When Gwen came back, she had her phone in one hand and her attention was on something on it, a crease forming between her brows.
“What’s up?”
She looked up and shook her head as if clearing it. “Oh, a weird message.”
“Weird?”
“Yeah, it’s from Rhiannon, says she needs me back in Edinburgh as soon as possible once the treaty’s ratified.”
“Was that always the plan? I didn’t expect to get this done this quickly, but I was under the impression you would be staying a while.”
Gwen shook her head. “We didn’t expect it this quickly either, but I didn’t expect it to take the full fortnight we’d planned for the trip either. It was planned to give us some time to see the city and have a little down time once we were finished.”
“Hmm. I wonder what changed?”
“I don’t know.” Gwen looked back down to her phone and typed for a moment before looking up again. She set the phone on the table beside her and picked up her coffee again. “I sent a message to both Grigor and Rhiannon asking if something has changed to require us to return earlier than planned. I’m sure they’ll get back to me soon.” She shifted to face him on the sofa. “What are we doing today?”
“I’m guessing spending the day in bed is out?” Neo gave her a hopeful smile.
“It’s tempting, but if I have to go back as soon as the treaty’s ratified, I’d like to see something more than just the MesoAmerican.”
“Your wish is my command, my lady.” Neo dipped is head, imitating a bow. “We’ll have to get one of your entourage to accompany us. You’re still under the regulation of not leaving the hotel without one of them with you for a while yet. I wonder which will want to go with us?”
“I’m hoping for Isla. She’s more fun.”
“You want to call and let them know our plans? I’ll take a shower and get ready, then we can go up and get something to eat.” He left her dialing her phone and headed for the bedroom.
20
Gwen fell back across Neo’s bed and stared up at the spinning fan. Today had been the best day she could remember in longer than she cared to think about.
Neo had taken her to ride several roller coasters, something that dangled you off the edge of a building almost a quarter-mile in the air, and a zip-line though town. He’d promised to take her again soon. Next time he said it would be after sunset so she could see all the lights. She’d screamed and laughed. Isla had just screamed. Neo swore it was more fun after dark, and Gwen was willing to trust him. Besides, she loved wild rides and would take any advantage to ride again. She hoped that next time it would be with Neo alone, without the chaperone of Isla or anyone else.
Adrenaline still surged through her, and she fought the urge to laugh and pull Neo down for a hot, passionate kiss, or possibly more. She tried to grab him, but he was just out of reach.
“What do you want to do now?” Neo stood beside the bed grinning down at her.
“Nothing. Everything. I don’t know.” She sighed. “I want it all!” She couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled from her throat. Neo’s grin grew as he watched her. His phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket.
“It’s Teya,” he said to Gwen before picking up the call. “Hey, sis. What’s up?” He was quiet a moment, frowned, and then spoke again. “Sure, we’ll come right over.” He disconnected the call and looked back to Gwen. “She says she needs to talk to us. Now.”
A ball of dread formed in Gwen’s stomach. This was where Teya would tell them she’d changed her mind and there was no place for Gwen in Vegas. She pushed herself up off the bed and tried to keep her face blank. She wouldn’t let anyone see how much this bothered her. A reaction was why people did things like this, and she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
“I’m ready when you are.” Gwen tugged her blouse down and glanced in the mirror too make sure her hair wasn’t too mussed from their afternoon before following him out.
The weight of the knot in her stomach increased with every step. There was no reason for her to fear Teya would reject her, but sometimes fears weren’t rational. She took a deep breath as Neo knocked on the door before pressing his thumb to the panel beside the door and pushing it open.
Following Neo in, Gwen steeled herself for what she expected to hear.
“Thanks for coming,” Teya smiled at them, then waved one hand. “Please, have a seat.” She was sitting on one end of the sofa, and Jericho was in the chair closest to her. Gwen was still taking stock of the room and trying to decide what to do when Neo sat on the couch. She could sit on the sofa, but it would be awkward to talk sitting beside her so Gwen took the other chair. From there, she could easily see everyone’s faces as they told her whatever it was that needed to be heard face to face.
