by Chant, Zoe
Frightened was an understatement, Euan thought, a small, twisted smile crossing his lips. He’d been terrified he might never find his way back to humanity again if he didn’t find a way to suppress his lion’s bestial rage.
And the only way to do it was to bury it so deep that now, he couldn’t find it within himself at all.
But it was here with me just now, Euan thought. I heard it. I know I did.
That could only mean that his lion wasn’t completely gone. His sudden revelation that Delilah was his mate meant that he must still possess his shifter instincts, somewhere inside himself.
Euan’s head felt crowded with the suddenness of everything he’d learned. His stomach clenched with both happiness and fear – he’d heard his lion again, but it had only been for a moment. Now, it was gone again, as if it had never been back at all.
But it was there. I can find it again. I just have to figure out how…
And, he realized, swallowing heavily, he had to tell Delilah that she was his mate.
He’d talked about mates to her last night – and he’d realized immediately that she’d thought he was trying to gently put her off by mentioning them. That had been the furthest thing from his mind at the time – he’d wanted to find a way to tell her that he felt connected to her, even without the ability to sense his mate.
But maybe I was sensing what she was to me the whole time, he thought. I just didn’t realize it.
He’d have to find a way to tell her, Euan decided. He had no doubt that Delilah would accept it – but a moment later, he found doubts creeping into his mind.
But do I have the right to bind her to a shifter who can’t shift? Who can’t protect her the way a shifter should be able to protect his mate?
Euan shook his head as he gently slipped out of the bed, finding his pants from where they’d been tossed onto the floor and putting them on.
No matter what, Delilah was his mate. And she deserved everything that meant. All his commitment. All his devotion. All his loyalty and support.
It didn’t matter if he couldn’t feel the mated bond the way other shifters could. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t shift. He didn’t need that to know Delilah was special.
The idea of a mate had been something he’d pushed to the back of his mind, even before he’d lost his ability to shift. Finding his mate just hadn’t been something that had fit into his job description. It had always been something he thought he’d do when he got older – if he ever did it at all. His parents had been mates, after all, and watching how empty and hollow his father had become after his mother’s death had been enough to make him think twice about making that kind of commitment to anyone, especially in his line of work.
But now that I’ve found her…
Tenderness flooded his heart as he glanced back across the room to where Delilah was sleeping, though all he could really see from here was a lump of blankets.
Delilah hadn’t actually ended up eating anything at all last night – things had gone too quickly, and food had been completely forgotten in the rush. Euan knew she’d probably be ravenous when she woke up.
Walking silently across her apartment to the kitchen area, Euan carefully opened the fridge. He didn’t recall having seen much in there yesterday when he’d retrieved the pho, and… nope. There was nothing in Delilah’s fridge but a kind of floppy-looking lettuce, a half-finished block of cheese, and the container of leftover pho, which he’d eaten half of last night.
Pho can be for breakfast, Euan decided, as he slid the container off the shelf and went to the stove.
He’d washed up the pot he’d used last night and placed it on the drying rack, so it was a simple matter to put it back on the stove and empty the last of the pho into it. He stirred it gently, and it didn’t take long for the steam to start rising, the aromatic smell of beef broth, ginger and garlic wafting through the small apartment.
Evidently, Delilah was hungry enough that it woke her up – Euan heard a rustling sound behind him, and turned to see Delilah sitting up in bed, staring at him, her fringe flopping down over her face.
“That looks – uh, smells good,” she said, and Euan didn’t fail to notice the blush that tinged her cheeks with the faintest hint of red.
He immediately felt desire rising within him once more – Delilah had always been beautiful, of course, but she’d never been more beautiful than she was last night, her face flushed, her head thrown back in complete abandon, her hair wild around her head. Even the memory of it was enough to send a heated surge of blood to the base of his belly.
Later, he told himself firmly. Food first.
“Sorry, I wasn’t sure if you had any other food,” Euan said as he poured the pho into a bowl. “So it’s pho for breakfast.”
“Oh God, I forgot you would have had to look in my fridge,” Delilah groaned, covering her face with her hands. “That’s so embarrassing. I swear I usually have more stuff in there. At least I usually have some milk for Weet-Bix.”
“It’s okay.” Euan carried the bowl across the room and set it down on the small bedside cabinet. “I’m not hungry, but you should have something.”
He really wasn’t hungry – he wasn’t sure whether it was just the effect of having found his mate, but in any case, he was used to going for fairly long periods of time without food as part of his training.
He watched as Delilah lifted a spoonful of pho to her lips, blowing on it briefly before slurping it up.
“Mmm. Oh my God. I think I really needed that. Especially after… well, you know.” She darted him a look under her eyelashes, licking her lips. “It’s been a little while since I exerted that much energy.”
She laughed, and Euan found himself smiling along with her.
I should tell her she’s my mate.
But maybe he should at least wait until she’d finished her breakfast, Euan thought. If she was still hungry after this, they could go out to a café – at least he could get her a coffee, since she’d seemed to enjoy the one he’d brought her yesterday so much. He wasn’t sure exactly how prepared Delilah would need to be to hear what he had to say. Some part of him didn’t doubt that she’d accept it – but on the other hand, it was a huge thing to tell someone. He wouldn’t blame her if she’d want to process it on a full stomach.
