The Enchanted: Council of Seven Shifter Romance Collection

by Juniper Hart

  She is worried about something, Graham decided. Beyond that, though, he had no insight to her behavior. He contemplated speaking to Lisette Engles about it but quickly dismissed the thought. If Kate wanted to tell him what was going on, she would. He wouldn’t sneak around on that front, too.

  This was ridiculous. They were sneaking around like sixteen-year-old kids after curfew, and for what? So he could take even more time away from the little he spent with Kate and become chief? No wonder she was tense. The running around was taking its toll on her, and she had enough on her plate without him adding to it. He had been selfish to ask her to keep their relationship secret. Graham would make it up to her, and he was putting a stop to this. Michael Walter could have the job. Graham was going to talk to Schwartz and tell him he didn’t have time to consider the position. Kate wouldn’t have to worry anymore.

  Graham was surprised that the decision suddenly took a huge weight off his shoulders. He had not realized how much stress he had been carrying. I keep putting more and more on my plate without noticing how it’s affecting my life. When was the last time I went on a real date before Kate came into my life? This isn’t living—it’s merely existing. Life without my mate is no life at all. I have dedicated my life to bettering others at the detriment to myself. Would I have ever noticed if Kate had not chanced into my lab? He had no way of answering such an existential question, but he did know he was grateful for every moment he had with the dedicated intern, and he intended to show her just how much she meant to him.

  “What are you smiling about?” Kate asked as they stumbled upon one another in the elevator. It was after midnight, and Kate was on call. Graham had been called in to assist on a three-car collision brought into the ER, four of the six passengers requiring emergency surgery. Thankfully, all the victims of the crash had made it out alive, but the doctors were still running on full steam with follow-up.

  “I was hoping to take you out for breakfast this morning after you’re off duty,” he said.

  “That’s what you’re smiling about?” Kate demanded. “I didn’t see you smile for two full months, and suddenly, you’re all giggles over waffles and coffee?”

  “I really like waffles,” Graham confessed, and Kate chuckled louder. He turned to her as the doors slid open, his brow arched in question. “Well? Can I take you out to eat to make up for two months of not smiling? I promise to smile a lot.”

  She nodded, a grin passing over her tired face, and Graham found himself relaxing at the expression. She had such a beautiful smile. He couldn’t wait to appreciate it every day.

  “Okay. Meet me at seven in the lobby,” she agreed, and he blew her a kiss before jogging off.

  She is going to be excited when I tell her the news, Graham thought. No more running around for us. We’re bringing our relationship public.

  But first, he had something else to check up on.

  Since his encounter with Anthony Lockhart on Saturday night, Graham had covertly tried to learn all he could about the sneaky demon. He hadn’t caught the creature around the lab again, but the security footage showed that Lockhart had come two or three times a day, clearly looking for entry to the facility. He was obviously looking for the antidote to the aranium, but he shouldn’t even know it existed. If word got out that there was a cure for the only method of killing demons…

  Graham couldn’t even finish his own thought. He didn’t want to think what Theo Veriday, the leader of the bears on the Council of Seven, would say when he learned something like that existed. Graham was sure that the councilman would have him destroy the serum and the research.

  Not that Graham could entirely blame him, not as a bear and Enchanted creature. The demons were unstoppable without the aranium sword, and while there had never been anyone as dangerous as Helios in the demon world, the others were bred to avenge and balance the scales of justice accordingly.

  Maybe he sees murdering the mortals and seeking revenge for his mate as avenging, Graham mused, but the matter was irrelevant. What concerned him was that Helios might get wind that Kate was working in the hospital, that perhaps he had even come for her.

  He dismissed that idea almost as soon as it surfaced. Anthony Lockhart had been at Carlingview for weeks without making any kind of move on Kate. If he was Helios or connected to Helios in some way, surely he would have tried to kill her by now. No, Graham was sure that this demon only wanted to get his hands on the antidote, locked safely away in the lab.

