Chapter 9 Jason #2
Sebastian had many rooms in which I could waste the next couple of hours, but I looked through the doorways of the movie room and the library, and sitting around just didn’t seem like enough to keep me busy, so I headed to the private gym.
Well, it was a room with gym equipment in, and rarely used, but it was as good a place to be as any.
When I entered, Sebastian was already on the treadmill, a towel slung around his neck.
I chuckled, glad of the opportunity for a distraction from my own thoughts. “I didn’t know His Highness sweated.” I swept a mocking bow.
Sebastian flashed a grin. “Only the servants sweat, Jason.”
I grinned in response, but an inner part of me always flinched at the reference to servants that Sebastian made so casually. Once upon a time, my parents had been so poor they’d sold me to Nic and Sebastian’s family as a companion. I had been worth less than a servant, in many ways.
Although Nic had always made me feel worth more. Sebastian too, really, but some of his more careless comments still stung, even after hundreds of years.
Of course, my family hadn’t known I was being sold into a family of vampires, and that they would go on to gift me with eternal life and more wealth than I could ever imagine…
Not that I remembered much of before. Old memories faded, and certainly those of actually being human were little more than an occasional half-feeling.
“I think you could stand to pick your pace up a bit if you’re trying to stay in shape for Kayla.”
Sebastian grimaced, but I’d known my comment was a low blow. He was a pretty vain guy, even though vampires had little need to be. I hadn’t ever seen an overweight one of us, anyway.
“Just working off some stress,” he grumbled.
“Oh, yeah?” I sat on the weight bench.
Sebastian pressed a button on the treadmill and the belt began to slow until he was merely walking before he stopped completely. “Nope.” He grinned suddenly as he patted his flat stomach. “Totally trying to stay in shape for Kayla. Dumb, right?”
I laughed but didn’t go so far as to agree. His irrational behavior suddenly made sense now that my thoughts were filled with little more than Ciara.
I found myself thinking about things I’d never wondered before.
I generally didn’t care if women liked me or not, but now there was nothing more important than if one particular woman liked me.
She’d be drawn to me—that was how mates worked.
But I didn’t want that match to be against her will.
Could it ever be against someone’s will?
I clearly hadn’t paid enough attention. I’d feel dumb asking Sebastian, but he probably knew, and it was better to ask than never find out.
I opened my mouth, my question already formed. “I’ve found my mate,” I blurted instead.
Sebastian’s gaze met mine, his head snapping up so fast that it should have popped right off. “You’ve what now?”
I weighed up what I’d just said before I responded to his question.
It was too late to take the words back, and maybe it was better that Sebastian knew.
After all, I’d just told Kayla, and I’d rather Sebastian hear this news from me than as pillow talk from his mate.
He’d only wonder why I hadn’t told him myself.
He chuckled. “I’m clearly not keeping you busy enough if you’ve had time to swan around and find a mate.” Then he wiped his face before looking at me. “So, who is it?”
I sucked in a quick breath. “Ciara. The shifter liaison,” I clarified in case he didn’t remember that detail.
“A wolf?” Sebastian wrinkled his nose. “I thought you said they all smelled like wet dog?”
I cringed a little as he quoted back the words Kyle and I often traded about the shifters. I couldn’t let that kind of talk get back to Ciara. She’d never accept me if she thought I was insulting her pack.
“They’re not so bad,” I said rather than acknowledging what Sebastian had asked. “And Ciara is human. She can’t shift.”
Sebastian whistled through his teeth. “That must be rough.”
I nodded, glad he got that. “Yeah, I think it is.” Then I voiced one of my fears. One I didn’t even like to acknowledge. “What do you suppose Nic will do?” It was that uncertainty that had stopped me from telling him in the end.
He had the power to veto mating, but I’d never known a king use that power. Still, it was in the history books.
Sebastian shrugged. “Talk to him. What’s the worst he can say?”
I chuckled wryly. “The worst? No?”
“Okay. I get that the relationship between us and the wolves is delicate.”
I huffed a sound of agreement. “You could say that. They already seem to really hate us, and Nic is messing with the deal in the background. That kind of delicate?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Nic knows what he’s doing with the deal.
But, yeah. That kind of delicate. So you messing with the alpha’s sister isn’t the wisest thing in the world.
” I opened my mouth to protest, but Sebastian held up his hand.
“But I get that wisdom isn’t really coming into play, here. It rarely does with mates.”
