Chapter Two
MINA
My fingers shook as I checked the display.
I was that excited — and pathetic. For the three days that Marius had been away, I’d practically kept my nose pressed to a window like a faithful mutt, waiting for his return.
Every time my phone rang, my figurative tail wagged, and every time someone else spoke on the other end of the line, that tail drooped again.
Like now, with caller ID showing Geneviève. I loved my sister, but talking to her didn’t give me all the feels talking to Marius did. Either I was infatuated…or destined mates really was a thing.
I slid into my car and answered the call, trying to sound chipper.
“Hi, Gen.”
“Hi. How are you?” she asked sweetly.
Red flags flapped in my mind. Gen rarely used that tone with me.
“Good. How are you?” I braced myself.
“Good.” She hesitated. Another red flag, because Gen blasted through conversations the way she blasted through life — unencumbered by the thought process, as our favorite radio talk show hosts liked to say.
“I need a favor,” she finally said.
“Pick you up at the airport? Any time,” I declared.
I’d inherited Chateau Nocturne together with Gen and our cousin, Dora, and we’d agreed to devote all our resources to turning the neglected estate into a viable business…somehow. But so far, I’d been the only one on-site dealing with cobwebs, cracked walls, and leaks.
Finally, Gen dropped her bombshell. “Unfortunately, I’ve been delayed.”
“Again?” I screeched.
Originally, Gen had been scheduled to fly to France a week after I had, way back at the beginning of the summer. Now, it was late September, and I was still dealing with the place alone.
Well, not quite alone, because I had taken in three shifters and a vampire as boarders — a game changer as far as renovation work was concerned…
and in other ways. But I still shouldered sole responsibility for the place, and every nerve-racking decision, no matter how small or how big, was up to me.
“I’m really sorry. I promise I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“I need you here now, Gen.”
“I know, I know. And I’m really sorry. I just have to sort out a few more things…”
A few more things meant her life, and, much as I loved my sister, I had my doubts.
“Gen…” I grumbled, torn, as always, between sisterly support and tough love. Tough love was definitely winning.
“I swear, I’ll rebook the ticket soon.”
I clenched my jaw. She’d probably paid more in rebooking fees than the original ticket by now.
Then again, I was the lucky one not to have blazed through a string of toxic relationships. Maybe I should be more understanding…if I didn’t scream into the phone first.
And, ha. What a stir that would cause in sleepy little Auberre!
Mesdames Fontaine and Martin would burst out of the boulangerie to investigate.
Curtains would be yanked aside as folks in the surrounding houses eagerly listened in.
The houses that were still occupied, at least, and by people whose hearing was still sharp.
No great danger, because Auberre, like most of rural France, had seen a demographic shift over time, with a heavy tilt toward the over-seventy end of things.
“The problem is, Gordon asked me to meet some people, and now I can’t make the date,” Gen said.
Whooping alarms joined the red flags in my head.
“Hello?” Gen said when I didn’t reply. “Can you hear me?”
I swallowed hard. “Say that again, please. I didn’t quite catch it.”
“I said, Gordon asked me to meet some people for him,” Gen hollered. “And I won’t be able to make it now, so I was hoping you could.”
The breeze making those red flags flap increased to force 10. Why would Gordon ask Gen when I was much closer?
“What people? Where? When?”
“Next week, in Paris. I think they’re amateur art collectors or something. I didn’t ask.”
I could have screamed, You didn’t ask? How can you be so gullible? But until recently, I would have done the same. Anything for Gordon, our kind, generous godfather. No questions asked.
That was before I learned that the “bodyguards” he’d sent to board at Chateau Nocturne were mercenaries and that his “business interests” included shady backroom deals.
My stomach churned as I thought back to the little favors Gordon had asked of me in the past. Parties he’d asked me to attend, packages to pick up or drop off.
I’d never stopped to think there might be something dubious at work, and I still struggled to believe that now.
But after recent events… Well, I’d learned all was not as it seemed with dear old Gordon.
“Why did Gordon ask you instead of me?” I asked.
“Gordon didn’t want to bother you with it. He knows how busy you’ve been.”
He also knew I was the responsible one — and the one on his side of the Atlantic. Clearly, he wanted to keep this a secret from me.
“Who are you supposed to meet? Why?” I asked.
“Gordon was going to give me the details later. But don’t worry. I’ll call him to say I couldn’t make it.”
That wasn’t the part I worried about.
“Unless…” she hinted.