“I… I did have a really great time yesterday, though,” Delilah said, in between blowing on more spoonfuls of pho. “All of it – I mean, the party was fun, and I had a great time with you, even if we didn’t really get to talk that much. But, well, what came after… gotta say, that was pretty awesome too.” She smiled at him shyly.
“It was,” Euan said, returning her smile, feeling his heart surge in his chest.
I should tell her now.
“And – Delilah, there’s something else I need to tell you. Something I –”
His words were cut off by the sound of an electronic chime from somewhere across the room. Euan looked around in confusion, his concentration broken, as Delilah set her pho aside and jumped out of bed.
“Sorry – it’s my phone, let me just turn it off,” she apologized. She rifled through the handbag she’d left sitting on the floor next to the sofa, pulling out her phone. She frowned as she looked at it.
“It’s Jenny – oh, and she sent some text messages just before. Maybe I should just check what’s up. I’m really sorry – it’ll only take two minutes. I hope.”
Euan nodded. “Sure.”
He was burning with anticipation to tell Delilah that she was his mate, but it had to be done in the right way. He wasn’t about to tell her to ignore a call from her sister.
Delilah shot him an apologetic look as she hit answer.
“Hey Jen, what’s u—”
Even from across the room, Euan could hear Jenny’s voice as it burst from the phone’s speaker. He couldn’t quite make out the words, but it was clear that Jenny was upset – no, worse than upset, she was panicked.
Standing, he watched as the col
or drained from Delilah’s face, her expression becoming anxious and pinched.
“Jenny – it’s not your fault, and I wouldn’t start worrying just yet –”
Delilah’s words were cut off as Jenny said something more, and Delilah shook her head.
“I mean… no, I’d have to double check, but I don’t think she’s contacted me. There were just texts from you asking me to call you… no, no Jenny, I understand. I know she’s only twelve. I promise, I’ll come straight over – ”
Euan frowned as he began to piece together what must have happened.
Has Rosie gone missing?
He knew the worst thing to do at times like these was panic, but he couldn’t deny the extreme uneasiness he felt in the pit of his stomach. It seemed like too much of a coincidence – the danger Delilah had sensed, and now her niece was apparently missing.
Just wait, he told himself. You don’t even know fully what happened yet.
But he still found it hard to unclench his fists at his sides.
Delilah made some more assurances to Jenny, before hanging up the phone. She looked shaken, her lips pressed together in a thin, taut line.
“You probably heard, but that was Jenny,” she said, in a tight voice. “It’s Rosie. Apparently they had some kind of fight last night, and this morning when Genevieve – that’s Jenny’s au pair – went to wake Rosie up, she wasn’t in her bed.”
“Do you know how long she… she wasn’t there for?” Euan asked, picking his words carefully. He didn’t want to make Delilah believe anything bad had happened yet before they knew any details.
“No – Greg was checking their home security footage when Jenny called, so I guess they’ll eventually find out what time she left the house, but he has a few hours to go through so even on fast forward it’s taking a little while. Her bag and her phone weren’t in her room and her shoes weren’t by the door, so I hope it means that Rosie just went off on her own.” Delilah bit her lip, her worry clear on her face. “Euan… you don’t think… could this have something to do with –”
“We don’t know yet,” Euan said, walking across the room and putting his hands on Delilah’s shoulders. “You said Jenny and Rosie had a fight last night. Has Rosie ever done anything like this before after something like that?”
Delilah shook her head. “Not that I know of. But I suppose it’s possible Jenny just didn’t think it was important enough to tell me about… though given how worried she is now, this is probably the first time Rosie’s suddenly disappeared like this.”
“All right,” Euan said, but the knot of tension in his stomach only grew tighter. “Did Jenny have any suggestions for what she wants you to do now, like look for Rosie in places you know she spends time?”
Delilah nodded. “Yeah – that’s what she asked me to do. She’s calling Rosie’s friends to find out if she’s shown up at their places, and she’s looking around a few places near their house. But she asked if I could check at a couple of places Rosie sometimes goes with her friends.”
“Good. It sounds like Jenny knows what she’s doing,” Euan said. Jenny might have sounded panicked on the phone, but she was still obviously thinking clearly enough to put a plan in place. “Come on. Let’s get dressed. We’ll find her, Delilah. I promise you.”
Delilah blinked, looking up into his eyes – and whatever she saw in them apparently convinced her to believe him.
“I know,” she said, her voice firm. “I know we will.”
* * *
Despite the trust Euan had seen in Delilah’s eyes when she’d spoken, the tension in the car as they drove toward Darling Harbour was thick enough to cut.
Delilah’s fists were clenched on her knees as she stared out of the car window, scanning the streets. At least the bad traffic meant that they were going slow enough that she could look thoroughly at the passing crowds to make sure Rosie wasn’t among them.
