Like a human and a Lykae.
As if reading his mind, she said, “Alas, humans don’t.”
Her words plagued him far worse than her blade had. “Just one more reason for you to become a wolf. I’ll bring you around.” With time, she’d feel their bond and come to the obvious conclusion: immortality.
Still, doubts whispered. If he wasn’t her mate and she became a Lykae, she would spurn him.
No, of course he was hers. All he had to do was recall her response to him earlier. “And mayhap you should no’ knock debauchery since you liked it so well with me.”
She brushed aside his words. “Tell me why you were set upon such a path for hundreds of years. Why was your brother suicidal?” When he hesitated, she gentled her tone. “You speak of bonds and fate, but I don’t know you, Munro.”
He paused with the flask at his lips. “You want to?”
“Maybe.”
If he told her about his family, would she confide in him about her parents? Fuck it, here goes. “When my brother was only a young boy, he fell into a succubus’s clutches, a fiend named Ruelle. . . .”
Munro told Kereny how Ruelle had secretly fed off Will for years, twisting him and his beast. When their mother had found out, she’d hunted the succubus, but Ruelle hadn’t been alone. “One of the succubus’s other lovers—a vampire—beheaded my mother.” Munro and Will’s beloved mam. “Da slew the vampire and Ruelle. Then he . . . died by suicide.”
Or partially. He’d almost managed to take off his own head. A sympathetic friend had helped the rest of the way.
Munro had adored his father, but after that final act, resentment had gripped him. Now that Munro had a mate, he was starting to fathom his da’s actions. Hadn’t I been ready to follow Kereny into an acid pit? “My brother blames himself for everything. He has little control over his beast and even less over his emotions.”
Kereny’s brows drew together. “I’m sorry. As his twin, you must feel his pain keenly.”
“Aye.” Keeping Will afloat meant Munro was sinking himself. He simply hid it better. “Will’s recent torture dredged up every ounce of trauma from his past, and he grew more determined to end his life.”
But suicide for an immortal was difficult to carry out alone. Unfortunately, Will knew of a way. He’d booked a one-way ticket to Hungary, home of the Fyre Dragán, a pit of unnatural flames hot enough to kill even a Lorean—a.k.a. Where Immortals Go to Die.
“What happened then?” Kereny asked.
“He met his mate, Chloe. The two of them appeared to be perfect for each other, except for her mortality. Yet then her true nature emerged. She’s actually a cambion—half mortal/half succubus. Will dinna do well with that fact, even when I reminded him that at least she’s undying now.”
“She feeds through . . . sex?”
“With Will alone.” His brother would never allow anything else.
“Despite his history, you would rather Will be mated to a succubus than to a mortal?”
“In a heartbeat. I canna say this enough: humans have no place in our world.” He’d learned that lesson harshly. Da, how did this happen? How?
A mortal in the Lore was on borrowed time. Hell, Munro himself was at once a protector for Kereny—and a threat to her.
The full moon neared, and his feelings for her were deepening so quickly that he already confused up with down, his fascination with her growing darker. His beast was no better, demanding its own access to her. How much longer could Munro keep the creature leashed?
An out-of-control werewolf . . . around a mortal he was becoming obsessed with . . .
Gods help us both.
THIRTY-FOUR
As the wolf stared into the fire, the urge to comfort him was nearly undeniable. Ren couldn’t believe that he’d lost his parents when he was thirteen, the same age she had hers.
As he’d spoken about his family, he’d been vulnerable, seeming all too, well, human. Over the course of this endless night, Munro MacRieve had shown her many facets to his personality.
The wounded wolf who’d escaped torture. The brutal warrior fighting his kind in the rain. The immortal lover with his divine kisses.
He intrigued her; after a few shots of whiskey, infatuation was setting in. But as long as she believed going home was a possibility, and as long as the wolf ignored her wish to remain human, she couldn’t allow her feelings for him to deepen.
She gazed at his strong profile in the firelight. Easier said. When Munro had remarked that he’d felt incomplete, she’d barely concealed her reaction. What if she’d been yearning for him?
He turned to face her. “I dinna want to burden you with such a tale. But you would learn of it eventually.”
“You asked Ormlo for another means to power the gateway. You were going to use it for your parents, weren’t you?”