by K. N. Banet
“These are lovely,” I said softly, taking them from him. “How’s Carey? She hasn’t texted me.”
“She’s grounded, so she doesn’t have a phone unless no one is home,” he said with a smirk. “She’s actually pretty good at keeping the terms of being grounded. She knows I’m more than willing to make it two weeks.” He pointed at the flowers. “She picked those out. Consider them a gift from both of us for the long week you’ve had. Thank you for stepping in when we needed you to.”
“Have you already spoken to the BSA?” I asked, leading him farther into my house to find a vase for the bouquet. I grabbed one from a cabinet in the kitchen and got the flowers nicely arranged as I waited for an answer.
“I put in a request explaining the situation. Since she’s not with a pack, she doesn’t have a community to lean on when she’s bullied. They were promising with the initial discussion, but they need a couple weeks to think about it. You were brought up, and they might call you to verify that you offered to help.”
“Good.” I had never homeschooled anyone, but Carey was self-sufficient, as Heath and I both knew. It was helpful she was used to private tutoring, something I knew would ramp up if she didn’t need to be in school for eight-plus hours a day. “You know, if you give her free rein with her education, she’ll graduate in two years, tops.”
“I’m hoping. It was always the plan. I didn’t think the schools here would give me push-back about letting her skip grades.” He took the flowers from me and put them in the center of the dining table. “Now, let’s relax after such a long week.”
“How’s Landon?” I asked, following him out to my living room.
“He’s…Landon,” my lover answered carefully. “He told me exactly what happened, the whole story. It was some mid-level Dallas pack werewolves. I don’t know if it was malicious, maybe they just wanted to take a shot at Landon, or they heard about my close ties to you and what happened to Price. Landon couldn’t really figure it out, either. He and Dirk were separated for a moment when Landon hit the bathroom. The werewolves were there when he got back, and Dirk was ready to fight. Landon broke it up and learned what they told Dirk. When one of the werewolves realized Landon was interested in Dirk and let it slip.” Heath fell onto my couch and kicked his feet up on the ottoman. “He’s been sulking since, and I don’t think he and Dirk have spoken.”
“Well, we shouldn’t gossip, but…I think Dirk likes him, too,” I said softly. “So, if they both want it, they’ll work it out.”
“They’re stubborn men,” Heath reminded me. “Both of them.”
“But they’re not stupid men,” I countered, finally sitting beside him. “Oops, forgot drinks.”
He chuckled and got up to get them while I turned on the television, enjoying that I had the remote for a minute. When he came back, he had two glasses of whiskey, and he put down a water bottle in the middle, just in case neither of us wanted to finish the whiskey.
“No, they’re not, but feelings can make us stupid,” he said. “As you and I both know.”
“That’s a good way to put it, and if you think about it, they’re in almost the same situation we are. Dirk might be human, but Niko raised him, and he works for me.”
“Landon has certainly thought about that. I know I have. What would Niko do if he learned about his son falling for a werewolf?”
“Dirk’s human. The werecats around Dirk won’t do anything, Niko included.” I sighed. I thought about my visit over the summer. I had talked to Niko a bit and learned some interesting things about him. He took lovers, but none of them were werewolves. He wanted to see peace between the species, but the hard feelings they had against him usually kept him clear of all of them. “Maybe. I would protect him as best I can.”
We settled in for the movie, leaving my maybe floating in the air. When it was over, Heath got up to make dinner. I watched him cook, knowing he enjoyed this aspect of what he was. He liked to care for people. An Alpha led the hunt, picked the quarry, hoping he picked something that would feed the pack. When he put a plate in front of me, I saw his satisfied look as he settled across the table from me.
“This looks amazing. New recipe?” I had never seen him prepare this one at his home, but I also didn’t eat there more than once every few weeks, and he only cooked for me about once a month.
“Nope. Recipe I’ve been perfecting for years on my children,” he said with a smirk. “I don’t make it often, but I think I might have finally mastered the ratio of spices to everything else.” He narrowed his eyes on me. “Unlike my mashed potatoes.”
“You make bland mashed potatoes. Get over it.” I was now the ruling queen of mashed potatoes for all holidays. I always went to their home for the holidays once my family obligations were done, and I was in charge of mashed potatoes.
“Just eat,” he ordered, pointing at the plate of food as he poured two glasses of wine and slid one in front of me. “I’m trying to have a nice romantic evening with the woman I love. Beautiful flowers, apologies, good movies, wine, and food, and she takes the chance to talk smack about my mashed potatoes.”
“No one says ‘talk smack’ anymore,” I said, trying not to giggle. “I think.”
Oh, the look he gave would have sent humans running in fear, but it just made me lose control, and my laugh bounced off the walls.
I looked across the table and saw a man who had decades of experience I didn’t, his knowing eyes telling me he knew what he was doing. Even while I teased and prodded him over mashed potatoes, he knew whatever he was going for was working. I would take him to my bedroom tonight, and every night I had the chance. I didn’t want to call the look calculated, which made it sound more nefarious, but it was definitely knowing.
“Something on your mind?” he asked as I stared at him. He was perceptive and would have caught the change in my mood.
