Cupid's Light

by Tami Lund

  “I would love to take you up on your offer,” she responded to Rachel. “And in exchange, perhaps I can help break down the barriers these shifters have built between you. I hardly know you, and I already like you.” She beamed at the human, who gave her a grateful look in return.

  “I could use all the help I can get. What about clothes? I’m bigger than you.” There was obvious jealousy in her voice. “But I can try to find something that won’t just fall off you or be four inches too long.”

  Adora patted a tiny pouch attached to the belt at her waist. “No need. My assignments always last at least a week or so, so I brought my overnight bag.”

  Rachel gave the tiny pouch a dubious look. “Your clothes fit into that?”

  Adora chuckled and untied the belt. She pulled off the pouch and snapped her fingers. It instantly grew to the size of a bag that was just barely within the carry-on parameters for an airplane ride.

  “That’s so cool,” Rachel said with reverence.

  Adora laughed again. “If you think that’s cool…stick with me, kid. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

  “I can’t wait.” Rachel’s eyes shone with excitement. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a real, genuine girlfriend to hang out with. And now I have a magical one. How freaking cool is that?”

  *

  “I don’t believe this. You have to tell Rachel she can’t stay.”

  Matt watched from the doorway leading into the formal dining room as Rachel and the Cupid sat side by side at the far end of the long, wooden dining table. They giggled like schoolgirls over a piece of paper lying on the tablecloth between them. Occasionally, Adora would make a note on the paper with a feathered quill that she’d created with her magic, much to Rachel’s delight. Both women had full plates of food before them, and neither had touched a bite as of yet.

  “Not on your life,” Josh replied. “My mate hasn’t been this happy since the day she moved in here. Having a female friend is obviously good for her.”

  Matt made a face. “She has you. She doesn’t need friends.”

  “Said the man with three siblings and an entire pack of friends.”

  “She isn’t a shifter. She’s human. And you said yourself she didn’t have any friends or family before you came along.”

  “That doesn’t mean she was happy about that fact. Clearly, my mate enjoys the company of other people,” Josh said with a nod toward the two women. “And why does it bother you so much?”

  “She bothers me,” Matt muttered, glaring at the Cupid, who was seemingly oblivious. “She puked in my truck. It still stinks.”

  “I bet she could use her magic to fix it. And besides, that wasn’t her fault. Rachel says she gets nauseous at the sight of blood, that it’s a Cupid thing.”

  “Yeah, and by the way, that Cupid claims she’s here to find me a mate.”

  “So?”

  “So I don’t want a mate. I don’t need a mate.”

  “Rachel says they aren’t assigned to find mates for people until they’ve reached the point where they really do need one.”

  “Rachel sure learned a lot about the woman in a twelve hour period of time.”

  Josh’s face darkened for a moment. “I know. She never came to bed last night. When I finally went looking for her, I found her curled up in the bed with Adora. They were both still fully dressed and lying on top of the covers. I suspect they talked themselves to sleep. In the shower this morning, Rachel said it was like having her very first slumber party.”

  “In the shower?” Matt raised his eyebrows.

  Josh flushed. “She’s still my mate,” he blustered. He strode over to the sideboard, where he picked up a plate and began ladling food onto it. Jeannine the housekeeper stepped through the swinging door leading to the kitchen, gathered a pile of dirty plates and silverware, and retreated again.

  “Come on,” Josh said. “Let’s go find out what’s so funny.”

  Matt scowled as he filled his own plate and then reluctantly followed Josh to the table.

  It turned out he was the reason for the women’s laughter.

  “We’re putting together a list of potential mates,” Rachel announced with mirth in her eyes.

  Adora, for her part, appeared faintly embarrassed to be in his presence, no doubt from the debacle in his truck the evening before. “How’s the head?” he asked.

  She reached up as if to touch the back of her head, and then hesitated, letting her hand hover over her halo of pink hair. She swallowed convulsively and then placed her hand on the table. “It’s fine, thank you.”

