Happy #2
“What else do you talk to Cormac about?” Monique inquired. “Anything?”
“Well, I tell him I want to go home. He tells me that’s not going to happen.
I tell him he’s made it explicit how he feels about me and our destiny, that being, he doesn’t want me, and we don’t have a destiny.
Therefore, I don’t understand why he took me in the first place.
But I also don’t need to understand. He has no claim on me and needs to let me go.
He tells me that’s not going to happen, and I need to accept it. Or he shouts it in my face.”
Lord in Hellfire.
He shouted at her?
“Then he stalks out, like I offended him,” Gayle finished.
“This is just—” Laura started.
“Bizarre,” Monique finished.
“No, it’s unacceptable,” I spat.
“It really is,” Laura agreed, her tone shifting from shocked to angry.
“Why haven’t you mentioned any of this earlier?” Monique asked Gayle.
Gayle turned away, took another sip, then a visibly deep breath, but she didn’t come back to us.
I knew why.
I saw the pain on her face.
However, it warred with something vastly different.
She wanted to be there.
Because Cormac was hers. Or he should be.
And he was there.
I thought of the longing I felt for Tanyn during our brief separation. It was almost unbearable. I had no appetite. It was hard to sleep. And he was on my mind all the time.
What would have been more unbearable was, if I’d elected to stay at Berg Castle, with him close, but still oh so very far away from me.
No, that wouldn’t have been more unbearable.
It would have been agony.
Gayle and Cormac were linked.
By fate.
I knew Laura came to this same conclusion when she whispered, “Oh, honey.”
Gayle didn’t return to us but admitted to some wall in whatever room she was in, “It’s like, I live for him to show up just to piss me off.
” We watched her close her eyes tight, open them and come back to us.
“It’s stupid. It’s crazy. I keep reminding myself what an asshole he is, but it doesn’t work.
I just…somewhere deep down inside…feel like I’m… gods…”
She stopped talking.
We all waited.
She finished glumly, “Home.”
“Now, be totally honest with us about how it was since you figured out it was Cormac, and then he left after the Midnight Masque,” Laura bossed. “Were you able to cope with it, or were you putting on a brave face?”
“I care about Sirk, a lot,” she stressed. “He’s a good male. We enjoy each other. That wasn’t about settling. It was about moving on.”
“Okay, we get that,” Monique said. “But it doesn’t answer Laura’s question.”
“It’s not Sirk,” she said miserably. “It’s not right.
And Sirk feels it. In fact, before Cormac kidnapped me, we had a date, and the way Sirk made that date, I’m pretty sure he was going to break up with me.
” She pulled her shoulders forward in a defeated movement before she went on, “I mean, he has his own mate to search for. It wasn’t like we’d last.”
Although that was true, none of this was making me any less angry.
In fact, it was making me more so.
“I don’t want to talk about me anymore,” Gayle said.
“I just wanted to see you gals. And I wanted you to see I’m fed, I’m watered, I’m working.
It’s kind of like being on a weird vacation broken up with doing what I’m paid to do by my employers.
I’m reading a lot. Taking a ton of walks.
There’s a lovely pool here where I can swim.
I don’t have to worry about supplying my Cook-Companion or staying out of the way of my vac-bot or making sure the detergent levels in my closet’s laundro are good. ”
And she was where she needed to be, just not how she needed to be there.
“So,” Gayle said fake chirpily in my direction. “What’s going on with you and King Tanyn?”
Now, I really didn’t want to share.
But I also didn’t want to keep anything from her.
“It was bumpy, to say the least, but in the end, we found we…suit.”
That didn’t come close to explaining it, but it was the word I needed to use so Gayle didn’t feel about me and Tanyn how I knew we all felt about Laura and Aleksei.
Like they had what we wanted, and now what I might grow to have, but it didn’t seem Gayle would.
“I’m guessing there’s a longer story there,” Gayle prompted.
I got into it, focusing more on the getting-to-know-you parts, and elaborating on the fighting parts, finalizing with the we’re-exploring-this part.
Even downplaying it, and through a holo, I could see her envy. It was loving, also happy for me, but it was envy.
We finished things with Laura promising to talk to Aleksei about him having words with Cormac, me keeping my mouth shut on that score (but I would oh-so be having words with Tanyn about this, so he’d have his own with Cormac), and everyone doing an update.
We worked our way through a lot of snacks and two bottles of wine before Gayle bid adieu.
When she blinked out, Laura immediately turned to me, which was good, since I was already turned to her.
“We need to get our males on this,” she decreed at the same time I said, “Our males need to intervene immediately.”