“I just got off the phone with your alpha.” Teya looked Gwen in the eye.
Gwen glanced at her watch and lifted her brows. “It’s barely five a.m. there.”
“I’m aware, but Rhiannon called me, not the other way around.”
Uh, oh. This wasn’t what she’d expected, but it wasn’t good news either. Rhiannon was a pain in the ass. While Grigor had been very pleasant about the trip and everything, Gwen suspected that either he didn’t know about, or he didn’t approve of Ellis’s spying. Gwen leaned toward the first. If he had known, he probably would have said something when she’d spoken with him the last time.
Gwen took another deep breath before speaking. “What did she say?”
“She accused me of buying your loyalty”
Gwen frowned. That was an odd thing to say, even for Rhiannon.
“She raged for a while, there was a bit of screaming in there that I didn’t catch all of. Something about how you had double-crossed your clan, but you would pay in the end. She said she had already banned my brother from coming there, and she would see to it that you couldn’t move here either.” Teya turned her attention to her brother. “Why didn’t I know about this supposed ban?”
Neo shrugged, “The way I heard it was that I wasn’t welcome to join their clan, not that I’m banned. I had offered to go there if Gwen wanted to stay with her people, but that’s as far as it went before there was a stop put to it.” They both turned their attention to Gwen.
“I never asked if he could move there. When she called to tell me that they still wanted me to negotiate the treaty, that they wouldn’t be replacing me, she said Neo has nothing to offer them and wouldn’t be welcome into the clan.” Gwen glanced at the framed photo across the room, she recognized it as one of the ancient Aztec ruins, but she didn’t know enough to know which one. “I know how my alpha’s figure out worth and they’re wrong about Neo. All they see is money, what he can do for the clan, and his past, which I think outshined everything else. They’re afraid his past will embarrass the clan, which is stupid. He’s not the same person he was then, anyone can see that.
“Either way, I don’t care. There is nothing there for me. The only reason I hadn’t left already is that I had nowhere to go. Nowhere I wanted to be more. That’s not true anymore.”
“You’ve not changed your mind about wanting to come here?” Teya lifted one brow.
“No, ma’am. If you’ll have me, I would be happy to join your clan.”
“I’m thrilled to have you. I think I’ve found the ideal position for you.” Teya glanced at Neo. “I’ll need to shuffle a couple other positions around and,” she tilted her head toward her brother, “some people might find themselves doing something new, but I think it will work out in the end.”
“I’m sure it will work. I’m still going to have to return to deal with my household and such. That shouldn’t take too long.”
“Any idea what you’re going to do about Rhiannon?”
“Other than ignore her as much as possible? Not really.”
“Now that the treaty has been ratified by both sides, are you planning to return soon?”
“Not for several days, at least.” Gwen wa
s glad she’d heard back from Grigor that afternoon. He’d texted her back and told her to ignore the request to return and stay as long as she wanted. He’d added that he would be in touch soon. “Though I haven’t told them I’m going to be moving here yet. I’m sure as soon as I do, they’ll recall my guards, but I don’t need them anyway.”
“I agree,” Teya said. “As long as you don’t leave the MesoAmerican without someone else with you.”
Gwen frowned. “I won’t get lost or cause an incident for you.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about. I wanted to wait until you joined the clan, but I feel like you need to know, though I’d appreciate it if you could keep it to yourself.”
Not seeing a problem with the request, Gwen agreed. Teya explained the issue all the Fractions in Vegas had been having with people disappearing, including the were alpha’s sister, and Donas, the daemon they had determined to be behind it. She explained why they had kept it from her and her guards. “But I assure you, those of us who run this city are on top of the problem. We know who is responsible and we’re getting close to resolving the issue. The angels are helping and it’s only a matter of time until Supes are once more the only danger in Las Vegas.”
Gwen hoped she was right.
EPILOGUE
Several weeks later
Neo held his breath as the Gulfstream G650 touched down. He didn’t know if he would ever get used to flying under someone else’s power. He was just too used to being the one in control when he was in the air. But doing the work himself hadn’t been feasible this time for three reasons. Number one being secrecy, there was no way he could make a trip this long without being seen by normals. The other reasons were more logistical. Number two was time, nearly five thousand miles would have taken days. Third, and not least, was when you fly in your own skin, luggage was a complication.
