Shannon’s Reviews > The Lunatics > Status Update

My challenger stood across from me. I chose to fight in human skin, and he took it literally, tearing off his shirt… I had half a mind to ask him if he wanted to pound on his chest a bit or maybe go find a broadsword to complete the look, but then I remembered the night we fled from here and that someone had been carrying a battle-ax as they tried to stop us, and I thought I better keep my mouth shut…

I looked at Michael out of the corner of my eye, wishing I could open our mental channels and warn him. For all I knew, I might actually be able to do that without anyone else detecting it, but we hadn’t tested that theory yet, and I had no one to ask about it. If I ever saw Anna again, I would grill her. Carefully, politely, because she had answers, and I desperately needed them. What a weird turn of events.

He nodded, gaze latching on to the bite mark half-hidden by my robe. The wilderness. My mate. A ward strong enough to hide whatever Michael and I did out there. Oh, sweet Goddess, yes. I turned my back to him and shrugged out of the robe. “Get this spell on me, and let’s get out of here.”

Michael set the last dish in the drying rack. We said good night—er, good morning—to my parents and then headed out back to crash for a few hours. Yes, the road ahead of us would be difficult to navigate, but I trusted that the Goddess had put us on it for a purpose, and that if we worked really hard, we’d make our way through. I fell asleep wrapped in his arms, happy, sated, safe. And woke up to a nightmare.

I nodded at him in the mirror. He sighed and tugged his tie free from his collar. I returned my focus to the road when he undid the top button of his shirt. Dying in a fiery car crash because I was fixated on these rare glimpses of my mate’s exposed flesh would be a stupid way to go.

“Well, fuck.” “We’ll figure out how to spin it in the morning.” Ronald clapped a hand on his shoulder and cracked a smile. “Sure we will, boss.” He turned and walked away, pulling his phone from his pocket. “Code orange,” he said into it. “Call the enforcers in. We got a big-ass problem in a tiny-ass body.” “I’m not that small,” I muttered at his back. Just because he was a damn giant.

I turned back to the head of the table. “If I have this much control over my shift, imagine the rein I have over my more problematic instincts.” Michael’s mother smiled at me, the first warm look I had seen on her face. “In that case, welcome to the family, Layla.”

I spent the rest of the drive trying to remind myself of all the things I had always believed in. This wasn’t just some random thing that happened. The Goddess had Her reasons. There was a point to it all. Michael and I had always been destined to be together. I almost succeeded in convincing myself by the time we reached the city limits.

What had the Goddess done to me? Why had She forcibly bonded me to a man who had no sense of humor? I couldn’t think of anything more uncomfortable than cracking a joke and having the person it was aimed at not laugh.