Jaden’s head drooped. He rubbed his forehead, willing the ache away. The Hob had just given him carte blanche on an assassination job. It wasn’t the first one he’d been assigned since becoming a Blade, but it was the first one where he’d have to go after a loved one’s family.
Well, looks like I’m well and truly fucked. Just not the way I’d hoped to be.
When he looked back up, Robin was gone.
Akane Russo looked over at the tiny, blonde female who’d just sat next to her. She recognized that scent. It was one every dragon was taught from birth. “Sir.”
Those full, pouty lips quirked up in a smile. “We have a situation.”
Akane nodded, pretending that deep, masculine voice was totally natural coming from those very feminine lips. “Where to?”
“The Malmayne estate in Nebraska.”
“On my way.” She dropped the glass to the top of the bar and started toward the door.
“Don’t you want to know the assignment?”
Akane smiled, not even bothering to turn around. They could hear each other just fine, despite the sea of sweaty humanity. The star in the center of her iris went wide, letting her see what she needed to. She already had a clue what was going on with her erstwhile partner. “Jade needs me.” She flipped her hair back over her shoulder and sniffed, getting a whiff of the Hob’s rich, earthy scent again, a hint of which she’d recently caught on someone else. “Are you going to tell him or let him figure it out on his own?”
“What would be the fun in telling him?”
“That’s mean.” There was no answer; the Hob had already left. “He certainly knows how to make an exit.” She shook her head and made her way to her convertible. She had a plane to catch and a vampire to watch over.
She just hoped Robin knew what he was doing.
Moira watched Duncan pace the length of the library and back again. What was wrong with her? The better question might be, what is wrong with him? Weren’t they mated? Hadn’t he Claimed her, taken her to his home? Told her he cared for her? So why? Why hadn’t he touched her? Beyond a few kisses and some increasingly sad smiles, he was so…distant. Why did he pace night after night, mourning something he couldn’t explain?
Why did she feel like mourning?
If it wasn’t for the fact that she and Duncan were destined mates she would have left by now, her heart and pride in tatters. But Aileen had told her to be patient, that something was desperately wrong. It was up to Moira, as Duncan’s future wife, to find out what that something was and rectify it. So far, Moira hadn’t been able to figure out anything other than Duncan was steadily growing worse.
She was tired, oh so tired. Duncan’s depression dragged at her, and not even the comfort of her mother could ease the pain. She accepted that Duncan wanted her, needed her. He’d made it clear the one time she, in desperation, offered to leave him alone. She hadn’t meant forever, she’d meant just for a few days, but the desolation in his eyes had made her stay. She’d fallen asleep in his arms, calming him, soothing him. Letting him know that she was there for him, whether he wanted her or not. But the Binding and the Vow remained undone, and without that connection Moira wasn’t certain how much more she could take before she broke. She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Duncan needed her, that the Claiming wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t destined to be together. But something held them both back from taking the final steps that would bind them together forever. If it hadn’t, she would have gotten him drunk and taken care of the matter herself.
Something tugged at both their hearts, and she was desperately afraid of what it might be. Not even the cheerful Christmas decorations she’d roped the entire household into putting up brightened her mood, and she loved watching Christmas lights twinkle at night. The human holidays were her favorite time of year, but she just couldn’t get into the spirit of it.
The hell with this. Whatever was bothering Duncan, he refused to discuss it. He was heartbroken every night, reaching for something that was never there. No. Not something. Someone. She wished with all her heart that someone was her.
Don’t lie to yourself, Moira. Not all your heart, girl.
She winced, hoping Duncan hadn’t noticed. No matter how badly she wanted to forget that night, Jaden Blackthorn refused to leave her mind, or her heart. And that was just wrong when her fated mate paced not ten feet away from her.
It would have been so easy for Jaden to hurt her beyond knocking her out. He could have sipped her blood without creating the bond, but he had created it. He’d used that bond to reassure her when she was frightened by Ruby’s kidnapping and Leo’s fight with Kaitlynn. She’d felt his pain as the rowan stake pierced his back, nearly killing him.
The flare of agony as Duncan Claimed her had been intense before Jaden cut her off cold. She still wondered at it, wondered if that agony had been for her or for Duncan. She bit her lip. That wondering had begun taking her down a path she’d never thought was possible before.
Was it?
She bit her lip, watching Duncan pace back and forth, back and forth. Nothing seemed to reach him anymore. The only thing that had caught his attention recently was Ian, Duncan’s long-time butler, mentioning…Jaden.
She took a deep breath and allowed the possibility to sink in that what she was thinking might be fact rather than fantasy.
She didn’t expect much resistance from her family if she was right. They understood now that Jaden had been working all along to slow Kaitlynn down. It had been a surprise to her family, but Duncan had known. Duncan trusted Jaden more than anyone in the world except her. That trust Duncan showed her reassured her when nothing else could. If he trusted her enough to let her in, to let her feel his grief and hold him close when no one else could go near him without getting their heads bitten off, then he trusted her enough to fix whatever it was that had gone so wrong between them.
She clenched her jaw and nodded to herself. It was about damn time she got started. If her hunch was correct, she’d need to have a nice, long talk with her intended. Soon.
She shook her head and stood up, feeling like she was heading into battle with blinders on.
“Moira?” Duncan stood as well, his concerned gaze tracking her every move.
She tried to smile, she really did, but she just couldn’t manage it. Her own depression was nearly overwhelming. She walked out of the room and climbed the stairs to the bedroom she shared with Duncan. She took her cell phone out of her pocket, sat at the vanity Duncan had installed for her, and did the only thing she could think of.
Moira called her mother.
Duncan watched Moira leave the room. She was too hurt to even give him a real attempt at a smile, but what could he do? He’d been ripped in two. One half sat upstairs in his bedroom, doing the gods only knew what. Possibly making preparations to leave him, not that he didn’t deserve it.
The other… Ah, the other…
How had this happened? How could he have known that claiming his heart would tear out his soul? Oh, he was coming to love Moira. How could he not? She did everything she could think of to ease the unbearable melancholy that had slowly begun to rip him apart since leaving the Dunne farm. Other women would have ripped into him, or tried to hurt him even more for his seeming indifference, but not Moira. Moira almost seemed to understand what he was going through and tried her best to make it better even though he didn’t understand it himself. But nothing she did could completely erase the ache of Jaden’s absence.