Her eyes widened, the pretty topaz darkening to a deep brown. Shock lurked there along with desire. Need and wariness. Smart girl.
“Hello?” The door opened, and Nessa entered with a duffel bag. “Since we lost all of the shopping bags in the fight, I brought more clothing from friends in case the stuff I left for Honor earlier didn’t work.” She paused, looked at them, and then glanced at the males on the sofa. “Um, what’s going on?”
Bear lumbered to his feet and set his mug on the coffee table. “They’re going to mate. It looks like right there at the fridge, so we should get going.” He leaned over and kissed his witch. “You thought I wasn’t romantic with our chase through the snow and then breaking the bed. At least we used a bed.” He began to duck his shoulder as if to toss her over it and then paused, straightening and taking her hand instead.
Nessa sighed. “Bear. I’m not breakable. The healers all told me I need to spend time in nature and relax. I can’t just stay in bed. I’m only pregnant.”
“With triplets, and you’ve always been breakable, my heart.” With that sweet statement, he moved toward the door.
Flynn stood too. “I have to call in. See you all later.” With that, he jogged outside.
Nessa set her feet. “What a minute. I wanted to give everyone a quick update. Our security system has been attacked multiple times in the last few hours. They’re pulling out all the stops this time. My electronic protections have remained in force, but you might want to consider destroying anything with GPS just in case. Not that your location isn’t rather well known right now. But…missiles. Just to be safe.”
The door opened again, and Garrett strode inside. “We’ve got intel from the Realm with notice of Kurjan bounties for Sam, Honor, and me.” He tossed a printout of Honor’s face over to Sam and then paused, looking at Sam’s hand on her neck. “What’s going on?”
Sam caught the piece of paper with his free hand. “I was explaining to Honor that we’re going to mate.”
Garrett smiled. “It’s about time.”
Nessa tugged Bear inside. “Honor? Do you mind?”
“Not at all.” Honor edged out from Sam’s embrace and moved toward the witch so she could set both hands on her abdomen. She closed her eyes and remained still. Her smile was sweet when she opened them. “They’re okay. All of them.”
Sam relaxed. “Good.” That was the only thing that really mattered.
* * * *
Honor finished pouring two cups of coffee and took them out to the deck, where Garrett sat on the steps. Protecting her. Or was he watching her to make sure she didn’t make a break for it? The second Sam had made his pronouncement, his brother had called and insisted upon a teleconference. Sam’s brother…the king of the demon nation.
She handed the mug to Garrett and sat beside him on the rough-hewn steps. “Are you here making sure I stay here?”
“Yep.” He took the cup, inhaled the steam, and then took a drink, staring out at the trees surrounding them. “I also wanted to avoid the big teleconference right now. Wasn’t in the mood.”
She didn’t blame him. This was good. He was somebody she could get on her side, once she figured out what her side might be. “You and Sam are tight?”
“We’re brothers. As close as brothers, anyway.” Even Garrett’s profile was rock solid and strong. “When his brother and my sister mated, we became family. His younger brother, Logan, and I are the best of friends, and when I joined the Grizzlies, Sam came with me. We’re solid.” He cut her a look, his eyes metallic gray. “He’ll be a good mate. The best, actually.”
They all talked about mating like it was normal. In her world, only animals mated.
“Garrett. Happenstance put Sam and me in the same place and gave me this weird fire and dimensional problem.” She blew on the coffee. It was too hot.
He snorted.
She paused. “What?”
“Fate happened. You know, my dad is probably the deadliest warrior alive today, and he totally and completely believes in Fate.” Garrett took another drink. “Figures people who don’t are just fighting themselves for some reason. Why are you fighting it?”
She blinked. “I don’t believe in Fate.”
“Ah. Okay. Let’s come at it another way.”
“No. Let’s talk about you.” She sipped gingerly. Yeah, good coffee with a hint of cinnamon. “Let’s say you found your mate.”
Garrett sighed. “Let’s say I finally do, although I’m getting tired of looking for her. She’d better have a damn good reason for being so hard to find.”
A quick look showed he wasn’t kidding. “Um, all right. What if you find her and she doesn’t want to mate you? Is it like a proposal that goes wrong?”
“She’ll mate me,” Garrett said, his voice low.
Wow. Force of nature or what? Honor settled more comfortably on the hard steps. “Okay. Forgetting the fact that I haven’t made up my mind yet, I have some questions, and you’re here, so you get to answer. What about this final ritual you all keep talking about? Sam was saying he wouldn’t mate me because you’re all probably going to perish, but now he’s changed his mind because we’re in danger if we don’t mate. So let’s talk about you. If you meet the woman you believe to be your mate before the ritual, are you going to mate her? Even though you think you’re going to die?”
“I’m mating her the second I can lock her down,” Garrett said, his voice a low growl. “This ritual may take place next year or it may take place in a millennia. I don’t know. What I do know is that my mate is out there, unprotected, and I’ll damn well put her where I can keep her safe, even if I die the next day.”
“Here I thought Sam was a control freak,” Honor muttered into her cup.
Garrett flashed a smile, watching a squirrel climb up a tree. “I’m not a freak. I just like control, and I take it. My mate will not only understand that fact but appreciate it.”
Honor took a big drink of the coffee to do something with her mouth other than argue with him. “Are you a bunch of centuries old?” It would explain the attitude.
“No. Zane, Sam, Logan, and I are from this century. We’re quite modern for our people.”
She couldn’t tell if he was joking but had a sinking feeling that he was not. “Wow.”
He finished his coffee and turned to look at her, his gaze unreadable. “We’re not humans. We don’t date for two years, wonder if there’s someone better out there, waffle around, and then have a party with a preacher and a piece of paper from the state. We’re immortals with enemies who want to separate our heads from our bodies. When we find a mate, we keep her. Now. Not tomorrow when it may be too late. Sam would never force you to mate, but you need to let go of your human training and stop and think about what you really want. Decide, forgetting all about rules and conventions. What do you want?”