world wasn’t my place, but—maybe this could be. I’d still have to visit back and forth, at least until Oak Ridge found another doctor, but...believe me, there’s not so much work for me there that I’m kept busy seven days a week. I could make it work.”
It was Sage’s turn to look away. Reid held on, not sure what she was uncomfortable about, but feeling her apprehension quiver through the mate-bond.
Finally, she said, very quickly, like she was pulling off a Band-Aid, “I’m afraid I’ll like Oak Ridge better than I like it here.”
“Oh,” Reid said on a quiet breath. “And that would feel disloyal.”
She nodded, blinking quickly. “And—I can’t just abandon my family!”
“Of course,” Reid said quietly.
“But I can’t turn around and ask it of you—”
“My family,” Reid interrupted firmly, “will have no problems continuing to function exactly as they always have, no matter where I decide to live. I could move to Switzerland and they’d call me once a week and we’d be fine. Living a day’s flight or drive away will not be a big deal. Your situation is different.”
She closed her eyes. “Yes.” Then she shook her head, quickly, as though to get the last few minutes of conversation off. “But none of that will make any difference if we can’t stand up to my father.”
“That’s true,” Reid said. “I suppose we’re putting the cart before the horse a bit. We can worry about all of this later on.”
She smiled little. “Optimist.”
“Guilty,” he agreed. He pulled away from her with a regretful sigh. “Well, then, I suppose it’s time to go outside and face the music.”
She stood up, her expression settling into fatalistic lines. Reid took her hand, squeezing it, and said, “We’ll make it work. We’ll find a way.”
She looked up at him. “I hope so.”
Together, they turned and walked out the door, hand-in-hand.
***
“You’re what?” Shiloh’s face almost immediately contorted with the beginnings of rage.
“Mates,” Sage repeated, lifting their joined hands. “We realized it last night. And you can get as angry as you like, but that isn’t going to change a thing. You know that’s not how true mates work.”
“But you can’t be,” Shiloh snarled, taking a couple of steps forward. Sage didn’t flinch away, so Reid kept standing with her, his expression as mild as he could make it, as though there was no danger at all. “Not after Athena—it’s not possible.”
“Do you think I would lie to you, Shiloh?” Sage asked, sounding exasperated, but with an underlying foundation of...more than fondness. Love. Sage really loved her brother, and Reid’s heart ached for her, that everything had to be so difficult. “When have I ever lied to you? Apart from that time with the peanut butter when we were kids.”
That seemed to knock him out of his growing anger, at least. He turned away, running his hands through his hair. “I don’t think you’re lying. I know you wouldn’t. I just—how do you know? That you’re really mates, and it’s not just a...” He trailed off.
“There’s no way to not know it, Shiloh,” Sage said, her voice sharp. “I can feel what he feels. We’re connected, in a way I’ve never felt with anyone before. There’s absolutely nothing else like it. We’re mates.”
“You—you and Athena—how could you—”
“I didn’t choose it, Shiloh!” Sage’s voice spiraled up, and Reid winced. He knew that she didn’t mean that she’d repudiate him if she could, but still, that stung a little.
As if realizing how that must have sounded, she shot him an apologetic look. But he could see that they weren’t getting very far.
“Shiloh,” he said.
Shiloh stilled, then turned slowly to face him. “What?” He didn’t sound welcoming.
“Can we talk?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Reid could see Sage’s eyes widening, her mouth opening in surprise...but she didn’t object. She waited, and Reid waited, and finally Shiloh said, “Okay.”
Reid motioned with his head towards the woods, and Shiloh nodded, stalking away immediately.
“Be careful,” Sage whispered, as Reid turned to follow. “Don’t let him provoke you into a fight.”
“The last thing I want is a fight,” Reid promised, and strode off into the woods behind his new brother-in-law.
Shiloh kept going for quite a ways, far enough that no one back in the village, including Sage, would hear what they said unless they really shouted. Probably not a good sign, but Reid followed willingly. If Shiloh needed to yell at him in order to get his frustration and anger out, that was fine.
But it turned out that yelling