Omens (The Dark in You Book 6)

by Suzanne Wright

  All three women brightened and immediately accepted the invitation.

  “Watching hellhorses race is always entertaining,” said Devon. “Mostly because they’re psychotic.”

  Khloé felt her brow furrow. “They’re not psychotic. Just wild.”

  “And crazy,” added Devon. “And vicious. And cannibalistic.”

  “You’re so judgy.”

  Devon scrunched up her face. “Is that even a word?”

  “Yes. My Aunt Mildred used to say it all the time and—Hey, sheathe those claws, feline.” Khloé backed up a step and wagged her finger. “Don’t think I won’t dig out the water spray bottle.”

  “Don’t even try it.”

  “Stop hissing, it’s rude.”

  “And antagonizing others isn’t rude?”

  Khloé pursed her lips. “I don’t know. Never really thought about it.”

  “Harper, get her away from me before I strangle her.”

  “Damn, you’re moody today, Dev,” said Khloé. “You surfing the crimson wave, sweetie? I have spare tampons if you need them.”

  Devon looked ready to pounce on her, but then the studio door swung open.

  Harper quickly slid between the two females and planted a hand on both their chests. “Oh look, our first client has arrived,” she said far too brightly. “Devon, head to your station. Khloé, please go greet Macie.”

  “No problem.” Khloé crossed to the reception desk and smiled at the she-demon standing there. She was a regular client who had dozens upon dozens of super cool tattoos. “Morning, Macie.”

  “Morning,” the woman greeted. Her smile faltered as her gaze landed on something behind Khloé. “Is Devon okay?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Khloé assured her with a flick of her hand. “The poor thing’s just having her monthly code red situation, that’s all—you know how it is.”

  Devon made an exasperated sound. “That’s it, Harper, I’m killing her, I am.”

  Hearing footsteps stomping toward her, Khloé turned just as Raini and Harper restrained the hellcat and dragged her away. “Such a drama kitten,” said Khloé, shaking her head. “God, there’s no need to be so embarrassed about it, Devon. It’s natural. We all have to check into the Red Roof Inn sometimes, it’s—Stop with the hissing, you freak!”

  *

  The door of the hotel’s boardroom opened just as Keenan made his way toward it. Several Primes filed out with their sentinels, until only Knox and Levi remained inside.

  Entering the large room, Keenan asked, “Does Harper know she just missed a Prime-meeting?”

  Switching off the media screen, Knox looked up. “She knows. Those demons simply had a business proposal to put to me—she had no interest in hearing it.”

  Levi eyed Keenan closely. “You look … different. Settled. It’s hard to explain.”

  He felt settled, deep inside. Felt centered. All would be perfect in Keenan’s world if only his mate was well.

  “You found someone who can heal Khloé?” asked Knox. Keenan felt his jaw tighten. “Not yet, no. The bear made it clear that shifters won’t be of any help. Have you talked to the vampires?”

  “I’ve reached out to them, but they haven’t yet responded,” replied Knox, closing his laptop.

  “I tried to find someone who might know how to contact an archangel, but there literally doesn’t seem to be anyone on Earth who can,” said Levi, dropping into one of the chairs. “They all said exactly what Eric said; that archangels aren’t concerned with angels or what goes on down here. I’ll keep asking around, though.”

  Gathering the papers together that were fanned out around the teleconferencing phone, Knox briefly glanced at Keenan. “Want to explain why you’re not in a black mood anymore?”

  Planting his feet, Keenan lifted his chin a notch. “I claimed Khloé.”

  “It’s about fucking time,” said Levi. “I mean, congrats.”

  Knox’s mouth curved. “Yes, congrats. It’s nice to have some good news for a change.”

  Keenan lifted the pitcher of ice water from the center of the long table and poured himself a glass. “I need you to have a talk with Thea.” Just hearing her name made his demon flex its fists.

  Knox’s brow pinched. “Thea? Why?”

  “She turned up at the hotel to see Khloé, posing as Raini in the hope that Khloé would be fooled and let her up to the penthouse.”

  Levi straightened in his seat. “What the fuck is she playing at?”

