Aimee shook her head at him. "We have got to do something about your brutal honesty."
"Like you didn't have the same thought."
Okay, maybe a little, but she'd never admit that out loud.
"Are you two coming to eat?"
Hating the interruption, she looked past him to see Bride in the doorway. "We're coming." When she started to pull away, Fang held her close.
"I just want to feel you here for a minute longer," he projected to her.
Her vision swam at that. He held on to her as if she were the most precious thing he'd ever touched and it made the love inside her well up. Gods, how she loved the way he felt against her. The hardness of his body. The deep masculine smell of his skin. She could stay like this forever.
"Uncle Fang?"
Smiling, Aimee looked down to see Trace tugging at Fang's leg.
"What you need, sport?"
Trace wrapped his arms around Fang's leg, squeezed tight, then ran off toward the kitchen.
Aimee laughed. "I guess he needed the same thing I did."
"Guess so." Fang took her hand into his and pulled her toward the dining room.
Bride pegged them both with a stern frown. "What are you two up to?"
Fang looked at Aimee then back at Bride. "What?"
"You look like two wolves who found a bone." It was a Katagaria expression that meant the same thing as the cat who ate a canary.
Bride's gaze dipped to Fang's hand. She gasped and almost dropped the salad bowl she was holding. Setting it on the table, she snatched his palm up to look at it. "Oh, gods, you're mated!" Then her eyes really widened. "I really hope it's to Aimee."
Aimee laughed before she held her palm up to show her. "Thankfully so. Otherwise I'd have had to kill me some ho and then beat Fang senseless."
He held his hands up in surrender. "Hey, you know my future sessions are all under your control."
"Dog right, boy."
Vane entered the room and looked around with a puzzled frown. "What's going on?"
"Your brother's mated."
"Yeah, to Angelia."
"Not Fury, sweetie."
It took a second for the news to register. Vane gaped at them before he held his hand out to Fang. "Congratulations."
"Thank you," Fang said, shaking it.
Lia came running forward from the kitchen. "Let me see!" she said to Aimee. She grinned as she compared their marks, which were basically the same except for the colors. Aimee's was blue while Lia's was red. "Welcome to the family. Not that you weren't here already, but now it's official."
In spite of her happiness, those words brought a stab of pain as Aimee realized her birth family would never be this happy for her.
It was so unfair.
But she wouldn't let it taint her joy. At least that was what she told herself. The truth, however, was that it did. No matter what happened, her family was her family and she wanted them with her.