by Abigail Owen
“But you kinda like me for it.”
She gave a little snort. “To be clear, our relationship went from boss/employee to lovers recently. Given things are in a…transitional phase, living together, even short term for my protection, is a bad idea.”
“Transitional phase, huh?” He didn’t like that. He didn’t like any of this. Especially that he had no idea of her true feelings for him—whether this was lust and a quick fuck, or something more.
She gave him a look that dared him to continue with that train of thought.
He held up his hands and sobered. “Okay, not staying at my place. At least have Delilah arrange protection at your apartment or a different place to stay.”
She pursed her lips.
He moved into the room and leaned his fisted hands on her desk, staring her down. “This is non-negotiable, Leia. If you don’t, I’ll camp out at your door.”
She gave a little huff. “Fine. I’ll talk to Delilah.”
Castor gave a satisfied nod. “Have Delilah’s protection detail meet you here.”
She narrowed her eyes at the command.
“How about dinner at my place tomorrow night?” he asked before she could argue.
Rather than answer, she searched his face. “You want to continue with this?” She waved a hand between them. “Whatever is between us?”
Continue? He wanted forever. He just wasn’t sure if telling her would scare her off. “Given you woke up in my bed this morning—”
With a quick glance she checked the door behind him. “You didn’t just say that in the middle of my office,” she muttered.
“You called us lovers,” he pointed out. “Yes. I want to continue. Do you?” He held his breath and waited for her answer.
She stared at him, as if debating.
Come on, honey, be honest with me. Let me in.
“Dinner tomorrow sounds…wonderful. Can I bring anything?”
He released his pent-up breath in a silent whoosh. “That sexy black thing you had on the other night wouldn’t go amiss.”
“Seriously?” She held her hands wide, indicating the office. “Still at work.”
Castor chuckled and gave her an unrepentant grin. Even worried about her, he felt lighter than he had in centuries. “So, tomorrow night?”
“It’s a date.”
He pretended not to notice how the answering sparkle in her eyes had dimmed. He wasn’t wrong about what she was really planning. “Excellent. See you then.” With a wave he strode out of the office, only to turn around at the elevator and stride back into their office suite.
“Forget something?” she asked.
“Yes.” He came around the desk and bent to take her face in his hands. “This.” He laid his lips over hers in an urgent kiss filled with all the emotion this extraordinary woman provoked in him.
Someday, she would learn to trust him with her whole heart. Until then, he’d do everything in his power to make sure she stayed and was safe.
He pulled back, savoring the womanly taste of her, to gaze into her startled eyes. “To remember me by.”
She cocked her head, lips twitching. “I wasn’t likely to forget.”
For her sass, he planted another kiss on that delectable mouth. “Bye.”
“Bye.” He liked the husky note that had entered her voice. She definitely wasn’t physically averse to him. The question was, where was he in her heart?
As he waited for the elevator to bring him down to the parking garage, he mulled over his next steps. If Leia had her way, he wouldn’t see her tomorrow. She’d done a magnificent acting job trying to convince him all would continue. However, after their call with Delilah this morning, for a brief flash he’d caught the look of tenderness she’d cast his way. His heart had tripped over itself in the hope that perhaps her feelings ran deeper than simple lust. But he’d also seen the flash of panic immediately following.
She was going to do a runner. He was certain of it.
He was equally certain losing her was not an option.
He didn’t have to wait long before Leia appeared in the parking lot. Alone. Did the woman have zero common sense? Staying far behind, he followed her home to her apartment. She lived in a new complex in downtown Austin that boasted shops on the first level, like living above a shopping center or outdoor mall. Her apartment, the one or two times he’d been in it, was tastefully decorated exactly how you’d expect a nymph’s taste to be—all blues and water themes, a large freshwater fish tank taking up one entire wall of her living room. He’d found it tranquil.
He discarded his jacket, leaving it in the car, and rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt. He gave her enough time to get deep into packing before he headed upstairs to catch her.
He knocked at her door. “Leia?”
Silence.
“I know you’re in there. Let me in.” He knocked harder.
Silence.
“Leia? I won’t force my way in, but I’m not leaving until Delilah’s protection shows up.”
More silence.
She hadn’t left. He would’ve seen her go.
Castor pounded on the door now. “Leia?”
No answer.
He checked that no one was watching and gave the door the tiniest kick. It burst open, splintering the wooden doorframe where the lock was. A quick search of her apartment showed him Leia was gone. Castor pulled out his phone and dialed the only person he could think of.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
“She’s protected,” Delilah answered.
He had to concentrate on not crushing the phone. “Protecting her is my job. Tell me where she went.”
“Funny, she sees protecting you as her job.”
He shook his head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means she loves you. How you managed to get her to feel something other than numb is a miracle.”
Leia loved him. His stomach clenched with elation and roiling fear for her safety. “Delilah…if anything happens to her and I’m not there, I’ll never forgive myself.”