  “Khloé gave me a recap of the conversation. In sum, Thea was warning her away from me. It seems she has some ridiculous idea that she and I can make another go of things.” Keenan sipped at his water. “It was bad enough that she turned up at my apartment and put me in the position of having to tell Khloé everything or risk losing her.” Thankfully, the Prime hadn’t been pissed at Keenan for telling an outsider.

  Knox sighed, settling in his chair at the head of the table. “Thea’s supposed to be keeping a low profile.”

  “Well, she’s not. I won’t have her bugging Khloé. I told Thea to stay away from her, but I’m not so sure she’ll listen to me.”

  “She’ll think that, with the history between you, there’s no way you’d arrange for her to be punished for anything,” said Levi.

  Keenan nodded and took the seat opposite the reaper. “I need you to talk with her, Knox, and reiterate that she’s to keep her distance from my mate. Khloé’s got enough going on right now. She doesn’t need any added stressors on top of all that. And I don’t want my past tainting my present or my future.”

  “It’s done.” Knox scratched his chin. “I think you, Levi, and the other sentinels should all be present for the conversation. In such situations, we usually hold meetings together to show a united front. I want Thea to grasp that although she comes from Ramsbrook like us, we won’t show leniency toward her; she will still answer to us the same as others would. Find her and bring her here, Levi. Keenan, you get hold of Larkin and Tanner. We might as well hold the meeting here.”

  “What about Harper?” asked Keenan. “I know she doesn’t always attend disciplinary meetings, but Khloé’s her cousin.”

  “Which is why I would rather my mate wasn’t here. She’s all knotted up with fear for Khloé right now; she wouldn’t stay calm while in the same room as someone who wishes to cause Khloé distress.”

  “Fair enough.” Keenan telepathically called both Larkin and Tanner while Levi left to find Thea.

  Larkin arrived at the boardroom first, and Tanner appeared mere minutes later. Keenan quickly relayed the issue once they had settled at the long table.

  Larkin sighed. “Thea is her own worst enemy at times.”

  Keenan would have to agree with her on that. “You should also know I’ve claimed Khloé,” he added, pride in every syllable.

  A smile split Larkin’s face. “Really? That’s amazing news. Not wholly unexpected, of course—I figured it’d happen sooner or later. Congratulations, Keenan. I’m super pleased for you both.”

  “Same here. I was tired of watching the two of you dance around each other,” said Tanner. “On a more somber note, how is Khloé?”

  Keenan’s stomach twisted. “No better, no worse.”

  “Levi’s just telepathed me,” Knox cut in. “He and Thea are almost here. She’s brought Lane with her, so one of our Force will stand with him outside the room.”

  They all fell silent as they waited. When knuckles rapped on the door, Knox bid them to enter. Levi returned to his seat, but Thea hovered near the closed door, biting her lip. Tense and agitated, Keenan’s inner demon licked its front teeth.

  She swept her gaze over each person there, no doubt noting their blank expressions. No one spoke or greeted her in any way. The only sounds were the whirring of the ceiling fan and the drone of the air-conditioning unit.

  “Hello,” she finally said.

  “Sit,” Knox invited.

  Thea reluctantly walked to the table and gingerly sat on the chair be
side Larkin. “Levi said you wanted to speak with me.”

  “Yes,” said Knox. “Why do you think I’ve called you here?”

  “I’m assuming that Gavril’s been in touch with you again or something.” Her face fell. “You’re not going to withdraw your protection from me and Lane, are you?”

  “It’s not my intention. But my protection will mean nothing if you persist on being careless.”

  “Careless?”

  “The plan was for you to keep a low profile, yes?”

  She gave a slow nod. “Yes.”

  “Going to one of my Underground hotels and asking to speak with one of my guests isn’t lying low, is it?”

  Color flooded her cheeks. “I wore glamor.”

  “You posed as Khloé Wallis’s friend. Why is that?”

  Thea slid Keenan a quick look and tucked her hair behind her ear. “I just wanted to talk to her.”

  Knox’s brow hiked up. “And you didn’t think she’d guess that she wasn’t speaking with one of her closest friends?”

