Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
SOREN
“Does she know?” Seth asked, staring at the space Moira had just vacated.
“Hard to say.” I had about a hundred emotions roaring through me, confusing and annoying, and I wasn’t sure how to handle any of them.
“How long was she there?”
“A few months, I think. She doesn’t tell me anything anymore.”
Seth scratched his chin. “Should we tell her?”
I scoffed. “Fuck no. Moira is salty on a good day. Tell her something like that, and she’s bound to kill the messenger.”
Seth gave me a look. “Yeah, dude. Not sure about that. I think she just hates you. Not me.”
True, but I wasn’t about to admit it to the asshole. Seth was a friend, and I trusted him, but we’d never bonded in the way some Lords did with their Seconds.
Mine tended to ooze disapproval at some of my admittedly poor decisions involving women. And he was looking at Moira in a way that made me want to rip his face off.
But yes, this current thing was a little disturbing.
As if summoned from the fiery pits of hell, my cell rang, Ethan’s name flashing on the screen when I dug it out of my pocket.
Seth grimaced. “She told him.”
“She had to. Her position requires her to keep the other Lords informed, and she’s always taken her duties seriously.
” Moira was a lot of things, but I never doubted her dedication to whatever duties she was assigned or loyalty to those she cared about.
Unfortunately, I no longer fit into the second category.
“You could have asked her nicely to delay the inevitable.” The bastard laughed. We both knew Moira was ill-inclined to do anything to help me out.
The phone kept ringing.
“Might want to answer. He’s not a Lord I want to be on the bad side of.”
My lips compressed. Seth was right. “Fuck,” I snarled and pressed the answer button.
“EIGHT WOMEN?” Ethan roared into the phone. “ARE YOU INSANE?”
Letting him see me vulnerable was not an option. Correction. It was never an option. Not if I wanted to be respected. “Yes, well,” I drawled. “I have been very busy these days.”
Seth winced and stood, giving me the privacy I wasn’t sure I wanted.
“You idiot,” he snarled. “And I sent Moira of all people?”
“I didn’t ask for her.” True. I had no idea this would get smacked down to her level, though I suppose I should have. A Lord should be able to handle a small coven of witches. But these were not regular witches. Something was off about all of them. Like many shifters, I didn’t care for witches.
I did, however, love women. Obviously. And a witch was a woman. I wasn’t there for their magic.
“What on earth possessed you to tangle with an entire coven?” The anger was mostly gone from Ethan’s voice. He just sounded tired.
“Not an entire coven. Give me some credit.”
“Drop the bullshit playboy act, Soren. You can get away with that shit around the other Lords, but I’ve known you far too long. I see under that veneer of designer clothing and perfect hair to the man underneath.”
I went still. No one saw anything I didn’t want them to see. Ethan was bluffing.
“You didn’t give us all the information. If there’s magic around that place a Lord can’t walk through, you’re dealing with more than witches.”
“I don’t sense anything else.”
“Yes, well, considering you’re the reason we’re in this pickle now, forgive me if I don’t take your judgment at face value.”
Rage flickered around the edges of my skin. I took a deep, silent breath and held it for a moment before slowly releasing it. “This happened a couple of years ago. Before Moira.”
Ethan said nothing for a long moment. “And after her?”
I remembered the way her face looked when she realized what I was doing, the pain in her stunning dark eyes as they widened with horror. Something inside me broke that night, and I hadn’t found all the pieces to put myself back together again.
“Does it matter?”
“Yes, it fucking matters,” Ethan snarled. “How many more times are we going to have to clean up your messes because you couldn’t keep your dick in your pants?”
I resisted the urge to snarl back. Ethan knew nothing about me. Yes, I’d made a huge mistake. I’d made plenty of those over the years. Part of the reason I longed to leave Louisiana was because of those mistakes. Part of it was because of what I’d done to Moira.
I’d done the same thing many times, and most chalked it up to normal male behavior, but those were the women who lived that life—the ones doing the same thing I was.
We dressed up in our best, went out on the town, and hoped to find someone to sink into to numb the pain, and while we went into it hopeful, all of us knew deep in our hearts it wouldn’t be anything more than a moment in time.
Until the next time we went out and repeated the cycle over and over again for eternity.
Moira was different. She’d genuinely cared about me, and I realized it far too late to course correct. Worse, she’d believed the words I’d repeated to dozens, maybe hundreds, of women before her. I thought she was like me, but I’d been so very wrong.
Moira wasn’t like anyone I’d ever known before, and I’d screwed things up so profoundly, she barely looked me in the eye anymore.
I wasn’t used to the constant guilt gnawing in my gut.
Every time I looked at her, I wanted to throw myself to my knees and beg her forgiveness, but she didn’t want it. No, Moira wanted something far worse.
She wanted me to be a better man.
“That won’t be a problem,” I responded.
“I don’t believe for one moment you’ve stopped dipping your wick into the overflowing honey pot of nightclubs and bars,” Ethan said dryly. “So why should I believe you?”
“I haven’t slept with a single woman since the fallout with Moira!” I snapped.
Silence fell over the line, the crackle of tension silent but there. Like me, Moira had tangled Ethan up. Whatever was between them was none of my business, but Ethan needed to know to tread lightly with her.
“Is that right?” Ethan mused, an odd note in his voice. “Are you in love with her?”
“Goddammit, Ethan. Should you be asking yourself the same question?”
“Watch yourself, Soren.”
“Your scent is all over her.”
“She spent months at my Keep.” A thin note of displeasure laced his tone.
“No, Ethan.” He had to know. Or he’d buried his head so far in the sand he couldn’t smell a thing. “Your scent is ingrained in her. Every shifter in a mile radius senses it.”
Silence on the line.
“Is there a reason you’re pointing this out?” His voice held a touch of a growl. “Do you wish to stake your own claim?”
Ethan’s amusement pissed me off.
“I don’t know what happened between you two, but Moira can barely hide her disdain when your name is mentioned.”
The barb hit true. Guilt and loathing warred inside me, but I wouldn’t give the bastard the satisfaction of knowing. “Then it sounds like I have a lot of making up to do. Eventually your scent will fade. We both know you won’t go forward with a mating bond, even if this is the beginning of one.”
I couldn’t quite tell. His scent was prevalent, yes, but Moira’s magic seemed ever changing. If there was a mating bond, it hadn’t formed. There was definitely something there, but nothing I’d seen before.
Regardless, Ethan’s scent lingering inside her skin was an obvious warning to every shifter to keep away.
Though from the loose-hipped swagger Seth adopted before he entered the main house to check on Moira, Ethan’s implied warning was merely a suggestion, not a demand.
“What I do or do not do is none of your business.”
Ethan was really pissed now.
“Then you won’t mind if I pursue Moira?”
The vampire wouldn’t let me within a hundred yards of her heart. I knew I blew it. But Ethan didn’t know.
His slight pause, followed by a wicked chuckle told me everything. “Do what you wish. Don’t come crying to me if she tears your balls off.”
I chuckled. “We’ll see how it goes.”
Ethan disconnected without another word. I smiled down at the phone.
Moira might tear my balls off, but I might have a lot of fun trying.
Considering I lived in a remote area with very little to do these days, I could use a bit of fun in my life.