Eternal Sin

“Now you will see,” Nore said, clasping her hands together.

Yes, Cruen thought, but will I feel? Will I feel power racing through my veins, my blood? Will I be able to flash to the balcony of one Synjon Wise and force him to remove his emotions from my mind?

Or will I be walking back to the gathering stones, searching, praying to all who will listen that I don’t lose my mind or my breath before I get there?

* * *

Petra sat cross-legged on the bed, picking at the imaginary lint on the new sage green comforter Synjon had insisted on buying her. Across from her, a plush striped green pillow separating them, was Dani.

It was like old times.

Except for the digs.

“There’s only one answer,” Petra said in what she hoped was a firm voice, because Dani rarely responded to anything less.

“So.” Dani cocked her head to the side. “You’re saying this is really about the baby?”

“Of course it’s about the baby.”

The hawk shifter shook her head, disbelieving. “You need to do your repeats.”

“Dani—”

“Here, let me go over them with you.”

“No, thanks.”

“Synjon Wise is a complete ass-cake.”

“Hey, wait.” Petra pointed at her and scowled. “That’s a new one.”

Dani shrugged. “Well, you know, they’re all along the same lines.”

“Listen,” Petra said, eyeing her closest friend in the world. “I don’t need to do any of that shit. I’m a grown female with a balas on the way.”

“Right. And the father of that balas just happens to be the guy you’ve always had a huge thing for. The guy who has whisked you off to his cocksure penthouse on top of the world, Pretty Woman’d your ass, and once again tried to get up your skirt. Did I leave anything out?”

Petra leaned back against her pillows—her very pretty, very green pillows—and grinned. “Yes.”

Dani’s eyes widened. “Oh, that motherfucker! What more did he do?”

“The part you left out is me saying no to the up-your-skirt.”

She sniffed. “For now.”

Petra shook her head. “Don’t. Don’t do that. I’m not an idiot.”

“Of course you’re not. But you’re into that bastard. You may even be in love with him.”

Petra’s chest tightened, and the air inside her lungs released in a rush, but she still managed to push out a pretty convincing response. “Come on.”

“I’m eye-rolling right now in case you can’t tell.”

“My plan is to come home after I have the baby and start a life and a family with Brodan.”

Silence claimed the bedroom for a good ten seconds, and then Dani said, “Brodan, huh?”

“Yes.” That tightening in Petra’s chest upgraded to a rusty, painful vise.

“He’s a good male.”

Petra nodded. “He totally is.”

“The best.”

“Definitely.”

Again Dani paused. Then, “Yeah, that’ll never happen.”

Petra broke out laughing. “You asshole, Dani.”

Dani started laughing too.

“I love you—you know that?” Petra said, climbing off the bed.

The hawk shifter followed suit. “I love you too.”

Petra linked arms with her as they walked out the door and down the hall. “Come on. I’ll take you to your launchpad.”

“Fine.” Dani gave her a warning look. “But you’ve got my number.”

“Damn right I do.” Petra gave her best friend a wry grin as they entered the living room.

First thing Petra noticed was that all three Roman brothers were gathered around the pool table talking. The second thing she noticed was that Synjon wasn’t among them.

She pushed past Dani and eyed the brothers. “Where is he?”

“Gone,” Alex said, placing his stick on the table.

Dani came to stand at her side. “No freaking way.”

Petra’s gut twisted, and she looked from Alex back to Dani. “What? What’s wrong? What did you do?”

Dani turned and gave her a mixture of a smirk and a sneer. “Yeah. You don’t dig his ass at all.” Shaking her head, she left Petra’s side and walked toward the sliding glass door. “That selfish paven has done something unselfish, that’s all.”

Confused and growing slightly concerned, Petra turned to Alex, Nicholas, and Lucian. “Where is he?”

Nicholas put his pool cue down next to Alex’s. “He’s going before the Order.”

Petra gasped. It was as if her unbeating heart had suddenly dropped to her feet. “What? Oh, my gods. Why?”

“To tell them the shifters are harmless,” Lucian answered. “And that he wasn’t taken or held there against his will.”

He was going to lie to the Order? “Why would he do that?”

Nicholas stared at her strangely. Lucian shook his head and placed his cue on the table with the rest of them.

“Perhaps he has some feeling after all, veana,” he said, his Merlot eyes soft as they swept over her belly.

“But that’s not possible,” she said. “Is it?”

Alex smiled. “Who’s to say what’s possible when it comes to matters of the heart? My mate is an Impure. We’re about to welcome a balas I was once terrified to even contemplate.” He raised one dark eyebrow. “Is it all that hard to believe that even if our old emotions are stripped away, we can’t grow new ones in their place?”

Petra felt tears behind her eyes. Tears that had nothing to do with her swell or hunger or the strange, overwhelming, and debilitating problem she’d been suffering from all week.

“We should get out of here,” Lucian said to Nicholas. “Grab Mr. Hallmark Card over there and let’s motor. I want to see my veanas. Lucy’s first fang is growing in.”

“You don’t know if that’s fang,” Nicholas retorted, heading for the sliding glass door.

Outside, Dani snorted again. “Don’t fall for it, Pets. Not for Alex’s pretty words or Wise’s pretty face.” Then she turned to the Roman brothers. “I’m assuming the three of you don’t need a ride.”

“Nope,” Lucian said. “We’re all good, shifter.”

Dani gave Petra one last grin before stripping down, shifting to her hawk, and taking off into the cold night air.

15

With the exception of the Impure, they were all as bloody arrogant and insufferable as they ever were.

Syn stood front and center at their table, feet in the sand. It was so predictable. Couldn’t they mix it up a bit? Change the climate, ditch the table?

“Synjon Wise.” It was Feeyan who addressed him first, because clearly she was now the leader in Cruen’s stead. He wondered if the veana admired or despised the ex-leader. He imagined a little