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“We did,” I said, unable to hide my grin. I felt like I had the boundless confidence of being drunk without any delusion or any other mental detriments. It was incredible, and I was still having a hard time believing I could feel like this for the rest of my life.
“Girl, normally I would have a thousand questions and demand you tell me the everything about how you’re feeling, because you are glowing,” Darla cut in. “But we came over because Aodin caught us while we were walking on the beach and said he’d like to speak with all of us at his home.”
Ah, it looked like duty called. It was a good thing I’d decided to give my mate a break, otherwise we’d have been interrupted in the middle of a romp, and I didn’t think I was that patient.
“Is something wrong?”
“He didn’t say,” Darla answered. “But from what I could pick up from his head, it’s about the council meeting and a way to smooth over the kind of, uh… what were his mental words? The snafu that happened. Speaking of which, the two of you definitely didn’t keep us in the loop. What exactly happened when y’all met the big wigs?”
I rankled at that. Although I was full of all sorts of happy hormones, I was still pissed at how that council twat thought he could come out of nowhere and demand my mate shift. Then when Ayla had been far more gracious than anyone could reasonably expect of her, he’d had the nerve to not even show gratitude, and just walk right out. I got the feeling something about Ayla had rattled him, but as far as I was concerned, there was nothing that could excuse his abhorrent behavior. He was lucky I was a civilized man and a shifter.
“We just have to put away some leftovers and then we can come along,” I said, choosing to pointedly ignore Darla’s not even remotely subtle question about what happened. Ayla could tell her at some point when they had girl time again. I didn’t feel like rehashing all of it.
“Did you say leftovers?” Darla asked. “I’m fucking starving. Any chance I could polish them off?”
“Help yourself.” I stepped to the side to let her in, and she rushed past me.
“Don’t have to tell me twice.”
As it were, it didn’t take her long at all to scarf everything down, so she must have been quite hungry. It allowed me to chat with Oren a little, and while I could tell he wasn’t asking everything he wanted to, it was still nice to catch up with him. In less than a half hour, we were all heading to Aodin’s.
While there was the occasional glance our way as we strolled along, I could feel anxiety and self-consciousness drift through Ayla and my bond. I was so proud of her for not faltering, however, and she kept her chin up. There would have been a time where the idea of being seen would have had her running for the hills or becoming defensive. She had come so incredibly far.
I liked to think I had as well. I was certainly more patient and understanding of other people’s positions than when we’d first met. Granted, the two of us had been through a hell of a lot.
We were warmly greeted by Aodin’s staff before they escorted us to his back garden. It wasn’t a part of his property I myself had seen before, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a sprawling garden.
It was clearly built more for looks than food or medicines, unlike the gardens maintained at Canid and even at Tove’s cottage. Although Ayla didn’t know what all of the plants were, she did know a majority of them and was pleased as punch about it. It really was amazing how much I’d learned botanically just from being around her—mostly when she was trying to riddle out a new spell.
“Ah, thank you all for coming. I apologize for not escorting you myself, but I got behind this morning, and I feel like I’ve been playing catch up all day,” Aodin said.
“I’ve had days like those,” Ayla said, sitting across from him. Darla and I went to sit beside her at the same time, and while some mates would have gotten snippy about it, I couldn’t help but laugh.
Thankfully, Darla acquiesced her seat with a dramatic bow. “Please, I wouldn’t dare to separate the new lovers.”
“New?” Aodin asked with a good-hearted scoff. “I’m fairly sure the two of them have been together far longer than I’ve kn—” Aodin stopped dead when his eyes landed on the side of Ayla’s neck. His astonished eyes were looking at the slight scar on my neck, then at hers, then mine, then Ayla’s again before standing up and beaming.
“Congratulations, you two!” he said, sounding completely genuine. “I’m really happy for you all. I don’t know what made you decide to take the plunge now, but I’m going to take the liberty of giving Blath a little bit of the credit for it.”
“Well, the scenery certainly didn’t hurt,” Ayla joked, only slightly red in the face. I knew that meant she was comfortable around Aodin, and instead of making me feel uncertain or insecure, it just made me happy that the circle of people she trusted was growing each day. “But why did you need us here today?”
“Well, I managed to talk with a fellow Arbiter who has an aunt on the council. Not a member that came to visit us, but one that’s enough in the loop that they have an idea what the hell happened with Oliver.”
“What the hell did happen with Oliver?” I groused, even though I knew none of us had the answer at the moment. Sometimes it was good to grumble about something.
“It seemed personal,” Aodin said before he caught the disgruntled expression on Darla’s face. “Are you reading what happened in my head?” he asked demurely. I had to say, the fae was pretty at ease with the woman rooting around in his mind. Even though cryptids were quite familiar with magic, plenty still were uncomfortable with psychics reading them. I supposed everyone had their own secrets.
“I am,” Darla said, “and this stank face is because you lot let me miss all of the drama. This was straight up juicy.”
“It was unpleasant, that’s what it was,” Ayla shot back. She’d handled it so well in the moment I hadn’t realized it was still bothering her. Hopefully, we would get a chance to talk about it after our meeting with Aodin was wrapped up. I got the feeling we weren’t exactly going to be doing that much problem solving, considering that the fae had only just contacted his friend.
“What did your friend say?” I asked outright.
“Oh, just that they would see what’s up. They, too, were pretty surprised by Oliver’s behavior, so I was right that it was out of the norm for him.”
“Lucky me.”
I reached over to rest my hand over Ayla’s, and she sent me a wry smile in response. As our skin touched, I was shocked with the visceral happiness that went through me, and I would think that it was just in my head, but I saw Oren’s head snap in our direction as he subtly tried to cover his nose. This was one of the more awkward parts of being a shifter. That enhanced scent, along with pheromones our bodies were all too happy to communicate with. Right now, my friend was able to smell the bonding hormones, no doubt thick within Ayla and me, but also plenty of happiness, horniness, and a slightly bitter tinge of anger about Oliver. Not exactly a low-key bouquet.
