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Time slows to a crawl as our stare-down continues in silence.

Ogram breaks it with a lengthy sigh. “We won’t pry further, Grüsh, but I need your assurance that there will be no negative energy or tension during our wedding celebrations tomorrow.”

“You don’t have to worry about me,” I say, casting a glance toward the stairs. “But I can’t make any promises where Cate’s concerned.” Neither can she, if history is any indicator. Unlike my comment about her age, these words don’t get past my guard. Nothing else will for the duration of my visit—especially Cate.

The annoying voice in my head doesn’t offer up its unwelcome commentary this time. It just laughs and fucking laughs.

Chapter Five

Ogram and Hope’s Wedding Day

GRÜSH

The instinctive ability to connect with nature is common in green trolls, and has been part of my family’s heritage as far back as the remembered stories go. Some tales claim that trolls hold subtle magic, allowing them to draw the earth’s energy directly into the plants they nurture.

When we were young, Ogram and I would often ask our father if he had troll magic. He always said no, even though all the plants he tended grew more robustly than they should.

As kids, we thought he must be lying because he didn’t want us to have an excuse to shirk our botany and agriculture lessons. Then we got older, and I realized his denial wasn’t a lie. If troll magic was real and contributing to the farm’s vigorous and abundant crops, Ogram was the source, not our father. My brother’s affinity for plants went beyond taking an interest or having a green thumb.

I never asked him if it was actually magic, and he never volunteered the information. By the time I caught on to Ogram’s enhanced connection with nature, we’d already begun drifting apart. Not literally, not back then, when the four of us lived in the woods outside of town, in a small home built into the surrounding hills to conceal us from any wandering humans. But the bond we’d shared as children had dissipated. Like morning fog against a blazing summer sunrise, it was destined to vanish.

Once male trolls reach physical maturity, the urge to find a true mate takes priority, often separating them from family and familiarity. Ogram longed for a mate, yet felt compelled to stay on the farm. In the end, it all worked out for him. He owns the farm now. Growing crops brings him immense satisfaction and peace.

A few yards away, he’s standing under a flower-covered arbor, about to marry his true mate. He got everything he wanted out of life.

Including the best weather anyone could ask for at an outdoor wedding. Maybe his connection with nature runs directly to Mother Nature herself.

Like I told Hope last night at the party, Ogram deserves all the good things. I just wish I wasn’t so fucking envious of him getting them.

The trio who’ve been playing classical background music as the guests arrive tapers off to silence as a woman gets up from the front row of seats to join the band. A vampire, covered head to toe, including a veil to protect her face from direct sunlight. She nods to the musicians, and they resume playing. Not classical music this time, and not one of the traditional wedding entrance songs. Something soft and light with a pop-country vibe.

After a few bars of instrumental intro, the lyrics begin, delivered in an ethereally beautiful voice that carries across the open air without microphones and speakers. The vampire songstress has serious chops.

The grin on my brother’s face couldn’t get any wider as the guests rise from their seats. I follow his gaze and everyone else’s, turning my head toward the area beyond the back row of chairs. But it’s not the bride who gets my attention. It’s the woman at her side.

Knowing Cate would be walking Hope down the aisle didn’t prepare me for the reality of seeing her again. After her reaction and our interaction last night, I shouldn’t give a shit if she’s here or not. It shouldn’t matter that she looks like a bohemian goddess. I’m in Harmony Glen to support my brother in his celebration of finding love and locking it down. No other reason.

Yet I can’t take my fucking eyes off Cate.

I can’t stop my mind from spinning scenarios where I’m alone with her, getting her out of that flowy dress that looks so damn good against her sun-kissed skin, then worshipping every inch of her before I spread her thighs and sink balls-deep inside the only heat I’ve ever known.

When she’s a step from where I stand by my aisle seat, her gaze finds mine and holds. There’s no sign of last night’s anger in her sparkling hazel eyes. Just joy. Love. For the seconds those eyes are on me, I’m transported into the past, to a time when her joy and love were for me. Then she looks away, and the moment is gone.

I’m alone again, even though I’m surrounded by people. Like always.

I’m a celebrity in the music industry. To the group gathered for Ogram and Hope’s wedding, my biggest claim to fame is being the groom’s absentee brother. Their opinions of me don’tmatter. But Cate’s does, no matter how hard I try to convince myself otherwise.

Later that Night

The Wedding Reception

CATE

After a final round of hugs, the happy couple wave their departure from the reception in the big barn. It’s early in the evening, but Hope was spent, and Ogram was more than happy to whisk his very pregnant, newly minted wife away to the house to take care of her.

The party’s not over, though. The DJ has several more hours of danceable music queued, and there’s a catered buffet still to come before things wind down.

None of which I’ll be present for. Happy and honored as I was to be part of their celebration of true love, I’m looking forward to powering down my outgoing side, and more than ready to put distance between me and Grüsh. Real distance, not just the diameter of the dance floor, which I’ve been careful to do all evening.