Chapter 5
GAEL LOOKED UP AT THE heavy, low-hanging sky. Overcast, but it wouldn’t rain. He could always tell. The pressure in the air wasn’t the kind that burst. Just moody. Much like him.
He waited at the base of the trail, seated on a slick boulder off to the side, the morning chill biting pleasantly into his skin. It helped take the edge off. His mood hadn’t been great since the explosion with Beth the other day.
Bless Aryon and Elara for trying to cheer him up without pushing too hard. When Elara had suggested the hike up to Diamond Lake, he’d agreed immediately. A distraction sounded perfect.
What he hadn’t expected was the silence.
Beth hadn’t replied to his message. Not even a polite, dismissive Thanks for the info or a Kindly go die.
Nothing. And that after he’d swallowed a glob of pride the size of a mountain to even send it.
He’d never had to explain himself like that before.
Never had anyone throw such baseless accusations in his face, especially not when he’d already been punished for it. And especially not over Bryn.
He exhaled hard through his nose.
What stung most was how quickly she’d believed it. How easily she’d torn into him when all he’d done was try to help.
That day with her had been good. Easy. No veiled attempts to seduce him, no carefully staged aura shifts to attract attention, no lyrical sighs, no perfectly arranged poses to highlight the symmetry of their faces or the glow of their magic. No High Blood theatrics.
Beth hadn’t played any of those games. If anything, she’d looked deeply annoyed to be in his presence half the time.
And still, she’d laughed with him. Talked with him, even just for a few hours. As she relaxed, as her guard dropped, he saw her, a woman with dirt on her hands and sunlight in her hair. Sharp-tongued. Quick-witted. Someone who could coax life from bare earth and make it beautiful.
That mouth had been starring in his fantasies lately. A lot. More than was remotely appropriate. That fire in her eyes, the defiance in her chin when she challenged him. It all got under his skin.
He shifted on the rock, discomfort flaring. Great. Now he was hard. From memory.
He closed his eyes and opened his senses, reaching for the pulse of the forest, hoping it would ground him. Normally it worked. Normally nature answered, but today it barely blurred the heat humming just under his skin.
Then he heard the car. A truck, rumbling from a distance. He had just enough time to tug off his sweater, tie it low around his waist, and raise every shield and emotional barrier he had. No need for Elara to pick up on his highly inconvenient state.
His cousin’s truck rolled into view a moment later.
And when the passenger door opened, Beth stepped out.
She met his gaze without a flicker of surprise. That meant Elara had told her he’d be here.
She knew.
And she’d still come.
He sat straighter. Okay. She knew. Well, Gael thought, throat tightening. This just got interesting.
“You’re losing your edge,” a voice drawled behind him. “In the old days, I would have sucked you dry already.”
Gael smiled, not turning around right away. “I heard you coming from a mile away, Baby Bat.”
“No, you didn’t.” Emma stepped up beside him, channeling full vintage glam in oversized white sunglasses and a wide-brimmed sun hat that would’ve made Greta Garbo proud. “You’re too polite to ignore someone on purpose, and yet you totally ignored me. Which means something got you distracted.”
“Elara’s car is loud.”
She arched a sculpted blonde brow. “Sure it is.”
“Where’s Rick?”
“Working. Fixing that fence behind the bakery. Again.”
He was about to reply, but then Elara and Beth neared, strolling toward them from where they’d parked.
Beth offered him a small, polite smile, but something else flickered beneath it, and it made him curious enough to lower his mental shields.
He didn’t press—direct emotional reading without consent was a violation–but he let his senses skim the surface. There it was.
Nerves.
And maybe hope.
The day suddenly got very interesting.
“That’s all of us for today,” Elara said brightly. “Rex might meet us at the lake; he’s patrolling the ridge. Aryon stayed back to deal with a supplier issue at the pub.”
“It’s such a beautiful day,” Emma added, tipping her face to the sky but giving her back to the sun. Then she grinned, wicked and gleeful, and swatted Elara’s arm. “Race you to the lake?”
“You’re on.”
And just like that, the two of them vanished into the trees, blonde hair flying, magic flickering around their heels like a pair of mischievous forest spirits returning to their wild home.
Beth blinked after them. “Did they just—?”
“Abandon us?” Gael arched a brow and nodded. “Yes. And not very gracefully.”
“Was that on purpose?”
“Almost certainly.”
Beth made a face like she wanted to object but couldn’t quite bring herself to.
