Chapter 15 #2
I wanted to claim her right then. Broad daylight against her car. But she was right. I couldn’t take her back upstairs around Francois. If he had any idea my mate was a virgin, she wouldn’t be safe, no matter how much progress he’d made.
I didn’t want to test his recovery, anyway.
My protective instincts all redoubled, and I drew Ciara toward me.
“It’s okay,” I murmured against her tumble of hair. “It’s okay. I’ll keep you safe, I promise.” I flattened my palm on the back of her head, holding her closer to me.
Francois was a problem I could save for later. I glanced across the parking lot and signaled to Basher, where he sat in the passenger seat of a car. He could head upstairs and sit with Francois a little longer.
I wasn’t ready to let Ciara go yet, and I wanted to keep her away from Francois. At least while I figured this shit out.
“Francois won’t hurt you.” This much was perfectly true. “I would never let him do that.” And that right there, my declaration, was why the fact he’d never hurt her was true. Even if I believed he could be capable of it, he’d never get the chance while I still existed.
I’d protect Ciara above all else.
She nodded.
“How about we get a coffee?” I asked. “Talk properly?”
She nodded again.
“Okay. There’s a coffee shop on the corner. Let’s head there.”
She drew away but nodded a third time, and when I offered her my hand, she didn’t hesitate before she took it, twining her fingers through mine and clutching me tightly.
A thrill raced up my arm at the contact with her, and it was all I could do to prevent myself from pulling her back against me and kissing her beautiful lips. She looked so damn good.
Touching her was so damn good.
Ciara smiled as I walked toward our table with her coffee. I had one as well, but much smaller because I didn’t really enjoy them. I was only drinking it so I didn’t look out of place. I unloaded the beignet I’d picked up for her first. She looked in need of a sweet treat.
“I love these,” she murmured.
I chuckled. “Well, if you like beignets, I know a chef who loves to make them.” And Nic’s chef would be very happy to have another human female to make them for, no doubt.
She smiled then reached for the paperwork she’d grabbed before we left the apartment complex parking lot. “Here’s the signed deed.”
I grinned at her as I took it. Between us, we’d done it, and I’d completed my mission for Nic. He and Conri had their deal. Nic wouldn’t lose face or need to field accusations about backing out or not fulfilling his obligations.
And we’d worked so closely together… It kinda felt like Ciara was starting to like me. Or at least trust me, especially after our trip to the bayou. I didn’t imagine she let every man touch her so intimately. Especially since she was still a virgin.
That idea still excited me, fizzing in my veins as desire coursed around my body.
A true virgin mate of my own. Nic probably wouldn’t believe that his royal house had somehow attracted four.
But perhaps it was just testament to the power of the Dupont bloodline.
And Nic was a born vampire. Those were always special.
I thought of Francois. Somehow, the kind of luck that smiled on Nic had skipped Francois. I almost felt sorry for him and how different his life could have been if not for émile. It was almost like the House of Ricard was cursed in the same way the House of Dupont was blessed.
But Ciara was talking, her soft voice quiet as she murmured words I hadn’t been listening to.
“I’m sorry.” I leaned closer, grateful for any chance to be near to her. “I didn’t hear what you just said. Could you repeat it for me?”
She pushed her hair over her shoulder, the gesture a little impatient before she took a bite of her beignet and chewed slowly.
Everything about her attitude said in my own time, asshole.
And she was right. I should have been listening.
But I was a vampire. I had all the time in the world to wait for her to repeat herself. And I had the patience.
Eventually, she spoke. “I said that we won’t be wasting any time. We’ll be taking over the land on the weekend, so I’ll head up there and start scouting locations to build my cabin.”
“So…” Whatever I’d been about to say vanished from my mind as what Ciara had just said took its place. “I’m sorry? Your cabin?” Something about that sounded wrong. “You already have a cabin?”
And more importantly than that, she’d have a place by my side soon enough.
Ciara nodded. “Conri has agreed that I’ll look after the wolves. I plan to live out there with them.”
I took her hand. “You can’t live out there by yourself.”
“Conri’s agreed, though. I wasn’t sure he would, but he’s said I can live away from the pack and still have a place. A role.”
Irritation prickled me. What the hell was Conri thinking?
“But you can’t live out there alone.” I kept my voice quiet although I wanted to shout so everyone understood how important the conversation was.
For the next part, I lowered my voice further still, so only Ciara could hear me.
“What if something happens? Things are unstable in the supernatural world right now. Nic’s trying to deal with it, but there’s so much we don’t know yet.
You can’t just move away from your pack.
” She couldn’t move away from me. What would I do?
She lifted her chin. “It’s already decided. I’m the one who decided it, and Conri agreed. He’s pack alpha, he’s the one I answer to.” She narrowed her eyes as if she was daring me to reply.
But I dared. “It’s not safe for you to go.
” I didn’t want her to go, but maybe she wouldn’t find that a compelling reason.
I’d wanted to introduce her to the idea of being my mate gradually.
I’d only have one opportunity to get it right.
“Surely Conri doesn’t want you living so far away from the pack? ”
Her jaw tightened and she looked away for a moment, although she didn’t quite meet my eyes when she looked back.
“My place in the pack is awkward. Limited. As much as I’m the sister of the alpha, I’m also human.
Conri and I had a long talk. I know he’ll always have a place for me, always a role…
But this will fulfil me more than any he can magic up to keep me busy, and I think he can see that.
