Chapter 3 #2
She paused and tilted her head to consider before nodding. “I am.”
Thank the gods. “I know just the place.”
Evie let me lead her to the best Italian restaurant in my territory.
And just like before, everyone who met her fell in love with her.
My hope was that one day, she’d see me as more than her friend.
I never realized the true depth of my feelings for her until Moira called me, and I’d dropped everything to come to her aid.
The moment I held her prone body in my arms, I knew the universe had played the greatest, most awful joke I’d ever been the victim of.
I’d somehow fallen in love with someone who belonged to another.
My phone rang later that night with a long-overdue video call. I thought about not answering so I could hold on to the high of the entire day, but I knew the asshole wouldn’t give up.
“I expected you to call weeks ago,” I said by way of greeting.
“She’s there, isn’t she?” Caelan snarled into the screen.
Interesting. Everyone in the square that night had seen me carrying Evie away, and yet he wasn’t one hundred percent sure she was with me. Caelan had lost face with his people. Not good. “You look like shit,” I answered.
His face was drawn and haggard, and his normally pristine hair was tousled and messy. The clean-shaven face he usually wore was darkened with at least two weeks’ growth, and he wore a t-shirt with a rip in the neck. Caelan looked like he’d been on a months-long bender.
“Is. She. There.”
“If she is?”
He bared his teeth. “Do not fuck with me, Rowan. Your actions are tantamount to war, and you know it!”
I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. “We both know you’re full of shit. Everyone knows Evie isn’t your mate.”
“She’s my godsdamned fiancée!” The sound of wood snapping under his fingers was like a gunshot.
“No,” I reminded him. “She’s not that either.”
Caelan closed his eyes, but not before I saw them flash with gold. He was more furious than I’d ever seen him.
“Is this how it will be?” Caelan asked quietly. “Have you finally stolen Evie from me? Is she warming your bed? We both know you’ve wanted her from the moment you laid eyes on her. Has your dream finally come true? Have you stabbed me in the back?”
I calmed my rising temper and drew on the one thing that had always saved me. Charm.
“That’s a lot of questions at once, Caelan. Too many for this tiny brain to compute. Give me a moment, and I’ll sort through them.”
Caelan’s nostrils flared.
“First, I’ve stolen nothing, not that Evie is a thing or up for stealing.” I rolled my eyes. “No one is currently warming my bed, though I don’t know what business that is of yours, and no one has stabbed you in the back other than yourself.”
“Goddamn bears,” Caelan said and sighed. His shoulders slumped. “Is she with you?” His voice cracked. “Just answer me. Please.”
He’d find out soon anyway. “She is.”
Caelan closed his eyes. “Is she okay?”
I lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Good as one can be when the man they loved shattered their heart, I suppose.”
“I could not help Lugh’s influence,” he snarled.
“You are so full of shit,” I said with a laugh. “We both know magic like that only works because it relies on our own insecurities. Lugh played you like a violin, and you allowed it because you always doubted Evie.” I leaned forward. “You brought this on yourself.”
Caelan’s jaw tightened. “Everyone has doubts in their relationships. It makes us human.”
I scoffed. “That is an argument for a HUMAN, which we are not. We are shifters, but even more so, we are LORDS. You knew she was not your mate and chose to pursue her anyway. So aggressively, you frightened her. You asked her to marry you, then you allowed that wretched woman to move into the main area of your Keep.”
“I was under a spell.”
“A spell that would not have worked if you’d been sure of what you were doing. Fae magic, especially illusion and glamour do not work well on shifters, unless it has something to latch onto.”
Caelan’s face fell. “You do not think I am aware that I’ve fucked everything up?” he asked hoarsely.
“Not for the first time,” I added, unable to resist rubbing salt into his wound. “I warned you multiple times. But this one…” I shook my head. “I don’t think you can come back from this one.”
“Do not tell me what I can and cannot do,” he snapped. “We both know you want her.”
“And if I do?” I said after a long moment of silence. I’d never admitted it, not the truth laid bare. Caelan suspected, and I’d screwed with him about it in a teasing manner, but things were different now.
“I fucking knew it,” Caelan whispered.
“Unlike you, I don’t plan to scare her into marrying me.”
Caelan let out an annoyed breath. “I’d like to speak to her.”
“Have you called her?”
His jaw tightened once more. “Yes.”
“More than once?”
“Rowan. Stop being an asshole. She won’t answer my texts or calls.”
“Then perhaps you should heed her boundaries. Something you’ve never done before.”
“Godsdammit, Rowan! Let me speak to her.”
I smiled. “No.”
“I will come there and settle this if I need to.”
“This is not my battle. If you trespass onto my territory and attempt to harass my ward—”
“Your ward?” Caelan asked in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Then I will make it my problem and expel you from my lands.”
Caelan’s eyes narrowed. “Are we no longer friends, then, Rowan? After all these years? Will you forsake me for her?”
I cared about Caelan. I really did. He’d been one of my best friends for years, but the way he’d treated Evie was egregious.
“I never thought I’d see you treat someone so wonderful so terribly, Caelan.
How can I be friends with someone who continually refuses to see how awful his behavior is?
How much you wound her? You are not the same man you were a year ago, and I feel sorry for you. ”
Caelan’s irises glowed with a ring of gold. “You presume to speak to me like that?”
“I do,” I said sadly. “Come onto my lands at your own peril, Caelan.”
I disconnected the call.
This would not be the end of Caelan’s obsession with Evie. I could feel it in my bones.