“I’m not a fated mate expert,” Monique put in. “But maybe you two should let this play out as it will.”
“Love you, but I have to ask, how would you feel, you’re parched, dying of thirst and locked in a cage with a glass of water just out of your reach?” I demanded.
“See your point,” Monique mumbled.
I bet she did.
After that, we didn’t linger, and they left (Laura’s RS pilot was dropping Mon home).
When they did, I cleared away the bottles, glasses and food (I didn’t own bots, because of Mom, instead, I had a weekly cleaning service, and they were beings).
I then went right to my Palm, saw a text comm from Tanyn that said Home. How’s Wednesday for you to come up?
I did not text back.
I threw myself on my couch and audio commed him.
“Hey, baby,” he answered.
“Prince Cormac is holding Gayle prisoner,” I announced.
He was silent for a second before he requested, “Say that again.”
“One. Of. My. Dearest. Friends. Is being held prisoner. By Prince Cormac!”
My voice was rising by the end.
“Prisoner?” he asked.
“It’s what we expected it was, only confirmed, but it’s also worse.
He only sees her every once in a while, doing this to reiterate she’s staying until he’s assured she’s safe.
Otherwise, she’s restricted to the Fleur de Flora grounds, and all her comms are blocked, except work, her gals, and her parents. ”
There was more silence from Tanyn, but this time, it didn’t end.
So I filled it.
“She’s exactly where she wants to be, closer to him, which is killing her, Tanyn,” I snapped. “She’s happy, and she’s desolate. Tugged one way by her fate, only never to have what it is she needs when he’s living in the same castle as her. It’s…it’s…fucking diabolical.”
“Leave this with me.”
My back shot straight at his tone, one I’d never heard from him, but it sent chills over my skin.
“What are you—?”
“Leave it with me, Cat,” he bit off. “Is Laura going to speak to Aleksei about it?”
“Yes, we both—”
Again, I didn’t finish because he gritted. “Fine. Good. I’ll let you go now. I’ll comm you tomorrow. Oh, and Nayden is on his way down to you. His team will relieve Aleksei’s in the morning.”
“Tanyn—”
“Sleep well. Dream of me. My dreams will be of you.”
And with that, he ended our comm.
I stared at my Palm.
I gave a moment’s thought to Tanyn being pissed and doing something about Gayle.
I then approved of Tanyn being pissed and doing something about Gayle.
And with that, I headed up to bed with my tablet and read for a while before I fell asleep.
And dreamed of Tanyn.
The next morning, the lift doors opened while I was deep into coffee number two and eating some yogurt and berries.
I was not surprised when Nayden walked in because I’d been informed by the head of my RS detail that the handoff would be at eight, Nayden had been given access to my flat, and he’d report in at eight fifteen.
Which was now.
I sipped from the other side of the island and watched him walk toward me.
His expression was blank and he offered no greeting when he stopped moving.
So I said, “Hey.”
“Catla,” he said low.
I swung my coffee cup out and offered, “You want a cup?”
“No,” he replied shortly.
“Sorry you were pulled away from your life to do this.”
“The only higher honor I can have other than protecting our future queen, is protecting our king, something I will never be able to do because of my relationship with Tanyn.”
That didn’t make sense.
“I would think that would make you perfect for the job,” I noted.
“Having an emotional connection to your charge is detrimental to the focus you need to do it correctly.”
Well then.
Reading between those lines, since he didn’t feel much for me, he’d be all set.
“Listen—” I began in an effort to mend the damage I’d inflicted by upsetting Tanyn on a day he’d already been devastated.
He cut me off. “It’s none of my business.”
“It is. You two are close.”
“It’s still none of my business.”
“And he and I are courting.”
“I think I’ve made myself clear.”
“You don’t like me,” I deduced.
“I don’t know you,” he tried diplomacy, though, he totally didn’t like me.
“There’s a very good possibility I’ll be in his life for a very long time,” I pointed out quietly.
“Then I hope there’s a very good possibility you’ll give a shit about his feelings in future,” he shot back.
Well, there you go.
We knew where we stood.
Although, after that exchange, I was partially seeing the point Tanyn made about not sticking my nose into Gayle and Cormac’s situation (though, I figured last night he changed his mind about that), I wasn’t going to defend myself to Nayden.
He was right.
What had happened with Tanyn and I was none of his business. What would happen between Tanyn and I was also none of his business.
Except it was.
Nayden would form opinions. I surely would tick him off again, because I surely would tick Tanyn off again.
And he’d side with Tanyn every time.
I was completely at one with that.
“You know my schedule?” I queried.