By the time the guys were done filling Mera in on the politics of Reece’s land, Shadow had returned, and we all followed him into the dining hall. Reece wasn’t back yet, and I didn’t bother to examine the lack of joy I felt at seeing his empty seat. Every part of me was just too aware of him now.
For centuries I’d been a robot, pushing all of my pain and loss down, pretending I didn’t care, but the truth was I did care and always would.
As we entered the brightly lit room, I noted the way Shadow’s gaze followed the exaggerated sway of Mera’s hips. She wasn’t waddling yet, but she was damn close. Fire filled his eyes, fire only for his mate, and I hid a smile as he hurried his stride to lift her into his lap before she could take her own seat.
The moment their bodies connected, his energy relaxed, and he leaned in to breathe deeply, clearly needing this moment after being separated from her in the realm.
“Don’t mind us,” Lucien said drily, sliding into one of the chairs opposite the loved-up couple. Len took the one next to him, Galleli another on that side as well, and I ended up beside the handsy couple in my regular spot. ‘We’ll just be here,” the vamp continued, “jealous bastards secretly loving and hating the fuck out of your happiness.’
Mera’s eyes were warm, sympathetic even, when she finally tore her attention from Shadow. ‘You know, you could still tell me what the hell happened with Simone, and maybe together we’ll figure out how to rectify it.’
Whatever teasing spark had been in the vampire’s face faded into nothing, a blank slate of hidden thoughts. ‘There’s nothing to talk about there,’ he said stiffly. ‘We might as well discuss the possibility of a relationship between a human and a pet dog. It’s not going to happen, no matter how much it’s searched for in your human porn sites.’
Mera wrinkled her nose, shaking her head a few times like she was hoping to clear that imagery. ‘Firstly, what the fuck, Lucien? What sort of porn are you watching?’ She shuddered. ‘And secondly, you’d better not be referring to Simone as the dog in that scenario, because you know I’ll gut you. I love you, for sure, but she’s my lifelong BFF. This girl throws down for her besties.’
Shadow shifted in his chair, straightening to bring Mera and his body in line with Lucien, and I think that was the moment the vampire realized he was in trouble. Not that Mera needed a guard beast—she could handle herself, no issue—but facing the two of them together was not for the faint of heart.
Lucien held both hands up, the smallest of smiles playing around his lips. ‘I don’t know whether to be terrified or turned on right now. I think it’s both.’ Mera snarled, and the vampire-with-a-death-wish laughed. ‘Calm down, preggo. I would never refer to Simone as a pet dog. She’s a gorgeous, strong, funny, and fiery shifter. She’s just not the shifter for me. Now leave it alone.’
With a frustrated look on her face, Mera let out a sigh and, for once, didn’t push her luck. She just settled into her mate like he was a comfy couch, despite the fact that there was nothing soft on Shadow. The beast reached out and placed his hands on her belly, the size of them spanning nearly across the width. As he started to massage the swollen area, Mera’s eyes fluttered closed, and this time her moan was not one of annoyance.
Leaning forward, I gently patted her cheek, and as her hazel eyes came into view again, I said, ‘Stop that, or Shadow will whisk you away. And we don’t have time for that just yet. I need to know what the plan is for the Desert Lands.’
She exaggeratedly pouted at me. ‘Awwww, you’re no fun, Angel-face.’
My chest tightened as warmth trickled through my center. Her nicknames meant more than I’d ever tell her. Mera had turned me into a sap, and after so many years of hardening my softer emotions, it was the oddest sensation to embrace them now.
‘Reece has smoothed the way for us to be at the meeting of the dynasties,’ Shadow said, getting to business, and everyone shut up to listen. ‘This was one of my requirements if Mera was to be part of these proceedings. I don’t want to fight the dynasties as well as whatever else waits for us there. Normally this sort of meeting would be for Desertlandians only, but Reece, being who he is, got special permission by citing that this was not one of the regular, sanctioned gatherings and therefore didn’t fall under the same rules.”
‘So, we’re leaving the day after tomorrow?’ Mera asked, reiterating what Galleli had said earlier.
Shadow nodded. ‘That’s the plan, but we can’t do anything until Reece returns. Best to be prepared just in case.” His hands had slowed as they stroked across her stomach.
Mera pushed herself up from where she’d been completely slumped into him. ‘I need to visit Simone and Sam first. You know I check on them every few weeks. I can’t disappear into the deserts for who knows how long and not let them know what’s happening.’