Chapter Sixteen
Leia’s gaze roamed over the wooded scene beyond the window over the kitchen sink. As places to hide went, this one was idyllic. The napaeae wood nymph who dwelled here had been nothing but welcoming. A nice change.
After she had given Castor the slip, she’d met up with Delilah, who’d flown her back to Colorado. There, Tala and Marrok had stepped in and hidden her away in a tiny cabin, one that smelled of the pine trees the logs had been hewn from, in the middle of the wilderness. The home where she stayed was as basic as you could get, with a combined kitchen and living area on the first floor, and a ladder leading up to a loft that functioned as a bedroom. Minimal furniture, a power generator, and a well system for water, and she was set.
For how long she had no idea.
A large pond was situated within walking distance, about half a mile down a steep hill from the flat area on which the cabin was situated. The presence of water so close and nature all around her was what she’d been wishing for and dreaming of since the day she’d lost them. She’d felt incomplete, living only half a life. Now she had it, but pure happiness still lay out of reach.
She missed Castor. His absence was a hole inside her, an ache that no amount of time would fix.
Only three days had passed since she’d left. Disappearing on him had come with a certain amount of guilt, even if she was doing this to protect him. When you loved someone, sacrifice came with the gig. Right?
“Leia.”
She could’ve sworn she heard his voice on the wind calling her name. Fabulous. Now she was hearing things. Not even the loss of her spring had made her lose her sanity.
“Leia, it’s Castor. Honey, are you in there?”
She dropped the glass she was drying with a hand towel, har
dly hearing the sound of it shattering in the sink.
No. He couldn’t be here. This had to be a trick.
Cautiously, she moved to the window at the front of the cabin and inched back the edge of the white linen curtain to peer outside. Sure enough, Castor Dioskouri stood in the field of wildflowers outside her new home.
By the gods. Her eyes drank in the sight of casual jeans, a short-sleeved black T-shirt, and hiking boots. The wind ruffled up his dark hair. She gulped, battling the need to run outside and pitch herself into his arms even as she knew she had to throw him off the property. Now.
Leia took a deep breath before she pulled open the door. Hands on her hips, she confronted him. “What are you doing here?”
She glanced at the tall pine trees around them but caught no trace of the protection by which she was supposedly surrounded. Where had they been when a demigod walked right onto the property. Huh?
His intense, blue-eyed gaze zeroed in on her, and he stalked across the field toward her. “I’m here to be with the woman driving me absolutely crazy.”
Her heart picked up its pace trying to punch through her ribs. She ignored it and tilted her chin. “I left you.”
“I noticed.” He stopped only a foot away.
The scents of clear blue sky and his spicy aftershave, her gift to him, floated across the distance to curl around her, making the ache of longing in her heart worse.
“You didn’t give me two weeks’ notice.”
That’s what this was about? “There’s a letter in the top drawer of my desk. Delilah will help you with a smooth transition to a new executive assistant.”
His lips pinched and he crossed his arms, a sure sign of major irritation. “Would she help me find another nymph?”
She glanced away, her jaw tight. Sex. He wanted the sex.
“One who has the ability to see straight into my soul? One who challenges me with her refusal to back down or let my ego take over? One whose kisses brought me out of a thousand-year sleep?”
She slowly turned her head, eyes wide…hope, doubt, and fear all warring for dominance inside her. “What are you saying?”
He stepped closer, crowding her. “I’m saying I don’t want to lose you. Don’t walk away.”
Hope was winning the battle, but she couldn’t let it. He loved his dead wife. “I’m a good assistant, but Delilah can find you another.”
He took her by the shoulders and gave her a small shake. “I’m not talking about losing my assistant.”
“I’ve only been something…more…to you for a few days.”
He stole her move and rolled his eyes heavenward. “You’ve been more to me for months. Perhaps even a year.”
Oh, gods. A trembling started up inside her. Was that true?
Her heart surged, but before she could respond or even gather her thoughts, a deep voice interrupted. “How sweet.”
She and Castor both whipped toward the sound of Kaios’s voice. The ancient werewolf stepped out of the cover of the dark woods.
Dammit. “This is what I was trying to keep you out of,” she hissed at Castor.
“Trying to protect a demigod?” Kaios, whose keen ears had picked up her comment, pulled his lips back in a sneer of derision as he advanced toward them. “You always did have an overblown sense of your powers, nymph.”
Behind him, out of the darkness, a line of wolf shifters, already in their animal form, advanced upon them. The fur bristled on their backs, ready to attack. There had to be at least twenty or more.
How and why had they followed Kaios? Where had they come from? Tala and Marrok would be pissed.
Kaios flicked a hand and a low growl rose from a few, while others pulled back their lips, baring their teeth in snarls meant to terrorize.
Castor stepped closer and took her hand, presenting a united front. Above them, the skies darkened with the warning of his wrath, swirling with dark clouds.
“Oh, I have a way to deal with you.” Kaios turned to signal someone over his shoulder. A woman with deep red hair stepped out of her hiding spot. She raised her arms and whispered words Leia couldn’t catch. The clouds cleared in an instant, returning to the blue skies of moments before.
