Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Jeros swept the unconscious woman up into his arms before she hit the floor.
“Let her bloody animal inside before he rips the door from its hinges. My grandfather commissioned that portal from one of the Seventh Realms’ greatest oaks.
” Her soft weight melted into him, making him settle her more gently in his arms. Mortal women always reacted to him, but usually in a less dramatic way.
Never had one ever fallen away in a dead swoon.
“Let it inside, Yer Highness? An enraged Fae tiger? I ken well enough they often guard Sevenrest, but this one seems quite angry.” Twitching as if struck with a mortal palsy, Nightleaf spread his fingers wider against the door and bowed his head, pushing harder against it.
The beast rattled the door again. “Are ye quite certain, my prince?”
Jeros didn’t grace that question with an answer. Instead, he assumed a stance with which the loyal butler should be well acquainted.
With a resigned sigh, Nightleaf nodded again. “Aye, Yer Highness. Do forgive me.” Cringing as one might do at the time of one’s execution, he swung the door open wide. “Do come in, mighty one. Welcome to Sevenrest. Forgive the closed door. These halls are always welcoming to ye.”
The enormous cat, much larger than the mortal’s known panthera tigris altaica, strutted inside and roared, displaying an impressive yet blood-curdling set of fangs. He brought his muzzle within a hair’s breadth of Nightleaf’s beak of a nose and rumbled a threatening grunt.
“He was only doing as yer mistress asked,” Jeros said to the Fae tiger. “Ye frightened her. She knows ye as a wee kitten, not the fearsome beastie of yer natural form.”
The mighty cat padded over and gave the unconscious Lexi a good snuffle before affectionately nudging her with his head. He turned his tawny, piercing gaze on Jeros and huffed, communicating in a series of soft growls and grunts.
“I frightened her as well,” Jeros said. “Although I dinna ken for certain how. She swooned as soon as I spoke to her. Perhaps the mate bond overcame her.”
He had to admit, the attraction he felt for her was strong enough to warrant being called almost painful.
Perhaps she had felt the same and fallen victim to it.
Yet while he ached to continue holding her close and know her better, her scars raked across the petty side of him, urging him to set her aside and turn away.
And that reaction shamed him. It was the selfish shallowness of his mother’s blood.
It angered him that he possessed the same traits of a woman he had always despised.
A heavy sigh left him as he forced himself to hold the woman as if she were a beauty like no other. Only time with her would answer if she was the one of the prophecy, his fated mate. Maybe during that time, he could learn to shed the pettiness that had earned him the title: Prince of Perfection.
He studied the enigmatic Miss Lexi Vine, forcing himself to take her in in her entirety, rather than merely associate her with her scars.
Mortal women had always attracted him, entranced him with how fiercely they loved and protected those precious to them, especially their children.
Fae royals cared about their young because young ones were so rare, but had no problem allowing someone other than themselves to rear them.
In their opinion, raising a child was much too menial a task for them to address personally.
The tiger grumbled a louder growl, flicked an ear, then nudged Lexi again as if trying to push Jeros away and come between them.
“Stop. Ye wish me to drop her?” He turned aside to prevent the beast from shoving her out of his arms. “Have Mrs. Shimmerhill prepare a soothing drink for the lass for when she awakens,” Jeros told Nightleaf, before turning back to the tiger.
“Come. Into the library. Ye may guard her there, but I recommend ye show yerself to her as the wee kitten, so she will understand how ye came to be and that ye mean her no harm.”
The mighty beast grunted his assent and led the way as if Sevenrest belonged to him—and in a twisted way, it somewhat did because the mighty Fae tigers had not only roamed the grounds but guarded the estate for many an age, much farther back than Jeros could remember.
The servants of Sevenrest often struggled to accept the great cats on their terms because that was the way of it for the Fae tigers.
Ye either took them as they were and revered them, or they took ye for their supper and picked their teeth with yer bones.
When they reached the library, Jeros knelt and gently lowered Lexi onto the pillowed couch in front of the hearth.
As her warmth left him, he missed it and found himself tempted to pick her up once more and hold her close.
But then she turned her face toward him, and it gave him the shameful strength to step away.
The mighty cat bared his fangs and gnashed his teeth with a warning growl. Fae tigers read emotions as easily as others read books.