“And the fact she’s technically half wolf? You think Nic will allow that?”
Sebastian paused for a moment, tapping his chin in faux-thought. “He’s always wanted a dog.”
The urge to punch him burned through me, and I closed my eyes as I clenched my fists at my sides.
“Relax, man.” He chuckled. “I was kidding. Nic’s king but he’s never refused any of us a match…
” He looked at me, a gleam in his eye. “Always a first time, though.” Then he held his hands up in mock surrender.
“Look, Kayla’s a witch, right? So, who’s to say Ciara isn’t your mate, wolf shifter or human or whatever?
What are you going to do about it, though? ”
It was my turn to shrug as my earlier misery returned. “I haven’t figured that out yet.”
“Well, you’re gonna have to tell her. Just keep in mind what I said about things being delicate.” He patted my shoulder and headed toward the door, apparently satisfied that his short workout had been enough.
“Yeah. I’ve got that.” The politics aspect was almost secondary to the fact Ciara didn’t seem at all receptive to me, anyway.
I could handle anything that came up if she only accepted me. I sighed and headed back to the kitchen to stare at that clock again, waiting for my next chance.
I drove through the hot Louisiana countryside, the air conditioning keeping the inside of my car cool and dry. Sweating in these Louisiana swamplands was for the birds. I laughed. Well, and wolf shifters, apparently.
A group of them lounged at the gate to the pack lands again, and although I had no doubt they were expecting me—and even if they weren’t, they knew who I was by now—I slowed my car when they made no move to get out of the way.
Once stopped, I lowered the window. “Hello, Peter.” It was that same fucker from yesterday—the one who’d had way too good a time trying to stare me down.
I shivered at the memory of Ciara’s hand on my arm as she reached through the fog of my anger to draw me back out.
Peter rolled his eyes but whether he was irritated that I’d remembered his name or simply that I’d spoken at all wasn’t clear. He chatted to the other guy for a while, but they were both dumb. I could hear every word they exchanged, and it wasn’t official business.
I wasn’t interested in whether Peter had scored with his girlfriend the previous night, but neither was I interested in calling out their rudeness in delaying me for no good reason.
I raised my window again and waited. I certainly wasn’t about to pick a fight with one of Ciara’s packmates right now.
That would only delay how quickly I got to see her.
I could make good decisions from time to time—when they benefited me, anyway.
Eventually, Peter opened the gate, his movements slow before he raised a hand and gestured lazily for me to drive through.
I resisted giving him the finger in return.
Sebastian had been right about things being delicate between the vampires and the wolves, and I didn’t need to inflame any tempers on purpose, especially now.
Vampires and wolves never had an easy relationship. History showed our struggles to get along over and over. It was a fact entrenched in our legends and lore and in human myth. But things seemed especially bad here.
Maybe that was something else I needed to find out.
Surely it couldn’t be anything Francois or émile had done?
The pack had moved from closer to Dupont territory, and I couldn’t imagine it was anything that Nic or Father had done to Conri’s pack either.
If I wanted to understand Ciara and her people better, though, I had some digging to do. Maybe some wrongs to put right.
Peter hadn’t told me where to go—he might have thought he was inconveniencing me by not being more helpful—but Ciara had said the pack lodge building, where we’d met before, and I parked in front of the large cabin with its wide steps and wraparound porch.
I made short work of the steps and let myself in, mostly immune now to the intense smell of wet dog that tainted the air in here.
It was stronger this afternoon and the sound of voices came from farther inside the building, the same direction from which the smell of food also emanated.
Ciara appeared from one of the doorways and beckoned to me, and my old, dead heart seemed to stop beating while the world hung in that perfect moment as I looked at her.
Then she pushed her hair over her shoulder, startling me as she exposed her neck, the skin there smooth and creamy, and a temptation like I’d never experienced.
Air that I didn’t need to draw burned in my chest, and I wanted to reach out and catch her to me, holding her close. I wanted to drag her to the room where everyone was talking and eating and laughing, and I wanted to claim her in front of all of them.
They would all see my claim and my bite, and they’d know. She wasn’t meant for one of them—she was too good for any of them.
She was mine.
But I didn’t do that. I smiled and held my hand out. A handshake would do for now, as long as I got to touch her, feel her skin under mine. I had to take this slowly if I didn’t want to blow it.
She was my mate. I couldn’t afford to fucking blow it.