  Thea gave a weak shrug. “Most people don’t.”

  “Did you even consider what could have happened? It’s no secret that she currently has somebody trying to kill her. If she hadn’t already known about you from Keenan, she could have thought you were sent by the person who wants her dead; she could have killed you, leaving Lane without a mother.”

  She blanched. “I would have teleported me and Lane to safety immediately if she tried to attack. Look, I’m sorry for seeking her out. I just wanted to speak with her. I didn’t upset her or anything. Did I, Keenan?”

  Keenan said nothing, making it clear that he wasn’t there to vouch for her.

  Knox cocked his head. “You think he’ll defend you. This confuses me.”

  Yeah, it confused Keenan and his demon just the same.

  Thea licked her lips. “I don’t blame Khloé for reporting what I did—”

  “Khloé didn’t report your behavior. Keenan did.”

  Her gaze flared and shot to Keenan. “She insisted on you telling tales for her?”

  “Khloé didn’t ask me to tell anyone anything,” said Keenan. “I reported you to Knox because one, it’s my job to report such things, and two, I won’t allow anyone to fuck with my mate.”

  Thea’s mouth fell open. “Your mate?” She shook her head, skepticism written all over her face. “No. You’d never take a mate. Not ever. I’ve known you practically all my life. Your commitment issues run too deep for you to ever give all of yourself to a relationship.”

  Keenan shrugged, not caring what she thought. “Believe what you want; just stay away from Khloé.”

  Thea’s eyes narrowed, and she studied him carefully. “Oh, I get it. You’re pretending to be her mate hoping it will scare away the person who’s after her. Admirable, I guess.”

  “Make no mistake about it—Khloé is my mate.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “I don’t care. Just do as I say and keep your distance from her.”

  She gripped the edge of the table. “Are you saying all this to hurt me because I mated with someone else? You are, aren’t you? Damn it, Keenan, that’s unfair. I would have taken you as my mate in a heartbeat if things had been different.”

  “I’m not even going to ask what that means.” It might have mattered to him once, but not now.

  “I came back to you time and time again, but nothing ever changed. You’d ask me to stay, but I could see I wouldn’t have been your priority. Your position as sentinel came first. Hell, Knox and the other sentinels came before I did.”

  “Oh my god, are you for real?” Larkin cut in, glaring at her. “You spent years trying to lead him around by his dick. You’d turn up, jump in his bed, say all the right things, give him hope, but then you’d flounce off again without a goodbye. And you really think he should have offered to take you as his mate? You think that he should have made you his priority when he clearly wasn’t yours?”

  Thea’s face hardened. “That’s not how it was. I love him. I’ve always loved him. But I know too well that sentinels never put their mates first—I’ve seen firsthand what that does to a woman. Being second best wrecked my mother.” She looked at Keenan. “You knew I wouldn’t repeat her mistakes. You knew I wouldn’t commit to a sentinel, but you never once offered to give up that position.”

  “You never asked me to,” he pointed out.

  “I shouldn’t have had to. You knew what held me back.”

  Maybe he had, deep down. And maybe he’d ignored it because it suited him; because choosing between her and his position would have been too hard. If so, yeah, that probably made him a selfish asshole. But she’d never been willing to give a relationship with a sentinel a chance, had she? She’d wanted things her way or no way at all. Wasn’t that just as selfish?

  You should want someone for who they were, not for who you wished them to be. Thea had only wanted him on her terms, and she would have molded him into someone else. She’d never understood and accepted him as he was. Which should have hurt, but … “None of this even matters now.”

  “It matters to me,” she clipped, her eyes wet. “You matter to me. Why couldn’t you just love me, Keenan? You cared for me; I know that. But you didn’t love me.”

  No, he hadn’t, he realized. “You never gave me a chance to see if I could have.”

  “I knew I loved you even as a child.”

  “Not all of us find it so easy to bond with people. In any case, all this is moot. Even if I wasn’t with Khloé, I wouldn’t want you. I don’t say that to hurt you, I say it because it’s true and because I need you to get it. I need it to sink into your brain so that you don’t make the mistake of bothering her again—you wouldn’t like the consequences.”

