Free Christmas Moon by Loribelle Hunt Page B

her with his elbow, and she took another bite of the salad, chewing to hide her smile. They were such mother hens. She sent them the mental image and struggled to hide her laugh when Cain choked.
    He turned hot eyes on her, a slight twist of his lips. “You’ll pay for that one later, sweetheart.”
    The image that filled her mind was out of her deepest fantasies. She was tied up, and a whip cracked the air. She sucked in a ragged breath, glaring when she saw them grinning at each other, and reversed the vision.
    “That could go both ways,” she said sweetly.
    “You know, I think I’m missing most of this conversation,” Trey said.
    “You are,” Tara answered. “They’re telepaths. All three of them. I’d expect that from the twins. Bit of a shock in a human woman, though.”
    “Cool. I could use a talent like that.”
    Tara shuddered. “I doubt you’d want it. Ask Meg.”
    He frowned. “True.”
    “Ask Meg what?” The woman in question sat down next to Tara, who nodded at Delilah, Cain, and Abel. Darius took the chair next to Meg. Her mate , Delilah reminded herself.
    “Telepaths. Trey thought it might be a fun talent to have.”
    Meg snorted. “Not really.” She cocked her head and looked at Delilah. “I’ve never met another reader.”
    Delilah couldn’t believe the turn the conversation had taken and was shocked to her toes. She’d always considered herself, her abilities, freakish, but the others were speaking of them like they were an every day occurrence. Well, maybe not everyday, but not so unusual. She didn’t feel any surprise from the twins, and she realized Meg was waiting for some response.
    She shook her head. “I’ve never been able to read people before. It was always animals I could connect with.”
    Trey grinned, and Darius laughed, tipping his tea glass at her. “We’re not exactly human.”
    “Um, yeah. There is that.”
    She wasn’t sure if she was ready to face that, yet, and was surprised someone had brought it up. Setting her fork down, she stopped pretending to eat and waited for Cain and Abel to finish. She needed to go back to their house and knew there was no way they’d let her go alone. She wondered if there was a way to go back to pretending to be normal.
    “The rest of us aren’t either, exactly, you know,” Meg said, her gaze sharp, assessing. “Well, my cousins and I. And you.”
    She started. Had she been so distracted she’d missed part of the conversation? “Aren’t what?”
    “Normal.”
    Tara grinned, lifting her glass to the other woman. “Normal is overrated.”
    “Amen to that.” She turned back to Delilah. “Did anyone tell you we’re cousins? Me, Tara, and Summer?”
    “No.”
    “Ahh. Well, our grandmother was a witch. We inherited some of her talents. I’m the reader. Tara is wonderful with spells, and Summer dreams.”
    Delilah cocked an eyebrow. She didn’t have to voice the question. Meg shrugged one shoulder. “The future. Sometimes the past. You can’t exactly direct that kind of thing.”
    “And you, my dear,” Tara said, “will fit right in with the rest of us completely normal witches.”
    “I’m not a witch.”
    “Who’s to say your grandmother wasn’t?” Abel asked, and she realized he knew her story, knew much more about her than she knew about him.
    That disturbed her, and she felt like the balance in this new relationship leaned much farther to their benefit than hers. What did she know about them really? Aware there were several people at the table who could apparently read her thoughts, she tried to control them, tried to wall up her emotions. No one gave her any looks or called her on her concerns, so maybe she was successful.
    “Delilah,” Cain said softly. “Don’t cut us out like that.”
    It did work, but she saw the hurt flash through his eyes, and she knew she couldn’t keep it up. She sighed. “Could we get out of here?”
    “Yeah.”
    He gathered their plates, and Abel took her elbow, helping