COUNTENANCE

“King?” Articus called.

King blinked twice, returning to the present. “I’m sorry. Yes, I appreciate the help. I’ll let you all know how the situation develops. For now, no one has been hurt yet and we have…measures in place to keep everyone safe.”

“Well, that’s settled,” Articus said. “Tell us though, how are things going with your mate?”

“Mate?” Blake raised a brow. “Interesting. I didn’t expect her to ever come back. Now that she has, though, isn’t that a good thing?”

“I wish.” king bit the words. “She doesn’t want anything to do with me, and she has made that pretty clear.”

“I mean…you did kind of…reject her. Didn’t you?” Callahan piped up. “I mean, even we didn’t know that you had found a mate. You really kept it a big secret. It was only after she skipped town and we saw your pain that we knew how much you cared for her.”

There were general murmurs of agreement in response to Callahan. While King was happy that Emilia had been brought up, he couldn’t help feeling like none of his