Jaded [The Moonlight Breed 9] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) Gabrielle Evans (the read aloud family TXT) 📖

than anything to step into a hot shower to wash away the day. With any luck, Zuriel wouldn’t be too upset with him, because he was missing his little mate like crazy. “Gather everyone for breakfast in the morning. We’ll start fresh then.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll see you in the morning then.”

They parted ways in the foyer, and Spiro bounded up the stairs, eager to find his lover. Reaching the door to his suite, he slid it open quietly and tiptoed into the room. Coming home late was bad enough, but he doubted he’d win any favor by waking Zuriel up if he was sleeping. They were learning new things about each other every day, but Spiro was well aware that his fox was not a morning person.

The darkness of the room didn’t give him much hope for a happy reunion. Finding the bedroom lit only by moonlight was not promising, either. Upon closer inspection, however, he found that the bed was untouched, and it definitely didn’t contain a Zuriel-sized bump beneath the blankets.

Flipping on the light, Spiro’s heart raced when he confirmed that the bed was empty. Trying to remain levelheaded, he checked the bathroom and retraced his footsteps to the common room. Fully lit, the place appeared even lonelier than it had in the dark, forcing him to accept that Zuriel wasn’t anywhere in the suite.

Hurrying back out into the corridor, he did the only thing that made sense. He sprinted to Mihail’s room and threw the door open without even knocking. Zuriel’s scent permeated the air, and while he’d been too exhausted to realize it at first, his lion had known exactly where to find their wayward mate.

“Holy shit,” Zuriel yelped, jerking around so violently that he nearly toppled himself off the couch. “Spiro, you scared the crap out of me.”

“What are you doing here?”

Zuriel’s eyebrows drew together, and his button nose scrunched adorably. “You told me to stay here until you came back.”

His heart rate slowly fell back into a steady rhythm, and his chest loosened, allowing him to breathe normally again. “Right. Okay.” He remembered issuing that order, though it had felt like days rather than hours ago. “Well, I need you to come to bed now.”

No one said anything, but all of Zuriel’s friends were looking at him as though he’d lost his mind and gone mad. Well, all of them except Aspen. The demon just looked vaguely amused by the situation. There was something very odd about the guy, but that was a topic for another day.

“Okay,” Zuriel answered slowly. His expression said he was questioning Spiro’s sanity as well, but he rose to his feet, said his good-byes, and followed Spiro to their room without argument. “Is everything okay?” he finally asked when they were alone.

Winding both arms around his lover’s waist, he lifted Zuriel into his arms and held him close, nuzzling his cheek against the soft locks on top of his head. “It’s getting better.” Now that he had his mate in his arms, he didn’t want to let go.

“Good,” Zuriel whispered, snuggling closer to his chest with a sigh. “I won’t bug you about it tonight.”

Thank the gods. He didn’t think he could spend another second talking about plagues, diseases, deaths, or anything else morbid. He just wanted to crawl into bed, hold his lover, and pretend that the rest of the world didn’t exist. “You have no idea how much I appreciate that.”

Chapter Ten

Two weeks later, things were beginning to calm down and return to normal. With no reported sicknesses, Spiro lifted the quarantine, allowing residents to come and go as they pleased.

As suspected, once they’d finally reached Thalian’s mother, the woman had cared little for the passing of her son, even refusing to make the trip from the mainland. It was a damn shame, but like most things in their little part of the world, it didn’t shock him.

However, it did make him more appreciative of his own mother. She might be pushy and stubborn, but he knew she loved him in her own way. Well, he felt confident that she’d at least mourn his passing.

The mystery surrounding the deaths of his father and brother were still just that—a mystery. But with no further illnesses, he was forced to consider it an isolated incident and move forward to other pursuits. The first priority on his list was to change the outdated laws that governed his people.

“To be frank, our traditions are ridiculous,” he began, addressing those in attendance of the meeting.

The International Council for Preternatural Justice had no jurisdiction over the individual laws of different races. By elven code of conduct, he only needed someone outside of his family to second a motion, and the majority vote of his family to pass it.

That was something else he intended to change. He didn’t believe any one person, or even one family, should have final say in matters that concerned their entire population. That fight would come soon enough, but right then, he needed to stay focused on the task at hand.

“There are some things I can’t change,” he continued. The magic set in place by the elders couldn’t be undone, not by him anyway. Heirs would still be forced to complete the ritual by the full moon, and new kings would continue to endure the three-day mating heat. “However, there are several things I do have the power to improve.”

“Such as?” Rissian asked, leaning back in his chair and resting a hand on his mate’s thigh.

“If a king, or anyone for that matter, chooses to take more than one spouse or mate, that’s their prerogative. To force someone into a polygamous relationship because of traditions that have no place in this century is absurd.”

“That’s not really a law,” Aradan argued. As the baby of the family, he was outspoken and accustomed to getting his way, but he’d never gone up against Spiro.

“No, but it’s still not something that should be expected.”

“I agree.” To Spiro’s surprise, it was Marcel,