“I am trying, damn ye.” Jeros bared his own teeth and fisted his hands. “I canna change until I know her heart as well as my own, now, can I? All I know is what I see before me.”
She stirred again, this time covering her face with her hands and groaning.
As soon as she lowered them, she locked eyes with the tiger and went as still as a rabbit frozen in fear.
“Is that your pet?” she asked, moving her mouth as little as possible as if the slightest twitch might cause the magnificent beast to pounce.
Jeros shook his head. “No. It is yers. I told him ye only knew him as a wee kitten, and that he should nay shock ye with his true form, but yer beastie is a mite stubborn.”
Easing back deeper into the pillows, Lexi wet her lips, making Jeros notice just how kissable they seemed. “You’re telling me that tiger is Aylryd? My stray kitten? The hard-headed little demon who does as he pleases even when I’m trying to do what’s best for him?”
“Aye.” Remembering he had yet to introduce himself, he offered a polite nod. “And I am Jeros Seventhson. Welcome to Sevenrest.”
“Seventhson,” she softly repeated, sparing him a glance before returning her wide-eyed stare to the tiger. He rather liked the way she said his family name. “Did Mairwen tell you I was coming to help with your horse?”
He frowned. “Help with my horse?”
“I’m a vet. Back in Kentucky, I specialize in large animals, particularly horses. She said your favorite one had stopped eating?” She hugged a pillow and scooted back even more, as if space and goose down would shield her from the enormous tiger.
Aylryd ambled closer, purring and emitting friendly, huffing grunts.
With an expected hesitancy yet an astounding amount of courage, Lexi stretched out her hand, offering the beastie her knuckles to sniff. “How can you possibly be Aylryd?” she asked, sounding understandably dazed. After all, she was a mortal from a different realm.
The tiger head-butted her hand in the way of a kitten, then shoved in closer and snuggled against her.
With utter bewilderment, she hugged the friendly cat, burying her face in his lush fur. She lifted her head and stared down at the purring beast. “I am so confused. There is no way this is my Aylryd.”
“Fae tigers can shapeshift. However, they must always choose some sort of feline form. In yer world, a wee kitten fits in much better than his true self.” Jeros pulled up a chair and lowered himself into it, finding that he yearned to be close to this unusual woman, get to know her better.
Especially since she might be the woman of the prophecy and his fated mate.
However, he had always thought the pull of the mate bond would be stronger.
While he felt an unmistakable ache to remain in her presence, it wasn’t the crazed lustiness he had expected.
“And Mairwen told me ye would visit soon, but she nay mentioned ye might wish to see a horse.”
“I see.” Her clear hazel eyes narrowed, and the way she slowly fondled the tiger’s ears gave testament to her leeriness and disbelief. “Just a horse, you say? The way Mairwen spoke, this horse that had stopped eating was your oldest and dearest friend.”
Jeros leaned toward her, propping his forearms on his knees. “My oldest and dearest friend is nay a horse.”
“Do you have a sick horse?”
“Not at present.” He did, however, have a sullen unicorn in his stable, but after her stubborn denial of the Fae tiger, he decided the unicorn should be an enlightenment for another day. “Did Mairwen tell you anything else about me?”
“She didn’t tell me you were a prince.”
“I see.” He straightened in the chair, sitting taller.
“You see?” She scooted to one side and placed her feet on the floor. Aylryd jumped up beside her, making the sofa groan and crackle with his massive weight. Lexi appeared decidedly uneasy. “Aylryd…or whoever you are, you need to get down. I don’t think this couch is made for a kitty your size.”
“She is correct, beastie,” Jeros said. “If the couch collapses into a pile of kindling, yer mistress could verra well be impaled with splinters.”
Grumbling with a low growl, Aylryd returned to the floor but remained close enough to lunge should anyone threaten his mistress. A knock on the library door made him hiss.
“That will be my housekeeper, Mrs. Shimmerhill. The woman is renowned for her calming drinks; therefore, I requested she brew ye a tea.” He glanced at the door. “Enter.”
A descendent of the Fae known to prefer caves and subsist on all things fungi, the plump little housekeeper with the bright rosy cheeks had always reminded Jeros of a squat little tomato ripening on the vine.
The woman even possessed the scent of a tomato plant, were one to get close enough to smell her.
“Mrs. Shimmerhill,” he said as he rose to his feet. “Allow me to introduce Miss Lexi Vine. Our guest for the duration.”