Danners

Could Emmett live with the guilt of breaking such a sweet man’s heart? Especially after Mo literally tore a hole in Ben’s soul by leaving him. Not that I’d blame him. As you said, he had no say in becoming Finley’s and that could very well be a point of contention. If there has to a meltdown, I nominate Tony to talk some sense into him. Or even Mo. *gasp* In this one not, I'm afraid, though I found quite some different versions, even like everytime they heal someone, they give part of their life(time). Here’s a thought: Bomb’s ritual. Give Emmett half of Finley’s life force, share it with him. . . or rip it out of Bomb. (Yeah, I said it.)

Poor Emmett — so accustomed to having decisions made for him and against his wishes that the conclusion he immediately jumped to was being ousted instead included in Finley’s plans. Think about how happy to be wrong he’ll be when his boyfriend finally explain himself. That should balance things out, right? I get the sense that, as far as its intentions go, a big part of Fin’s dragon selecting this place — the cabin and the land — is due to Emmett’s own feelings. I mean, if the cornerstone of your hoard is a sentient creature, you’re going to want to find a lair where they’ll feel the most welcome and as comfortable as possible. So, a cozy cabin that Emmett loves + an isolated parcel of land where he’ll be protected and where he and Finley can be themselves = MINE NOW. Of course our plushie’s dragon spoke up. Loudly. Here’s hoping Finley can muzzle that beast long enough to have that very important conversation with his boyfriend — y’know, the one that’ll explain why he suddenly yearns for a mortgage.

Everyone needs an Italian Mama in their corner. She’ll not only help hide the body, she’ll make sure you have an alibi and name a handful of witnesses who absolutely were with you at the time. (I’m looking at you, Grabby Hands.) Warren could be exactly who Calvin needs to calm down his overly complicated life. I am curious, though, about what caused the rift between Warren and his former friends and whether it's a proverbial storm on the horizon. I’m hoping it’s a non-issue. Now that Kyle vaguely knows about what Draven did, maybe a chemistry accident isn’t out of the question. It isn’t like his track record with listening to Cal is great, so … goodbye curls, hello bald spot? Eh? Eh?

When do we find out that Warren is Draven’s older brother? Because, y’know, the CW. (Also the matching hair and eyes, similar skin tone, and a taste in rings his boorish little brother tried to emulate … poorly.) Kyle could come around when faced with actually losing Cal but I’m not holding my breath. An accident involving Draven’s curls and a Bunsen burner is a more likely outcome. Hey, there’s a thought …

Well, it isn’t a cave buried deep inside a mountain but I’d say Finley found himself (and his hoard) a dragon’s lair. I wonder if it smells of Emmett.

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Er … I mean, Jamie tripped and clocked Angus with his full body weight. No one got that on tape, right?

I’d like to think he already has … and their constant bickering is basically schoolyard flirtation. With a side of Vince because Jack’s like the Energizer Bunny.

Look at Hearst playing the long(ish) game, and with recorded evidence too. No matter how the details get edited and skewed, he has the original conversation saved in full. I bet, smart as Hearst is, he also got the juiciest bit: Angus discussing the NDA or, in particular, pressing Hearst to sign it blindly. At this point Wen deserves to be a speed bump but who’s driving the bus — Jamie or his brother — remains to be seen. Whoever it is will hopefully swerve and bowl over Angus as well. I’m sitting under a plastic tarp from here on out ‘cause this is gonna get Gallagher-level messy.

Fingers crossed that Jamie leads Wencel to the back of the bus and …

I wonder if they’ll try painting Jamie as a chip off the old block and that he’s nothing but a conman himself. It could explain why LiveFeed went to the trouble of staging that reunion video with his former band mates and all but declaring he faked his drum skills. Could also be why they’re holding on to his cam work — y’know, so they can label him a deviant scamming men online for money. Top it off with a family reveal and/or reunion and they have themselves a villain. A villain who can deny or try to spin their claims until he’s blue in the face and nobody will believe him because of the damage is already done. Worst case scenario, but that seems to be the direction Wencel is steering things. Hearst better hop to it before his man puts his brother through the windshield (not that I’d mind). On a semi-related note, my soap opera brain — which looooooves to connect the dots in the most salacious way possible — has me imagining the Smiths being one of the Wicklows’ victims. Hearst would’ve been too young to remember but not his spiteful older brother … Improbable, I know, but fun!