  “Completely healed,” Rachel announced. “I checked this morning. I wish humans healed like that.”

  “Good,” Matt said as he sat down to Josh’s left, across the table from Adora. Josh reached over and slid the piece of paper across the table, reading it while he wolfed down his breakfast.

  “Not her,” he said between bites, as he used his fork to point at a name on the list. “They’d get on each other’s nerves within a week.”

  With a wink for Rachel’s benefit, Adora sent the quill across the table and told it to draw a line through the name Josh indicated.

  “And she’s lousy in bed,” Josh said, pointing at another name.

  “Hey,” Rachel protested.

  Josh gave her a sheepish look. “It was years ago. But it’s true. I’m looking out for my cousin, that’s all.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Matt drawled. “But I can look out for myself.” He grabbed the list and started to tear it in two. It disappeared and reappeared in Adora’s hand, rolled tightly into a tube.

  She waved it at Josh. “Any others that should be taken off the list?”

  “None that were glaring,” Josh replied.

  “Don’t I get a say in this?” Matt demanded.

  “No,” Adora said. “Because I already know your say, and that isn’t how it works. There has to be someone out there for you. You’re only one half of a whole.”

  “That isn’t how reality works,” Matt insisted.

  “I think it is.” Rachel gave her mate an adoring look.

  “See?” Adora motioned at the obviously in love couple.

  Matt made a face and then, because he couldn’t resist, goaded her. “You’re only looking at shifters. What if I’m meant to be with a human, like Josh apparently is?”

  “The last human you were with you said you didn’t even know her name. I tend to believe you would, at bare minimum, want to be on a first-name basis with your potential future mate.”

  Scowling, Matt said, “I didn’t mean that particular human.”

  “I will allow that Cupids do not presume matches are exclusively within specific species. However,” she said, raising her voice and lifting her pointer finger to cut off Matt’s interruption. “I think it’s wise to eliminate your own kind first, as the majority of matings do occur within the same species.”

  Matt recalled a mistake he’d made a long time ago, when he’d been too young and too stupid to know better. Fates, he hoped she wasn’t meant to be his life partner. Hell, she was the reason he was so adamant about not finding a mate.

  He was tempted to tell the Cupid about her, but not even Josh knew about that particular mistake, and he wasn’t keen on explaining his actions from fifteen years ago. Besides, Adora would undoubtedly figure out some way around the obstacle, and Matt could only take so much arguing about whether or not he should seek out a mate.

  “This is stupid.” He pushed away from the table and stood up. “What are you planning to do? Parade the lot of them in front of me like they’re slabs of beef and I’m supposed to pick the best one? If that’s the case, I want ’em rare. Bloody. Only way to eat steak.”

  Adora turned faintly green and he felt a stab of guilt for deliberately provoking her. But damn it, he didn’t need help finding a mate. He didn’t want to find a mate. He didn’t need one.

  “No, that isn’t how it works,�
� Adora said after swallowing several times until her face returned to its normal hue. “I simply watch how you interact with various females. I read your body language, the unspoken cues, the way you get along, and I can usually tell relatively quickly if it’s going to work or not. Then I just keep putting you into situations together until the two of you finally get it. If you are still being stubborn, I can always give you a dose of magic that causes you to temporarily be enthralled with whomever you are with at the moment. Usually, once you’ve finally connected in that way, everything works itself out naturally, and my job here will be done, and I can return to Cupid’s Plain.”

  Recalling the one-night stand Adora had attempted to enthrall, he said, “Don’t you dare use that magic mojo on me.”

  “If you cooperate, I won’t have to.”

  “If you—”

  Ignoring their argument, Rachel reached across the table and grabbed Adora’s forearm. “Will you come back to visit?” Her voice wobbled, as if she were afraid her new friend would desert her forever.