“Were you always this romantic? Is this how you won over every woman in your life?”
“No, in fact, I wasn’t all that romantic until…” He frowned. “Probably this last century. It wasn’t about relationships or winning women over. It was about getting women to want to sleep with me for an evening because I had an itch to scratch, and I knew they would enjoy the good time. But I had to earn it somehow.”
“Oh.”
“There are two types of relationships I have with women,” he said carefully, looking uncomfortable. “Women I want to be with for the long haul and women who want to use my body, and I wanted to use theirs. Amazingly, sometimes I think the latter was always the more honest. Until I met you.”
“So, you’re pulling out all the tricks you used to get laid, but…I’m part of the first group, aren’t I?” I needed to be part of the first group—always and forever. I didn’t want to be some woman who would remember a good time and go on with my life. I wanted to be someone who, if this ever ended, left a mark on him because he was already leaving a mark on me.
“You are,” he promised. “But I want to earn you,” he whispered. “And sometimes, it doesn’t feel like I have.”
“What do you mean?” The food was forgotten.
“None of the recent changes in your life would have happened if not for me. The BSA would have never known who you are if not for me sending Carey this way for protection. The werecats and the werewolves would have never known who you are. You could still be living the private life you enjoyed, but I upended all that. I know your family blames you for the troubles, but over the summer, I got thinking. It wasn’t you. It was decisions I made and others made that forced you to act. You were fighting for what you thought was right. It’s really the rest of us who brought you trouble.” He put his fork down and kept those eyes on me. “So, I want to earn you.”
“You don’t need to apologize for the things that started three years ago, Heath. I like the man who is a doting yet sometimes tough father. I like the man who stood up for me against my brother. I like the man who came to find me and helped me escape from the rogue werecats. I l
ike you.” I bit my lip, wondering how sentimental I wanted to make this. “You are a big thing in my life. Your family is a big thing in my life as well. Big things require big changes, and I…I don’t want to go back to the life I had. I don’t want to be that lonely again. I joke around about missing it, being the owner and bartender of a dive bar only the alcoholics came to, but I don’t actually miss it all that much.” I looked at the table, at everything he put together. “But I do like a romantic dinner. You can keep doing this.” Then I turned the conversation to something different. “So, you never gave either of your late wives romantic dinners?”
I never really asked much about his previous wives. They weren’t my business, and they were both gone.
“One would have thought I was taking over her kitchen, and it just wasn’t done. The other would have shot me for trying.” From his tone, I would have thought he would be lost in his memories and get that faraway look most people did, but they stayed clear and on me, here in the present. “I think you’re the first woman I’ve been in a relationship with where I’ve actually had this chance.”
“And here I thought you had all the experience,” I gently teased.
“We can go upstairs right now, and I’ll remind you just how much experience I have,” he said with the heated growl that never failed to get my heart racing. It was raw, sexual energy he could deliver on.
“I think I’m going to eat dinner,” I said quickly, knowing my cheeks were flushed. He chuckled as I focused on the food.
Dinner wrapped up, but Heath didn’t head to the bedroom. We found our way back onto my couch for another movie, letting the food settle.
“I like when you cook for me,” I said as I stretched out against him. “You should do that more often.”
“If I do it too often, you’ll get cranky and say I’m trying to take care of you,” he murmured, kissing me as we ignored the movie. “And we both know how much you hate when I try to be your Alpha.”
“I’m feeling generous tonight.”
I let my lips drift over his, completely absorbed in the moment. Need drove me to want more and more of this man, but I was treading dangerous waters with this relationship. The thing that would drown me would be his blue-grey eyes, deep and dark tonight like uncharted depths no one had explored. His hands roamed over me, promising to drag me under the tide and show me his secrets.
Then the alarm bells of my brain started going off. I forgot about him and focused on my magic, a snarl leaving me as I registered magic in my space. I scrambled to get off the couch, feeling as if something was about to land on top of me.
My front door opened, and in strolled a man I thought I would never see again—an elderly man with red hair, definitely Irish in origin, and about five foot eight. His face looked tired, and his posture told me the same thing, but I saw the sharp cunning in his gaze. Next to him was an older woman, whose face I remembered less but still recognized. Her blonde and white mixed hair showed her age. She had to be in her mid-fifties, just beginning to enter her twilight years but wasn’t slowed down by them yet. She was actually taller than her husband by a few inches, something I hadn’t realized when I had known them for a very short time.
“Good,” he said with a smile. “I caught you at the right time.” His words had an accent, but it wasn’t the one he had when I had met him. I remembered that much. This new accent was foreign to me, but it rang some bells.
Alvina. He sounds like he learned to talk from the same parents as Alvina. Makes sense.
“Jacky?” Heath growled, sitting up, but the growl wasn’t directed at me. We had company, and they had upset him.
“Now, now, no need to be angry,” the man said as he stepped forward. “This was a long time coming.”
“Jacky, who is this?” Heath demanded.
I couldn’t tear my eyes off the man slowly walking toward us. Reaching out to stop Heath from moving, I tried to get to my feet, but my legs felt like rubber.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said softly, stopping only a few feet from us. “Jacky, why don’t you introduce me and put your werewolf at ease.”
