Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 139076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
“What?” Winter gasped. Of all the things he’d expected out of his brother’s mouth, that was not it.
“Did my requests make it worse for you? I turned you into the family executioner and spy. You used your powers constantly to help protect the family. I asked you to do that for us. Did this make the voices and the ghosts worse?”
Winter was floored by the flurry of questions as well as the guilt burning in Marcus’s watery eyes.
“No!” he said sharply and then repeated with a little less shock in his voice. “No, Marcus. Using my powers or not, the ghosts would have always been there. Nothing could change that for me except for Fox.”
“But the ghosts of the dead…those that you killed to protect our family…”
Winter shrugged. “I won’t lie and say they were particularly happy about suddenly being dead.” He flashed Marcus a smile, but his brother’s mood didn’t lighten. “But not one of them was surprised by it. They attacked our family, plotted against us. Everyone who did that knew what the risk was. The Varik Boogeyman would come after them. Their ghosts didn’t generally hang around me. There was no point.”
“I’m sorry. I took advantage of you.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I did. You were so damn good at it, and you never complained. It was just easy for me to hand it off to you. With everything…it was one less thing for me to worry about because I always knew you’d handle it. I should have taken more time to consider what it was doing to you. I’m sorry.”
Marcus’s pained words went a long way to healing old wounds and frustrations. He reached up and placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder, squeezing. “I knew deep down that I could always come to you and say that I couldn’t do it anymore. I always knew that you’d take that responsibility off my shoulders if I asked. The guilt is on me as well for never saying anything.”
“That changes now. We’re spreading things around, rebalancing things.” Winter started to argue but Marcus held up an authoritative hand. “You have a mate now who needs your attention. You can’t go out every night risking your life. He’s a good guy and deserves better than that.”
Winter laughed and gave Marcus’s shoulder a little shove before releasing it. “Okay, you might have a point. We’ll work something out. We need to keep an eye on Aiden and watch his back.”
“He will be protected.” Marcus nodded thoughtfully and smirked at Winter. “Go see to your witch. I need to check on my fledgling.” Winter started to walk toward the bedroom when Marcus’s voice stopped him one last time. “And if Fox doesn’t want to wait around for you to wake up tonight, you can tell him that the wolves are usually running around during the day.”
Winter grinned at his brother. “I bet you can’t wait for everyone to get out of your house.”
Marcus said the one thing he’d never expected from his brother. “A full house is a house full of love.”
And he was right.
Winter slipped into the bedroom to find Fox lying on top of the sheets with a towel wrapped around his waist. His wet hair stood up in all directions and a little smirk was on his lips, but Winter’s main focus was on the collection of bruises that covered his face. The swelling had gone down some around his eye and lip, but it would be days before he was completely healed.
“Don’t give me that look,” Fox said, pointing his finger at Winter. He waved his hand at his face. “This…is all temporary. I’ll be back to my usual sexy self in a matter of days. You think you can wait that long?”
Winter grinned at Fox because that was what he did when he was with Fox. He smiled, laughed, and groaned. Sometimes he wanted to strangle the man, but that always gave way to more laughing and smiling. Fox was joy.
“I don’t think I can.” Winter slowly stalked closer to the bed, coming to a stop at the foot with his thumbs hooked on the waistband of his sweat pants. “I need my Fox right now, bruises and all. There will never be a time when I don’t need my Fox.”
His lover’s expression brightened, and he held out his hands, beckoning him onto the bed. Winter was happy to oblige. He shoved off his pants and crawled up the bed. As he went, he placed kisses along his body. A soft one on his ankle and then another on his calf. Inside of his knee. He paused when he reached the towel. Carefully, he peeled it off his lover, smirking up at him. “You’re better than Christmas.”
Fox’s giggle wrapped around Winter’s heart, squeezing it as he kissed up his thigh. Winter released his own chuckle when Fox whined at Winter’s deft avoidance of his dick while kissing up to his hip and across his stomach.