Chapter 35
“W ait.” Honey stared around the now rather overcrowded office. “You all knew?”
From the looks on everyone’s faces, this was as much news to them as it was to her. Zephyr had summoned a select group of staff for an emergency meeting—Leonie, Moira, Ragvald, Conleth, and of course Buck, who practically filled the room all by himself, like a very localized thundercloud.
“ I did not know.” Ragvald gave Moira a rather reproachful look. “You should have told me, Princess. There should be no secrets between shield-siblings.”
“I only knew from Leonie,” Moira said apologetically. “And she would only tell me if I first swore on my honor not to speak of it to anyone else.”
“I couldn’t risk it getting back to Conleth or Zephyr,” said Leonie, still looking astounded. “Or at least, I thought I couldn’t. I still can’t believe you knew all this time, Conleth. I was certain you’d insist that Zephyr fired Honey to protect the camp’s funding.”
“I am not a total ruthless bastard,” Conleth said dryly.
For once, he’d set aside his laptop and phone, giving the conversation his full attention.
“Only mostly one. Believe it or not, it does not fill me with joy to crush small children’s dreams. I was prepared to do whatever it took to ensure none of the kids had to go home early.
And even if Honey had been discovered, I was confident that I could stop it from being a complete disaster for the camp.
As long as Zephyr could put his hand on heart and say that he honestly hadn’t known, and had fired her as soon as he found out, I knew I’d be able to spin the situation to appease Lord Golden.
Something that now, alas, looks considerably harder to achieve. ”
“Sorry,” Zephyr said to him. “I didn’t mean to ruin your strategy. I had no idea that you had one at all. I was aware you were looking for a backup counselor, but I thought it was just as a contingency measure.”
“To be fair, I would have done that anyway.” Conleth raised an eyebrow in Buck’s direction. “I had a realistic assessment of the chances of something going disastrously wrong this summer. Though until Buck came to talk to me, I was focusing my efforts on recruiting a backup male counselor.”
“I figured you’d worked out the truth from that conversation,” Buck growled. “And that you’d keep it to yourself. I didn’t know the rest of you motherlovers were in on it, though. When did you work it out, Leonie?”
“Not immediately,” Leonie said. “I knew there was something strange about Honey at our first meeting, though. Lions are strongly hierarchical, so we’re good at sizing up other shifters.
My lioness could tell she was an alpha, but also somehow not an alpha.
It took me a while to put together all the clues, though.
If I’d had my other animal, I probably would have known straight away. ”
Other animal? Honey wondered what Leonie meant by that, but this wasn’t the time to ask. “When did you know, Zephyr?”
“Ah…” He hesitated, looking embarrassed. “From your first night here. Forgive me, but your anxiety dreams were impossible to ignore. And not difficult to interpret.”
Honey stared at him. “My… dreams?”
“It’s something he does.” Buck fixed Zephyr with a glare that should have sliced him in half. “Though only with permission. Theoretically.”
Zephyr rubbed his forehead. “I assure you, after that first night, I have kept my Thunderbird abilities firmly in check. As your nephew, there are things I very much prefer not to see.”
Conleth rapped his knuckles on his desk, drawing everyone’s attention. “Amusing as it is to discover that we’ve all been assiduously trying to prevent each other from discovering Honey’s secret, we need to focus on damage limitation. First things first. Does anyone else know, outside this room?”
“Rufus,” Honey said, and saw more than one pair of eyebrows shoot up. “And possibly Ignatius.”
Leonie smacked herself on the forehead. “I should have known. If I could tell even when I’ve only got the lion, of course Rufus would spot it straight away.”
“That’s unlikely to be a problem, though,” Moira said. “Rufus won’t tell anyone. I’m more concerned about Ignatius. How much does he know, Honey?”
“Nothing for certain, I think,” she replied.
“He definitely suspected something was up, though Buck and I managed to throw him off the scent. But sometimes he looks at me like he’s trying to work up the nerve to ask me to my face.
In any event, I don’t think he’s likely to tell his uncle.
He knows what it would mean for the camp. ”
Conleth frowned. “The camp that, just to be clear, he didn’t want to attend and has been extraordinarily vocal about hating?”
“He changed his mind,” Buck said. “We had a chat, and I gave him the chance to leave. Kid didn’t take it. Decided to buckle down and make the best of things. He’ll keep his mouth shut.”
“I told you everyone falls in love with this place,” Leonie said to Honey, a brief smile displacing the worry in her face. She cast a glance at Buck. “Eventually.”
“It seems like there’s no immediate danger of Honey’s secret being exposed,” Zephyr said. “Your professional opinion as my business consultant, Conleth?”
Conleth gave him a pained look. “Is there any point wasting my breath? We both know you aren’t going to take my advice.”
“Fair enough.” Zephyr swept everyone apart from Honey with that calm, assessing gaze. “We’re all agreed, then?”
Leonie, Moira, and Ragvald all nodded. Buck didn’t, but his stance shifted a little, relaxing. The room abruptly felt a lot less claustrophobic.
“Agree on what?” Honey asked.
Zephyr leaned back in his chair, the picture of serenity. “I’m afraid I must inform you that I am unable to accept your resignation at this time, Honey.”
“What?” she said. “But—you can’t do that!”
