Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Ugh. The Lords were here. While I was thankful I was dressed, I was less thankful I had to deal with them before a hot shower and a week of sleep.
Thorvin stepped forward, looking none the worse for the wear after Moira and I destroyed his foundation. “Caelan!”
Relief filled his eyes. “Thank the gods, man.” His eyes found Ben.
“They’ve found you.” Thorvin exhaled. “Mission successful, then.”
The Lord’s eyes found mine. “And Evie. I’m glad to see you are unscathed.”
A strange glitter came over his skin, a sheen that made him look like…
Ben burst out laughing. “The fuck, man? Why do you look like a regular in a teenage vampire movie?”
Thorvin flushed.
Caelan cleared his throat. “Good to know how you feel about Evie,” he murmured in a low voice.
All of a sudden, it clicked. “Oh gods.” I burst out laughing.
Whatever Moira had done to him triggered when he lied. “It’s good to see you, too,” I said before laughing again.
“Oh wait. That’s a lie.” I held up my arm and twisted it to and fro before clicking my tongue. “That’s a shame. I look good in glitter.” With a wink, I stepped closer to Caelan.
Ethan’s eyes found mine. “Evie.” He tilted his head in greeting. “I’m unsurprised to find you here.”
“Where Caelan goes, I go,” I said simply.
His eyes flickered before moving to Ben. “I’m glad you are unharmed.”
Ben stepped up. “Let’s take this back to the Keep. We have coffee and food there, and after everything, I’m starving, and I know Evie must be, too.”
I nodded. I’d burned off so much energy healing him, my fingers were starting to shake.
The Lords agreed, and we piled out of the store. Before we got into the vehicle, I pulled on Caelan’s arm to hold him back while everyone else loaded up.
“Donovan and Nadia?” I whispered.
“The Lord is dead. For good this time. Nadia…” His voice trailed off. “I’m not sure how she managed to hightail it out of here like she did, but she’s gone. When I return to the Keep, I’ll tap my contacts.”
I leaned in and whispered in his ear. “I think Gianna had something on her when she died. Something Nadia needs.”
Caelan squeezed my hip. “I agree.” His gaze flicked over my shoulder.
“We have an audience.” After pressing a firm kiss to my lips, he pulled open the passenger door. “Let’s get some food into you.”
Ben’s home at the Keep was tasteful and understated, but Ben didn’t look like he fit in. He wore flannel, blue jeans, and work boots, and this was a place for wealthy family dinners on Sunday where everyone wore slacks and mock turtlenecks and talked about their stock portfolio.
But his chef was excellent. He was a jovial man named Boudreaux and had a thick accent that dripped south Louisiana. The man slapped a large bowl of something dark brown with large chunks of meat and okra, and a little rice. It smelled absolutely heavenly.
After the first two bowls, Boudreaux had given me a long, appraising look and nodded. “You want another bowl, cher?”
The word sounded like shah when he said it, and it made me feel special, like a favorite grandpa had told me he was proud of me.
“Yes, please. May I have some more of that bread, too?”
“You can have whatever you want, little flower.”
The third bowl he set in front of me was twice as large as the one before. I smiled with delight and picked up my spoon before he added a large plate of bread and a small bowl filled with chilled butter.
“You’re no wolf, but you’re something,” he said more to himself than me. “You got the look of the fae about you, but that’s not it is it?”
My spoon stilled. How much did this man see and did she have to worry about it?
He touched the back of my hair, gently pressing my scalp with firm fingers. “Don’t you worry, cher. You’re safe here.”
My fingers trembled, but for some odd reason, I believed him.
The other Lords were at the table, too, but they were engaged in animated discussion.
Animated, meaning everyone was yelling a lot.
Everyone except Ben, who kept looking over at me with a peculiar expression on his face.
Finally, he got up and sat next to me. Caelan’s brows drew together when he noticed, but he said nothing, only tightening his grip on my knee for a brief second before returning to the fray of circular conversation.
“Your chef is amazing,” I said, caring little for manners as I dug into the bowl for another bite.
“Boudreaux always makes chicken and sausage gumbo during the winter. I can’t imagine the meat he goes through trying to fill a Keep of hungry wolves.”
My brow furrowed at that. “You’re some kind of bird, aren’t you?
” I mused, my voice so low only he and I could hear each other.
Possibly Caelan, but he was currently yelling something about nosy Lords and taxes.
It made sense. He wasn’t a wolf or a bear or anything too predatory.
Ben liked open spaces and nature, and I used to catch him staring up at the sky sometimes with a shimmer in his eye.