  He’s too weak to break in himself, and he has no idea where it might be. He’d be stopped before he found it, Graham reasoned. Maybe I should just give it to him, if only to get him the hell out of the hospital.

  He was sure he wouldn’t relax until the demon was gone, but giving him the antidote was hardly an option, either. The last thing that Graham needed was Theo Veriday catching wind of the serum. Graham would be in terrible trouble with the Council if they found out he had been withholding information.

  “Ginny, are you still in contact with that demon from the FBI?” Graham asked the Pediatrics nurse as he ambled into the section. She seemed taken aback by both his question and his presence before her.

  “Luke? Uh… yeah, we still see one another when he’s in town,” she replied slowly. “Why are you asking?” She eyed him warily, and even though Graham gave her his most dashing smile, the dragon wasn’t impressed.

  “I need a favor,” he said.

  “What kind of favor?” Ginny demanded, her eyes narrowing.

  “I need a list of the living demons on earth right now.”

  Ginny grimaced. “Why would he give me that?”

  “It’s not a secret,” Graham assured her. “I mean, I could go to the Council of Seven and ask the same thing of Raven.”

  “Then go to the Council and ask them,” she retorted, folding her arms across her chest. Graham maintained his smile.

  “It’s complicated why I can’t,” he told her gently. “But it’s not forbidden. Can you please see if he will get it for me?”

  Ginny’s eyes widened. “D-did you just say please?” she gasped. “Are you feeling all right?”

  A stab of shame pierced through Graham. I have been a miserable prick to everyone, haven’t I? Kate is changing all that in me.

  “I’m feeling better than I ever have in my life,” he confessed. He stared at her expectantly. “Well?” he implored. “Will you do that for me?”

  “Why is it so important?” she asked.

  “Does it matter?” Graham asked in exasperation.

  “It does if you want me to ask Luke,” she cajoled. Graham was beginning to regret asking her.

  “There is a demon here at the hospital,” he sighed. “And I think he’s an imposter, that he might be an agent for Helios.”

  “What?” Ginny cried, her eyes huge. “We need to contact the Council about this!”

  “Not until I can prove it!” he barked. “The last thing I want is to falsely accuse a demon of anything, right?”

  “And if you don’t, he could be planning an attack on this hospital as we speak!”

  “He’s been poisoned. He’s genuinely sick, and he’s been here a while now. If he were planning something, he would have done it by now, I’m sure.” Was he really sure, though? Sure enough to bet everyone’s lives on it?

  Ginny held his gaze pensively for a long moment before exhaling and turning away.

  “Well?” Graham called after her. “Is that a yes?”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” she mumbled.

  “Thanks, Gin!”

  “Not promising anything!” she called out as she scurried from the pediatric unit, but Graham knew she would follow through. And if Anthony Lockhart wasn’t on that list, he would have no choice but to call on Theo Veriday and figure out what to do with the demon, regardless of the consequences.

  Graham was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to catch a break in respect to balancing his life. You will when you get your priorities straight, he told
himself. Kate is everything. All else is secondary.

  He couldn’t wait to tell her about his decision to take himself out of the running for chief.

  13

  Kate stared dubiously at him, shaking her head in panic.

  “No,” she said flatly. “You can’t back out of the race for chief.”

  Graham looked surprised at her reaction, and she didn’t blame him. If he’d announced this a week earlier, she would have been over the moon about it, but things had changed. She needed him to stay in the race. Their jobs depended on it.

  The problem was explaining her stance to Graham.

  “I thought you’d be happy about this,” he replied, lowering his fork onto the plate. He carefully wiped his full lips and studied her face while Kate’s head swam.

  Oh God, if he decides not to run for chief and Walter gets the position, we’ll both be screwed, she thought, the slap she had delivered to the head of general surgery’s face still fresh in her mind. He’s never going to allow me to practice medicine here. He might even blackball me in the state. I’ll have to start all over again somewhere else. My career will be ruined, and so will Graham’s. How could I have been so impulsive and stupid?

