Addict (Hunter #2)(112)

And the fact that one of those children I’d seen had been a little she-wolf.

I tangled my fingers with Marcus’s. “I love you.”

He squeezed my hand. “And I you, bella. I’m going to take this time to reconsider some of my long-held beliefs.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I never thought I could share my lover, but if I don’t, I could lose you. I’m not ready to lose you.” He brought my hand to his lips. “We have time. Your training is simply moving along a bit faster than expected.”

He was afraid I wouldn’t need him soon. I was afraid I might always need him. I hadn’t told him about the woman in the prophecies. I couldn’t quite see her face now, but I knew the one Marcus had waited for was out there. She was a woman, and his fate would be on us sooner than I expected.

For now, I kissed him. We had this time. For however long it lasted, I wanted to love this man. “I’ll catch a ride back with Dan.”

Marcus chuckled. “It’s Dan now? Are we no longer cursing the king’s name?”

The king and I were cool. I’d actually read a couple of those histories Marcus had tried to hide from me. Hunters could go dark. I mean seriously kill whole towns and lay waste to the land kind of dark, if they weren’t properly trained. Dan was used to being the bad guy. He made the hard decisions, but once I’d proven I wasn’t going to burn down a large portion of Dallas, we’d found a good place.

We’d been friends once. Before I’d known he was a king, he’d been my online gaming buddy. “Dungeons and Dragons is a bonding experience.”

So was saving the supernatural world. I kissed my boyfriend and thanked him for the ride before stepping up to the house. Justin and Angelina lived here. From the smells coming out of the place, I was betting Angelina had cooked. Nice.

Marcus drove off. Tomorrow we were going to have dinner with my mom and Jamie, but tonight there was another family member I needed to see. I knocked on the door.

There was some male laughter and then the door opened.

Nathan. My brother stood there for a moment, his eyes wide. “Kelsey?”

I’d been so wrong to not talk to him. “Hey. Dan invited me. I brought your favorite beer.”

A smile crossed his face. “I told them I wasn’t coming. I haven’t played a lot lately. I’ve been concentrating on school and work. Blake hijacked me and said there was a surprise for me. I was about to leave.”

He’d been concentrating on his guilt, and I needed to do something about that. “Please stay. Can you forgive me for being a bitch?”

“Can you forgive me for lying to you? Kelsey, I’m so sorry.”

But I understood now. He had read those histories. He knew there was a darkness inside me and if he’d told me, I very likely at that point would have run. “I love you, Nate.”

He sighed and opened his arms. I walked into them and hugged the brother who had gotten me through all the hard times when we’d been younger. Forgiveness, I was discovering, was a gift that gave the giver as much as it did the person she was forgiving.

“Yo, Owens, get your ass in here. We’ve got a campaign to run,” the king yelled.

“Sorry, he gets bossy when he’s the DM,” Nate explained.

“I think he’s bossy all the time. Keep your panties on, Dan. I’m having a moment with my brother here.” He wasn’t the king now. He was just one of the guys and so was I.

“Angelina made us nachos,” Nate said as he drew me inside. “I like it when she-wolves host. They know how to cook. When we go to Blake’s, he puts out a bowl of chips and thinks that’s a buffet.”

“Oh, we’re going to have to work on that if I’m playing regularly.” This girl needed fuel to roll her dice.

I walked in, took a seat, and flipped open a beer.

Yeah, I was starting to feel at home.



Kelsey, Gray, Marcus, and the entire Thieves family will return in 2016 in Sleeper.





Author’s Note

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About Lexi Blake

Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance that she found success. She likes to find humor in the strangest places. Lexi believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome or foursome may seem. She also writes contemporary Western ménage as Sophie Oak.