Castor’s hand twitched in hers.
“What’s she doing?” she asked under her breath.
“Best guess is she’s a witch.”
The woman closed her eyes, her face a study of regret. Leia got the impression the woman would rather be anywhere than here right now. If the witch could control nature, could she keep Leia from using her own powers? Being located near a large body of water hadn’t been coincidence. Closing her eyes so Kaios couldn’t see them glow, she reached for her powers, and slammed into a mental wall. Her eyes flew open.
“I’m sorry,” the woman mouthed at her, misery pinching her white face.
The woods hushed, going eerily quiet—no bird chirped, no animals scurried through the underbrush. They’d all gone into hiding. Were Leia’s fellow nymphs equally disabled?
“Your brothers and sisters will be no use to you now, Lyleia.”
There was her answer, but Leia wasn’t worried. Yet.
“Why don’t we make this fight a tad more even, first,” Marrok’s voice boomed from behind her. Together, he and Tala stepped out of the line of woods at her back, along with their own contingent of wolf shifters.
Kaios’s smug smile fell. “You’d go against your own people? Against one of your ancestors? And risk bringing werewolves on your heads?”
“We’ll kill you if we get the chance,” Tala snarled.
At an unseen signal, both sides of wolves burst into a dead run, straight at each other. Before her eyes, both Tala and Marrok shifted, the action immediate, rending their clothes and accompanied by their twin yelps of agony as their bones realigned. In seconds, chaos reigned all around them.
Castor grabbed her and slung her onto his back. “Hold on tight.”
Before she could say a word, he took off. The glen, then the forest, blurred around her as his phenomenal speed took them down to the pond. He deposited her at the edge of the water. The only reason she didn’t protest was the fact that she’d needed to get to the pond anyway.
But now she couldn’t keep Castor with her. She tugged on his hand. “You have to knock the witch unconscious.”
He leaned down to plant a quick, hard kiss on her lips. “I know.”
And he was gone.
“We can’t use our powers.”
Leia spun around to find Calliadne and ten other Naiad sisters standing hip-deep in the pool behind her. “There’s a witch.”
Calli scowled. “I swear the Covens Syndicate is asking for a war.”
“I suspect this witch is being forced to cooperate with Kaios against her will.”
“You always were a smart girl.” Kaios stood at the edge of the trees, not ten feet from her. He must’ve guessed where Castor had taken her and followed.
Sounds of the violent battle above them echoed off the peaks of the mountains all around—snarls and growls, yelps of pain and howls of rage. She tried to sense the water, pull it under her control, but nothing happened. Castor had to find that witch. Soon.
She kicked off her flip-flops, her feet squelching into the mud as she stepped back. The water lapped at her ankles, then her knees, plastering her jeans to her legs. She waited for the buzz and flow of the water as it absorbed into her.
Nothing happened.
Kaios paced at the edge of the trees, not coming nearer the pond. “One night together. Was that too much to ask?”
The man was obsessed. “Way too much,” she snapped.
He continued his pacing. “You shouldn’t have attacked me in front of my people. People I intended to lead. It took me centuries to regain my status within the werewolf community.”
“Killing me
won’t help. Even if you win today, you’ll be hunted down. The entire community of nymphs and the Banes and Canis packs of wolf shifters—and all their allies—are going to want your blood.”
Not to mention Castor bringing down the wrath of the gods.
“I’ve been alive much longer than you, little girl. Feuds pass, anger fades. I’m still here.”
The tips of her fingers tingled with an achingly familiar sensation.
Thank the gods. Castor must’ve been successful. Expression carefully neutral, she backed farther into the water, closer to her sisters. They had to time this right. They’d tried to drown him before and failed.
She hadn’t meant for him to live all those years ago. Not with the way he kept coming at her.
Leia gathered her power inside her, secretly whispering her will to the water surrounding her, using it to whisper instructions to her sisters. They communicated better fully submerged, but even being up to her waist, as she was now, helped.
“Do you want to know why I rejected you?” She needed to distract him a bit longer.
Kaios aimed a bored expression her way. “No. I want you to die.”
Without warning, he held up the gun she hadn’t seen in his hand, pointed it at her, and pulled the trigger.
A wall of water surged up in front of her and turned to solid ice in an instant. The bullet lodged in the block. She dropped it into the pond with a splash. Before Kaios could react, she and her sisters worked together. They tossed a wave up over him, and tendrils of water lilies wrapped around his legs and arms.
Werewolves might be incredibly powerful, but nature in her fullness was a murdering bitch that nothing could stand against.
They dragged him, kicking and screaming, into the water, pulling him to the center of the pond, where they forced him under. His screams turned into a gurgle of terror as his head submerged. They held him under for ten solid minutes until the thrashing slowed, his eyes rolled back in his head, and his struggles ceased. To be sure he was dead, they kept him under even longer, until the water reeked with the taint of death.
Leia closed her eyes, waiting for relief or perhaps a sense of justice served. But she was numb.