Too bad Jamie can’t take a page from his bunny boy’s playbook and wear a mask when he performs. Adopt an alter ego as his public persona and keep his private non-musical life private — sort of like he already did with his career online. Add to his mystique. Where are you with that advice, Arthur? I’m no agent and even I can hear the money rolling in. (Plus, then a certain bunny can manage him in public and be there when he comes home.) Good for Jamie standing his ground. Arthur clearly wants to have his cake and eat it too, and I can’t help thinking he’d literally pimp his client out if it made him a dollar.

This is probably the first time I’ve ever wished for a condom to break.

Cue conveniently candid snapshots of Arthur holding Jamie’s hand during a “romantic” dinner date. That’s one way to allege Jamie will do anything to get ahead. My main concern is whether or not Arthur is in on it.

Typical abuser, that Anduin — doing his able best to cut off his brother’s support system and break him down emotionally. He won’t even deny it, I bet. Instead he’ll try to twist it around like he’s doing Remy a favor so they can spend more time together. The sooner Remy figures out how to help Marc, the better. I don’t think he can handle Anduin on his own and Marc’s the only potential ally who already knows most of the truth, removing Anduin’s ability to threaten to tell him. If anyone can put the fear of [insert deity of choice] in Anduin, it’s him. Here’s an idea: switch Claire’s lube for super glue, then she and her personal slave can truly be stuck with one another. Tee hee.

Just when I thought there’d be a happy ending . . .

But oh, what a pleasant surprise it was! In this case, I enjoyed being wrong.

It was everything I’d hoped for since chapter one. I like that we never learn exactly what happened to Jacques’ hand, just the proverbial black cat crossing his path and the reason I like it is because the precise details don’t really matter, it just happened. Jacques lost his hand, that’s a fact. The magic didn’t care about the minutia and, in reality, neither did Jacque. He only cared that it happened. Both boys faced their demons in this chapter and handled themselves admirably. They accepted themselves and came into their own as a result. Alex the conduit, not the one dimensional battery others told him he was. He’s so much more than a power source, he’s the power flow itself — or that’s how I view him anyway. He’s the colon in the equation if that makes sense. Jacques is the man he is — no more and certainly no less. He finally believes it. He let go of a loss that literally kept him anchored to the past, always comparing his present with what should have been. He lost his hand but it paved the way for this and this is just about perfect. So proud of these two! (And you, Mr Author.)

I can’t quite articulate my feelings about Marcus after he dealt the killing blow. I still want to throttle him but hey, Cecile had it coming. Surely he can shoulder this guilt a little easier than his betrayal of the boys. Marie was scary in all the best ways. Definitely the queen in this game of chess. Alex, while seemingly ineffectual against Yared, shouldn’t be discounted. That was his opponent’s first mistake. Souls operate best under pressure, and Yared going after his boyfriend — some might say soulmate— will certainly light a fire under his ass. Yared’s second and, I hope, truly grave mistake was assuming Jacques wouldn’t come for Alex and vice versa. Their bond and the power thereof was what frightened the council in the first place. As @VBlew said, an awesome battle!

I’m already cringing in anticipation of the next chapter, in which I expect Anduin to have volunteered Remy for another performance or for one of the girls to have … uh, tried to climb Mount Blackerest and hurt herself. One can hope Claire slipped on certain bodily fluids and landed vag-first on a fire poker, but that’s just wishful thinking on my part. Whatever the case, as the “man in charge,” Remy’s ass is on the line and me no likey. So Marc is pansexual. I can’t imagine what that must be like in a society as rigidly heterosexual as this one. At least he was able to voice his worries and his truth, even if Remy couldn’t quite offer feedback just then. The best part for me (other than the Claire poker) is that Marc found out about Maurice-turned-Remy and called Remy a badass. I’d call that a win. If nothing else, it demonstrates their growing bond, which both of the boys need with jackasses like Anduin around.