” She stopped talking and swallowed, and her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
She didn’t try to talk again, dropping her gaze to the table and knotting her fingers together instead.
She didn’t say anything, but her shoulders moved with the effort of normalizing her breathing, and I scooted around the table before wrapping my arm around her, wanting to give her as much comfort as she could find in me.
She melted against me, fitting to my body like she was a missing piece, like we’d been molded to be this way in this space.
Remorse colored my thoughts. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “It’s not really my business. I shouldn’t have said you can’t live out there. You can live anywhere you choose. I…I just worry.”
“But why do you worry?” Her voice was partly muffled against the fabric of my shirt. “You don’t even know me.”
I leaned back, putting the smallest amount of space between us. “I do know you.”
Her eyes widened.
“In here.” I rested my fingertip against my chest.
Then, without thought, I lowered my head and our lips touched.
Joy exploded inside me, although she didn’t respond right away.
Just touching her was enough. But before I could pull away, not even a beat later, her arms wound around my neck, and she tugged me closer and she moved her mouth over mine and flicked her tongue against my lips. Insistent. Impatient.
We were still in a public place, but it didn’t seem to matter. Ciara moved closer to me until the next move she’d need to make would be to crawl into my lap or into my pocket. There was no space left between us.
She drew away, her hand resting on my cheek, maintaining our connection. “I don’t know why I feel—”
“It’s okay.” I understood her confusion. I didn’t fully know everything I felt anymore these days, either.
She could feel the mate bond. That much was obvious. But if I found that difficult, I couldn’t imagine what it felt like in a human body. Especially one more attuned to being around shifters.
The mate bond created attraction, but in the right pair it brought so much more. Something deeper. Everything I wanted. Was she feeling that, too?
“You’re a vampire,” she whispered, and she smoothed her palm almost absentmindedly down the front of my shirt.
“I am.”
“Vampires killed our shifters.” She touched me again. Like the contact was some sort of compulsion.
Damn émile. “I know what the House of Ricard did.” I kept my voice low, but she shook her head.
“No, recently. The vampires the king finally came and took care of. They killed some of Conri’s men first.”
“What?” I looked at her. “Why didn’t you say?”
“Didn’t you know? I thought you knew. Conri felt really let down.”
I shook my head. “No… No… Nic would never have let that stand. He’d have come to fight sooner if he’d known. He’d have had a plan.”
“But we’re shifters.” She sighed. “Well, they are. I’m… I’m…”
“Perfect.” I kissed the tip of her nose.
She chuckled but the sound was dry and humorless. “I’m not really one of them. I’m other.”
For a moment, I thought she’d been about to say nothing, and I was glad she hadn’t. I’d have argued that.
“But you and Conri share parents?” I wanted to know her story direct from her. No more half-remembered rumors or assumptions.
“We share a mom.” She half smiled. “I pretty much only borrowed his dad, but you would never have known. The forgiveness that man must have had in his soul. Wolves mate, you know.” She glanced at me.
“I think he almost had no choice but to forgive Mom. I don’t know what happened, but his love for her was stronger than the mistake she made when she slept with my dad. ”
I almost whistled. The alpha had risked making himself look weak to his whole pack when he accepted his mate back.
He could have cast her out, exiled her from the pack.
But I looked at Ciara. Could she ever do anything that I wouldn’t forgive her for?
It seemed unlikely. It seemed I needed her like I’d needed air as a human.
“We wouldn’t have let you down.” I was confident in this sentiment. “Nic is an honorable man.”
“But deals with shifters are rare…” She stopped and grinned at me, a touch of mischief playing in the smile. “And those deals are tricky.”
I laughed softly and drew her against me again.
She rested her head on my chest. “I can hear your heart.” She didn’t move, and her next question was quieter. “What are we doing?”
I teased a lock of her hair between my thumb and forefinger. “Sitting. Talking. Knowing.” My heart sped up. Loving.
“I like it.” Her words weren’t even a whisper this time, but I heard them, and my chest filled with hope. She cleared her throat. “So you think if I get Conri to talk to Nic about—”
Loud booming echoed from outside, stopping her flow of words.
“What was that?” I reacted to the panic in her voice, moving so fast as to be unnatural in public.
But that didn’t matter. Only Ciara did.
I shifted our position, making sure I was in front of her, shielding her from whatever threat was outside.
My senses screamed at me. Something was wrong. More than simply an explosion caused by the human population. Humans could deal with that. They could clear up their own messes. But this was different. Power crackled through the air, and I shivered as it licked against my skin.
Francois. His name was the first thought in my mind.
“I have to get back.”
Ciara grabbed my hand, and we ran from the coffee shop onto the sidewalk outside. The charge of power was even greater here and Ciara turned to me.
“What’s that?”
I shrugged, but it could only be one thing. The Ancients. But what the hell were they doing? If Ciara and I could feel this, though, Francois could, too, and I wasn’t sure what it would do to him.
“I’m going back. Return to the pack, make yourself safe.” I tried to let go of her hand.
“But I can fight.” Her hold tightened on me, and she started to run toward my apartment building. “I can help.”
I didn’t have time to make her see that she only needed to go home to get Conri.
I wanted to be her only protector, but I had to rely on her brother now.
He’d never let anything happen to her—as much as he and I didn’t get along, I knew that much as certainty.
Ciara was important to him. She wouldn’t have survived so long in his pack if she wasn’t.
This moment shouldn’t have been a choice between saving Francois and protecting my mate, but suddenly it was. And the war between instinct and love and duty was shredding my insides.