Chapter 19
nineteen
LIV
Niall spent the next few hours in his panther form, giving me plenty of space to work. He brushed up against my side when I got up and moved every hour or so, and brought me a water bottle full of an electrolyte drink every time. A snack, too.
He gave me a dirty look if I tried to start working again without draining the bottle and eating.
The caffeine in the coffee I'd purchased started making me panicky after approximately three sips. When my breathing picked up and I had to hug Niall's furry form to my chest like he was a stuffed animal rather than a rare, deadly shifter, he accidentally knocked the cup over with his tail.
It was probably for the better.
Early in the afternoon, he had fried chicken and mashed potatoes delivered to the villa. He was back in his panther form when Gwen called my name half an hour after he made the call.
"Liv! I have your lunch. You can just text me or Jonah when you get hungry, we don't mind asking the wolves in the kitchen to—" She stopped abruptly when she saw the giant cat behind me. "Oh my god!"
There were plenty of other kinds of shifters in the city, but none of them associated with the Alpha werewolf.
"I assume that's Niall," Jonah's voice said.
Some part of me registered that having these men together again was dangerous, but I was channeling my magic into a few hundred trees at the moment. It wasn't the kind of work you could just start and stop on a whim. If my mind wandered, I could fuck up all of the trees.
"Great to see you again," Niall said flatly. "Thanks for bringing the food." He must've shifted back.
"Sorry to interrupt. We didn't realize you were out here with her," Gwen apologized. "I guess that's why there's so much food."
I felt a trickle of blood drip from my nose as I sent the last bit of necessary magic into the trees and sat back on my heels, panting.
"You're bleeding." Niall's growl was the only warning before he was kneeling next to me, completely naked and not giving a damn about it.
"It happens." I dashed the blood away with the back of my finger. The dirt from the night before must've hidden the blood from him, because he seemed surprised about it.
"It shouldn't happen."
"It's fine."
"It's not fine, Livvy."
"It'll stop when we eat." It was true. Sort of. It would stop while I ate, but would start again as soon as I was back at it. The nosebleeds were just another part of the price I paid for my magic. They only happened when I used a lot of it, the way growing plants like this required.
"You don't get nosebleeds."
"I do sometimes." I batted his hand away, glancing over at Gwen.
She was staring openly at Niall. The man was a fucking work of art, and he was mine.
"Put some pants on," I said, and noticed the possessive gleam in his eyes.
Him and Jonah being anywhere near each other was a bad idea. Hopefully the werewolves were planning on leaving.
"How many forms do you have?" Gwen asked him, and I knew they weren't on their way out.
She was too curious.
If he showed any sign of interest in her…
"I've never counted." Niall pulled on a pair of navy-blue boxer-briefs that he'd tucked into the snack bag after shifting. They hid nothing at all.
He took the food from Jonah while I slumped back against a tree. Whatever energy I might've had toward socializing on a normal day was completely and utterly gone.
Niall sat down against the tree next to me and handed me another bottle of the electrolyte drink after digging through the snack bag.
Something told me there would be an extra bag dedicated purely to those the next time we came out here.
He had counted how many forms he could come up with when he and Larson were kids. They had a whole game about it. He just wasn't interested in telling her, which I liked immensely.
"How many of them have you seen?" Gwen asked me.
"Liv can't talk until her drink's gone," Niall said without batting an eye.
He had always been an asshole.
Probably always would be.
I fucking loved it.
I rolled my eyes in his direction anyway, and lowered the bottle from my lips. "I've seen him in two or three dozen forms. The panther is his favorite, but the grizzly is a close second."
"Drink." Niall flashed me a warning look.
Since my nose was still bleeding, I lifted the bottle back to my lips.
"I thought you were exes," Jonah said, glancing between us. "Are you back together?"
I kept drinking.
Nope.
Wasn't going to play this game, whatever the hell it was.
"I know you two were exes, since you fucked my female five months ago," Niall said flatly.
I choked on my drink, coughing when it went up my nose and leaning away from the tree as I did. Niall smacked my back lightly, like he was trying to help me clear my throat.
"It was an error of judgment," Jonah said. "And it wasn't great."
Ouch.
Niall went completely and utterly still.
I grabbed his bare, inked up thigh and hit him with a bolt of my power before he could attack Jonah. He didn't flinch, which struck me as an abnormal reaction.
Instead, he stood.
Shit.
I was too wiped out to get up, so I remained sitting and watched warily as he strode toward the werewolf.
Gwen stepped between them and cleared her throat. "Is it true you're a famous painter, Niall?"
He ignored her, giving Jonah what was undoubtedly a deadly glare. Jonah won the Beta Challenges, but there was no way he could take a shapeshifter down. MMA training be damned.
"It wasn't great?" Niall asked, his voice low and deceptively calm.
Jonah moved a little, slightly uncomfortably.
He'd gotten off in like thirty seconds every time we were together, so he and I didn't share the same experience as far as our sex life went.
"You're so bad in bed that my female had to fucking fake an orgasm, and you want to claim that it wasn't great for you?"
I closed my eyes.