If we thought there was bloodshed when Dante shot Max, I can only imagine the violence that would’ve ensued if Dante had accepted Blaise’s advance. Tom would have lost his mind and our favorite sapphire would not have come away (physically) unscathed. As sad as I am that Dante will have to process having killed a man, I’m vaguely optimistic that it could work out for him in the end. Matthew’s gratitude as the heir to a powerful family is a good thing, not to mention Alice’s household. On a more personal level, he’ll probably need help dealing with the aftermath and that means opening up to the people who care about him: Alice, Frank, maybe even Henry. Especially Frank, on whose broad shoulder he can lean while also supporting his physical recovery and thereby reach a sort of equilibrium where neither feels babied. I feel bad for Chris. Whatever future he had with Max, whatever bond or relationship they were developing after their first kiss, that’s gone now and so too is his life probably. I’d say maybe Matthew could take pity on him but, with the way Matthew’s father has been ravaging the slaves recently, taking him home would be inflicting much of the same pain he was running away from.

It’ll be a team effort, I’m sure. A collaboration between hot dog and bun if you will . . .

Aw, Danny the were-puppy would be super cute. Make it happen, Ryder! Chop chop! And, if my soap opera senses are tingling, Ryder may have less to fear from Vince than Jack does. ‘Cause something tells me Jack’s gonna spread more than his cards for the fitness buff. (That’s a deck joke, heh.)

If you pull the plug now, I may cry. This tale is so delightful and you’ve barely scratched the surface of the mystery surrounding Ray. There’s much, much more material there and that’s before figuring in the vampires, let alone Ray’s fauxpire. Also, if you end it here, Gabriel will never have the opportunity to introduce his mate to Naked Gun!

If ever there was proof of the bond between Gabe and Ray, the comfort and calm they provide one another is it. While that will certainly deepen if the latter becomes a werewolf, I’d be worried that turning him would make him lose whatever it is that makes him special as a human. On the other hand, if the spirit wolves really did herd him to Gabriel, there’s a good chance Ray becoming a werewolf will focus or hone these traits. Alternatively, or at least as an option to allow Ray time to decide his future, couldn’t Gabriel claim him as his mate? I’d think that would provide the same leverage against the vampires in that the shifters then consider Ray one of them and it’s implied he’ll become a full-fledged wolf in the near future. Who knows, maybe Ray is immune to both vampirism and lycanthropy and will take them both as his mates, fated to bring peace to the warring races … or something.

From the mouths of babes . . . Henry isn’t wrong but, in my opinion, it’s a little different. Dante has been conditioned to keep his heart closed to emotions like hope and love by circumstances both in and out of his control. Having an open heart as a slave with Dante’s past is like welcoming pain and disappointment with open arms, over and over again. It’s easier to want nothing, hope for nothing — a practice Dante admittedly has trouble with. So, he hasn’t entirely given up, not with people like Alice, Frank, and now Henry in his life. Between the three of them each offering him something different, needing something different from him, maybe his shields will continue coming down. And, y’know, if he wasn’t constantly at the center of a maelstrom of drama. Victor is something of a sadist, isn’t he? That’s about as dumb a suggestion as Frank. Slap Britney for both, Alice. With a brick. Or choke her with her brother’s missing fingers. (Too soon?) Speaking of Frank: if anyone can get through to him, it’s probably Alice. Dante can’t be pushy enough or, pardon the phrasing, speak frankly enough to snap him out of his self-pity. Not that he hasn’t earned time to lick his wounds, especially with how little support he’s received from the majority of his family. I hope he bounces back.