Once the craft was once more on solid ground, he took a deep breath, flexed some of the tension from his back, and released the air from his lungs. A soft laugh beside him drew his attention.
“You’re laughing at me again, aren’t you?” Neo shot Gwen a look from the corner of his eye. Neo had to admit, it was a little funny. He had been flying for more than two thousand years, but an airplane made him nervous. The only positive thing about it was it helped keep Gwen’s mind off her own discomfort with the process.
“Sorry.” Gwen shrugged. “I can’t help it, you’re adorable.”
“You’re just lucky I was already bound to you when you started this.” Neo pretended to be annoyed only because it amused his mate. His mate. It had been more than a month since he had bound his life to Gwen’s, and he still wasn’t used to it.
Neo and Gwen had bound themselves to each other the same night his sister had told her about the daemon. They’d left Vegas about a week later. When they’d arrived in Edinburgh, they discovered that there had been a change in the power structure in her clan. It had taken Gwen more than a week to piece together what had happened from bits of information gleaned from different people.
Rhiannon had been the one behind Ellis. She had him spying and reporting on Gwen in a secret power play. Neo didn’t really understand the whole thing, she was already an Alpha, what more did she want? From what Gwen could put together, she didn’t want to share her power with her mate, Grigor, and was planning a way to undermine his position. The situation with Gwen where orders from Rhiannon said one thing, while those from Grigor said another, made Grigor investigate. From what they could tell, Grigor had determined Rhiannon was suffering from some sort of mental break down and the only way he could see to stop her was to kill her. Unfortunately, they were a mated and bound couple, so when Grigor killed Rhiannon, it had killed him too, leaving the clan to his second in command, Walther.
Walther had delivered Grigor’s apology for Rhiannon’s behavior to Gwen and asked her to reconsider leaving the clan, even going so far as to invite Neo to become a part of the clan, but Gwen wouldn’t be moved. Her mind was set on moving to Vegas and starting over.
It had taken the two of them almost two full weeks to pack everything Gwen wanted to keep and ship to the MesoAmerican, and another few days to get things set up with the agency to rent the house out. Gwen had planned to sell it, but Neo convinced her to hold off and rent it out for a year or two before making the decision. It was a link to her family and he didn’t want her to regret getting rid of it later.
“You ready?” Gwen’s voice brought him back to the present and he realized the plane had stopped moving. Glancing up, he found Gwen standing, watching him. “You all right?”
“I’m fine.” He released the latch on his seatbelt and stood. “I was just thinking.”
“Do I want to know what you were thinking about?”
“A lot of things really, but mostly how I’m glad the business with Donas is over with.” Teya had called them before the plane had taken off and told them the daemon had been killed. It hadn’t been easy, but it was done. He glanced at Gwen. “I still want you to be careful moving around the city, at least for a few weeks until we can be sure we’ve swept up all his minions, but the real danger is over.”
“I will. I have no desire to be separated from you any time soon. I’ve just found you, and I want to enjoy some time together before we’re ready to kill each other.” She shot him a teasing grin then moved to the plane door.
Neo shook his head and followed her. Life with Gwen would be interesting.
FOR MORE CITY OF SIN books check out
http://bit.ly/cityofsinworld
DON’T FORGET TO CHECK out Change, from Melissa Stevens, FREE, just go to https://books2read.com/u/3LrxwX to get your copy
Books by Melissa Stevens
Kitsune Series:
Change
Fight
Hunt
Live
The Kitsune Collection
(with Change, Fight, Hunt and Live in one volume)
WMC Series:
Escape
Jade's Peace
Risking Alex
Demented Souls:
Ruger
City of Sin:
Released by Desire
Redeemed by Desire
Revealed by Desire
DON’T FORGET TO SIGN up for Melissa’s VIP reader list for a an exclusive story just for her special readers.
https://www.subscribepage.com/l8m8d9
The Dragon Chronicles_City of Sin Page 27