Embrace Me At Dawn by Shayla Black

Isdernus Rykard. Sabelle choosing Ice certainly would have been a surprise to all of magickind, who regarded Sabelle somewhat like their princess because of the prominence of her bloodline. Those same people would have considered her mate far beneath her, somewhere between a madman and a punch line. But the more Anka watched her friend with Ice, the more she knew Sabelle had made the right choice for her.
    “ Your brother will be fine,” Anka said quietly to the other witch.
    Ice pressed a cup of tea into Sabelle’s hands. “She’s right, love. It’s a meeting, not a battle.”
    Sabelle toyed with one of her long, blond curls and frowned. “I get the feeling it’s both. But I’m glad you didn’t go.”
    Sabelle smiled at Ice, and his answering look of devotion stabbed Anka like a knife to the heart. Lucan had once looked at her like that. Now that she’d told him about the way she begged Shock to take control of their sex and give her pain, he’d never look at her that way again. That was why she’d confessed. He couldn’t go on pining for what would never be. But it hurt so badly to know he would feel something between contempt and loathing for her for the rest of their centuries.
    “ I was better off not going,” Ice said. “Apparently, my underdeveloped ability to keep my mouth shut when my overdeveloped bullshit meter goes off is a liability in politics.”
    Sabelle grinned absently while staring at Anka. Bloody hell, she’d forgotten to mask her thoughts.
    “ Exactly,” Sabelle seemed to say to both of them. “Can you excuse us, Ice?”
    Ice glanced between the two of them, green eyes narrowed. “Girl talk, is it? I’m definitely not staying for that, especially if you’re going to talk about Lucan MacTavish. Wanker.”
    Anka blinked, stunned, as Ice turned away and left the office, shoulders barely squeezing through the doorway. Despite his huge boots and his even larger frame, he barely made a sound as he trekked across the tile and disappeared up the stairs.
    “ Why does Ice dislike Lucan?” Anka asked.
    “ What do you mean you told Lucan that you beg Shock to take control and give you pain?”
    Damn Sabelle for reading her thoughts. Anka wanted to tell the other witch that she didn’t have the energy to explain twice in one day, and that it was deeply personal. Would magickind’s sweet princess even understand? Under all that, the truth embarrassed her. Not that Sabelle hadn’t just read every one of her thoughts. “I asked you first.”
    Anka sighed. Yes, that sounded very mature.
    Sabelle smiled, but the happiness in her expression abruptly died. “Lucan almost died after Mathias broke your mate bond. His mate mourning was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Even Aunt Millie said it was more severe than she’d ever encountered. If you hadn’t healed him when you did, I don’t think he could have lived much longer. He’d nearly gone feral.”
    Her heart caught. Anka wanted to believe Lucan grieved her loss that much because he’d genuinely loved her. But he hadn’t known her, not really. He’d missed the façade, the comfort object. The abrupt nature of their torn bond would have added to his distress.
    “ No,” Sabelle insisted. “He loved you . He still does.”
    Not anymore . Anka folded her hands in her lap. “Go on.”
    The witch paused, gathering her thoughts, then shook her head. “You must understand… Mourning to that extent depleted his energy very rapidly. All of the Brethren had trained hard the day you were taken. Their tanks were empty, Lucan’s included. After your disappearance, we tried surrogates, but he was so violent that he scared them all away.”
    Her breath hitched, and Anka feared where this was going next. She forced herself to ask, “And?”
    Sabelle pressed her lips together. “And…I finally stepped in. Of course, this was before I became mated to Ice. We had no idea where you’d gone or even if you were alive. He was slipping away from us.