  She had not told Graham about what had occurred on the boat that Saturday night. Kate didn’t want to upset him or cause any friction between the colleagues, but she had been unable to shake the discomfort in her bones, particularly every time she passed Dr. Walter in the halls on her rounds.

  She did everything in her power to avoid the man, which should not have been difficult, considering her time in the surgical wing was limited, but it seemed that Michael sought her out to sneer from a distance. Sometimes he would pass by and whisper, “Change your mind yet?” or another equally disquieting phrase. Kate kept her head up and her eyes averted. The animosity radiating from him seemed to burn through her, and she didn’t know what to do. She reasoned that he would eventually tire of chasing her and move onto someone else, but as the week continued, he showed no signs of letting up.

  Kate had hurt his massive ego, and he was going to make her pay for it. She could not allow Graham to drop his stake in the election for chief. Michael may not be able to simply fire Graham, but he could make all of their lives hell if he continued to harbor this anger.

  Kate looked pleadingly at Graham, her heart hammering. He’s willing to let go of the chief position to spend more time with you, and you’re telling him no. You have to give him a good reason.

  “Kate?”

  She painted a smile on her face and reached out to grasp his hands, formulating the words on impulse.

  “You can’t just give up on something like that,” she told him. “You’ve worked too hard for it. You’ve earned the job more than Walter has.”

  Graham’s brow knit, and Kate saw he was suspicious. Instantly, she realized her mistake. He had never openly discussed the others vying for the position of chief.

  “Did something happen last Saturday?” he asked. “You have been acting strangely since that night. You can tell me, Kate.”

  “Have I?” she croaked. “Nope, nothing happened. I must just be tired.” Kate silently cursed herself, knowing she was a terrible actress. She knew this for a fact—she had once tried her hand at Broadway in the late 1700s and had failed miserably at memorizing her lines. She knew she was avoiding the subject by thinking of anything but the growing problem before them.

  You should just tell him what happened. He won’t overreact, and he’ll probably know how to handle Walter. You can’t be the first person whom Walter has tried this with.

  Kate forced the idea out of her head. She might have been the first intern to ever refuse the man. What had she been thinking, slapping him? She should have just firmly told him no and been on her way. She’d had too much to drink, and now she and Graham were going to pay the price.

  She swallowed her nervousness and focused on Graham’s attractive face, her heart aching. He was offering her exactly what she wanted: a chance to be with him openly, and she was forced to refuse.

  “Kate, I am your friend and your superior. I like to think of myself as your mentor in some ways, but for that to happen, we need to be able to communicate with each other. If you’re struggling with something, tell me so I can help you work through it,” her lover implored her. Kate sat across from him, a mental debate still working its way through her mind.

  “There’s nothing. I would tell you,” she assured him, retrieving her fork, making her final decision. It was just too risky to put them both in jeopardy. Maybe in time, Dr. Walter might cool down, but for now, she didn’t want Graham backing out.

  She wondered if there was more to it than that, if she was worried he might not believe her. The point was moot. He was going to run for chief, and the matter was closed.

  “Kate…” She looked up at him, her cheeks tightening with finality.

  “Your waffles are getting cold,” she said and stuffed a forkful of hash browns into her mouth.

  The phone call came the following day. Kate didn’t pick up the voicemail until she got off her rounds at seven o’clock that night. Lisette was just starting her shift, and the roommates chatted idly in the locker room as Kate changed out of her scrubs and Lisette applied lip gloss to her full lips.

  “How come you always look like a fashion model at work and I look like something that stumbled out of the tombs?” the brunette asked her lovely friend, sighing. Lisette glanced at her for a long moment before carefully answering.

