Wild and Free (The Three #3)(52)

“I have an excellent memory, Gregor, so there’s no purpose in repeating yourself,” Callum returned.

Gregor took no offense and looked to his son. “Our vampires?”

Yuri nodded curtly, visibly still impatient and annoyed. “They’re amassing fifty miles south of town, to the wolves’ north.”

“I have hope Mrs. Jin will impress upon her son that he should meet with us, but there may be a need to prove we’re trustworthy,” Gregor murmured like he was talking to himself. “I just hope the losses are few should that occur.”

“Me too,” Leah muttered.

Sonia looked to her friend and gave her a reassuring smile.

“We should have sent in the women,” Lucien noted. “Leah’s human. She would be no threat and might be able to establish camaraderie with The Third’s mate.”

“Again, no use going over old ground,” Yuri said.

“I’m not,” Lucien replied. “I’m mentioning it again because it’s still a play we can make.”

“And you wish your bride and my sister to go into the den of a hybrid vampire werewolf who doesn’t trust his own kind enough that he’s dispatched every one he’s encountered, save one who didn’t meet that fate only because he ran away?” Yuri asked.

“I’d trust The Third with my wife because he did the same thing I would do if someone had touched her. He tore them apart. Even if he doesn’t know who he is and all that means, he’d not harm Leah if she caused no threat. No one could say the same for those he slayed,” Lucien retorted.

“Give them until tomorrow,” Gregor cut in before things escalated as the look on Yuri’s face said they would. Then again, Gregor had raised Sonia since she was a child, Yuri a part of that, so he too was protective of the woman Yuri called “sister.” “Then we’ll discuss Leah and Sonia being involved.”

“I’ll reiterate at this point,” Leah said, “I’m all in.”

“Me too,” Sonia threw in.

Lucien sighed and looked down at his bride, who was looking at Sonia. “I have a taste for some Chinese food anyway.”

“Me too,” Sonia repeated on a grin.

Lucien moved his eyes to Callum, who had dropped his head back and was looking at the ceiling.

“He’ll sense you as wolf, Sonny,” Yuri reminded her.

“I know that, Yuri,” Sonia returned. “And he’s half wolf. He’d never harm a she-wolf that he senses as anything but a threat. And, it goes without saying, I’ll be no threat.”

“You can’t know that,” Yuri fired back.

“I live with wolves, Yuri, one in particular who is king because he’s the shining example of all the rest,” Sonia volleyed. “I can know that.”

Yuri clamped his mouth shut when Gregor ordered, “Enough. Tomorrow we’ll discuss this again. Today we hope that Mrs. Jin will talk sense into her…” His lips curled very slightly, then he said, “Son.”

Lucien felt Callum’s eyes and he looked that way.

What he saw was that Callum was hoping.

Lucien was too.

The time was nigh. The last of The Three had been found.

That meant they were all destined to save humanity from being enslaved by immortal beings.

Or they would die trying.

And they needed to get on with it.

One way or another.

*

Abel

“So, why don’t you have an accent?”

This came from Delilah, who was lying naked on top of her naked werewolf vampire.

Suffice it to say, they had not gone down to their space to think on a change of mind of staying in Serpentine Bay and putting the lives of everyone they loved at stake. They also had not cuddled close and shared their histories.

They’d gone down to their space and f*cked all afternoon.

And most of the evening.

Now, finally, Delilah had had enough and wanted to talk, this being only thirteen short hours after Abel suggested they do just that when they woke.

He wasn’t complaining. He had a more than healthy sexual appetite and it would factor that the mate destiny chose for him would have the same.

Still, he was glad they were finally talking and not f*cking. They needed to get to know one another.

She was also wearing him out, albeit pleasantly, and that had never happened in his life.

“Would you like something to eat before your interrogation?” he asked.

“You swiping that lemon chicken destined for someone else’s table between round four and five was enough for me,” she answered. “And by the way, your crazy-cool speed is awesome when it comes to theft, which is something we’ll be talking about too…your non-messy ‘business.’”

She said the last word while pressing her tits deep into his chest since she’d lifted her hands to do air quotation marks.

He moved his hands from her ass to wrap his arms around her and replied, “Yeah, we’ll talk about that. But as to your lead question, you’re in a country for a century, *cat, your accent tends to fade.”

“Mm,” she purred. “So do the boys speak Mandarin too?”

“They did. Ming, Jian-Li, and I all spoke it as well as English while they were growing up. As they got older though, they rebelled. Wanting to be like the kids around them, not wanting to be different, not understanding the importance of history and embracing your culture, even if your family decided years ago to leave the old world behind, they quit speaking it and stopped responding to it.”