Speaking of which …
“Didn’t you say you knew how we could win, Silva?”
The room turned to her. “Oh? Now we want to pay attention to royalty? It’s like I’ve been a wall for the last twenty minutes. Nope, I think I’ll make you wait until tomorrow for the answer.” She stuck out her tongue to punctuate her threat.
“How old are you again?”
“Three hundred and seventy years young, if you must know.”
Kalinda sputtered. If she’d been drinking, she would have choked. “Did you just say three hundred and seventy years old?”
“Young. I said young.”
That was … wow. Kalinda knew shifters, with their rejuvenating powers, lived longer than humans. Mages could live longer too, if they weren’t killed or something. Roughly about two times the length of a human lifespan. But the Fae, it seemed, could do much more.
“Perks of royalty. Regular Fae aren’t exactly that lucky, but they have pretty good boosts too.”
“It’s like elves!” Zoey chimed in.
“As hot as I think Legolas is, um, no. The pointy ears thing was ours first. How rude.”
“Silva, I need you to focus on me,” Kalinda interjected. “Remember your lifesaver? Your Ales? I’d really like to know how you plan to save my turkey.”
“Easy. Take over. Duh.”
“Make this make sense, Silva. I’m not following you.”
Silva tittered before she flicked her wings again. Pretty, silver dusting puffed into the air for a moment. “You’re Vasilios blood, the tamer of shifters, the deciding seat on the National Council. Starting to clue you in now?”
“I’m starting to see why they didn’t like you as a royal. Of course, I’m not getting a clue now, Tinker.”
“Did you just call me Tinker? I told you I hated that.”
“It’s going to be your permanent name if you don’t answer in complete thoughts.”
Silva rolled her eyes. “As a deciding seat member, you could contact the National Council directly to take your seat. In fact, you could establish you home base within your local Council. Oh, and national members rule the local Councils, did I mention that? So tell them to bow down, bitches, there’s a new sheriff in town.”
Romano got his faculties under control first. “Are you saying Kalinda can not only accept the offer to join the Trinity, but in doing so run it and make the decisions she wants to?”
“Got it in one. Now, the National Council will want to verify you, which is simple since you are an Ales, and the Trinity can’t deny they found you. They may even get in a bit of trouble for hiding you in the first place knowing these rules. Or you can bypass them altogether and call the National Council yourself for verification and installment. Personally, I’d walk in there like a boss, but they may try to get a little dirty, so having some extra backing might really help.”
“It can’t be that easy, right?” Kalinda was too afraid to believe it. Too afraid to hope this could be the end if they got their backing right. If it turned out any other way, they wouldn’t have the chance to come up with another option.
“We can always verify. We can petition the National Council on the grounds of having an Ales within our pack and the need to know how to properly move forward,” Dominic mused. “If we go to them that way, they are bound to at least want to check it out. We just have to make sure the Trinity doesn’t get wind of things first.”
“Did I mention she’s royalty? Make sure you add that to your communication,” Silva added.
“What? You said that before, when we were in the air,” Kalinda remembered.
“Yes. Why else would a royal be your guard? Like for like. The Vasilios bloodline is mage royalty. As a member of your family, you’re like a princess. May not come with a castle, but it at least should include a black Crystal card. Those things have no limits, did you know that?”
“Yes, I knew that. Always wanted one because, well, shopping, but …wait. I’m a princess?”
“Close your mouth, dear, or you’ll catch flies.”
“I think I’ve had enough for today,” Kalinda argued. She couldn’t comprehend it all.
Zahara and Dominic. Silva as Fae royalty. Her as mage royalty. It was all too much and coming out too fast. She needed a breather, a distraction. The world closed in, fast and hard, slamming into her chest.
“Kalinda?”
“Dominic, call who you have to call. I’ve got to get her out of here,” Romano urged.
“Do what you have to do. We can take care of it from here.”
She couldn’t breathe. She was just Kalinda, owner of Kalinda’s Katering and a simple mage. She didn’t have things like royal guards and magical powers to kill men from a distance. She couldn’t fly through the air when her magic was at its highest and bring people back to life.
She was just Kalinda. Just Kalinda.
“Hold on to me, baby. I’m here.”
And as she wrapped her arms around Romano, taking his scent deep into her lungs, she figured she’d be okay with Kalinda also being Romano’s mate. That she could handle. His body moved against hers, wind ripping through her hair as he raced from the house. The freedom of their sprint, the speed with which he took her away from reality, was tantalizing and amazing. For a few moments she could breathe, her chest not so tight, her mind not viciously swinging from one what-if to another.
No, under his touch she was just Kalinda, and she could live that way.
The rest of the world faded as he barreled them into his home, his house reverberating with the echo of the slammed door. The silence here was better than the noise in her head, the cracking fissure of panic spreading through her.
“Tonight, just let me take care of you.”
She hadn’t heard anything better in a very long time.
Chapter Fifteen
There were many things Kalinda hadn’t had in her life. Marriage, children, a happy 75th birthday with her mother, true love that lasted a lifetime, and the trust of a partner to never hurt her. Even when she’d been with her fiancé, he had been smooth, supportive, and loving, but not passionate. Nothing about him made her lose her way or be left feeling like she’d been in a whirlwind, but she’d thought she could trust him to at least never change.