I definitely shouldn't have been turned on by this insane, ridiculous streak of possessiveness, but I was.
Jonah's chest rumbled with a quiet growl. "That's not what I meant."
Niall chuckled, but there was no humor behind the sound. "I didn't think so. Stay the fuck away from my mate. She's here for the trees, not for you."
With that, the shapeshifter turned his back to the werewolf and strode over to the place I was sitting. The look I shot him said, "Seriously?"
The one he sent back said, "Seriously."
"So… paintings?" Gwen asked, clearing her throat again. Her face was red. I wasn't sure whether she looked angry or embarrassed. I didn't particularly care, either way.
"Niall's an amazing painter. The huge painting of the orchard in the villa's foyer is one of his. Simon commissioned it pretty soon after Rumor was established," I said.
"Seriously? Wow." I pulled a massive box of fried chicken out of the bag of food, and set it on my lap. It smelled phenomenal.
"Thanks for playing delivery crew, but Liv needs to focus. Leave," Niall said. His voice was casual, but there was no avoiding the fact that he gave them an order.
Gwen and Jonah both looked at me.
There were a million things I could've said.
Sorry about the jackass shapeshifter, his possessiveness knows no bounds.
You're lucky he didn't just kill you.
He's mine, fuck off.
I settled on giving them a thumbs-up.
"Let us know if you need anything," Gwen called over her shoulder. "We'll send someone with dinner in a few hours, so don't worry about ordering anything."
I made a noise of agreement around the chunk of chicken I'd already sunk my teeth into.
After they walked away, Niall sat back down beside me. "How bad do you think a werewolf tastes?"
"I don't know. Not good."
He made a noncommittal sound. "I deserve a congratulations for not killing that fucker. If it wouldn't cause you problems with the Cabinet and your sister-in-law, he'd already be dead."
I put my hand back on his thigh. "Eat your food. It'll calm you down."
"If I'd so much as looked at Gwen, we both know I'd be burying a body right now."
I sighed dramatically. "So we're both twisted. It is what it is."
We demolished the food, and I went back to work.
Niall sat under the trees near me in his grizzly form for the next few hours.
Dinner arrived a little later than expected, and all of the supplies Niall had brought were gone by the time it did. He could still see fine in the dark, and when I talked him into staying one more hour, he grumbled but agreed.
My phone rang partway through the last hour, and I vaguely heard Niall answer it.
"Why are you calling my female, Lars?"
He was clearly still pissy. At least I knew it was the possessiveness speaking. That would help me snap him out of it later.
"She needs to rest tomorrow," Niall said after a long pause. "The rain can wait."
Larson must've wanted to fix the wards.
I would call him back and tell him I was ready, as soon as I snapped Niall out of his shitty mood. If he was going to insist on following me and taking care of me, I was going to at least try to make sure he wasn't miserable. It was the decent thing to do.
Plus, I did get where he was coming from. He hadn't been wrong about Gwen and the body burying.
"Fine. I'll tell her," Niall growled. "Don't count on it."
I was pretty sure he ended the call after that.
I reminded myself to ask him about it. Later. Much later.
It was another twenty minutes before I was done with my last batch of trees for the day. After sitting on my ass to recover for a few minutes while Niall fussed over me, he carried me back to my car.
I was too drained to even try to convince him to let me walk.
When he set me down on the passenger seat, I was filthy and exhausted and stunk horribly, but I tightened my arms around him instead of letting go.
"What are you doing, Livvy?" he asked into my hair.
"I want you to hold me." I said against his throat.
Niall managed to duck into the car, pulling me onto his lap and adjusting our positions at the same time so I was straddling him while we hugged. When I tightened my grip, he tightened his too.
We stayed like that for a while. At least a few minutes.
His touch may not have erased the price of my magic the way my fated mate's would, but it was bliss anyway. Pure fucking bliss.
"Are you pissed at me about the werewolf thing?" he finally murmured.
"Not at all."
The breath he let out was all relief, and his shoulders relaxed a little. "That fucker…"
I lifted my head until the sides of our noses touched, meeting his eyes square-on. "Your opinion is the only one I care about."
"You're mine."
"I know." I kissed him, the way he always kissed me.
Deeply.
Slowly.
With passion, and without roughness.
Niall buried his hands in my hair as he tilted my head back, taking my throat deeper with his tongue, like he wanted more of me. Needed more of me.
I felt the same way about him.
The kiss started hot, but grew scorching. I was slick between my thighs, and his erection throbbed beneath me.
My need was vicious.
My lust, even more so.
And the feelings for him I'd never really been able to shake... they were another beast entirely.
I reached for the waistband of his shorts, but he caught both of my wrists in one hand, pulling his mouth away from mine so he could meet my eyes again.
"I can’t fuck you in this ridiculously small car, Livvy."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
I leaned my forehead to rest against his, catching my breath. "What if I ask nicely?"
He chuckled, tugging my hair lightly. "It's not happening."
"Come on, Ni."
"I'll buy you a burger on the way home." He kissed me again, lightly.
Then set me down on my ass, and walked around to the driver's seat.
Despite the slickness between my thighs, I fell asleep before we picked up the burgers.