Fur and Honor: MM Paranormal Romance (Steel Bonds) by J.L. Gribble

Author:J.L. Gribble [Gribble, J.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Limani Press
Published: 2025-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

The telephone on the other end of the line rang. And rang. And rang. Hal glared at the half-empty glass of brandy on the desk of his home office, then drained it anyway.

What good was this new ability to reach someone in another city if that person didn’t answer the damned phone? Especially after he’d already braved the cold to swing by his office to get Rob’s number. At least his timing there had been fortuitous. Though, fuck—he should have waited for Miles outside Bradford’s office. He’d fled back to his apartment instead, not wanting either man to notice he was already halfway to drunk by midmorning.

Finally, the line clicked. “Wallace speaking.” The connection carried his friend’s deep voice over two hundred miles with almost no distortion. The wonders of modern technology.

Hal sagged into the comfortable clutches of his chair. “Answering the telephone yourself these days, my friend?”

Rob chuckled. “And you made this call yourself, so it appears we’re both slumming it this holiday season.”

So many of their fellow noblemen would have meant that far too literally. Rob, however, was Hal’s peer in more ways than one. Earl Robert Wallace had already taken on the mantle of his family’s vast estate and fortune, though his powerful realm involved technology rather than transportation. They also shared reputations for prioritizing what was right over what was traditional or politically expedient.

For example, he was the only peer Hal knew who had not married another werewolf.

“You’ve caught me out.” Hal eyed the decanter on the sideboard across the room.

“It’s good to hear from you. Is this a season’s greeting, or…?”

Rob was right to question Hal’s motives. Voice communication between cities had only become possible in the past few years and remained exorbitantly expensive. Last year, and the year before, Hal had spent this day drinking and missing his little sister. He’d assumed today would go much the same, but less than two drinks in, he found his thoughts occupied by an entirely different person. Hal was slowly drowning, and he didn’t see a way out of the tangled mess created by the clash between his head and his heart. And like telephones, what good were friends when you didn’t reach for their help?

“How did you manage it?” Hal asked. “You and Zhinu, I mean? How did you know she was the one for you? I know you two eloped—everyone knows that insane story—but how did you make a love match work afterward, in our pretentious society so obsessed with blood lines and image?”

The other end of the line was silent for long enough that Hal wondered whether he’d lost the connection. Then, after a beat of blown out air, Rob responded, “Well, for starters, it wasn’t a love match.”

Hal sat up so fast his head spun. Or perhaps that was the booze. “You married a fucking dragon, and you didn’t even love her?”

“Watch it, that’s my wife you’re talking about.” Instead of a growl, however, humor laced Rob’s words. “It’s certainly a love match now.

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