  There was only the slightest hesitation before Adora said, “Of course,” with enough firmness to convince Rachel of her sincerity, given the way the human woman leaned back in her chair, a satisfied look on her face.

  “Excuse me,” Adora said, and she picked up her plate and carried it into the kitchen. Matt grabbed his own plate and followed.

  In the kitchen, Adora handed her dishes to Jeannine, who gave her a barely concealed disdainful look. Matt knew the woman disliked Rachel because she was human, but now he wondered if it was anybody who wasn’t shifter. Probably. For practically forever, shifters had tended to associate only with shifters.

  “The food was delicious,” Adora told the housekeeper. “I’ve never eaten so well. I’m so looking forward to the next meal. Oh, and the sheets on my bed were the most comfortable I’ve ever felt. Thank you for taking such good care of your pack master’s guests.”

  Jeannine puffed up like a peacock at the compliments, and took the woman’s plate with a far less hostile look on her face. As Adora turned to head back to the dining room, Matt grabbed her arm and swung her around.

  “You lied in there,” he said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You told Rachel you would be back after your assignment was done. But that isn’t true, is it?”

  “How would you know?” Her tone went defensive while her body went rigid.

  “You aren’t the only one who knows how to read body language, honey.”

  She gnawed on her lower lip. “Don’t tell her, okay? She’s so lonely, and she feels so ostracized here. Your pack treats her like she has a communicable disease, and all she wants is for them to love her, as she loves their pack master.”

  “They don’t have to love her,” Matt pointed out. “But they do have to respect her, and obey her, grudgingly or not. She’s the pack master’s mate, and if anyone disrespects her, they disrespect him, and they suffer accordingly. That isn’t enough for her?”

  “She would rather have their love. Their friendship.”

  “She has Josh’s love. Awfully selfish of her, don’t you think, to want theirs, too?”

  “Don’t be so snide. That isn’t how it works, and you well know it. Clearly, you have never felt the absence of love, so you don’t understand.”

  “Exactly,” he said, leaping onto her comment. “I’ve never felt the absence of love. I have plenty of love from my family and my pack, which is why I don’t need a mate.”

  “It isn’t the same,” Adora countered. “And most people need both kinds of love. Now I want your word that you will not tell her I won’t be back.”

  “What makes you think I won’t go back on my word?”

  “Because for everything else you are, I can tell you are an honorable man. You won’t break your promise.”

  Matt wondered what else she thought he was. He didn’t think it would be very complimentary, and for some reason, that bothered him.

  “Fine,” he grumbled. “I won’t tell her. Although probably I won’t have to, since if you can’t leave until I’m mated, it looks like you won’t be leaving at all.”

  And with those parting words, he stalked through the house to the front door and headed out to his truck. Which he was annoyed to discover still smelled like vomit. But pride kept him from returning to the house and asking the Cupid if she really could use her magic to make the stench go away.

  It was Saturday morning, and he knew Tanner, his mate and pup, mother-in-law, and various other shifters and Lightbearers from the Lightbearer coterie would soon be arriving at Josh’s mansion. Then the party planning festivities would commence, and Matt wanted no part of it. Seeking the comfort of one who would not judge him, he headed to his brother’s house, which was a short, ten-minute drive away.

  Matt’s parents had two daughters and then a son, and considered themselves done having pups, until Matt made a surprise visit ten years later. Growing up, his sisters treated him as if they were second and third mothers, but Nick had embraced the role of big brother, and despite the age difference between them, always treated Matt as if he were thrilled to have him around.

  The only issue with hanging out with his brother was the fact that Nick was mated and they had four pups of their own. Whenever Nick was home, he had at least one child hanging on him at all times, if not multiple pups.

  “Uncle Matt!” The youngest two pups, seven-year-old twins Millie and Molly, rushed him as he walked in the door, wrapping him in a twin bear hug and squealing in mutual delight when he lifted both onto his shoulders and carried them as if they were sacks of flour.

