Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
I remembered all of it.
It was like what was done to me was done to everyone I loved, even if they weren’t shifters and couldn’t really understand.
They were my friends, and any friend feels the pain another friend is experiencing.
“And it was going to be my gift, you know, like a celebration, the three of us going out again. You going out with Gayle and me again,” Cat continued.
Aw. She was so sweet.
“So you got us into the Black Room to make a thing of it, and then your dad got the credit notice,” Gayle deduced.
Oh dang.
Part of Mr. Truelock’s displeasure was manifesting in him tightening the reins on Cat’s spending. He’d already decreased her allowance. Now it looked like he was aiming at her credit line.
“Did you tell him you were taking Laura out?” Gayle asked.
At the question, abruptly, Cat lost it.
“You know, I shouldn’t have to explain myself,” she bit off. “That money, Truelock money, our money, he didn’t toil and break his back to earn it. We’re a First Family, for the gods’ sakes. Yes, Dad works, but the vast majority of Truelock wealth was inherited. It’s always inherited.”
She was not wrong.
She was also not done ranting.
“And he didn’t have to rush out and make a connection. He has a penis. Therefore, he could decide when he’d find his mate and he could wait until he was a hundred and twenty if he felt like it. I mean, he didn’t even get married to Mom until he was forty-two.” She shook her head and those coppery locks I envied slid gloriously against the pale skin I also envied. “This whole thing is bullshit. Demon patriarchal bullshit. I mean, it’s not like we’re driving around in cars anymore. We’ve progressed! At least the humans, fae and shifters have. But oh no. Not us demons.”
Gayliliel and I exchanged a glance, because we both agreed this was very true.
Shifters had their patriarchal bullshit as well, and it could get extreme, even more extreme than the demon kind.
But fortunately, they didn’t push a female to wed before her thirties like she couldn’t get on with her life without a mate attached to her. And more fortune (at least for me), I’d cut ties with my patriarch, so I didn’t have to worry about it.
Fae and humans, they tended not to get mired in all of that crap.
“You know what?” Cat asked, and she didn’t wait for our answer. She told us what. “Screw it. Dad adores Laura. If he knew what tonight was about, he wouldn’t have jumped my shit about it. So I’ll tell him and he’ll back off. And then I’ll tell him I’ll find my mate when I find my mate and he can just live with it.”
Gayle gasped at this proclamation.
Knowing Mr. Truelock, I got worried and instantly reached forward to grab Cat’s hand. “Don’t do anything rash,” I advised.
“He’ll totally cut you off,” Gayle put in.
He totally would.
Cat pulled her hand from mine and waved it in front of her face angrily. “Screw that too. If he does, he does. I have a job. I’ll get by.”
“You can’t even afford your flat without his—”
I kicked the side of Gayle’s foot with my own, and she shut up.
Cat turned to gaze out the window again, muttering, “Rena’s a mess.”
Oh boy.
It was all coming out now.
Rena was Cat’s cousin. Rena married less than a year ago. Rena’s husband was a dick. And Rena had gotten the same strongarm tactics from her father to find a connection as Cat was now getting.
Cat continued muttering. “She pretty much hates Dagon.”
We all pretty much hated Dagon, though I knew between the three of us, “pretty much” wasn’t part of what we felt for him. He was arrogant, self-absorbed and condescending.
Though, he was gorgeous.
Their wedding had been an exercise in awkwardness with liberal mix-ins of embarrassment and moments of pure outrage.
The traditional wedding cake at a demon wedding had black frosting over a blood red cake. And during the cutting, Dagon rubbed his slice all over Rena’s face, neck, chest, and even got some in her hair. When he was done, she looked like she got in a bar fight while the bar was burning down around her. And she lost.
Enough said.
“The seal is broken now,” I remarked. “So I’m all in to be your wingman to help you find your connection. A good one.”
I wasn’t. I didn’t even want to be out tonight.
But I was sure Cat didn’t want to sleep on my couch for the week after I got home from the hospital following my attack. Only for her to go home for a week when Gayle took over. Then Cat came back. They did this for six weeks, and probably would still be doing it if I hadn’t put my foot down that they had to get on with their lives, and I did too.