Chapter 21
Clark
The four of us watch as the elevator doors close. All smiles. Delmar’s full-on waving. Forrest has his head inclined. And Alexei has a smirk on his fucking face. A smirk that I’m going to rip off the second we’re alone.
I count to five in my head. I don’t move because if I do, I’m going to snap Alexei in half.
There are many ways to do this. Be cool.
Wait until I have him alone. Wait until Forrest and Delmar have vanished into their suites.
That’s not going to happen, though. Alone with the pod member you need to talk to never happens.
If you want to talk to one of your pod brothers alone, you can be guaranteed that someone else will enter the room.
Fuck it. “You.” I point at Alexei.
“Me?” He acts innocent, his hands going up at his sides.
Forrest shakes his head. “Damn it, Alexei, again?”
“What do you mean? What did he do?” Delmar asks. But then, he wasn’t part of the pod long enough to have truly experienced the two sides of Alexei. “Rotten shrimp shells, Alexei. If you did something to Blair, something that jeopardizes our chance of having her in the pod . . .”
“I did nothing to risk our relationship with Blair and everything—”
“Cut it out, Alexei. Did you break her trust?” Forrest asks.
“Trust?” Delmar repeats. His head swivels between Forrest and myself.
“That was once. I was young and didn’t realize she didn’t like it. Come on. I loved Anya just as much as the rest of you,” Alexei says.
I want to pummel him. “I’m not talking about you being domineering. Though it’s interesting that you’re the one who keeps saying we have to take it easy on Blair with all that she’s been through.”
“Yes,” Alexei says, looking down at his feet before his deep blue eyes hold mine. “A side of me that I’ve contained for a long time did come out.”
“And . . .” For the love of Athena, he better spill it himself.
“And when she tilted her neck to me, I found it impossible not to let my teeth scrape along her skin.”
Delmar explodes. His flat palms push on Alexei’s chest, sending him off-balance into the backside of the sofa. “You mated her?”
“No.” Alexei does a somersault over the sofa and comes up on his feet. “Poseidon, no. I wouldn’t have let it go that far. Never again.”
I’m not the only one glaring. Because when he joined our pod, he did it without asking. Her or us. It was amazing Sterling didn’t end him right there and then.
Alexei rounds the sofa. “I’ve changed. You know that. That was a long time ago.”
“Yes,” Forrest says. He’s the first one to agree, always the diplomat.
Delmar’s in shock. Anya had asked that we never talk about it again, that to be a strong pod we had to love each other.
We didn’t talk about it, so much so that I guess no one thought to ever tell Delmar when he joined.
He loves everyone, but from the furrowed brow on his face, I’m wondering if he’s reconsidering his positive outlook on, well, everything.
“Blair isn’t Anya. We can’t treat her like she is. She’s human, yes. But she’s also stronger than she knows. Still we need to move slowly,” Alexei says.
“Slowly, as long as your cock is in her?” Delmar growls as the elevator door opens. Then his eyebrows shoot up. It’s just registered with him.
“Whose cock is in whom?” Zion asks. Both Alexei and I have showered. Showering off her lavender scent was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But it had to be done. Sterling is going to send us all to the chasm when he finds out we’ve taken the next step.
“Clark’s,” Delmar says before Alexei can get it out.
Zion glares at me. We’re all pod mates, equals. But like my birth brothers, I have some that I consider closer than others. Zion is one of those, my best friend. He’s also completely enraptured with Blair, and after today, I am too.
“Is that so?” Zion drops a satchel—one he normally takes to work—on the sofa and sits. “And how did that go?”
“Well,” Alexei says, taking an apple from the sofa table and biting into it.
Delmar growls. “Pod meeting. Tonight, no excuses, twenty-two hundred. I’ll tell Sterling.” He thuds down the hallway.
“Well, that should go well.” Forrest glares. We haven’t had a pod meeting in years. Frankly, we haven’t behaved like one in years. We’re more like roommates with a staff.
The last place I want to be this afternoon is the job site, but like Grayson and Zion, I have a job to do and not going isn’t an option.
I’m zipping around the construction site, checking the progress.
The workers have gone home. Tomorrow’s a holiday: the Feast of Liberisca.
Most businesses are closing early today, and schools are off.
It’s one of a string of holidays. But this one means more to me.
It’s the celebration of the end of lifetime appointments.
Celebrating free elections. It’s a big podlet holiday, with school performances and lots of treats for them.
Hale, the construction lead of the Tinom dome project calls to me.
I swim over to him. I didn’t think anyone would be out here today.
Just a Driftwood and a Mason. We’ve got no podlet performance to go to tomorrow.
Well, I do. My sister’s podlets. My nephews and niece are in the same school where Delmar teaches. I just nod instead of bringing that up. I have no idea whether Hale or any of the Driftwoods have nephews or nieces.
Hale holds himself in place, holding on to a beam. Construction is going well.
A few more weeks and it will be time for the force field dome and dry work.
He nods.
I’m waiting for him to bring up Blair. How did they find out she was going to be at the tea shop this morning? I really want to know.
Tinom’s going to be putting up another new dome. Much of the governor’s family is funding it. They want it to be the most amazing dome in the city. Something extraordinary.
I’m not looking at him. He’s floundering, pushing at me. I’ve heard.
Yes, well, I hope I can put in a good word for you?
I do my best always, Hale.
Yes, I’m sure you do. You’re good now. But one day you could be remembered as the most talented architect in the world.
That would indeed be something. I don’t need his praise or his vague threat disguised as a promise.
I don’t need to do this job at all. I want to, but I don’t need to.
We’re well off as a pod. Forrest’s family has a blue whale of tons of gold, and no sister to pass it to.
The other architects who have come up with me all think me working this hard ridiculous.
“The Mason pod has no podlets. Who are you working so hard for?” they say.
I have no desire to retire. It’s absurd.
I’m going to go through the rest of my checklist and head home. Need to be up early to get a good seat at the performance tomorrow. And no, I’m not bringing up that we’ve invited Blair to come too.
Delmar has us around the oak dining table, electronic tablets at each place. He’s in full-on teacher mode.
Sterling struts into the room. “What the hell is this?” He glares at the five of us sitting at the table.
Delmar stands at the end, his arms crossed over his chest. Yes, he’s a primary school teacher. But right now, he doesn’t look it. Not when he’s scowling at one of the largest males in all the Veiled City.
“This is us behaving like a pod.” Delmar steps toward Sterling, both of their brows furrowed. There’s the same look of irritation in Delmar’s brown eyes that’s in Sterling’s gray ones.
“Pods fuck. We’re not a pod.” Sterling grips the back of his empty chair but doesn’t sit.
I grip my temples. “Sit down, Sterling. We’ve got a lot to discuss, and we need to be up early for the Festival of Liberisca performance at the school tomorrow. We’re all going. To support Delmar.”
“We’ve never all gone before. My nephews are out of school,” Zion says.
“I invited Blair,” I counter.
“Fuck.” Sterling grimaces and sits.