He was my protector. Even if I didn’t fully understand why.
Twelve
Daphne
Killian spent the morning doing pack business again, leaving me with a delicious breakfast in bed hand-delivered by a female pack member. I suspect he wouldn’t want a male pack member in my bedroom.
After I ate and showered, I dressed in a red tulip skirt and white peasant blouse and espadrilles and spent the morning in my room reading, so I wouldn’t get mobbed by eager pack members who I hated to disappoint. They were all just so excited about a wedding that wasn’t going to happen. As I read, I tried not to worry too much about how my disappearance would have affected my mother.
I was angry at her for her lifetime of lies, but still, she was my mother. She must be freaking out right now, and I hated that thought. Over the years, I’d always had to clean up her messes, and I just naturally fell into the caretaking role.
And now I was the one causing the mess—the one thing I always tried to avoid. I’d dedicated my life to not setting mom off.
I finally couldn’t take the stress and I got up and started rearranging things in the room, stacking the bookshelf more artistically and putting knickknacks on it, just to get a sense of control of my surroundings.
It wasn’t until noon that Killian sent Maeve to collect me and bring me out to meet him by his car.
“So where are we off to now?” I asked him as I climbed in.
“We’re going back downtown. I figured you might be getting stir-crazy, and I saw that you liked those witches. There’s a benefit to getting to spend time with your own people, as long as you know you’re always coming home to me.”
“So you think I’m a witch?”
“I know you are.” He grinned at me as we drove. “How else do we explain the magic spell that you cast over Sarah? I hear you’re quite the teen whisperer. Well, preteen.”
It never ceased to amaze me how up he was on human pop culture references.
“That was just basic psychology. When a person’s upset and won’t listen to reason, there’s no point in telling them they’re wrong or barking orders at them. Just distract them. Anyway, if I’m a witch, why am I not able to do anything magic? I can partially shift, even though it feels weird and hurts like Hades, but I can’t set things on fire like Max or make plants grow like Fionnulla.”
“Ask Juniper. She’s a senior witch in the coven. She’d have more answers than me. Wolves do intermarry with witches, but we’re not experts on witch magic.”
We glided through the forest in companionable silence for the rest of the ride. It was like driving through a lush green tunnel, and it felt ancient and…magical.
Minutes later, we were back downtown.
We had to park about a block from the bookstore because all the parking spots were taken. It was a weekend. People were out strolling with their kids, walking hand in hand, chatting on cell phones. It looked so normal.
Killian scanned the streets as he opened the car door for me.
“Expecting another attack?” I asked him.
“Unfortunately, until we settle things with the Iron Claw, and until you and I are officially mated, it’s a possibility. But I’m not keeping you trapped on pack property because of it. We don’t let them dictate how we live our lives.”
We headed down the street.
There were cats lounging in doorways and on windowsills. Sure, that wasn’t unusual, but some of them stood face to face, and it almost seemed like they were…talking to each other? The way their heads were moving, how their paws gestured a little, it was oddly humanlike. Were they having conversations?
Was I watching witch familiars?
When a parakeet fluttered down next to the two cats and was fully acknowledged and not predatorily clawed at, it was pretty clear that something was up, even if I didn’t have any of the details.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my future husband.” A sharp voice sliced through the air and a group of women moved toward us.
“Aurora,” Killian said dryly. “Always such a pleasure.”
There were a half dozen women there, but it was clear which one was their leader. The woman he called Aurora stared at me from a few feet away and looked up and down. Wand slender and beautiful, she stared at me with ice-blue eyes. Her gaze did a slow sweep of my body, lingering on my full hips. Then she finally looked me in the eye.
“Hello, downgrade. My name is Aurora.”
