CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Shadow
When the chug of Kayla’s car fades from the end of the driveway, I spin toward the foyer’s translation parchment and point. “You and I need to have a little talk.”
“Who, me?” Victoria writes.
“Do you see anyone else here?” I lift an eyebrow. “We need to talk about that wedding. It was a disaster.”
Doors bang throughout the house, and a sulky feeling fills the air.
“Look.” I pat the wall. “I’m on your side. We have the same goal: to win the game and make this marriage permanent.”
The atmosphere lightens a little. “I’m listening.”
“But to do that, we need to make Kayla want it. We need her to enjoy the dates and weddings. We certainly don’t need any more dresses so uncomfortable she calls them diabolical.” I lift an eyebrow.
“Fine.”
“Kayla’s picking this next date and wedding, and this is exactly what we need to turn things around and make her enjoy all of this, if…”
“If what?” Eagerness saturates the air.
“We don’t change any of her plans or criticize or act in any way negatively about what she wants.” I say “we” to lessen the sting, but my words are all for Victoria. “No slamming doors, no sarcasm.”
“Kayla loves sarcasm,” Victoria writes.
I think of the purple-haired witch’s T-shirts and have to agree. “That’s beside the point.” My hand slashes through the air. “For this date and wedding, you’re going to be sweetness and light, or you’re going to remain silent.”
“Or else?” Curtains slam closed throughout the house, cutting off the buttery evening sunlight. It’s not dark enough to impede my night vision, but Victoria’s made her point.
I soften my tone and pet the wallpaper again.
“Or else you don’t get what you want, which is Kayla happy and married and no longer alone.
” Like a child, Victoria feels a complex combination of personal selfishness mixed with love for Kayla.
The one doesn’t cancel out the other—I just need her to see past her own wants to focus on her love for the witch.
The curtains fling open as a sigh of wind whips past me. “All right, we’ll try it your way.”
“Thank you.”
“You better make it work after all your big talk.”
“Don’t worry. I play to win.”
If it’s the last thing I do. Kayla will be mine.
Kayla’s still in the middle of her alarm routine the next morning when I go ahead and take a shower. Even though it’s not something I could ever imagine enjoying back when I lived only as a panther, the hot water pounding over my sensitive skin is yet another delight I’ve grown to love.
I dry off, enjoying the soft touch of the towel, and wrap it around my waist. After wiping the mirror free of mist, I practice several thirst-trap poses.
A bird trills right outside the window, song bright and full of joy and reminding me that I have a new game to set in motion.
I open the bathroom door, and Kayla plows into me with a sleepy oof, the soft sound a puff of air against my shoulder. Her hands grip my biceps, her lovely soft breasts pressing against my chest. The scent of lavender and woman and Kayla stirs a primal instinct, bringing it roaring to life. Claim.
She leaps backward, blinking rapidly. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you were in here.”
“It’s no trouble.”
Her gaze finally focuses, her attention drifting down my bare chest to the towel, which now rides low on my hips. “You… you’re naked!” She says it with a note of disbelief bordering on affront.
“And here I thought that was fairly normal when taking a shower.” I drop my voice to a purr. “Perhaps I’ve been doing it wrong. You could always show me the correct way, my wife.” I gesture toward the bathtub, and my towel slides another inch lower.
“Whuh?” Kayla’s gaze remains on the towel for another second. Then she shakes her head, her cheeks blazing with color. “What? No! I don’t want that!”
I step closer and lean over to purr in her ear, “Liar.” At her shiver, I chuckle. “Admit it. I win this round.”
“Yeah, sure.” Her eyes lose the look of flustered attraction, growing cool. “You win.” She moves past me without sneaking any more peeks, and the door closes with a firm click.
I’m not sure what I did wrong, but I don’t let that stop me. If anything, it makes today’s plan even more important. The bedroom door might be done, but I’m unwilling to give up my new woodworking skills.
Or the opportunity to be a thirst trap.
Later that afternoon, I step off the shadow roads into Victoria’s backyard, carrying a bunch of large tree branches. Dewdrop launches from my shoulder with a happy chirp and angles toward the house, who opens the back door so he can fly inside to find Kayla.
When I met with the men at The Thirsty Tusk last night, I asked Jace to get me permission for another trip to the dragon realm, and he granted it.
While Dewdrop visited with his friends, I spent all morning on the outskirts of the dragonet glen, collecting dried branches.
It took longer than I expected, since magical trees tend to be exceedingly healthy, but I finally have enough for what I have in mind.
I quickly set up a couple of sawhorses and rip my shirt over my head just in time.
“I wanted to thank you for taking Dewdrop to visit his friends. He says thank you, too. He had a wonderful time,” Kayla calls from her open office window, the dragonet on her shoulder. Her eyes latch onto my bare chest. “Why are you naked again?”
“It’s a surprise.” I grin over at her while flexing as I pick up the heaviest branch and rest it across the sawhorses. “You’ll see what it is in a couple of days.”
I grab a knife and spend the rest of the day stripping away the bark without damaging the wood underneath. It’s painstaking work that challenges my newfound dexterity and stretches its limits, exactly as I hoped.
Of course, every time Kayla looks out her window, I also stop to pour water all over myself, head tipped back, expression lost in ecstasy.
Her soft gasps of appreciation fill me with heat, ratcheting up the impatience of my cock, which strains against my jeans, having had enough of this year-long hunt.
I ignore it. Kayla’s well worth the wait.
And I play to win.
The next day, I move on to sanding and sealing the branches, finding several good thirst-trap opportunities.
