Maybe it’s because I’d worried over every curve of the figurine before placing it in the bag that morning. As if I’d been waiting for Kalos to come back out and apologize for his words. The numbness that followed that neediness was a blessing.
And now I’m back in this house under very different circumstances. I frown at the memory before blinking. What if the figurine held fertility magic in it? I curse under my breath. I hadn’t handled the piece with gloves like I should have. It could have had any sort of curse on it, and I’d held it like a lifeless rock.
I set my bag on the floor and throw myself back on the bed. I need to stop being so reckless.
I put my hand over my middle and let the warmth of it seep into my skin. “I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful.”
Some of the nerves dancing behind my sternum settle. It’s comforting to say something out loud. To address the catalyst for all this. “I’ll make it up to you with all the heat and spicy food you want. I’ll keep you safe.”
I swallow. “We’re going to have a good life. Whether that dragon wants to be involved or not.”
With that promise. I relax into the bed for some desperately needed rest.
10
KALOS
“NO BEN TODAY?” My driver asks.
“I do leave the house without him from time to time,” I growl.
“Of course, sir.”
I sigh and massage the bridge of my nose. The business with the thief is throwing me. The business with Katarina, I mentally correct.
“I’m sorry, Jensen,” I say. “I’m strung a little tight today.”
“Happens to the best of us, sir. Do you anticipate trouble?” he asks. There are many people in my organization who are only loyal to the mighty dollar, Jensen isn’t one of them. He’s an older shifter whose pack moved territories a while back. He didn’t go with them because his mate is buried here. It’s rare for a shifter to live through the death of their mate to begin with, him leaving her grave wasn’t an option.
He’d had a hard time finding a position that fit his skills because of his age. Which is ridiculous. Shifters keep much of their strength and mental acuity while they age. Jensen could go for another twenty years before needing to concede to Time. I don’t know if I’d want to replace him even then.
Dragons usually live in familial groups or develop bonds with those they surround themselves with. Bonding of any type isn’t an option for me. I try to not get attached to the presence of beings that I’ll outlive, but there are a few people who slip past. Maggie, Ben, and even my godson Gage will at least be in my life for another couple of centuries, though Gage would probably prefer differently. I’d be hard-pressed to admit that Jensen has slipped past those defenses as well, but the shifter is likable.
“Maybe,” I admit. “I’ve heard word that the Leonids have been encroaching on our territory, hanging out at establishments under my protection, being witnessed before shipments go missing.”
Jensen frowns in the rearview mirror. “The Council won’t do anything about your suspicions?”
I huff a laugh. “The Council is not a fan of mine.”
For all that I’d threatened to turn Katarina over to them when I caught her, it’s better to handle issues myself than to submit myself to their shrewish glare. If I go to them for help, they’re more likely to find a way to blame me so that they finally have a reason to curtail my power than to come to my aid.
Jensen makes a sound and continues, “I’ll ask the other drivers while you’re in your meeting. The people in the family won’t talk, but drivers like to blab.”
I grin. “Do you blab all my business, Jensen?”
The man huffs, offended. “You’d deserve it if I did with your apparent lack of trust in me.”
“Very true.” I swallow. “There will be a woman living with me, maybe long term. It’s undecided.”
It would be safer for her and the child to store them in a secret location after the birth, but my dragon refuses that option. We will have young, and he will not be parted from them. The struggle between my logical self and beast has never been so opposite. At one time, a very long time ago, we were one, but as with many immortals who spend time in a human form, a separate sense of self developed.
I suspect that it has more to do with how I locked down my instincts the last time I lost control, but the result is the same. He is an echo of what I was centuries ago, and when not in heat or the presence of a pesky thief, gets more and more distant.
I wonder if the day will come when the beast in me will be a stranger.
I don’t know if that’s a loss to dread or a boon to look forward to. It is difficult to house a fire-breathing beast while surrounded by civility, but to lose him would be to lose myself, and that isn’t something I want no matter how inconvenient the beast is.
“Oh? Are you finally settling down?” Jensen’s tease brings me back to the conversation at hand.
“She’s pregnant.” I press back into the seat cushion and mentally curse how hard this is to talk about, but I trust Jensen and he needs the details to do his job the best he can. “With my child.”
“Oh.” The teasing note leaves Jensen’s voice, but it warms quickly. “Congratulations.”
The expected response to the wish sticks in my throat. He’s the first one to utter such a thing with sincerity instead of focusing on all the ways this complicates things. This is something completely unprecedented and has the power to dredge up long buried memories… but it is miraculous.
I avoid the emotions that rise from that and continue with the logistics.
“You won’t be the one to transport her for now,” I say. It would be best if any time she leaves the estate, she does so with Ben so she can’t be tracked. It will give me time to sort out who we can trust. Security guards, house cleaners, gardeners. Everyone will need to be evaluated for weaknesses.
“You’re keeping the information private while you can.” Jensen nods in understanding. “I’ll protect our pack with my life.”
Our pack.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” I say.
Jensen only nods. “You’ll have Maggie caring for her, of course.”
I blink. I hadn’t considered that. Dragons don’t deal with pregnancy in the same way. They don’t have terrible symptoms during gestation or need a healer to check in on them.
“Excellent idea,” I say, not bothering to poke at Jensen for the way his face softens at her name.
I TAP my toe in impatience and get annoyed at the shiny dress shoe. The shoes and the suit go hand in hand with the image I want to project. Cool, controlled, authoritative.
The conference room is another projection of that image. The window shows surrounding skyscrapers, but this one is the best. This building acts as the main hub of my business. There are so many facets of it now that it’s a running joke that it only needs crops growing on the roof to be self-sustaining.
The conference table is large, the surface gleaming, but the other side is empty.
I narrow my eyes, but in the next beat, the Leonids enter.
A moment later would be an insult, and a moment earlier would communicate a subservience they don’t feel. It’s a game that makes me want to roll my eyes.