“I think you’ll find that according to your employment contract, I very much can.” Zephyr picked up a pen, flipping over some papers on his desk in a clear sign of dismissal. “Your services are still required at camp. That will be all.”
“No—I mean, you can’t put the camp at risk for my sake,” she said, unable to believe he wasn’t taking this seriously. “Zephyr, I know how much money Lord Golden has invested in this place. If you cross him, he could ruin your business.”
“Quite possibly,” Zephyr agreed, without any sign of dismay. “At the very least, he would withdraw any future funding, and trash our reputation among the high-status shifter clans. It would be a considerable blow to the camp. Maybe even a fatal one. I am aware of the risks, Honey.”
“Then… why?” Honey flapped her hands, indicating the camp in general. “Why any of this? Why didn’t you fire me straight away, as soon as you knew?”
Zephyr put down his pen. He folded his hands, looking up at her, still perfectly calm.
“This camp is my life’s work. There is only one thing that is more important to me.” Zephyr’s dark eyes moved past her, to Buck. “And that is family.”
“Fine words, jarl Zephyr!” Ragvald boomed. He clapped Honey on the shoulder, hard enough that her knees buckled. “Rejoice, shield-sister! Now we may stand side by side with no secrets between us, as shield-siblings should! This calls for a celebration!”
Honey took in Moira’s small, repressed smile; Leonie’s unabashed grin. Even Buck’s scowl had lightened to the point where he almost looked happy. Only Conleth looked less than delighted by Zephyr’s pronouncement.
“Conleth,” she appealed to him, since he seemed to be the only person in the room who hadn’t lost his or her mind. “Talk some sense into Zephyr. You can’t let him do this.”
He blew out his breath. “It is a high risk plan, Zephyr. And if it goes wrong, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to fix matters. There’s a reason I was trying to keep this whole mess from you. If Lord Golden finds out, you’re not going to be able to claim plausible deniability.”
“Oh, hush,” Leonie told him. “How would he find out? None of us are going to tell him.”
“Us, no.” Conleth drummed his fingers against his desk in a swift, agitated rhythm. “But I’m not wild about relying on the continued good will of a preteen boy. Especially since we’re talking about a Golden.”
Ragvald made a deep, rumbling sound, like a disturbed bear. “Friend Conleth speaks wise words. Dragons cannot be trusted. And the Golden clan are the most vile and ruthless of all their kind, without any form of honor. It is not the child’s fault, but betrayal runs in his blood.”
Buck shook his head. “Ignatius wouldn’t betray anyone. If anything, he’s loyal to a fault. Look at how he idolizes his ass of an uncle.”
“If that was meant to reassure me, it had precisely the opposite effect.” Conleth held up a hand as several people tried to speak at once.
“Hear me out. I’m not saying Zephyr should terminate Honey’s contract with extreme prejudice.
But there’s an obvious alternative that doesn’t involve the risk of an irate dragon investor suing us into a metaphorical smoking crater.
Aren’t we all ignoring the very large, winged, lightning-wreathed elephant in the room? ”
Every eye turned to Buck.
He scowled back indiscriminately. “Why are you all looking at me?”
Leonie bit her lip. “Conleth’s right, Buck. There is an obvious solution.”
Buck’s expression shut down, as completely as a screen switching off. Honey had only ever seen him look like that once, that morning when she’d found him under her bed.
“No,” he said flatly.
“We already talked about that,” Honey said, realizing why everyone was staring at Buck expectantly. “Buck can’t turn me into a hellhound. He doesn’t have control over his shifting, and he’d have to bite me in his other form.”
“Ah.” Zephyr shifted position. “Actually, that’s… not entirely true.”
From the way Buck started, this was a surprise to him too. “What do you mean?”
“It’s true that a hellhound usually has to be in their shift form to bite and turn someone, but that…
ah, doesn’t apply to you two.” Zephyr cast a rather pained glance at the other shifters, coloring a little.
“Look, could someone else explain this, please? I can’t give the birds-and-the-bees talk to my own uncle. ”
“Nobody needs to give me that talk,” Buck growled.
“Sorry, but apparently we do,” Leonie said, mouth quirking. She turned to Honey. “Biting is part of the hellhound mating ritual. And Buck doesn’t have to shift for that .”
“Thankfully,” Conleth muttered. “And now I need to pour bleach into my ears to remove that mental image from my brain.”
“He has to bite you to seal the mating bond,” Leonie continued.
“When he joins your souls, it’ll turn you into a hellhound at the same time, through the strength of the psychic link.
It’s the one circumstance a hellhound can Turn someone while in human form.
That’s how I knew you couldn’t be fully mated, you see. Because you weren’t yet one of us.”
“Oh.” Honey saw the misunderstanding now. She made an attempt at a smile. “Sorry, I should have made this clear earlier. Buck and I are together, but it’s nothing to do with his animal. We aren’t actually true mates.”
Silence.
“It was all just part of the act, you see,” Honey clarified, when no one said anything. “The kids got this silly notion into their heads, and, well, we had to play along, and then it evolved over time into a real relationship. You explain it to them, Buck.”
He didn’t. He just stood there, not looking at anyone, as blank as death.
After what felt like an eternity, Zephyr cleared his throat.
“Honey,” he said—gently, but with utter certainty. “You are Buck’s mate.”