Euan kept his eyes on the road, glancing around every now and then for someone of Rose’s height and hair color. But so far, aside from one or two false alarms, he hadn’t seen anything.
“Don’t worry, Delilah,” Euan said, glancing across at her. “You said her things were gone from the house. I’d say she probably left on her own.”
Delilah nodded, her face tense. “No, I know,” she said, then hesitated, biting her lip. “And… okay, this’ll sound really weird. I don’t really know if I should say it or not.”
“What is it?” Euan asked.
“I just… I know I asked you if you thought it had anything to do with what happened the other night. But… somehow, I know it doesn’t. I feel like… somehow, I know that wherever Rosie’s gotten herself off to, she’s safe. It’s almost like… like an instinct or something. That I’d know if something had – had happened to her. I don’t know how or why. But it’s just… a feeling I have.” She paused, swallowing. “Does that sound completely insane?”
“No, it doesn’t,” Euan said, meaning it. It sounded exactly like what shifters felt for their loved ones. If a family member or a mate were in danger, they could sense it right away – just as they could also sense if they were safe.
He hadn’t known humans could also have such a sense. But perhaps they did.
Or perhaps…
Euan frowned. Since he wasn’t able to sense the difference between shifters and humans right now, when he’d first met Delilah he’d assumed she wasn’t human, based on the strange lightning bolts she’d shot from her fingers when they’d run into each other.
The man in the alley who touched her arm. The way he disappeared immediately afterwards. The flashes of light Delilah used… could he have been a shifter who somehow transferred his powers to her?
Euan had never heard of any such thing happening before. It was impossible, as far as he knew, to make a shifter – you had to have been born one. Even the men Callan had told him about who had augmented their shifter abilities by adding a second shifted form had been shifters to begin with.
And what kind of shifter simply disappears in a shower of glitter? Euan wondered. He’d never heard of anything like that before, even setting aside the crazy idea of the man having given Delilah his powers somehow.
Perhaps he wasn’t a shifter, but some other kind of creature, Euan thought uneasily. Something we don’t know about yet…
“The gelati place I was telling you about is just up here,” Delilah said, breaking into his thoughts. “I take her here sometimes when she finishes school and I’m on the early shift at work, and she sometimes goes there with friends. It’s one of her favorite places.”
“Okay,” Euan told her, swinging his car into a side street.
“Oh – I’m pretty sure this is a no parking zone,” Delilah said, peering out of the window at the sign on the curb.
“It’s no problem,” Euan said, reaching across into the glovebox and taking out his permit tags that allowed him to park pretty much wherever, and putting them on the dashboard. “This’ll take care of it.”
“Okay, that’s a perk I didn’t know about,” Delilah said, laughing a little. “You sure it’s all right for you to do that?”
“We’re looking for your missing niece,” Euan said. “And it’s just parking a car for a minute. I promise you, it’s fine.”
Together, they made their way across the road and back to the gelati store. It was a warm Sunday morning and the place was pretty full, not to mention the crowds walking along the street outside, on their way to the shopping and tourist precincts by the Opera House. Euan scanned the shop and the street, but he couldn’t see Rosie at any of the tables, either inside or outside the shop.
“She’s not here,” Delilah said a moment later, a worried crease appearing between her eyebrows. “That’s… that’s so weird. I was so sure I…” She trailed off, and Euan wondered what she’d been about to say. A moment later, however, Delilah shook her head, then lifted her fingers to her temple. “Wait. I think I –”
Without another word, Delilah s
uddenly turned, hurrying off down the street. Euan followed her. She had a determined expression on her face, and her stride was purposeful.
“Delilah, what is it?” Euan asked her quietly when he caught up to her.
“I can’t explain it,” Delilah said, her voice a little strained. “I just think… I just think I need to go this way.” She glanced up at him, a hint of worry on her face. “You don’t think I’m going crazy, do you?”
Euan shook his head. “Not at all.”
It was clear something was going on with Delilah, but going crazy wasn’t it. Euan didn’t ask any more questions – he just followed Delilah where she led him.
“The gallery I work at is just up ahead,” she said. “It’s why I go to that gelati place so often – it’s nice and close. But I’m not rostered to work today, and we only open in the afternoon on Sundays anyway…”
Euan wasn’t quite sure how this followed on from what Delilah had just said, but he didn’t ask her what she meant. It was clear that Delilah had an idea, and she was following it.
They passed upscale boutiques and jewelry stores, and other shops which Euan wasn’t even completely sure what they were selling – until suddenly, Delilah stopped dead in her tracks, a gasp escaping her lips.
“Rosie –!”
Euan followed the direction of Delilah’s wide-eyed stare – and, sure enough, there was Rosie, sitting on the front steps of a shop with her knees drawn up, looking completely miserable.
Delilah dashed toward her, kneeling down when she reached her and taking her face between her palms. Euan followed her more slowly, not wanting to intrude, but unwilling to leave Delilah’s side for too long.
“Rosie, do you understand how worried your mother is right now?” Delilah was asking when Euan reached her. “What are you even doing here? How did you get here?”