  Thea snickered. “Why? What will she do to me?”

  “She won’t need to do anything, Thea,” said Knox, his voice soft but grave and menacing. “I gave you sanctuary, and that means you answer to me just as my lair members do. If you step out of line, you’ll be punished.” He leaned forward, pinning her gaze with his. “You are to stay away from Khloé Wallis. You’re not to make contact with her in any way. If you do, you’ll have me to deal with. And trust me, Thea, you won’t enjoy what happens next. Nobody ever does.”

  Thea swallowed hard, her eyes flickering. “She’s not part of your lair.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” said Knox. “Khloé’s under my protection. Not only as Keenan’s mate, but as the cousin of my mate and son. To me, she’s family. And nobody fucks with my family. Nobody.”

  Hurt flashed across Thea’s face. “After our shared experiences, you don’t think of me as family?”

  “No. You could have been one of us, but you chose to go your own way. You built your own family, and if you want to keep that family safe—namely, Lane—you need to buck the fuck up and stop doing things that put him at risk. In other words, you need to keep a low profile as you were instructed to do. You should be putting your son’s safety before your apparent need to meddle in Keenan’s affairs.”

  Thea’s hand balled up into a fist, but she took in a breath and blanked her expression. “You’re right,” she said with forced calm. “I was being selfish. It won’t happen again.”

  “And you understand exactly what will happen if you do?”

  “I understand.”

  “Good. You’re dismissed.”

  Thea pushed out of her chair and looked at Keenan. “Do you love her?”

  Keenan felt his brow crease. Tired, he sighed. “You really want to know the answer to that question?”

  “I wouldn’t have asked it if I didn’t. Do you?” she pushed.

  Well, he wasn’t going to lie to spare her feelings. “Yeah, I love her.”

  Thea flinched. “She makes you happy?”

  “Yes.”

  She swallowed hard. “Then I hope things work out for the two of you.”

  “They will.” Keenan would do everything in his power to ensure th
at they did.

  Keeping her chin up, Thea walked out of the boardroom and closed the door behind her. Glad she was gone, his inner demon rolled back its shoulders.

  Tanner looked at Keenan. “It’s a good thing we had that talk with her, because my gut says she had plans to come between you and Khloé in whatever ways she could. She’ll back off now that she knows she has nothing to gain from it.”

  “I don’t know about that.” Larkin braced her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her hand. “I mean, she had nothing to gain from fucking up the fling he was having all those years ago, but she did it anyway.”

  Levi nodded. “Jealousy can make a person do the weirdest shit. But she’s more likely to bide her time and lure us into thinking she’s letting it go.”

  “Either way, she won’t get near Khloé again,” said Keenan. “I won’t allow it.”

  “None of us will allow it—she’s your mate; that means something to us.” Knox tilted his head. “How hard do you think it will be to convince Khloé to join our lair?”

  Keenan grimaced. “I don’t know. She’d have Harper and Devon here, but she’s very close to Ciaran and Jolene; she wouldn’t easily agree to leave them.”

  “I really don’t think Khloé would ask you to move to her lair—she knows you; knows how close you are to each of us and that it would take something out of you to give up your position here,” said Larkin. “But she’ll find it hard to leave her lair. Maybe you could come up with some kind of compromise.”

  “Compromise?” echoed Keenan.

  The harpy rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to say it with dread. Yes, a compromise. Maybe you could agree to move into her house so that she’s still close to her family. Then she won’t feel as though she’s truly leaving them if she switches to our lair. It’ll just be more like she’s answering to a different Prime.”

  “It’s a good idea,” said Tanner. “You could tighten the security around her house, Keenan. A few of our lair members live in and around that neighborhood, so you wouldn’t feel all alone out there.”

  “But I would be surrounded by imps,” said Keenan.

  “The good thing about imps, though, is that they only cause trouble for outsiders,” Tanner pointed out. “If they consider you one of theirs, they’ll protect and defend you. Being Khloé’s mate, they’ll consider you one of them even though you answer to Knox.”