Chapter 39

Mac snuck out to the kitchen naked, grabbed a handful of leftovers, then brought them back to his mate, spreading them out before her on the bed like an offering.

The edge was finally off. He’d given her five orgasms, and he’d had three himself. He could look at her naked body, cross-legged in his bed, and not pop an automatic boner. At least for a bit.

He sat down across from her, his weight on the bed making the food containers tip. She laughed, a relaxed sound that made his heart glad.

She opened a container of chicken fried rice and began to eat perfectly with the chopsticks he’d found. “Lily,” she said out of nowhere, then her eyes met his and he saw intense vulnerability there. A vulnerability she’d never shown him before. He wasn’t sure what kind of an admission lily was, but he was going to be very careful with it.

“Lily?”

“It’s my name. My real name.”

Right. Shit. He should have known that. “I like it.”

“I don’t. I hate it. I always hated it. My sister’s name was cool. Amaranth. I called her Amara. But Lily? I mean, come on, you’ve got Water Lily, some stupid little plant. And it’s so girly.”

Mac tried not to grin. Rogue was all girl, but definitely not girly.

“My sister named me Rogue. She found it in a book. I loved it right away. It’s a lot tougher than Lily. I haven’t told anyone my real name in years.”

“Right. Good.” He hated the sadness in her voice. Mac nodded, not knowing what else to say. No one but Bruin had ever trusted him with anything before. But when he looked at her, he could tell he was doing ok. Her color was high, her face relaxed, and when their eyes met, she smiled at him, making his heart race. He smiled back.

She shifted on the bed. “Shit, I’m a little sore. Way too long since I’ve had sex like that.”

Mac tried to grin and frown at the same time. “How long?”

She looked at him over the bit of rice she was placing delicately into her mouth, not a grain slipping off the chopsticks. She chewed slowly, making him wait for the answer, but then she grinned. “Four years.”

Hell, yeah. That’s what he liked to hear. “But that’s not the last time you were with someone.”

She watched him again as she kept eating. “You really want to know the answer to that?”

He sighed and dug around in the food, trying to find something that looked good to him. He really wanted a sandwich. “No. Tell me about your sister. It doesn’t sound like she’s around.”

“She’s not.” Mac glanced up, and the pain on Rogue’s face made his own chest hurt. “I haven’t seen her since I was five. Don’t have any idea where she is, if she’s even alive.”

Shit. What did he say to that? He reached out and took her hand, the one that wasn’t holding the chopsticks. She gave him a sad smile, then kept eating.

When she was done, she stretched out on the bed, pulling a blanket over her. “I really am worn out. You mind if I take a nap?”

“Want me in here with you?”

“No, go pay attention to Bruin. He’s lonely out there.”

Mac pressed a kiss to her forehead, got dressed, and did as she’d said. She was smart, his mate.

He plopped down on the couch next to Bruin. “What are we watching?”

He looked up. “Cake Apprentice. I was thinking about ordering some food.”

“Yeah, let’s get subs.”

“Perfect.”

But before Bruin could get off the couch, he went rigid, staring straight at the wall just above the TV, his face that slack weirdness Mac had seen once before, when Bruin had told him his mate would be at the rut.

“Claim her.” Bruin said. “You must claim her this day, or she dies the next.”

Mac leapt to his feet, getting in front of Bruin. “What?” he all but shouted.

Bruin shook his head, his eyes narrowing as he saw Mac in his face. “What?”

Mac grabbed him by his shirt. “You just said I had to claim her or she dies.”

Bruin’s hands had been moving to grab Mac’s fingers off of him but they froze in mid-air and he opened his eyes wide. “No.”

Mac tried to shake him, but it was like shaking a brick wall. “Yes! That’s what you fucking said. What does it mean?”

Bruin dropped heavily against the back of the couch, pulling out of Mac’s grip, his voice sick with guilt and worry. “I don’t know, Mac, I honestly have no idea.”

***

Mac paced in the kitchen, Bruin standing next to him, the bear wringing his big hands.

“Mac, I think you should call someone, tell Wade. Or Trevor, tell them.”

“And what are we gonna do that we’re not already doing? They don’t know about you anyway, so it’s not like we’re going to be able to convince them how serious it is. They’re gonna say it doesn’t mean anything, that you could be wrong.” He looked at Bruin, hopeful. “You could be wrong, right?”

The big bear shook his head. “I’ve never been wrong, as far as I know.”

“How many times have you done it?”

“Six. The first time was when I was four years old. Nobody believed me, and we all paid for it. We’re all still paying for it.” Bruin walked out of the room, leaving Mac to stare after him, cold fear filling his heart.

He knew one thing that had happened when Bruin had been four years old. That had been the year the females were all killed.