Sunglasses at Night (Claws Clause 3)

She threw her hands around his neck, nearly knocking his sunglasses off of his nose as she eagerly kissed him back.

Because that was Tabby. Whatever he offered, she gave him back tenfold.

Adam didn’t know what he did to deserve a betrothed like her—a mate like her—but he was fucking grateful for it all the same.

And that’s when he heard the soft clearing of a throat behind him, followed by a sigh and a familiar voice saying, “We can wait a second, Hud. They’re obviously busy.”

Almost reluctantly, Adam ended the kiss before turning to look at the Moonshadow siblings. With the s

ame olive-colored skin, thick, black curls, and pretty faces, apart from their gender, the biggest difference between Hudson and Shea were their eyes. Shea proudly wore her purple witch’s eyes while Hudson, a witch with no powers, had eyes almost as dark a brown as Tabby.

Hudson grinned “Officer… I mean, private investigator.”

Adam stuck out his hand. “I told you before. Adam is fine.”

Hudson took his hand and the two men shook. Then, because Colt was still strangely missing, Adam dared to give Shea a friendly squeeze. He looped his arm over her shoulder, an almost-half hug that wouldn’t leave too much of his scent on her, and squeezed lightly.

Shea turned into it, returning the embrace with more force than he’d expect from the happily mated witch. It was even more of a shock that, when she pulled back again, her purple eyes were glossy with unshed tears.

Hudson noticed, too. Her brother patted her on the shoulder, then murmured, “Don’t worry. He’ll be fine.”

Adam’s eyebrows rose. If it was anyone else, he would’ve thought that Hudson didn’t mean for his reassurance to his sister to be overheard. But, since it was Hudson, a recovering Donor who knew firsthand just how impressive a Para’s hearing was, Adam knew that the male witch meant for him to hear everything he said.

“Hey. What’s going on? Something up with Colt?”

“Don’t worry about it.” With a shake of her head, she tried to draw attention back to the office. “This is great, guys. And you’re not too far from my shop. We’re almost neighbors.”

While that was true, it was obvious that something was still bothering Shea.

Tabby picked up on it, too. “You can tell us, Shea.”

“I… it’s nothing. Honest.”

Adam didn’t need his talent to know when someone was lying to realize that when Shea said honest, she was being anything but.

“Shea.”

“What?”

He gave her a look.

Tabby leaned in conspiratorially. “I know that look. Trust me. You won’t win this. My stubborn mate gets that look and… Let’s just say that it’d probably be easier to just tell him what he wants to know.”

Her teasing tone at least got a small smile out of Shea.

The witch took a deep breath, probably realizing that Tabby was actually right, before she admitted, “It’s Dodge. He’s gone.”

Adam wasn’t expecting that.

“Oh.” Maybe he should’ve been. Colt had mentioned that to him once before. As a ghost, Dodge only had a set amount of time that he could exist in the living world before he experienced his second death and simply disappeared. Even though Dodge was fading quickly, Adam was under the impression that there was more time left until that happened. “Wow. Already? I’m sorry, Shea. Pass my condolences along to Colt, too, okay?”

She shook her head, her thick curls bouncing. “That’s the thing. He hasn’t died again. He’s just… gone.”

Tabby blinked. “Is that possible? I didn’t think it was.”

“It’s not.”

Oh.