  “I don’t know about that, Kate. You seem to do okay,” she replied slowly. Kate chuckled, not immediately understanding Lisette’s insinuation.

  “You’re my best friend. You have no choice but to love me any way I look,” Kate joked, turning on her cell phone. Immediately, the phone showed a voice message. Dialing her voicemail, Kate pressed the device to her ear, half listening to Lisette.

  “Graham Griffin isn’t your best friend,” the blonde murmured, and Kate eyed her in confusion.

  “What?” she asked.

  “You heard me.”

  Kate lowered the phone without hearing anything on the recording and stared at the blonde.

  “What is that supposed to mean?” she demanded, her brown eyes narrowing in anger. Lisette looked unperturbed and shrugged.

  “It’s a poorly kept secret, Kate. Everyone knows about you and Griffin now,” she said, turning back to the mirror to fix her shiny mop of hair into a messy bun atop her head. “I just don’t know why I had to learn about it from everyone else and not you, my best friend.”

  Kate did not know how to respond and instead stood looking dumbly at Lisette.

  “Why do you look so surprised?” Lisette questioned. “It’s been going on for weeks now. Did you think you could keep your affair with an attending a secret forever? Shit, at least I had the decency to tell you about my relationship with Michael Walter.”

  What relationship? You were his side chick for a couple weeks. Kate bit back her defensiveness, knowing that Lisette had a point, despite the way she was bringing it up—at work and without warning. “Lis—”

  “I just want to know why you never bothered to tell me,” Lisette went on.” I knew something was going on with you. I even asked you, didn’t I? I specifically asked if you were getting laid, and you lied to my face.”

  “I-it just happened,” Kate whispered, realizing how lame the words sounded once they left her lips. She sounded like any other girl who had been caught in an awkward situation. If the roles were reversed, she would have worn the same look of scorn that Lisette did on her face.

  Lisette slammed her locker closed and whirled to face her. “It just happened weeks ago. You have been lying to me ever since,” she snarled. “You’ve been living it up in style while I’ve been rotting away in that basement apartment because you pretend you’re too proud to move. I can see why you’re okay with our situation. You got yourself an alpha sugar daddy.”

  Kate balked at the characteriz
ation. Graham was so much more than that. They were mates. They loved one another. His money and stature had absolutely nothing to do with how she felt about him. Lisette was making their relationship seem trite and cheap.

  “I never lied to you!” Kate protested. The door to the change room opened, and half a dozen interns strolled in, greeting the roommates. Neither one acknowledged them. Their gazes were locked, Lisette’s eyes accusing while Kate’s eyes pleaded for understanding.

  “Yeah, you did,” Lisette snarled in a low voice. “I don’t have time for this. I have to get to my rounds.” Without waiting for Kate to respond, she exited the locker room. Kate sank onto the bench, her pulse erratic. She tried to make sense of the sudden confrontation.

  Why was this blowing up in her face now?

  The answer smacked her with intensity. Walter had told everyone. He was trying to gain the upper hand in the chiefdom by ruining Graham’s reputation. That bastard! Graham was going to be furious with her!

  Kate glanced at her fellow doctors and wondered if they knew. None of them had been at the party, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t heard hospital gossip. They were bantering amongst themselves, and a deep paranoia began growing inside Kate. She wondered if she had been the brunt of jokes since that night.

  She needed to warn Graham. She should have told him what had happened from the beginning. She should have seen this coming. He needed to know about Walter. If Kate went to the chief and told him what had happened on the boat, it would just look like she was making up a story to save face in light of her relationship with Graham. She had to talk to Graham before she did anything else. It was her fault that they were in the position to begin with.

  But it wasn’t her fault at all. It was Walter’s fault. Kate had done nothing but reject him, and he had taken that as an open attack. She had to find Graham.

  Kate knew he was in surgery that night, so she would wait for him to finish and meet him afterward. He needed to know that their secret was exposed, and the repercussions would be severe, at least for her.