Page 65 of Heart of the Cursed
The female with curly red hair elbowed Dain in the side. He looked down at her with an affectionate smile on his face. Arun frowned at the interaction. He’d seen Dain with females in the past, but he’d never looked at one the way he was looking at her.
It must be true, then,Arun thought as he looked between the couples.They’ve found their mates.
Arun was happy for them both. They deserved a bit of happiness in their lives, and so did their females. The gossip train hadn’t been completely right though, because the females weren’t both Human. One was, but the other was a halfling kind of like Selene.
“And it’s a good thing he did,” Dain said to her. “It means you don’t have to walk everywhere.”
She smiled up at him before he helped her climb on the back of the cart. Taredd helped the other female climb on board and then he took a seat up from. Arun was relieved when Dain sat in the back with the females, leaving the other seat up front free for him.
“Thanks,” Arun said as he walked past Dain.
Dain nodded as he leaned back in his seat. He wrapped his arms around the female with red hair when she leaned back against him. As soon as they were all seated, he gave Taredd the directions, and then they were off.
“The female next to Dain is Amberly,” Taredd said. “And the other one is Natalia.”
Arun turned around in his seat so he could see the females and Dain in the back, and Taredd in the front.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Natalia said. “Taredd has told me lots about you.”
Arun raised an eyebrow as he looked at Taredd. “All good, I hope.”
“Yes.” She nodded.
“Dain has spoken about you, as well,” Amberly said.
“I can’t see it all being good coming from Dain,” Arun said, making both females giggle.
“You’re right,” Amberly said. “But don’t worry, I know how he really feels about you.”
“Yeah, I feel like he’s a pain in the arse,” Dain said.
“Stop being so hard on yourself, Dain,” Arun said. “You’re not always a pain in the arse. Sometimes you’re a massive headache.”
Taredd laughed. “It’s good to have you back, old friend.”
“It’s good to be back.” Arun smiled, but it soon died when he thought of what had brought him back and the events leading up to it.
After a moment, Taredd turned to him. “I think it’s about time you tell us what’s going on. Who is Selene? And why did your brother take her?”
Arun took a deep breath and blew it out. “She’s the reason I wanted a couple of days off.”
Taredd frowned at him.
“We both wanted time off,” Dain said from behind him.
Arun shook his head. “It was only after I mentioned it that you wanted to have the time off. It was the same with the bet.”
Taredd’s frown deepened as he thought back to the bet. Finally, he said, “Tell us everything.”
So, he did. He told them about hearing Selene in his mind and the need to find her, about the first two attacks on her, the spell, and finally his brother. He told them about everythingexcepttheir night together. They didn’t need to know about that, so he kept that bit of information to himself.
When he was finished, everyone was silent as they absorbed all the information. Dain was the first to speak.
“Why did you leave her alone in the bunker?” he asked. “You knew there were people out hunting for her. I just don’t understand why you would leave her alone.”
“I needed to clear my head,” was all he said.
“How and why is your brother involved?” Taredd asked. “Do you think he heard her voice in his mind, like you did?”
