With the Sunrise (Dusk Before Dawn 2)

“Morning,” I echoed softly, my cheeks filling with heat over being caught staring at him while he slept. After he’d touched and tasted every inch of my body—and even spanked my butt until my cheeks were rosy—it seemed a little silly for me to be embarrassed.

Athan pulled me closer, and I was expecting a kiss when he jerked back and hissed, “What the fuck?”

I didn’t understand what had angered him and only grew more confused when he rolled off me before disappearing into thin air. I sat up, frantically scanning the room before he stormed out of the closet wearing a black T-shirt and pajama bottoms. He tossed a white, button-down shirt and pair of navy sweatpants at me. “Get dressed, love. My brother is here.”

“How in the world did you know?” I muttered as I scrambled off the mattress to put on the clothes he’d gotten for me.

“We can speak telepathically with each other.” He said it so matter-of-factly that I didn’t react until he added, “Once we’re fully bonded, you and I will be able to do it, too.”

“Holy crap,” I breathed, my eyes going wide. “How cool.”

I was wondering what else would change for me—and what all fully bonding with Athan entailed if last night hadn’t done it—when he flung the bedroom door open. When Athan said his brother was here, I’d thought he was downstairs. But nope, Kieran was standing right on the other side of the door.

He handed Athan my purse, which I hadn’t thought about since I’d left it on the bed in the guest room one of his staff had shown me to when I’d arrived for the party. “Her blasted cell phone has been going off virtually nonstop since late last night. I held off on coming over as long as I could so you’d have time together, but I couldn’t handle it anymore.”

“Oh, no.” I slapped my forehead and groaned. “I’m so sorry. I should have known my parents would blow up my phone when I didn’t check in with them last night. When I spoke with them earlier in the evening, I had promised to call after the party but then completely forgot.”

“It’s fine.” Kieran waved off my concern and smiled. “A little irritation is a small price to pay for Athan finally finding his destined consort. Plus, my Thana is thrilled to know she’ll have her childhood friend close.”

With Kieran saying their names so close together, the coincidence finally hit me. “Oh, my gosh! Athan and Thana’s names are an anagram.”

Both men looked poleaxed, their bright blue eyes widening before they burst into deep laughter. “Damn, it’s been a year since I found Thana. I can’t believe I didn’t notice that in all this time.”

Athan laughed harder as he moved to my side and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “What can I say? My consort is as smart as she is beautiful.”

His compliment had me feeling all gooey inside, but those emotions quickly turned to irritation when my phone started going off again inside my purse. “And on that note, I’ll leave you two to take care of Selene’s parents.” His gaze slid to his brother. “Good luck with them. You’ll need it,” he warned before going poof.

I cringed, knowing how right Kieran was. My parents could be more than a handful when it came to me. Which was proven correct when I pulled my phone out of my purse and found more than fifty missed calls and text messages since last night. “You have to be freaking kidding me.”

Athan tugged my phone out of my clenched grip and cursed when he saw the long list of notifications. Then he scrolled to the bottom and uttered another profanity before running his fingers through his hair. “Your parents chartered a plane at the ass crack of dawn this morning when they couldn’t reach you. They’ll be here in less than fifteen minutes.”

“Here?” I pointed at the floor. “As in your house?”

“Our house,” he corrected automatically.

“Here?”

“Yup, they included my address in their last message and said you’d better still be here when they arrived,” he confirmed with a terse nod.

I looked down at the clothes I had just thrown on and started to freak out even more. “How do they even know where I’m at?”

“That’s an excellent question.” He tapped at my phone’s screen and sighed. “Your location is shared with them, so they can track you wherever you go.”

“What?” I screeched, yanking the phone out of his hand to stare at it. “I did not set that up. They must have tweaked the settings before giving it to me. It was a freaking gift...that they could use to check in on me wherever I went.”

Athan pulled me close and stroked his hands down my back in a soothing gesture. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head and murmured, “We don’t have time to worry about how your location got shared with them. Right now, we need to focus on finding you something more appropriate to wear and getting downstairs before they arrive.”