“No way.” Penny listened for a moment. She couldn’t hear a thing.
Nina chuckled and pointed to her ears. “Shifter hearing.”
“Marvelous.”
Enzo returned, a large smile on his face.
“What are you two plotting?”
Penny shot him an annoyed glance, then accepted the glass of wine from him and took a sip.
“Come on, you’ve stalled enough. Let’s hear your story.”
“¡Ay, Dios mío! ¿Por donde empezar?”
“In English, please.”
He snickered. “Pues mira, cielo…” He leaned over and rested his elbow on his knee. “My name is, indeed, Enzo Salvador, and I was born in Spain. My mother was human, but my father is a Greek god. And, yes, you heard that right. She was, but he still is, because he is immortal like me, and like all the other hundreds of sons and daughters he’s fathered all over the world in the past two thousand years. I’m one of the youngest ones, in fact. I’m 199 years old and I have a bright future ahead.” He laughed bitterly. “I’m joking, I hope you caught that. Immortality is not an easy burden to carry, especially when you’re doomed to wander the Earth and never find someone to call your own. My mission is my life. It’s all I know how to do right. It’s the only thing I’m good at.”
“And what is your mission?”
“As an Aries Guardian, I was tasked with investigating any disappearance, kidnapping, or maltreatment of those who belong to my species. I’m talking about the descendants of the bloodline of my father, Krios. Sheep-shifters.”
“Aries Guardian?”
“Why, cielo? Don’t you like Aries men?”
“I’m a Leo. I don’t think two fire signs should ever be together in the same room.”
“You’d be surprised at what we might accomplish together.”
“What is an Aries Guardian?”
He sighed. “How much Greek mythology do you know? It doesn’t matter. Here’s the short version. My father, Krios, is the son of Poseidon and a nymph. He’s the ram-shifter who was sacrificed for the Golden Fleece. He was lucky enough to be later resurrected by Poseidon, who also took this occasion to make him a demigod. Instead of moving on with his life and leaving the gods alone, my dad got himself into even more trouble when he fell in love with the same woman as the god of war, Ares. He won her heart, Ares got mad, so he killed her and cursed my dad to wander the Earth forever until he found his mate. Which is hilarious, you see… given that he’d already killed his mate. So, that’s what my father’s been doing up to this very day: traveling, seducing women, staying with them for about a year, then leaving. More often than not, they’re already pregnant when he packs his bags and goes out the back door.”
“That’s horrible!”
“Well, he doesn’t have a choice. It’s the curse. He can’t stay with one woman for more than a year if that woman is not his soul mate. Of course, he could avoid all the drama and heartbreak if only he started using protection. But, he’s old school like that. My brothers and I… we vowed never to be like Krios. We carry the same curse, and we’ve made our peace with it. The least we can do is to avoid leaving a string of children in our wake. I would never do to a woman what my dad did to my mother.”
Penny looked at the glass she was holding on her knee.
“I… I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry you had to grow up without a father. It must have been hard for you and your mom.” She thought for a second, then her brows furrowed. “Wait. If you’re 199, then you lied about how your mother died, didn’t you?”
He smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry. It was a harmless lie. I couldn’t trust you with my secret yet. She didn’t die of cancer. She died happy, of old age. I was by her side every single day.”
Penny nodded silently. At least, the woman hadn’t suffered.
“So, this curse… It can be lifted only when you meet your soul mate?”
“Yes.” He stretched his arm so that Penny could see his tattoo. “As long as this is still here, it means I haven’t found her. But, it’s okay. I told you I’ve made my peace with it. I have my mission, and it’s taking up all my time, energy, and resources anyway.” He looked at Nina. “I’ll get you and your brother out of there, I promise. Now I know everything about Goldman, and I’ve gained his trust. It’s just a matter of time and strategy.”
Penelope sniffed discreetly and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. She couldn’t believe hearing about the Aries curse affected her so much. If Enzo still had the tattoo, then it was painfully clear that she was not the one. She wasn’t his mate. Once his mission was over, he would take Nina and Kosta and walk out of her life forever. She didn’t want to think about it. If she did, she’d break down crying, for she had no idea how she’d be able to live without the two twins she had grown so attached to. And without Enzo…
“Are you okay?” Nina asked her.
“Yes, baby. Don’t worry about me. I was just wandering…” She looked up at Enzo. “Why haven’t you done anything yet? You know where Nina and Kosta are. You can walk in and out of Goldman’s house without anyone stopping you. Hell! Instead of buying me tonight, you could have asked for Kosta and taken them both away from here.”
“It’s not that simple. I mean, it would have been if Goldman hadn’t proved himself to be such a huge piece of…” He stopped himself in time. That kind of language wasn’t appropriate around a nine-year-old. “I have reasons to believe that he and his group own between them over a dozen shifters from various species. Yes, I could do my job and save only Kosta and Nina because they’re the descendants I was looking for in the first place, but that wouldn’t be fair. I need to find a way to save all of them. Sheep-shifters have us, the Guardians. Cat-shifters, dog-shifters… No, I can’t just abandon them. I don’t care that they’re not part of my job.”