Gael watched the path where the vampire and the elf had disappeared, then turned to face Beth fully.
Now that they were alone, the quiet stretched, expectant, like even the forest had noticed. “Elara can’t win,” he said, to break the silence. “But she’s the only one who can give Emma a real challenge.”
Beth gave a light laugh and adjusted her backpack. “You could too.”
He looked at her, then. Really looked. She kept her eyes fixed on the trail, but her aura gave her away, flickering with an awkward and adorable self-consciousness that was impossible to miss.
This wasn’t the guarded Beth from the pub. This was the version she kept tucked away. And he liked her. Gods help him, he really liked all the versions of her.
“You could have, I mean... You don’t have to hang back if you don’t want to,” she added quickly. “I know the trail.”
His lips curled into a smile. “And leave you at the mercy of whatever dark and malicious forest magic is lurking out here? Absolutely not.”
That earned a chuckle, and her energy settled. “I’m pretty sure the worst-case scenario is a bear. But thank you.”
They walked in easy silence for a few minutes, following the path as it twisted between mossy rocks and towering pines.
Shafts of sunlight cut through the branches in soft beams, catching on tiny motes of dust and pollen that drifted like spells waiting to be spoken.
Somewhere above, a bird chirped once and went silent again.
Gael glanced sideways and refrained from chuckling, but he’d caught the pattern.
Beth would square her shoulders, take a breath like she was about to speak, then huff, glance away, and clamp her mouth shut.
The emotional rollercoaster was so palpable it was almost funny.
Almost. “You know,” he said gently, “it’s easier if you just spit it out. ”
She rolled her eyes. “I hate when you guys do that.”
“Do what?”
“Read us like a grocery list. It’s impossible to hide anything.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Liar.”
That made him laugh, an honest, belly-deep sound. “Fair enough. But come on, holding back isn’t exactly your brand.”
She muttered something, then tilted her head to the treetops, inhaled deep, then let the breath go. “I’m sorry,” she blurted out, then raised an eyebrow. “Okay... it is easier.”
He said nothing, giving her space.
“It wasn’t fair to make you pay for my hang-ups,” she continued. “And that’s what I did.”
“I’m not following.”
They rounded a bend where the trail narrowed, edged with ferns and decaying fallen trunks. The scent of damp pine and leaves thickened as the trees pressed in close, the sunlight dimming in patches. The forest was quiet here, listening.
“You see, my father, he is rich. Disgustingly so. And so was his father, and his before that. The first Whitlock started an investment firm in New York in 1875. Every Whitlock after just got more brilliant, more ruthless, and more loaded.”
“Hold on.” He turned to stare at her. “You’re telling me you’re the heiress of the Whitlock financial empire?”
“I’d say I’m the one and only, but I’ve got a cousin. Still, yeah.”
“Do Elara and Aryon know?”
“Of course. I changed my name when I left, so they didn’t know it when they hired me. With time, they gave me everything. Not only a job but also a community, a kind of family. I told them later, once I realized I could trust them, that I was safe.”
Gael watched her closely, the implication of her words settling in his chest. Her voice was steady, but her aura showed fractures. Not weakness, only wear from being held alone for too long. He felt the quiet sting of it beneath her calm, pain still whispering just under the surface.
“You don’t have to tell me anything, Beth. We had a disagreement. Let’s just put it behind us.”
“I don’t like being unfair,” she said firmly. “And I was. So I’m telling you the reasons. If we’re being honest, we go all the way.”
“Just know you can stop anytime.”
“My father picked a husband for me.”
He didn’t say anything because nothing could be said. It was socially sanctioned human trafficking dressed up as tradition. In the ‘right’ circles, even among humans, coercion had a way of wearing a tuxedo and calling itself a legacy. “Not the best match?” he said gently.
“Possibly the worst.” Her laugh was dark and hollow.
“Not decrepit, but he was fifteen years older than my eighteen. And he was mean. Not the loud kind. Cold. Dismissive. Controlling. Got handsy when I told him I wasn’t marrying him even though we were already engaged.
When I went to my father—hell, when I showed him the bruises—and he still didn’t end it? ” Her mouth tightened. “I left.”
She didn’t cry but her anger burned, steady and controlled like a forge. He felt it, deep and blistering beneath her skin, and it made his own blood thrum with protective fury.
“I always knew I was basically cattle,” she said bitterly. “But you’d think he’d at least care if his property was kept in decent condition.”