable fury. I stood and shoved the table hard, knocking into Leif’s belly and toppling his chair backward. His tennis ball flew through the air. He hit the floor hard with a howl, and the fire inside me burned hotter.

I rounded the table and stood over him, growling, “Don’t lay a finger on her, mutt.”

The room was shocked into silence, and Leif looked up at me from the floor with wide eyes. I didn’t care. If he didn’t agree to leave her alone, I would rip his throat out, friend or not.

He held up his hands in surrender. “Sure thing, okay, no screwing the newbie. Geez, I didn’t know the boring no-sex pact extended to her.”

Right, the no-sex pact. That was the problem.

Whatever the reason, I couldn’t have that fae lay a hand on her, the idea was intolerable.

Not just Leif, but any fae.

Nobody touched Neela except me.