He had, of course, changed.
But with Romano, she wasn’t sure how to put it into words. As she sat in his porcelain tub, flamelight from enough candles to be a fire hazard, hot magnolia-scented water lapping over her skin, and a multitude of rose petals in different colors floating over the surface, she couldn’t describe just what she felt. He’d even helped her put her hair up into a messy bun at the top of her head. It might be knotted in the morning, but he’d done a good-enough job.
She didn’t know how he’d orchestrated it all: rapid-fire orders into his phone against his ear as he got her breathing, undressed, a bath run, and then her in it. While she soaked, he never stopped from checking on her and making sure she was okay—all while he never mentioned why she’d been so panicked.
This man, this wolf and Made Man, who always carried a gun, could turn lethal at the drop of a dime and smile at the next, played maid simply because she needed it. Not because she asked. Not because she told him he should. But because he knew, before even she did, what she needed.
Romano was silent now, watching her soak in the water, his eyes flashing occasionally when he saw her nipple break through the water or when she looked his way. There was something oddly sensual about a silent man sitting fully clothed while she was completely exposed. Everything since he’d walked into her life was new. She couldn’t blame it all on the chain of events. Romano was a living, breathing craving in her blood, and she didn’t understand how she’d gotten addicted to him.
“Do you know what it means to have a mate?” His voice was low and deep, perfect in the darkened atmosphere. The low light cast shadows over his scarred face. He looked feral.
She swallowed. “I have a feeling you’ll tell me
.”
He chuckled, and she swore it was between her legs the way it rolled over her. The man was dangerous, that was for sure.
“I suppose I should have asked if you know what it means to have me as a mate, but you would have taken that to be cocky.”
She’d give him that. “Romano, you’re always cocky.”
“Not with you.”
She arched a brow. “Since when?”
“Since the moment I laid eyes on you. I told you about my mother. I grew up with the stigma of a child of a broken mated pair. It was unheard of for the pack. Something had to be messed up inside of me too, right?”
“They can’t blame your parents on you, Romano.”
He shook his head with a sad smile. “Oh, but they can. And they did. I was strong, one of the warrior class, and it meant women threw themselves at me, but it was understood it was only until their mates came along. To be honest, I didn’t know how to handle women for most of my life when it wasn’t about sex. I had a mother who’d run, a father left destroyed, and me, only prized for my claws and my cock. When Dominic came around, well, I found another ostracized wolf who understood me. He asked no questions, didn’t care that people avoided us, and didn’t look twice to pull me out of the Chaos Realm when others would have left me there.”
Kalinda stayed silent, too afraid of breaking his story to her. What a sad way to grow up. Sure, she wanted to scratch the eyes out of every woman who’d come before her, but his hurt was so much louder. His treatment at their hands. The way they’d hurt him simply because they could.
It didn’t make her exactly pleased with the women of the pack. Romano was a man to be respected. Despite how she fought him and argued against him, he never walked away, never turned his back. She wanted to hate him for claiming her, but she could admit his claim on her helped give them the time they needed to make some sort of plan. And could she regret they’d gone after the Viscount Pride the way they did after knowing what they’d planned? No, she couldn’t. Romano, for lack of a better phrase, had put up with her petulant child shit and with an understanding she wasn’t sure she was worthy of.
And now he sat here, pouring out his heart, his pain.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“I’m not. It all taught me something. I learned from them and Dominic to cherish what I was given. To protect it, no matter what happened. The things given to me are few and far between, but I refuse to lose them.”
When he said the last bit, his hot gaze raked over her face, sending shivers down her spine and gooseflesh over her arms.
“To have me as a mate, Kalinda, means I will never walk away. I never thought I’d find a mate. Never thought I’d have a family. Dominic. Zoey. Giuliana. Arturo. You. I would die for you. Do you understand that?”
He meant it. Kalinda sucked in a deep breath. “There’s been so much, Romano. I’m not saying I’m running away. I’m saying I’m still getting used to having someone in my life, and I don’t know how to deal with it. I don’t know how to be in a relationship when I expect to be left behind.”
“Kalinda …”
She shivered, the water suddenly not as hot as just a few moments before. Romano was the fucking sun, blazing in the corner of the bathroom, rivaling any heat in the space.
Slowly he slipped his hand into his pocket and grimaced. When he pulled out his fist, he hissed, his face going taut and hard.
“What are you doing?”
“Do you know the one thing the humans got right about werewolves? Silver. Shifters hate the shit. It’s like iron to the Fae.”
He held out his closed fist toward her before slowly turning it over until his palm was open. She watched, not sure what he was doing, until he unfurled his fingers. In the center of his smoking palm was a shiny, silver bullet, intricate scrolling patterns on the side making it look like a flower ready to be opened. A hole had been drilled through one side, and a delicate chain had been threaded through it.
“To be honest, I cut myself before putting this in my hand. The burning you see is the silver’s reaction to my blood. We can touch silver, but it’s poisonous to us when inside our body.”