“Unless I offer to help instead of you?” I filled in.
I had no intention of offering any such thing, and yet I already knew I would. Better me than my gullible, trusting sister.
“What else do you know about this?” I asked.
Not a hell of a lot, as it turned out, making for a short conversation.
“But don’t worry—”
Ha. The more she said that, the more I did.
“—I’ll call Gordon and explain,” she finished.
“Don’t!” I practically shouted, then cleared my throat and tried again in a normal tone. “Don’t. I was planning to make a trip to Paris later this week. I’ll discuss it with him then.”
I’d been planning no such thing, but it bought me time to think.
“You think he’ll be mad?” Gen asked.
I could see her sad-puppy face now. It didn’t work on me, but it would work on Gordon.
“No,” I sighed.
Not only would Gordon not be mad, he would go to great lengths to console her. Tickets to the opera…VIP entry to the opening of a new art exhibit…Gordon was incredibly generous in that way.
“I’m really sorry,” Gen went on. “I know the chateau is taking every minute you have—”
Mostly, yes, but I’d also been shagging Marius every spare moment I found. I’d never really believed in destiny, but since insatiable lust was one of the signs, well…
“—and I swear I’ll make it up to you.”
“You will make it up to me,” I said firmly. “The second you get your ass over here.” Then inspiration hit me, and I sweetened the deal. “Clement is back in Auberre, you know. And single.”
“He is?” Her voice rose.
I sighed. Gen had harbored a crush on the wolf shifter since she was five and Clement about nine. A painfully unrequited crush, but you never knew.
“Yes, and he’s asked about you.”
“He did?” she squealed.
I held the phone away from my ear, contemplating my fib. I’d mentioned Gen to Clement, and he’d made a noncommittal sound in reply. Close enough?
“Just another reason for you to get over here ASAP,” I said.
“I will. I promise. It’s just that this run of Peter and the Wolf got extended by a few weeks.”
Right, and the hot new percussionist was probably perfect for a rebound fling — Gen’s favorite cure for a relationship gone sour. She designed sets for the Children’s Theatre of New England, and her love life had a way of mirroring the dramas that played out on the stage.
I ended the call and gazed over the town park. French horns played the wolf’s menacing tune in my mind as I considered what Gen had said.
A car passed, then a minivan, but I was too absorbed in my thoughts to notice until they were two blocks away. Only then did I fumble with my keys and start my car, because that was Henrik’s sports car and the minivan Roux drove with Marius and Bene. They were coming home!
My battered old Citroen sputtered to life on the second try.
I raced off, sparing it no mercy in my eagerness to catch up with my man.
I did limit myself to just a shade over the speed limit, lest I give the police an excuse to ticket me.
And not just any police officer, but Clement.
I loved him, but it was strictly platonic. From my side, at least. From his…
Well, that was where things got a little complicated.
The minute I passed the town limits, I revved the Citroen’s poor, straining engine. Not long after, I swung left onto a country road that led to the chateau’s long, tree-lined driveway. I screeched into the wide arc area in front of the building, scattering gravel, then leaped out to greet them.
“Oh hi, Mina,” Bene said, looking uncharacteristically guarded.
Usually, the blond lion shifter was as sunny as can be. Not today, though.
Roux’s eyes were rimmed with dark lines, and he greeted me with a flat, “Bonjour.”
The man was a tiger shifter and a dead ringer for David Beckham — without the smirk. But, my, did he look tired.
Henrik, a dark-haired vampire, bent into the slightest hint of a bow, avoiding my eyes. “Hello.”
“Hi,” I chirped, more to the van door than any of them, because surely Marius would exit next.
I pictured him extending his long legs and arms and stepping out, then wrapping those arms around me.
Arms that could turn into wings, plus midnight eyes that had a way of peering deep into my soul.
Hair the color of a chocolate lover’s dreams, and a bad boy expression that masked how much more there was to him.
I waited. Any minute now, I would get treated to all that.
Very, very soon…
I waited another few seconds, then stuck my head inside the vehicle. But Marius wasn’t snoozing in the back or finishing a call or dealing with luggage. He wasn’t there at all.
I whirled to the others. “Where’s Marius?”
Bene looked at his feet, while Roux and Henrik looked at each other.
Oh God.
Marius was a kick ass dragon shifter who could look out for himself. But he took part in highly secretive and dangerous missions for my godfather, Gordon.
My voice rose along with my pulse. “Where is Marius?”