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“I’m not a cat toy,” I said, “so forget about treating me likeone.”
Then I turned and hurried off in the opposite direction before my tears caught up withme.
Chapter 15
Aaron
The last roomI took Serenity into was the library. She sucked in her breath as she took in the bookshelves built into every wall from floor to ceiling, the clusters of sofas and armchairs on the deep-pile rug, and the view of the ocean from the two tallwindows.
I smiled with a rush of pride. I might not be able to take full credit for this house, but I’d taken care to make it as welcoming aspossible.
“And let me guess,” my dragon shifter said, gesturing to the packed shelves. “You’ve read every one ofthose.”
I laughed. “Hardly. But I did spend a lot of time in here when I was growing into my role, in between meetings with my advisors. I didn’t have a senior alpha to guide me directly, so I found as much direction as I could in the books the previous alphas have accumulated over thedecades.”
“I used to read a lot, when my mom was still around,” she said. “The library was an easy place to get out of the apartment for a while, where no one would bother you if you found a quiet little nook for yourself. But once she left, and I ended up on thestreet...”
A shadow crossed her face. I wished I could brush it away with a caress of my hand. She didn’t like to talk much about those years after her mother had disappeared, but every time she mentioned them, she couldn’t hide how deeply the experience had woundedher.
But she was healing on her own. With every strength she discovered in herself, with every bit she let us in, she was coming back to the woman she was meant tobe.
“You can find a quiet little nook in here whenever you want,” I said. “The house is yours as much as it’smine.”
She ducked her head for a second, as if embarrassed. Then she smiled at me with the glow of confidence that was coming to her more and more often now. The rush of pride that filled my chest now was for her. Followed by the desire to show her exactly how much I adored her, in every possible way up against one of thoseshelves.
The clock on the fireplace mantle chimed. No time for that sort of diversion now. I took her hand, enjoying the way her slender fingers automatically closed aroundmine.
“We should go back to your rooms. You’ll want to pick out a dress for the dinner. People will expect to see all of us a little deckedout.”
The corner of her mouth curled higher. “So a tee and jeans isn’t going to cut it, is what you’re saying? All right, all right. I’ve got nothing against dresses. Let’s make me into a realprincess.”
But as we strolled back to the dragon shifter’s quarters hand in hand, another hint of shadow crossed her expression. Her fingers tightened slightly around mine. When she didn’t speak, I glanced over at her. “Is something bothering you? You can tell me anything, youknow.”
“I know.” She smiled again, but crookedly this time. “You don’t have to worry—it’s got nothing to do with you, or your amazing house. But it’s not something I really want to talk about right now. If I feel like I do later, you’d be the first person I’ll goto.”
I couldn’t ask for more than that. “Fair enough.” I ushered her through her sitting room and into the vast bedroom that had belonged to generations of dragon shifters when they visited the avian estate. A private bath off to the side, a bed big enough for dragon shifter and four alphas, and several huge teak wardrobes. I walked up to one and tugged itopen.
“The dragon shifter line tends to be pretty consistent in size,” I said. “Some of the clothes in here might be a tad too small or too large, but we can always have a piece tailored if needbe.”
Serenity came up behind me. Her eyes widened. She fingered the drifts of silk and satin in their array of colors, a giggle escaping her. “I feel like a kid who just discovered the world’s best dress-upbox.”
I chuckled. “Take your time. You should go out there tonight feeling every bit theprincess.”
I stepped back as she pawed through the dresses. She pulled out a few and tossed them onto the end of the bed for further consideration. “You said I’m going to meet some of the prominent avians,” she said. “So there are shifter families with more power thanothers?”
“Like in any community,” I said. “Sometimes it’s based on the families of past alphas, sometimes just who fought best or contributed the most in past times of trouble... They don’t have any official authority, but the rest of my kin would listen to them above others. So I try to keep them happy, as long as that doesn’t mean making everyone else unhappy. You’ll meet some of my family tonight too. My sister should be getting here in time for thedinner.”
She glanced over at me as she shut the wardrobe, the last of her selections draped over her arm. “You have asister?”
“Alice. Two years younger. Twice as fierce.” I grinned. “She made herself my unofficial bodyguard when we were growing up. And she’s done enough martial arts training to have earned that title. I think you two will get along well. And she’ll watch out for you as much as she doesme.”
“Well, I’m looking forward to meeting her, at least.” She strode over to the bed and threw the last dress on with the others. “Now let’s get on with the deckingout.”
* * *
Ren
Iranmy hands over the smooth fabric of the dresses, trying to lose myself in the moment. It was hard. The guilty expression on Marco’s face had been nagging at me allday.