Len jumped to his feet gracefully, silver eyes alight. ‘Right! I almost forgot. I made you some new papers to communicate through. Wait right there.’
He was gone just as Mera shot a rueful smile toward her baby belly. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t be rushing anywhere.’
Shadow’s hands drifted up from her stomach and over her chest to rest against the sides of her neck and face, holding her from behind. Mera’s pupils dilated because, no doubt, this position reminded her of the many, many ways Shadow had brought her to screaming orgasms. We’d all heard it. We were all jealous of it. Their sexual chemistry and love of voyeurism had been harder to take since my rebirth because as the robot faded, the wants and needs of my body had begun to make themselves strongly heard.
An ember burned low in my center, and for the first time in… well, forever, I was ready to experience and experiment with my own sexuality.
My steamy thoughts were interrupted by Shadow. ‘If you need to move fast,’ he breathed into Mera’s ear, ‘I will carry you. You and our baby.’
The way he said ‘our baby’ in his low grumbling brogue even had me wanting to fan myself.
‘And I will take you to Earth to check up on your pack mates before we leave,’ he finished. ‘Sam especially since I know you worry the most about her.’
Mera swallowed roughly, her voice understandably breathy. ‘Yeah, because despite her reassurances that she’s fine and her pack is no longer hurting her, I sense that there’s a lot she isn’t telling me.’
I’d gone with Mera a few times to check on Sam, and whenever we made it to her pack lands—the pack she had worked years to escape before all but running back to them—everything seemed perfect. At least on the surface. Sam had a nice house, the town was clean, and the shifters all looked strong and healthy. But there was an undercurrent in her pack. A feeling of darkness lingering below the light.
Mera had pressed Sam as hard as she could, assuring her that whatever it was, she could help, but her friend had insisted that for once she was dealing with the shit show of her life and everything was okay.
‘Don’t announce your arrival this time,’ I said. “Maybe we’ll catch them unawares.”
‘I never announce it,’ Mera said, her eyes shiny as she thought of her friend. ‘But I do always visit Torma first. One of those bastards probably warns the other pack.” Her expression hardened as she nodded. “Yes, you’re right. This time I’ll head to Sam’s first, and with a little luck, their magical shine will have a few spots I can pick at.’
‘The packs have been working hard to clean themselves up,” Lucien said, continuing with the dirty analogy as he leaned back and laced his fingers together over his front, “ever since Shadow decided to take an interest in them.”
Shadow scoffed, eyes hooded. ‘You mean ever since Mera told me my ‘children’ were acting like a bunch of little shits and I needed to deal with them?’
Mera shrugged. ‘I said what I said. When you’re a parent, you don’t get to just throw them out into the world and let them be assholes. It’s your job to teach them all the valuable life lessons.’
Shadow’s lips twitched, eyes amused. ‘I’m not their parent. If I were their parent, you and I would be in a rather precarious sort of situat—’
‘Stop,’ Mera cut him off with a squeak. ‘Nope. No. No no no. I was reborn and no longer have any ties to shifter packs. We are a weird, messy combination of DNA that is in no way related, and this topic requires no further discussion.’
Everyone laughed except for Galleli, but the smile on his face was as good as laughter for the stoic transcendent. Before we continued any further ribbing about the minute possibility of Mera being related to Shadow, since she was a born goddess from the same Nexus as Shadow’s mother, Len reappeared, drawing our attention. ‘Got the parchment,’ he said as he dropped back into the chair he’d vacated a few minutes ago. ‘You’ll be able to give a piece each to Sam and Simone.’
He waved three pieces of parchment at her, and I noticed the invisible lines of power spanning between them all. This was Faerie magic stemming from crushed up gems infused into the paper itself. The connection between them would allow Mera and her friends to send messages between the worlds.
Mera all but dove across the table to hug the fae, only pulling back when her mate growled. “Thank you so much,” she cried, her excitement spilling free. “This will give me such peace of mind. I’m still so sorry I lost the last one.”
Len waved her off. “It’s all good. They’re easy enough to make.”
More than a few at the table hid their expressions at that slight exaggeration of the truth. These parchments were rare and took an extraordinary amount of magic, skill, and control to create. For Mera though, we’d all remake the worlds, and that was a fact that would never change. In comparison, parchment was easy enough.
