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“Bah!” Aoife sneered. “Keep your endearments to yourself. I spent too much time in my youth succumbing to such charms. I’m immune now.”
“If you insist.” Calum tipped his head in her direction, making Aoife blush anyway.
“What can I do for you, princeling?” Aoife had called him the same nickname since he was a child, and it both haunted and soothed Calum to hear her say it.
Calum reached into his suit jacket pocket and pulled out a list, the ink still smudged from when he had scribbled it down that morning.
“Can you pull these for me?”
Aoife snatched the list out of his hand and scanned it. She raised a brow and studied Calum but said nothing and disappeared. A mere few minutes later, Calum was knocking on Emmett’s office door with an armful of books and bound texts.
Emmett swung the door open in alarm, assuming that there must be something wrong for someone to be calling on him so early. After years of conditioning, he only ever slept a militant six-and-a-half hours a night and was always in the office by seven.
“Calum? Is everything all right?”
“I need to speak with you.” Calum sounded a little more urgent, stepping into Emmett’s office and waiting until the door was shut.
“Is something wrong?” Emmett looked poised for an attack. Calum was one of the few people who knew just how ready Emmett always was for an unforeseen battle.
“Yes. No. Kind of? I think so.” Calum sank down into one of the office chairs with a grunt, dropping his stack of books on the floor next to him.
“Ah,” Emmett nodded knowingly, “it’s about Fern.”
“How did you know?” Calum stroked his cane and looked out the window.
Emmett let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Because you’re fae. You’re a prince who is very used to getting what he wants, and your mate has been on this campus for over half a semester without moving into your townhouse.”
Calum’s lip curled. His disposition was souring, but Emmett was used to Calum’s moods after hundreds of years.
“Is that all?”
“Yeah.” Emmett shrugged and took a seat. “Also, you smell like her.”
Calum snapped towards Emmett, his eyes burning gold. “Don’t fucking smell me.”
“Oof,” Emmett chuckled, still unaffected. “So this is what one half of a mating frenzy looks like. You know, she might get turned off if you pee in a circle around her.”
“I’ll leave that to the werewolves.”
“You wound me!” Emmett snickered, and Calum scowled.
“Dog.”
“Fairy.” Emmett crossed his hands patiently over his knee, raising a brow. “Are we done now?”
Calum sank back into his chair with a rather dramatic groan. “I have to give her space, Emmett. I can’t mess it up again. She must get there on her own because I’m coming on too strong. I’ve already blindsided her with enough information for one lifetime.”
Emmett mulled over Calum’s words. “You want… You want Fern to discover that you’re mates on her own? Don’t you think she’d prefer you be honest with her?”
“No, I’ve done enough.”
“Except…be honest with her.” Emmett said the words slowly, as if trying to get Calum to understand how ridiculous he sounded.
“Exactly,” Calum snapped his fingers and Emmett sighed.
“How is this going to work?”
Calum grinned. “I’m going to give her these. That’s why I need your help. You have one text on my list.”