It took a minute to get my tongue and jaw to agree to move again.
“Heath Everson, this is Brin,” I said, unable to say anymore as I stared at him.
“Now we both know that’s not the name you should give him,” Brin whispered, coming down to my level. He was wearing the same human face he’d worn when I’d met him, but something slipped, and his ears became pointed and long like classic elves. They had to reach probably five or six inches. “Heath Everson, previous Alpha of Dallas and lover of Jacky Leon, I am…” He gestured to me, telling me I needed to finish the statement.
“King Brion of the fae, firstborn of Oberon and Titania, the first of the royal family, and the first of the sidhe,” I said.
The glamour dropped away as he stood, straightening out. It didn’t happen quickly, melting away as though magic water had been poured over him, starting at the top of his head and slowly rolling down to his feet. When it was over, I was staring at a man I didn’t know, and he terrified me.
8
Chapter Eight
“Brin was…” Heath was trying to find something to say as he helped me to my feet. I knew he wanted to step in front of me and protect me because that’s what he did. He was an Alpha, the wall between the world and his people.
So, I put my body in front of his instead, keeping myself between him and the ethereal man who stood tall, probably six feet and lean, built like a runner, with flaming red hair.
“I didn’t find out until that day Alvina went into my memories,” I explained, keeping my eyes on the fae king. It was both an explanation to Heath and to the king. “She was there as a mediator between me and an Alpha werewolf who tried to assassinate me. It wasn’t about Brin. She used the opportunity to verify my magic was fae in origin, that I didn’t somehow steal it from a werewolf. It needed to be done to stop a war.”
“I know,” King Brion said patiently. “And to avoid a war with your own species, you have started one among the fae.”
“The fae aren’t my problem.” A war. For some reason, I had a feeling not even my father thought that, or he or any of my family would have said something. Silent wars, a specialty of the supernatural.
“Or mine,” Heath said. “So why are you here?”
“They’re not,” the king agreed. “But humans are your problem, and I am your problem, Jacqueline, daughter of Hasan. And I’m about to become your problem, as well, Heath Everson.”
“Brin…” I corrected once he raised an imperious eyebrow. “King Brion, please just explain what you’re doing here,” I ordered. I straightened and found the courage I needed to keep from dropping my eyes. “You were once a member of the Tribunal, and you know who my father is. I am not one of your subjects, and I need an explanation for this intrusion into my territory. You’ve entered a werecat territory without permission, which is an act of war.”
King Brion didn’t say anything, looking around my home as if he was inspecting it. This wasn’t the fae I remembered. He didn’t walk the same or talk the same. Brin had run a motel and a gas station with his family. He hadn’t been supremely wealthy or royalty. When Alvina had told me who he was, I had promised myself to think about it later, but I hadn’t known what to think, and nothing could have prepared me for this.
“War…” he said softly, stopping to look at a painting on my wall. “I don’t want war with the werecats. As for knowing who your father is, I didn’t know who you were when we met. We were both keeping secrets, weren’t we?” He turned to me again. “Maybe if we had both been honest about our positions, things wouldn’t have come to this. I am here because my wife is human and in need of protection. That’s what you werecats do, is it not?”
He clearly already knew the answer, but I knew a test of knowledge when I saw one. He wanted me to admit it, wanted me to walk straight into this conversation the way he wanted me to. It was clear and
simple manipulation. He was the most powerful person in the room, so it wasn’t hard for him.
He didn’t know I was Hasan’s daughter when we met, though. That gives me a bit of an edge, right?
“Werecats needed protection, and Hasan decided to use the nature of what werecats are to give them a purpose,” I said, my throat tight as I now knew what was coming. “We attach to people and defend those people to the death because we have very few people in our lives, thanks to our solitary lifestyles. Hasan used the idea of Duty to manufacture those bonds between werecats and humans who were important to other supernaturals. It made us irreplaceable. My father told me that story.”
“Of course he did,” Brion said, nodding as if he was pleased but unsurprised. Then he one-upped me. “I was there when he and Subira sat down and made that plan. I was one of the few who sat down for the initial discussion about peace, drafting up the idea of the Tribunal. I tried to make sure Subira could rule with him, but Corissa was cunning, and she framed her arguments well. Subira was also a witch, which would tip the balance of the Tribunal in favor of the witches.”
Of course, it was Corissa. She’s ten times smarter and more dangerous than Callahan. He’s the brute power of a werewolf, but she’s the one who thinks like a wolf, watching and waiting for a weakness in the herd to take a shot. She’s the patient hunter.
“So, now there are laws about purebloods,” Heath said.
“Exactly. Over eight hundred years, it trickled into a belief that halfbreeds can’t be trusted anywhere. But let’s get back on topic,” he said with a smile, revealing inhuman teeth. “This is my wife, Fiona. She is in need of protection because someone revealed my cover identity to my siblings.” His eyes landed on me, and I resisted a shiver at the color of them, an unnatural shifting of varying blues and greens. “Alvina has been chasing me since the moment she discovered it. It didn’t take long for my other siblings, nephews, and nieces, and the clan leaders to figure out what was going on.”