“I will neither confirm nor deny,” he said with a grin. “And no, you can’t take Boudreaux with you. Mostly because I’m convinced he’d go if you asked him to.”
I snorted. “No, he wouldn’t. Feeding one starving woman is far different than feeding all the shifters around here. He’d grow bored in a week.”
Ben laughed, the sound free and wild. I’d never heard him laugh like that. He wiped his eyes. “No one is ever bored around you. Boudreaux would be in love in a week.”
“If he cooked like this every night, I might do the same.”
Caelan’s grip tightened, and I hid my smile. So he was listening.
“We’ve been friends for years now, but Caelan had his own chef, so he took work a couple of hours away from Joy Springs. When I became a Lord, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring him with me.”
“How do you like Michigan?”
“All the nature suits me. The Keep has several hundred acres, and there are parks and lakes everywhere.”
“But you don’t like the Keep.” His shoulders were tense, and he hadn’t relaxed since he’d walked into the building.
Ben gave me a sharp look. “Why do you say that?”
I lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “You don’t seem happy here, and you have another home a few miles down the road. A home with only a single house. I smelled you outside. You spend a lot of time there.”
His jaw tightened. “I forgot how observant you are.”
Ben sighed and took a hunk of bread. I had to stifle the urge to smack him with the back of my spoon and hoard all the bread. “I’m not used to being a Lord. Coveting power never sat right with me. I’d rather be free, but my power levels preclude me from ever being a lone wolf.”
“You aren’t allowed to?”
Damn this gumbo was amazing. I was slowing down, but if Boudreaux came back, I would not turn down another bowl.
“I could, I suppose, but someone like me, as much as I want to be alone, I crave being with other shifters.”
“What about a…mate? Isn’t that what the shifters call them? Have you ever looked for one of those?”
Caelan’s fingers tightened again.
Ben grinned. “It’s not quite so simple. Mating is complex and animalistic in a way.”
“Would you know your mate if you saw her?”
Ben speared me with a look so intense, I stopped chewing. Power rose in the air, tingling the back of my neck and making the hair rise on my arms. “Ben?”
Caelan’s hand slipped from my knee. He turned toward us and leaned forward. “Ben,” he said slowly. “Don’t you even think about it.”
I blinked. I had no idea what was going on.
At that moment, Pax stepped forward. “Miss Evie?”
“Just Evie,” I said to the shifter.
Pax’s gaze shifted first to Ben, then to Caelan before his strange eyes rested on me once more. “Are you currently mated?”
I snorted. “I’m sorry?”
“Mated. I do not see a mating bond between you and the Texas Lord.”
Caelan went still. I put a hand on his forearm.
“I’m not sure it’s possible for a shifter to formally mate with someone who’s not another shifter,” I mused.
“It’s possible,” Ben said, an emotion in his voice I’d never heard from him.
“To answer your very forward question,” I said, a note of reproof in my voice, “no, I am not formally mated, but I’m also not a shifter. I do not need to be mated to commit myself to someone.”
Caelan’s muscles relaxed under my fingers.
“You are committed to Lord Caelan?” Pax asked.
“I am.”
Pax bowed his head. “Then he is a lucky man indeed.” When he lifted his head, his eyes held a golden spark—a promise of power glimmering in his eyes. “If you find yourself uncommitted, I hope you will find me again.”
I blinked in surprise. “Err. Umm. Thank you, Pax. I am very flattered.”
“You are a tempest of power, Evie. Any man would be fortunate to bask in the adoration of your gaze.”
And with that, Pax turned and went back to the corner he stood in, watching and waiting.
“What the hell is going on?” I whispered. “Is there something in the air?”
“Pax is right,” Ben said. “It is possible to mate outside of our species. Perhaps your lack of mating bond is more telling than you realize.”
“You overstep,” Caelan snarled in a low, dangerous voice. “You had your chance, Ben. Do not make me teach you a lesson about trying to take what is mine.”
I held up a hand, glaring at the flash of triumph in Ben’s eyes. “First, I am not your possession. I thought we’d worked through all that. Second, I don’t think Ben is making a claim on me.”
But when Ben smiled, the words died in my throat.
“Are you?” I croaked.
“I’m the Lord of a large territory, Evie. The natural world here is bursting with power, and we’ve lacked a Floromancer for years.”
“The winter is horrific. My power is sluggish here.”
“Then I suggest you visit during spring and see how glorious your magic may bloom.”
“You cannot be serious,” I murmured. “Ben, you all but threw me away. What in the world brought this on now?”
Caelan sat rigid with fury, but he had learned something. He hadn’t gone immediately for Ben’s throat, and that was progress.
“I’ve seen the error of my ways.”