She looked over at Jinx and then back at Vice. “Do you think that things between me and Jinx are okay?”
“What do you mean, okay?”
“Like, is he with me here because he . . . pities me?”
“Gillian, is this like a girl moment? Because in case you didn’t notice . . .” He stared down between his legs and back up at her and she fought a laugh.
“You’re the only one who’ll tell me.” She gnawed on her bottom lip for a second and then went for it. “It’s about sex.”
“Jinx will be mad if you have sex with me, yes.”
“Vice, be serious.”
“That is me being serious.” He paused. “Okay, keep going. But no more propositioning me.”
“It’s embarrassing, but I think you’re the right person to talk to about it.”
“That’s me, a regular Dire Dr. Ruth.” And he wasn’t being sarcastic about it in the least. “Come on, hit me, Gillian. Nothing you ask is gonna shock me.”
“Jinx doesn’t want to sleep with me.”
Vice narrowed his eyes. “When you say sleep, you mean . . .”
“Sex.”
“Can we define the term?”
“How is that important?”
“You’d be surprised.”
“Intercourse. We had it twice but it’s like . . . he avoids it purposely. We do other things . . . and I like it . . .”
Vice hummed at that and she shook her head and continued, “But I feel like, maybe I’m bad at the sex thing. And I don’t want to ask him because . . .” She looked at Brother Wolf and hoped the wolf wasn’t relaying this to Jinx somehow.
“Ah, okay. Jinx definitely wants to have sex with you. Why he’s not has to do with the mating.”
“The mating.”
“Yeah, it’s a Dire thing. An Elder rule.” He rolled his eyes. “It’s one of the old ways, designed to keep us from screwing everything that moves and never actually doing a full monogamous mating. Sex for us . . . hurts. During orgasm. And we’re not supposed to be with the same person more than twice. It’s a way of making sure we’re serious about mating.”
“So it wouldn’t affect me as much? Because I’m not feeling bad when I . . . you know . . .”
“Come?” he asked bluntly and smiled. His eyes glowed a little and he said, “It wouldn’t be pleasant, but it definitely is more of a guy thing. Trust me, Jinx would like to nail you in every—”
She held up a hand. “I get the picture. Thanks, Vice.”
She sat up and hugged him and his body stiffened, like he wasn’t used to being hugged, or at least not touched gently. But then he put an arm around her, hugged her back and growled, “Don’t do shit like that to me. You’re going to ruin my reputation.”
She wanted to tell him that the baby blanket hanging over his shoulder already kind of did him in, but she refrained. And she was far happier than she’d been ten minutes ago.
“By the way, mating involves a ritual. With chains.”
“He’ll have to chain me up?”
“Other way around, sweetheart.”
“Ah.” Now, she had to convince Jinx that it was the right time to mate. Maybe she’d just drag some kind of chains into his room . . . not subtle, but she’d bet it would be effective.
Gillian purposely waited until Jinx woke and went out hunting with Rogue and Vice before she asked Gwen if she could talk to Rifter.
“I need to see him alone,” she said. “I’ve got something important to tell him.”
“I can do that,” Gwen told her and ten minutes later, she brought the big, dark-haired wolf king back to see her.
Gillian had gotten up and dressed in that short time span, and she was sitting in one of the chairs next to the bed when he came in. She started to stand but he shook his head and told her, “It’s okay, Gillian. Mind if I close the door?” he asked, his voice low and she nodded.
Rifter made her nervous and she knew she owed him an apology.
As if he’d read her mind, he started with, “I don’t hold any grudge against you sticking up for Jinx. You’re young. New. And the mating bond is a hard instinct to deal with on top of all you’ve been through.”
“Thank you. For that—for all your help. For letting me stay here with Jinx while I was healing.” She looked into his eyes and noticed for the first time that there was a lot of kindness there—and hurt. He didn’t like what he’d had to do to Jinx. Not at all. “I know Jinx got kicked out—and I know why he did it. He wasn’t out of control—not really. He had to get himself kicked out.”
“You’re saying he got me angry on purpose?” Rifter asked and she nodded. She didn’t say anything else though, and he pulled up a chair and sat next to her. “It’s not betraying him by telling me. I need to know if he’s in trouble. It’s my job, my responsibility to help him. I also want to help him. He’s my brother.”
That last part softened her completely, especially because it was the truth. She could see it in his eyes. He was hurting as much as Jinx was, and that was her sole motivation in telling him what she’d learned.
“He doesn’t know I’m telling you. But it’s time.” She swallowed hard and confessed, “During the time of the Dire ghost army, Jinx accidentally opened purgatory. He was tricked by his father. So that’s why he did it. It wasn’t his fault.”
Rifter stared at her, stunned. “He didn’t want us to know.”
“Can you blame him? He’s been trying to fix it. Rogue’s been trying to help—and Jez, but there’s a lot of . . . things—monsters—that don’t want to go back.”
Rifter just sat there, openmouthed and okay, it was a pretty big deal and a lot to take in. Opening purgatory didn’t happen every day. In fact, had it ever actually been opened before?
“Rifter, purgatory’s completely closed—”
“Okay, that’s good,” he breathed.
“But some things did manage to escape and they’re pretty horrible and threatening to wipe out humankind,” she finished.
“And that’s really, really bad. I need to see Jinx. And Rogue. And Jez. You’re going to have to ask them to come here and don’t tell them what you’ve told me.”
“You’re not going to sell me out?” she asked.
“No. I’m going to get it out of them and get you off the hook. Jinx has enough going on and he’s already trying to alienate himself from you because of all of that. It makes sense now. And I can’t let him push away the best thing that’s ever happened to him,” Rifter told her. “But Gillian, your face is still on wanted posters across the country. . . .”
“You think the Greenland pack will be coming for me.”
“I have no doubt someone’s been keeping up on this news,” he agreed. “They’ll be worried about exposure—that we’ll tell the Elders what they’ve done.”
“The Elders didn’t care what happened to Stray and Killian.”
“That was prophecy. This was something different. Unexpected.” He paused. “Anything else you need to share?”
“You might know this already but I have an ability. I asked Jinx if I could be the one to tell you and he agreed. It’s my speed and strength. And I have no way of knowing if that influenced the Greenland pack’s decision to give me away. . . .”
“But in light of what happened with Stray and Killian, I’m guessing it was more than enough of a reason,” he said tightly.
“I don’t want to run, but I also don’t want to bring trouble onto your pack. Or Jinx. I want to mate with him. Plan to—in the ritual chains way,” she added and Rifter smiled.
“We’ll talk to the Elders about your ceremony once we figure the rest out. For now, you need to lay low and
