Free Moon Bound by Stephanie Julian

got drinks at the bar next door—a ginger ale for Diego and a whiskey sour for her.
    Diego turned a deceptively lazy gaze her way. “Something you want to talk about?”
    She shook her head then sighed and nodded. “Can we wait until I get some alcohol in me for the answer to that question?”
    He nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
    “Yeah, well, I got a lot of those but they never seem to work out for me.”
    The bartender brought their drinks and she downed half of hers in one gulp, appreciating the burn on the way down. Not that the buzz would last long. Lucani metabolism burned alcohol out of the system faster than an eteri .
    As Diego sipped his soda, she turned back to him, her head tilted. “Do you think I’m spoiled?”
    Both of Diego’s brows rose this time. “Is that a trick question?”
    She frowned. “What do you mean?”
    He snorted. “You’ve been spoiled by every man in your life. You’ve got to know that.”
    A grimace twisted her mouth, but she couldn’t really dispute his statement. “Alright, let me ask you this. Do you think I manipulate events and people for my own benefit?”
    “Don’t we all?”
    She sighed. “Diego, please. You’re the only person I know who’ll give me a straight answer. And if you don’t, I’m going to start calling you, ‘Your Highness.’”
    He winced. “Let’s not get nasty. Help me out, Arabella. What’re you talking about?”
    Chin on hand, she stared into Diego’s beautiful eyes, wondering why she hadn’t fallen in love with him. Damn Steven, maybe it was time she tried.
    As heirs of two of the oldest versipelli families in the world, she and Diego should have been made for each other. It didn’t matter that he was an Iberian lynx and she was a grey wolf. If they had children, they would be either wolf or lynx. Or have the ability to shift between both forms.
    While the old European families hadn’t intermingled much, the influx of immigrants to the United States had meant more mixed unions, something the elders had looked on with horror. They’d predicted dire consequences—contaminated blood, the end of the versipelli , the end of the world.
    Of course, it hadn’t happened.
    However, the hereditary families were dying off and mixed unions with humans only rarely produced children with magic.
    Diego had been born from a versipellis father, king of the Falcus family of Galicia, Spain, and a strega mother, a direct descendent of the legendary boschetta of thirteen Etruscan witches cursed to immortality.
    Diego had been double-whammied, born versipellis and grigorio and that combination made for one mean, fighting machine.
    “Hey, Bella. You zoned out on me. What happened?”
    She sighed. “Do you believe in soul mates, Diego? One love for your entire life?”
    He didn’t answer right away but seemed to give it some real thought. “Yeah, I do. But I also believe we can be happy without our soul mates in our life.”
    “Do you know who your mate is? Have you met her?”
    He shook his head. “Don’t know that I want to, either.”
    Feeling tears well, she blinked them back and gulped more of her drink. “I’d rather not know mine. He’s a bastard, pig-scum, lying sonofabitch.”
    Diego snorted. “So tell me how you really feel.”
    “Like I’ve had my heart ripped out of my chest.”
    “Tell me the word and I’ll kill him for you. Then you can get on with your life.”
    The thought of Diego disemboweling Steven gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling, even though she knew she’d never let anyone truly hurt him.
    “Maybe I’ll just let you maim him a little.”
    Diego nodded. “Better to be by yourself.”
    “Is that why you don’t talk to anyone? Live with anyone, date anyone, associate with anyone? Are you a virgin? Gay?”
    In the process of drinking his soda, Diego nearly spewed it across the bar. “ What ?”
    She shrugged, as if she hadn’t just accused one of the most masculine men she knew of being gay. Of course, that didn’t