Even as she watched, his palm stopped smoking, and she figured the wound he’d given himself had healed.
“Why are you holding a silver bullet on a chain?”
He stood slowly and came toward her. “Because I’m making sure you understand you have my life in your hands, Kalinda. As my mate, there is no one else who could ever make me so weak, could ever break me, or could ever ruin me the way you can. I’m giving you the power my father gave to my mother, knowing you could do the same she did. You’re not a wolf. You don’t have the battle of mating like she had, and she was able to break free. You could much more easily walk away. I know that, and I’m still giving it to you.”
He slipped the necklace around her neck before returning to his seat in the corner of the room. Kalinda fiddled with the silver where it rested just in the space between her breasts.
“Romano?”
“You have the power, Kalinda. I know what that means to you.”
She blinked, fighting against allowing tears to fall. An ache in her throat signaled she might lose that battle. This man slayed her. Not with demands or orders. Not with control or guilt. No, with simple and open honesty as clear as his jokes. He handed her the world because he wanted, for once, to have someone not turn him away. To have someone make him feel like he was enough.
And he’d been fighting for her, even when she’d made him feel unwanted just like everybody else. She was ashamed with herself. She’d been no better. Not understanding his story or what he offered. Not even wanting to see what it meant for him to have a mate who’d made it clear she’d rather fight him than let him in, and he’d still never let her down.
How exactly did you thank a man for that? How could she ever make him feel he was more than enough when all she’d ever done was take from him what he’d offered? She bowed her head, uncomfortable with her view of herself. She’d always prided herself on knowing just who she was, moving to her own rhythm and pushing on to be who she wanted to be. Instead, somewhere along the line, she’d become jaded and judgmental, hiding behind actions so much like others had done when they’d hurt her.
It wasn’t often Kalinda could admit she got a wakeup call and had to smell the roses.
And she never wanted to feel like this again.
She raised her head, her gaze locked on her mate. Her mate. One she’d never claimed, except in her mind. She’d hidden behind his shield, but unlike Zoey, she hadn’t stood and braced him when the world sent him shit. Kalinda wouldn’t let it be like that anymore.
She stood from the bath, warm water sluicing down her form, and she loved how his gaze heated. How he followed the rivulets down her skin, taking in all of her. Her breasts were heavy, nipples hard in the cooler air. She stood before her mate naked, open, and exposed. She wondered how she looked to him as she stretched her arms high above her head and arched her back, the silver necklace bright against her dark skin.
Did she look dangerous too?
Romano moved to stand, and she shook her head. Now was his time. He settled back, and the look of confusion nearly broke her heart. She’d never noticed how he was always doing something, caring for people, working.
Cautiously, she stepped from the bath onto the mat next to it and reached for her towel to dry off. The whole time she kept her gaze on him. His fists clenched at his side and a muscle worked in his jaw. She liked that. Liked that she could bring him to the edge of his control just by watching her.
Once she was dry, she dropped the towel and held out her hand. Slowly, he stood and came close enough to put his hand in hers.
“Kalinda?”
She only smiled before turning and leading him from the bathroom. He followed her silently. It amazed her how a man so large could make no sound when he moved. How he’d honed his body to be a weapon when he needed to be. She had a better unders
tanding of what it meant to be of the warrior class.
It was only a short walk to his bedroom, but by time they reached his door, she was panting. She wasn’t sure who wanted this more, him or her. She opened the door and led him through before stopping long enough to close the door behind him.
His room was much darker, no help of the candles to illuminate, but the large windows with sheer curtains allowed the moonlight in. She could at least be happy his home was surrounded by forest. No peeping neighbors.
Once they made it to the foot of his bed, she pulled him until he stood in front of her. That same, sadly confused look marred his features. Instead of talking, she decided to show him. Spearing his thick, cool strands, she glided her hands through his hair, loving the way he moved into her touch, bowing slightly so she could reach.
This man. God, he warmed her from the inside out. Even as her fingertips traced over his face—the scarred left side and the perfect right—she couldn’t ignore the precarious edge of insecurity and resilience. Fear and absolute control. He was a study in broken perfection. From his strong nose to his soft lips. The hard line of his jaw. The thick column of his neck. His broad shoulders, wide enough to carry a world he didn’t have to.
And as she moved, she took off whatever clothing she reached.
Shirt gone, she could touch his chest. As she pushed away his restraining clothes, she skimmed his flesh with her lips. Kalinda used her tongue to trace over his right nipple, pulling a shocked gasp from Romano. She smiled against his hot skin before she continued downward. She kissed and tasted everywhere she could.
His belt came next, and she made sure to keep him focused on her mouth dancing over his abdomen as she removed it. He was hard against her hand, and for a moment, she was lost in the memory of him inside her. She would have him there soon enough, but she needed to bring him to his knees first.
Kalinda sank to her knees to be better able to reach him and mouthed his shaft through the fabric of his slacks. His thighs were solid under her hands, locked into place as he slid his legs wider to accommodate her.
Mated to the Enforcer (Mafia Wolf Shifters) (Encantado Shifters Book 2) Page 15