Ruby considered this for a few moments. “I think we can find a way to get her here. But we’re gonna need help.”
* * *
“A free trip to the resort?”Portia blinked at them. She was doing a really good impression of Una with all the flapping eyelashes. “You want me to reach out to the witch who cursed your pack and give her a free trip to my brand-new resort?”
“I know what you’re gonna say,” Ruby interjected on his behalf.
“Do you?” Portia snorted.
“Yeah. You’re gonna say that if she comes here and realizes it was a trap, she could choose to curseyouand the resort. I get that. I do. But this is a pack’s livelihood! And Gus is going insane because he can’t shift anymore. Apparently, it’s really bad for shifters to be separated from their animals for too long.” She gave Ethan a panicked look, and he inclined his head in agreement.
“I don’t even know who Gus is,” Portia replied. “I can’t blatantly participate in this. It would be breaking one too many rules. Not mine either. Hell’s rules.”
“This is a Hell resort,” Ethan argued. “Nothing is illegal here. Right? Murder is frowned upon, though,” he added to lighten the mood.
Portia raised a brow at him. “You’re gonna make one good alpha with that whole attitude you’ve got going on right now, but that doesn’t change the facts, though. I can’t be so openly involved. Not if it’s to get Jazmin Lovelace to reverse the curse.”
“Okay, but what if you invite her here for a single’s premium package? She just got her heart broken. Maybe she would go for that. It’s not your fault two random guests approach her, right?” Ruby paced while her aunt considered the idea.
“Hmm. Maybe that could work. She got her heart broken, that’s right. That’s why she cursed Gus. How did it happen? Gimme all the gory details.” Portia’s eyes were almost aflame from the serious thinking she was doing.
Ethan blanched. “What? Why do you need to know what happened?”
“It’s important for me to know what kind of heartbreak we are dealing with here.”
“There’s more than one kind of heartbreak?” Ethan asked, shaking his head. “It’s more than just the paranormal. It’s the whole damn world that’s completely bonkers.”
“You’ve never been involved with supernaturals, and it shows,” Portia teased.
Ethan gave them a brief rundown of what had happened with the witch and Gus, and by the time it was all over, Portia was pink in the face.
“True mates? Fascinating.” Her eyes cut from Ethan to Ruby and back again. “And this is a thing you all have?”
He nodded. “But it’s not all of us that find our true mates.”
Now tell them that Ruby is yours. Go on. Open our mouth and say it. You know it would feel so good to finally come clean.
Ethan pushed the thought away. Now wasnotthe time to worry about when or if he should tell Ruby she was his mate.
It had all happened a little bit strangely and not at all like what other wolves had described. Was that Hellscape Holiday Resort’s influence?
Ethan didn’t even know if that mattered. Not now that he knew who she was to him.
Ruby had been standing in front of the mirror in her hotel room hallway, applying a coat of lipstick to a mouth that really didn’t need to be dressed up to be seductive. She had looked at him through the mirror, and the smile she gave him pierced his heart with a whole bunch of feelings. The most resounding one?
Mate.
Just like that, last night, he realizedwhyhis attraction to Ruby had been so magical. It wasn’t her succubus power or any sort of Hell magic.
They were meant to be. Together. Mates. Destined.
“Ethan?” Portia clicked her fingers in front of his face. “You totally zoned out on us there. I said it was a pity that not all shifters find their true mates, but let’s hope you find her one day, sweetie.” Portia patted his arms, and he could’ve sworn that she winked at him, basically telling him that sheknew.
Ethan didn’t have to plead with her to keep it quiet for now. Portia would never do anything to hurt her beloved niece, and somehow, the succubus knew Ethan wouldn’t hurt Ruby.
FIFTEEN
RUBY