A shadow crossed Jaxon’s face, but she held out both hands to Adalasia. “Welcome to our home. Are you hungry? Or thirsty? We have the guest room prepared.”
Sandu knew they would wave a hand and put a room together swiftly over the ground where he would sleep.
“There’s so much to see, I’m not tired at all,” Adalasia denied. “Your home is so incredibly beautiful. Do the wolves really travel with you?”
Sandu could see that his woman was going to be kept occupied by Lucian’s lifemate. He reached out to Lucian. Are they safe while we hunt?
The undead cannot come into my home. It is sealed against them. My woman would call to me if they got close, as would my wolves. We are free to pursue the vampire and his pawns.
Sandu thought it strange that a master vampire would make the mistake of traveling into Lucian’s home territory. He might mask that he resided in the area, but word got out, and there was the wolf pack. They were dangerous and a large one. They didn’t wander over miles as most wolves did. They stayed close to the large estate.
A trap for you? Drawing you out, Lucian?
Perhaps. It could be. I have given that idea some thought, but if it is so, he chose the wrong time. With five ancients to hunt with me, I hardly think a master vampire is going to win this game.
Sandu had to agree, the familiar predator settling over him easily, naturally. At once, his emotions were gone and all color dimmed. He cloaked his presence, as did Nicu, Benedek, Petru and Siv as they drifted out the front door when Lucian stood in the center of it, allowing the light to silhouette him there. If the master vampire had left his spies to tell him when Lucian began tracking him, Lucian wanted those spies to be very aware of him.
Lucian stepped through and closed the heavy door with a wave of his hands and wove the safeguards. The five ancients added their unseen weave to Lucian’s to ensure the entire house was surrounded above, below and on every side to keep all evil out while they hunted.
* * *
*
Jaxon reminded Adalasia of a beautiful little fairy princess. Adalasia was tall and had curves. Lots of them. She’d never minded that she wasn’t the fashionable, slender model seen on magazine covers. Her life was dedicated from the time she was born to a purpose. She’d been taught that. Raised to believe it. She didn’t think too much about her looks until moments like this one, and then just for a brief minute.
“Don’t,” Jaxon said softly.
Adalasia wasn’t going to pretend she didn’t understand. “I know I’m being silly. It’s just that Sandu is such a beautiful man. He could have anyone. I don’t really understand why he’s attracted to me.” She didn’t. She knew the legend in her family, but it didn’t make sense that the man was as gorgeous as Sandu. She had believed . . . now she didn’t. Or at least she no longer trusted in that fairytale.
“He can’t actually have anyone else,” Jaxon said. “He can only see you. He can only want you. He’s only attracted to you. And when I say ‘attracted,’ I mean passionately attracted. It’s intense. All the time. Never goes away. He won’t stray and he won’t look at other women. It would be impossible for him to do that. You’re his lifemate. You hold the other half of his soul. Did he speak the ritual binding words to you?”
Jaxon sank into the chair opposite Adalasia’s and waved her hand to rid the library of all the others. An antique table edged in gold appeared beside Adalasia’s chair. On it were a bottle of water and a glass of juice. “The juice always helped me in the beginning. Try that and see if you can get it down.”
“Yes, he did,” Adalasia admitted, a touch of bitterness in her voice. She couldn’t help it, even though she didn’t want to discuss her business with a complete stranger. In a way, even that felt like a betrayal of Sandu, when she didn’t owe him anything. Not when they weren’t partners.
Jaxon’s eyebrow shot up, and then she sighed. “He didn’t have your consent, did he?”
Adalasia shook her head. “No, he most certainly did not. He took my blood, too, without my consent.”
“Did you feel the binding when he said the words to you?”
She nodded. “I know we’re connected.” She heard the hesitation. Knew Jaxon heard it as well. “He keeps saying things that I don’t understand. And he’s not telling me things I’m very aware he doesn’t want me to know right now. He doesn’t have one bit of remorse for binding us together. Or for taking my blood. He did something else, didn’t he?”