If my wife catches me in the middle of working, I play it up, rippling my muscles in the most alluring manner.
My lack of fur allows her to see every play of movement, and I’ve been practicing in front of a mirror to make sure I know how to show myself off to best advantage.
Though really, it’s not as if I could ever look bad.
I am, after all, a panther no matter my form, and all cats are magnificent.
Finally, the morning of our date-night dawns, and I leap from bed to finish my project. I call Jace and tell him it’s time to come over, then get to work. Anticipation speeds my movements as I assemble my creation in the living room.
By the time the dragon lands in the front yard, I’m ready.
Victoria throws open the front door, a feeling of excitement filling the air. “Hello!” she writes. “These magical parchments are amazing. Thank you again!”
“It was my pleasure.” Jace gives her a courtly bow, his blue wings rustling as they shift with the movement. “In fact, I’d like to run some more diagnostics while I’m here.”
“After you do what you came for.” I grin at him.
“Of course.” He doesn’t smile back. I’m going to have to keep working on loosening him up.
Kayla tries to come out of her office, but I shoo her back in. “Not yet. I’ll get you in a moment. Please keep Dewdrop with you.”
Her eyes flick to Jace, then to me, full of questions. But she nods. “Okay.”
I wave the dragon into the living room and gesture toward my creation. “This is it. Do you have the crystal?”
“I do.” He pulls out a small crystal, glowing the bright green of new spring growth. “This proved an interesting spell to create. I had to consult Lukendevener’s library.”
“As long as it does what I want.”
“Of course it will.” He glares at me, his ice-blue eyes freezing in their disdain. “What do you take me for? Some hundred-year-old whelp fresh out of the nursery?”
“No, sorry.” I drop my usual grin. I find it hard to express any kind of doubt in front of other types of fae.
While stuck in our panther forms, my people spent centuries trusting only those of our pack.
Yet I now also walk the realms as a man.
To fully embrace this new world, I need to make friends, real friends.
So I force myself to admit: “I really need this to go right.”
His expression goes from sub-zero to a mildly cool spring day, which is about as warm as the ice dragon gets. “You care about her.”
“I do.”
“All right.” He gestures toward my creation. “Where do you want it?”
“Here.” I point to a spot. “So it activates everything above this point.”
At his grunt of approval, I drill a small hole and use a wooden mallet to embed the crystal inside the tree so only the tip sticks out.
Jace leans over and strikes it with a claw, and magic vibrates through the wood. Tiny buds appear on all of the branches above the crystal, growing and unfurling until purple leaves cover the entire section.
I step back and take it all in, joy filling me until a smile stretches my cheeks. I clasp forearms with Jace. “Thank you. Your spell is perfect.”
He nods, his lips curling the tiniest bit in pleasure. “I’m going to visit with Victoria now. I want to run some diagnostics on the outside of the house.”
“But if you’re outside, how will you talk to me?” she asks.
“I have another translation parchment.” He pulls a piece of cream paper from his invisible pocket. “I can temporarily affix it to you in each location so that we may freely converse.”
Kitchen-cupboard applause echoes from the hallway, and the front door swings open as he approaches.
“Have fun,” I call over my shoulder, already on my way to Kayla’s office. I throw open the door. “It’s time for your surprise!”
Curiosity brightens her beautiful brown eyes as she hurries past me, Dewdrop flying right behind. She slams to a stop in the middle of the living room, looking toward where my creation stands in front of the windows.
Dewdrop flies over to hover in front of it, emitting a series of high chirps.
“It’s… it’s a cat tree?” Kayla turns puzzled eyes on me. “Won’t it be too small for your panther form?”
“Entirely too small.” I chuckle. “It’s not for me. It’s for Dewdrop.”
Two trunks made out of tree branches reach upward from the base.
The shorter one holds a padded sleeping platform about six feet off the ground.
The other trunk continues up to the full height of the vaulted ceiling and sprouts numerous smaller side branches covered with purple leaves.
There’s another sleep nook tucked inside, where several of the branches come together.
The dragonet gives a shriek of piercing delight and dives onto the open platform, turning in circles as all four of his paws test its softness. Then he hops over to the taller trunk, scaling it effortlessly to disappear inside the thicket of leaves the same purple as his scales.
Kayla follows him over and reaches up to touch one of the leaves. “They’re real leaves instead of silk, and I can feel magic.”
“They are.” I step up beside her. “I asked Jace to find a spell that would grow them. I thought it would be a nice touch to create a sleeping place like the ones Dewdrop had in Dularia.”
The dragonet sticks his head out and whistles at Kayla before ducking back inside.
“He loves it.” She looks at me with her eyes so full of warmth I want to wrap her in my arms and never let go. “Thank you.”
“Do you like it?” I smile.
“This is the swankiest cat tree to ever swank. You did a fantastic job.” She trails her fingers over one of the trunks, stroking the satiny finish. “Of course I love it. Dewdrop’s over the moon. I didn’t even think about something like this, just made him a blanket nest on the corner of my bed.”
“This gives Dewdrop a place he can call his own.” I pat the trunk, my hand “accidentally” brushing hers. Then I drop my voice into a seductive purr. “It also gives you the chance to have more… private time.”
Her cheeks turn bright pink, and her heartbeat speeds. The sweetest of scents perfumes the air with musk and woman and something indescribably Kayla.
My nostrils flare, and I suppress my instinctive possessive growl as my erection twitches to life.
Soon my long stalk will come to an end, and I’ll win the courtship game. My witchy beauty will be mine.