177: Ada's POV

177: Ada's POV
“What do we do, Ada?”

It seemed like everyone wanted the answer to that same question — and for some reason, they were all looking to me to answer it. And why? A few months ago, I was nothing more than an exiled wolf living as a slave on a farm. Sure, now I was mated to the Alpha Kings, and a supposed Luna Queen, and I apparently had Fae blood and magickal abilities... but that didn’t mean I suddenly had all the answers.

My experience with politics and war was limited to the pack meetings I’d attended when I was a child. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t know how to lead them. Why did they want me to anyway? Couldn’t pretty much any of them do a better job than me?

“He meant about us, Ada,” Nik sent me one of the soft smiles he reserved just for me. “We’ll all come together to figure out the rest. This is just about us.”

I hugged my knees tighter to my chest. “Well, I don’t have the answer to that either.”

“You and Phoenix seemed to have figured something out,” Darius ran a hand through his loose hair, sighing, “Perhaps the same arrangement would work for us?”

It was Nik’s eyes that I locked onto. The dark onyx irises were fixated on me, the eyebrows above them raised. He lowered his chin before turning toward his brother. “It won’t work the same.”

Darius sent his brother a questioning look. I sighed, lifting my head from my knees and looking back out the window. “Phoenix is happier without his wolf, Darius. Neither of you are. He took this in stride and was able to just,” I shrugged, “adjust to not having him.”

“I still don’t understand why that means things wouldn’t work out the same.” he sighed, motioning to himself and Nik, “We’ve been doing just fine without—”

“It isn’t about that,” I cut him off, finally looking into his grape hyacinth eyes. “It’s about the fact that I’m trying to enjoy what time I have left with Phoenix. I know that the rest of us are going to be fine.”

“Time you have left?” Darius scrunched up his nose, “What are you—”

Nik threw himself back on the bed, lying down. “Moon Goddess above, Darius. We’re going to have to each choose to break the spell keeping our wolves away,” he ran a hand over his face. “Phoenix won’t choose to have his wolf return. When the rest of us feel the matebond return, things will change.”

“That’s ridiculous. Of course he’ll have his wolf come back. Ada needs—”

“I need for it to be his choice. There won’t be a situation where I try and change his decision,” I snapped. “That’s why it’s different for the two of you. I’m happy to play the get-to-know-you-better game for now, but it won’t be the same. I can’t have it be the same.”

“He’ll choose you,” Darius leapt to his feet, a certain level of panic lacing his tone, “We’d all choose you. And even if he wouldn’t, why does it impact what we do?”

Nik sat back up, yanking on his brother’s arm. Darius tried to yank himself away, and shadows wrapped around his wrist, pulling him anyway. “Ada isn’t questioning what any of us would choose. Are you?” Nik’s voice was smooth and low.

I squeezed my eyes shut as Darius scoffed, “What like Ada would choose to be a hum—” he stopped himself short when he saw my face.

My voice was soft, “As I said, we will all have a choice.”

Nik gave a curt nod. “Well, I do agree with Darius that we should probably have the same arrangement, nonetheless.” he shook out his oil-slick hair, which was growing out rather shaggily. “We all have choices to make, but in the meantime we’re still mates. Not having feelings for that bond will give us plenty of opportunity to get to know each other normally.”

“Fair,” I stated. “We basically just agreed to do just that. Get to know each other. Make sure the chemistry is there without a wolf matebond to force it into place.”

“And how did you do that?” Darius arched an eyebrow.

I grinned. “Don’t worry, sex was involved.”

There was no surprise when Darius relaxed a bit, but I was caught off guard when Nik’s shoulders visibly relaxed. I gaped at him, and he smirked, shooting me a wink. “I am a man. I have needs. Wants,” his eyes raked over my body, “Desires.”

My cheeks flamed as heat pooled in my lower abdomen. I shook my head. “We all need a night of rest and recovery.”

“Fucking you would certainly help us all with both of those points,” Darius said, grinning and chuckling. “I’m afraid you practically just made our case.”

“We have more to talk about,” I countered.

“Like what?”

A million different answers popped into my mind. What all the Lennox brothers had said? But that wouldn’t stop them. Georgina and Francine dying? Neither would bat an eye. ‘I’m not in the mood?’ They’d just roll their eyes and get me in the mood. But there was one topic...

“Blade and Dagger are my fae mates.” I yanked the collar of the high-neck shirt I had on, then pulled up the sleeves, revealing the swirling blue and silver ink-like markings. “I’ve been avoiding talking to them about it until I had all of you in the loop.”

Nik sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know enough about Fae bonds to know what that means.” He glanced at Darius, who was frozen with his eyes wide. “Maybe we should all talk about it tomorrow.”

I blinked. Was he really being calm and rational about this? Where was the possessiveness and the fire that I was used to? Surely that wasn’t all his wolf. That was when I looked into his eyes. Matte black. It definitely wasn’t all his wolf.

“If we all talk tomorrow, what do we need to do tonight?”

He and Darius exchanged a look, both smirking. Then, they slowly turned to look at me again, standing in unison. Darius’s fingers brushed against my cheek. My lips parted as I looked between the two of them. The smile that was plastered on Nik’s face was equal parts sin and equal parts deadly. It was Nik’s voice that crawled across my skin as he growled:

“Reunite. What else would we do?”