“Can you even call Aster as much when she will be present at future dinners?” Fang asked, and Scythe seemed poised to leap across the table to wipe the smug smile from his face when he said again, “For they are mates.”

Berk grunted and poured himself a large glass of whiskey from a crystal decanter. “And here I’d thought the stars would fall first…”

“Do not poke fun at a blessing,” Mariana said. “Eat.”

We did, and as my stomach grew impossibly full, as did my chest when Fang regaled me with tales of the pranks he and Scythe had pulled on Berk over the years.

All the while, Berk seldom removed his attention from me.

Suspicion leaked from his dark eyes. I did my best to ignore it—to enjoy the warmth from not only the fire in the small hearth in the corner of the room but also from the company of the family surrounding me.

Mariana cleared some of the dishes, but returned shortly after with a blueberry tart, of which I couldn’t possibly dream of squeezing into my overloaded stomach.

Scythe seemed to sense this, and he curled his arm over the back of my chair to stroke the hair resting upon my shoulder.

“Oh, and once,” Fang continued. “Scythe here took the liberty of fixing the old wolf’s favored chair with an entire pot of glue after we broke it while fighting in the sitting room.”

“To be fair, I was actually trying to help.”

“Help?” Berk snorted. “I lost a good shirt and two layers of skin.”

“But you did get the new chair you’d been whining about wanting for months,” Fang said, licking beetroot sauce from his fingers.

“I don’t fucking whine.”

“Yes, you do,” all three of them said in unison.

When the laughter settled, Mariana set her gaze upon me as she sipped her wine, and Scythe refilled my own glass.

“And what do you like to do with yourself, dear?” she asked. “I do hope it doesn’t involve visiting taverns frequently. Those in this city are too often filled with males looking for a spot of trouble or a fleetingly fun time.”

I bit my lips at that and shook my head. “I, well…” Having no idea what to say, I said the first and only thing that came to mind. “I love to paint.”

“Oh?” Delight lightened her eyes. “How splendid. I work at the orphanage, which is now, unfortunately, undergoing some much-needed expanding. There are younglings who could do with more color in their lives, especially right now. Perhaps you could come by and show them a thing or two?”

Unable to stop myself, I looked at Scythe. He opened his mouth, then closed it with a frown as he stared at me.

Fang’s mischievous grin waned as he watched us.