"Ooo, a Starbucks woman after my own heart."
That finally made her look up. "That's the best part about living in Seattle. Twenty-four stores in a ten-block radius. It's the only thing I don't miss about living in D.C."
He laughed. "All right, I'll see you in a few."
She went back to her research while he made a coffee run.
Ravyn paused in the doorway for a second just to watch her. She looked beautiful but tired. Most of all, she looked determined. He remembered a time when he'd had that kind of fire. A time when he'd lived for the thrill of the hunt. He wasn't sure when those feelings had faded. When he'd learned the complacency of just going through the motions of life. Of finding a temporary partner for sex one night and then leaving to find a new one the next.
Now he wondered what it would be like to have a woman who knew his likes and dislikes. To have a woman who knew what he was and who didn't seem to mind that he was both a leopard and a man...
Repressing those thoughts before they got him into trouble, he left the room and headed upstairs. No matter how much Susan appealed to him, she was off the menu. There was no hope for them, He'd been given his one shot at a mate, and he'd sworn himself to Artemis. No matter how much he might wish otherwise, there was no kind of future for them. He went to the kitchen to find Terra bustling around the kitchen as she helped prepare appetizers for their clients in the club.
She paused as she saw him. "You need something?"
"Yeah, he needs to leave."
Sighing in disgust, he turned to see Phoenix behind him. "Lay off me, Nix. I'm really not in the mood for your bullshit."
"Yeah, that's because you're a pussy."
Anger whipped through him so fast that Ravyn was actually stunned he didn't go for his brother's throat. Ravyn turned slowly to glare at him. "Me? I'm the pussy?"
"That's what I said."
"Uh-huh. If I'm the coward here, then why am I dead while you're alive? You were mated for what, two hundred years, and you never bonded to Georgette? What were you waiting for, Phoenix? There were several blue moons during that period."
Growling in rage, Phoenix started for him only to have Terra knock him away. "Sanctuary, Nix."
His breathing ragged, he had bloodlust all over him as he glared at Ravyn.
Terra let out a deep breath. "Leave the kitchen, Phoenix. You can either go on two legs or I'll carry you out. "
His gaze slid to hers. "You wouldn't dare."
"Oh, trust me." she said in deadly earnest. "I would and I'm man enough to do it, too."
He curled his lip at her before he headed out the swinging door that led to the club.
Terra wiped her hands on her apron before she looked back at Ravyn. "Now where were we?"
"Coffee."
"Coffee coming right up."
Impressed by Dorian's mate, Ravyn watched as she made her way over to the counter where the coffeepots were set. His brother's mate was an interesting beast. She didn't look like Dorian's type at all. And for some reason, Ravyn's curiosity got the better of him. "Are you bonded to Dorian?"
She paused in filling the mug to look up at him. "Yes. Unlike Phoenix, he isn't a pussy. "
Ravyn laughed in spite of himself as she returned to filling the mug then she pulled a thermos out and filled it, too. "How long have the two of you been mated?"
"Seventy-five years." She placed the mug and thermos with a small container of sugars and cream on a tray for him.
"How long have you been bonded?"
"Nosy much?" Her gaze burned into his, and to his surprise, she answered. "Seventy-five years. Dorian never wanted to come home and find his mate dead after what all of you had been through. He said that the Fates joined us for a reason and that his place was to be by my side, even in death. "
A newfound respect for his brother welled up inside Ravyn. But more than that, he remembered the horror of the night his village had been destroyed. When the men had started falling around them, the assumption had been that those who were standing had mates who'd survived.