  “Hey, Ash,” he said when Nick’s mate waved at him from the top of the staircase leading upstairs to the bedroom level.

  “Hi Matt. He’s out back with Jack and Jonas. Practicing archery. It’s Jonas’s latest obsession, when he isn’t mooning over girls, that is.” Ashley rolled her eyes before disappearing from view.

  Jonas, their eldest pup, became obsessed with a different hobby every few months, although if his latest obsession was girls, Matt figured he might stick with that one for a while. The rest of his damn life, no doubt.

  Matt recalled the talk his brother had given him, which had been too little, too late. His parents had skipped a lot of basics with their last kid. He hoped Nick had already given Jonas the birds and bees spiel. It was never too early, in his opinion.

  Placing the twins on the floor, he headed through the house to the back door, with both girls trailing behind him. When the doorbell rang, they abandoned him to rush to answer the summons, and Matt slipped outside.

  The yard was wide and unhindered by a fence. Although it was surrounded by a thin row of trees, at this time of year, as the leaves were falling from the branches, he could see that the nearest neighbor was only a few hundred yards away.

  A hay-stuffed target with a giant bull’s eye painted on the front was positioned on one end of the yard, while three male shifters were situated at the other end. The eldest, Matt’s brother, stood behind a tall, scrawny kid who still needed to fill in his form before he could be considered good-looking. As Matt watched, Nick instructed the kid to pull back on the bowstring, aim, hold it steady and then release. The arrow went flying through the air and bounced off a tree trunk behind the target before stabbing into the ground.

  Jonas threw the bow onto the ground. “This is stupid. I’m lousy at it.”

  “That’s because you don’t ever stick with anything,” his father scolded. “No one’s perfect at something the first time. It takes practice. But by the time you get decent, you’re bored, and you move on to something else.”

  “So? What’s wrong with that? That’s what Uncle Matt does with his ladies,” Jonas retorted.

  Nick whipped his head around to glare at his brother, and Matt held up his hands in a helpless gesture. “I don’t know where he got that from,” he said to Nick’s unasked question. “I don’t mak
e it a habit of telling anybody about my love life—or lack thereof. It’s nobody’s business, frankly.”

  “Then how do you know that?” Nick demanded of his son. Eleven-year-old Jack watched the interaction with obvious fascination.

  Jonas shrugged and kicked at a clump of grass. “I heard it over at Henry’s house. His mom was talking to some other lady, and they were talking about Uncle Matt,” he admitted. “Henry’s mom said how he refuses to settle down, how he always hops from woman to woman and won’t take a mate.”

  Matt would have found it amusing he had such a reputation, if not for the source of the comments. Henry’s mom. He knew Henry’s mom, all too well.

  She’d once accused him of being Henry’s sire, when she’d discovered she was carrying the pup in her belly, shortly after she’d seduced Matt—which consequently had been his first time having sex…Ever. Unlike his nephew, Matt had filled out quickly as a teenage pup, and the older high school girls had taken notice. Especially Henry’s mom.

  “Henry’s mom doesn’t know me,” Matt commented, trying for lightness. As far as he was aware, she’d not told anyone else about their interlude, after he’d refused to believe her about being Henry’s sire.

  When the pup had been whelped a month early—had it been Matt’s kid—he’d risked a visit, to ease his own mind. Just in case. But the newborn pup looked so much like another kid in their high school that it could have morphed from that guy’s body. He was definitely not Matt’s kid. He hadn’t seen mother or pup since. It hadn’t occurred to him until now that Henry would be his nephew’s age, and that they might be friends.

  Before the conversation could go any further, the patio door opened, and two females stepped outside. One was a teenage girl with frizzy hair and too much makeup, wearing a bulky sweatshirt and tight jeans with a pair of knee high boots. Her face turned bright red when she realized she was waving enthusiastically at Jonas and that everyone could see her.