She looked away. “I don’t feel things like other people. I mean, I think, consider, mull…. I’m a thinker.”
“Sam’s dead. You’ll never see him again,” Garrett said.
The instant pain was shocking, especially since she knew it wasn’t true. Still, her chest hurt.
“There you go,” Garrett murmured. “Love’s a construct that people spend their lives trying to nail down. You can say it, you can experience it or not, but what you just felt right then was real. It was more than love, and you could have that with Sam.”
His words made sense. She grinned and nudged him with her shoulder. “So, if I mated, would I end up totally gorgeous?”
“You’re already totally gorgeous,” he said easily. “You’d still be you, just with some extra chromosomes so a bullet couldn’t kill you. Or any illness.”
Heat filtered into her face. He said she was gorgeous. “This is the best girl talk I’ve had in a long time.” Speaking of which, if she was going to get rid of her GPS and phone, she needed to check in with several of her friends first and let them know she was all right.
“I’m good at girl talk,” Garrett drawled, his odd metallic eyes sharp.
She chuckled. “What if your mate is just like me? I mean, come on.”
His eyebrow rose. “Just like you? You’re great. Why wouldn’t I want a mate just like you?”
Okay. Now he was being sweet, and she was starting to like him as a buddy. “I mean, independent. You want a woman to just fall in line. Most of us won’t.”
He shook his head. “It’s my job to make her fall in line. I want her independent until I don’t.”
“Man, I hope I get to meet your mate,” Honor murmured.
“Me too.” Garrett frowned again and turned his head, straightening.
A minute later, Nessa came down the path, flanked by two massive men who looked like they could turn into bears. How did humans miss seeing what they really were? Nessa rolled her eyes. “Sorry about the entourage. G? Nice try getting out of it, but your presence is requested for a little family meeting, teleconference-style. I’ll keep Honor company, and the hulking badasses here will protect our bodies.” She grinned at Honor. “I hope you have decaf.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sam settled back in his chair with a beer in his hand, staring at the monstrous screen taking up the entire wall. There was no doubt this was Nessa’s setup and not Bear’s, even though Bear was manning the controls so they couldn’t kick him out of the room. It was apparent the shifter had reached the end of his patience, and Sam couldn’t blame him.
Garrett loped in, grabbed a beer out of the fridge near the door, and moved to sit next to Sam. He looked at the various faces on the screen—all members of the Seven. “Hi, Logan.”
Logan grinned, his green eyes blazing. “Find your mate yet?”
“No.” Garrett twisted the cap off his beer. “She’d better have a good explanation.”
Logan burst out laughing.
Sam nodded to the rest of the Seven members—Ronan, Quade, Ivar, Adare, and Benny. Add in Garrett and Logan, and they were the Seven. Soon demon king Zane Kyllwood took shape on the screen and then Dage Kayrs, King of the Realm.
“It’s a power meeting of what-the-fuck proportions,” Bear muttered to nobody in particular, his huge body overwhelming the chair a tech usually used. He had both a bottle of whiskey and a beer close to his elbow, and irritation all but cascaded off him.
Zane leaned toward the camera, his backdrop unidentifiable. “Hey, Sam. Want to tell me why there’s a Kurjan bounty on Garrett’s head as well as yours? It reads dead or alive, and we have bounty hunters sniffing around town. Want to explain?”
“Of course,” Sam said calmly to his older brother. “I know the Seven has worked in the shadows for the last several centuries, but I think it’s time to bring in both Dage and Zane— as well as myself.”
“You?” Dage asked. “You’re a member of the Seven? That’s not in my intel.”
Sam didn’t want to know the extent of the king’s intel. “No. I’m the Keeper,” Sam said.
“The what?” Talen Kayrs, Dage’s brother and Garrett’s father, leaned into camera range.
Dage sighed. “You were supposed to stay in the background.”
Garrett rolled his eyes. “Right. Was there anybody here who thought my dad would stay out of this?”
Sam cleared his throat. “Nobody else. It all stays here. I’m the Keeper in charge of the place of the ritual.”
“The Keeper?” Talen asked. “That’s a fucking stupid name.” His eyes were an irritated gold shot through with green.
Zane’s face went stony. “How does one become the Keeper?”
“The ritual is similar to becoming a member of the Seven,” Sam said.
“What did you do?” Logan burst out. “You went through that ritual without saying anything?”
“So did you,” Sam reminded his younger brother calmly. Before Zane could also blow up, he lowered his chin. “The prophet who died was the former Keeper. The duty would have been transferred to Hope when she became a prophet. At the time, she was only a baby, and the ritual would’ve killed her. So I did it.”
Shocked expressions met his proclamation. Most of the warriors watching were related to Hope in some way, and every single one of them would’ve done the same. As would the members not of blood relation.
“What has changed?” Zane asked softly, his eyes a swirling green.
Sam took a deep breath. “Excuse me?”
“Only one reason you start telling all, Samuel,” his older brother said. “Something has changed. What is it and what do we do about it?”
Yeah, his brother knew him. Sam had debated on whether to tell all, but since Hope’s life was at stake, he was done with keeping secrets. The males on the screen and in the room could be trusted. “I’d like everyone to remain calm while I speak.” Though he could only look at the camera, he tried to focus on Zane. “I was dragged through multiple worlds the other night and ended up seeing and speaking with Ulric. I know all of you, whether you admit it or not, know who Ulric is, so let’s all admit that.” Several voices erupted, and he held up a hand. “Here’s the more important news. Hope was there too.”
“Hope? As in, gee, I hope things go well?” Zane growled.
“No. Hope as in your daughter,” Sam confirmed. “Ulric figured out a way to tap into some sort of portal, and he brought her to his prison world a couple of times. Somehow, she closed the portal for both of us. Or she said she did. I believe her.”