“We have his scent. He was not careful to mask it this time.”
Latravis grinned. “Interesting. See to it he’s tracked. Find what holds his interest and report back to me. Perhaps a trap can be laid for the bastard. It is high time he was dealt with. I’ll not have him threaten my crown again.”
“Of course not, my lord,” Ennae said. “You are the one true king.”
A sick smile danced upon Latravis’s face. “I am. And all shall bow down to me. This realm will be mine.”
A flicker of doubt crossed Ennae’s face, and Latravis considered having the man’s head removed. He decided against it. To date, Ennae had been loyal. “See to it the bastard is tracked and a trap is laid.”
“Yes, my lord.” Ennae exited the throne room with quick strides.
Latravis shook his head, pain piercing his temple as he struggled through the darkness and insanity that had become his life. Reason crept in. To the east. Within one day’s flying distance.
Too close to Sabrina for his liking.
He held on to reason and sanity long enough to stare down at his hands. Hands that had taken too many lives to count since the great bird sickness had come over him centuries ago. He knew once the madness returned it would try to seek out Sabrina or send others to do so, and he knew in the end she could be harmed should he lose control.
He’d always known what a threat he could be to her. It was why he’d seen to it she could protect herself should the time ever come that she be forced to do so—even if it was against him.
His sane moments, few and far between, were filled with worry and dread over what may come to pass.
She was light. She was salvation. She was not to be harmed if he could help it. Unfortunately, the him of now was rarely in charge anymore. The mad version was who issued the orders and the mad version was nearly fully in control. Only the most trusted of his men knew of Sabrina’s existence. Ennae was not one. He would view the female as a weakness, especially if he saw how lucid she made Latravis.
* * * *
Several awkward, silent moments passed before Gardelle and Lazar began having a conversation Sabrina couldn’t follow. It didn’t matter. Her concentration was on Lazar and how good-looking he was. She actually welcomed the opportunity to simply stare for a bit. He had a face one would never tire of.
Her uncle nudged her. “Brina?”
“What?” she asked, snapping to attention.
He laughed. “Have you heard a word Lazar was saying to you?”
“Um.” Pink stole her cheeks.
“You were staring intently at him. I assumed you were listening to him,” Gardelle stated.
“No. I was pretty much just staring at his lips.” Groaning, she blushed more. “More tea?”
No takers.
Of course.
Gardelle nudged her again. “His lips? Dare I ask?”
“Please don’t,” she begged, wanting off the subject.
Lazar’s mouth tugged upward, only adding to his appeal. She forced her gaze to the window and off him. It was a case of do that or risk leaping upon the man.
There was a pounding at the front door. Gardelle and Lazar stood fast, looking as though they were ready for an attack.
“Sabrina,” a female voice called. “Your lazy butt better not be back in bed. So help me God I will drag you out of it by your hair.”
Gardelle groaned. “What is she doing here?”
Sabrina shrugged and stood as well. “It’s Lisa. Does she need a reason? I’m pretty sure ‘unpredictable’ is her middle name.” She cast a worried glance at Lazar, already knowing her friend would try to sink her claws into the man.
With her head held high, Sabrina went out to the front entranceway. She opened the door just as the sassy blonde began pounding upon it once more. Lisa, as usual, was dressed in skintight clothing that showed off her voluptuous figure. She always seemed to exude sex. Sabrina wasn’t sure how and secretly wished she had the ability. Next to Lisa she looked as stodgy as her uncle.
Lisa stopped and looked her up and down. “Goodie, you’re almost ready.”
“Ready for what?” Sabrina tried to keep the door open a crack in order to block Lisa’s view of the sitting room and mainly Lazar.
“To go out.” Lisa pushed past Sabrina. “I’m not a fan of the dress, but I’m used to you and know the odds of me getting you into leather pants or a leather skirt are about the same as me hitting the lottery.”
“Lisa, I’m not going out tonight. It’s late.”
Lisa burst into laughter. “It’s eight thirty. What are you, ninety-five? Live a little, Brina. Let’s be young, have fun, screw our way through endless hot guys.”
Sabrina blushed from her toes to her head. “Lisa.”
“You are so repressed,” Lisa said with a snort, heading toward the kitchen. “Too bad your uncle isn’t home. I love staring at his ass.”
Putting her hand over her eyes, Sabrina attempted to will herself away. It didn’t work. When Lisa grew silent, she knew her friend had spotted the men.
“Yummy,” whispered Lisa. That was code for Lisa had her sights on them and odds were would try to get one of them into bed. Lisa had actually coined their best-friend tag of man meat. And she’d certainly find Lazar worthy of the title.
Sabrina was put off by the idea anyone would find her uncle attractive that way because he was her family. The thought Lisa would make a play for Lazar set Sabrina’s teeth on edge, causing her to grind her molars.
Sabrina hurried toward Lisa, trying to steer her in the direction of the kitchen. Lisa stared unabashedly into the sitting room. “How is it possible to have that much man meat in one area?”
“If I beg, will you not speak?” Sabrina asked, ever hopeful it might work.
Lisa snickered. “I’ll not speak if you agree to go out partying with me tonight.”
Gardelle cleared his throat, a disapproving note to the act. It also meant he and Lazar could hear everything Lisa had been saying.
“Oh, lighten up,” Lisa said to him. “She’s way legal and can come and go as she pleases. You worry way too much.”
Sabrina touched Lisa’s arm. “Remember the talk we had?”
“Which one?”
“The one about you and your lack of filters?” Sabrina stared harder at her friend.
“Oh, that one,” Lisa said. “Yes. What? Am I saying the first thing that comes to mind again?”
“And then some.”
Lisa pursed her lips. “Sorry.”
“Kitchen. Please.”
“Can I just say one more thing?” Lisa didn’t wait for an answer. “Who is the hottie?”
Gardelle’s hands clenched. “Lisa, meet my friend Lazar.”
“Lazar?” Lisa smiled from ear to ear as she swayed her hips, heading right into the sitting room and for Lazar. She put her hand out to him. “My, my, aren’t you a looker?”
Sabrina saw green as Lazar kissed Lisa’s hand. She quickly quelled her jealousy. “Lisa, let’s go to the kitchen and talk there. We can let my uncle and his friend catch up alone.”
“Oh, honey, you cannot possibly want to be out of this room.” Lisa paused and tipped her head, staring at Lazar. “He looks really familiar. I know. The eyes and hair. Latravis has the same ones. Same build too, but not quite as big as Lazar. Close though.”
Gardelle and Lazar stiffened, both men looking to Sabrina.
“Latravis?” Gardelle asked, a curious yet angry note to his voice.
“Lisa, how about you help me get my hair and makeup done? I’d love to go out with you.” Sabrina wanted away from the subject and fast. If giving in to Lisa’s demands to go out would do the trick, she was game.
Lisa, clueless to what was going on, shrugged and smiled. “Yeah. Latravis is this guy who shows up a lot in the same circles we run. Has a thing for Sabrina. Big time. Bordering on stalking in my opinion but seems harmless enough. Sexy. Very sexy.”
Lazar’s expression changed.
/> Gardelle looked horrified. “This Latravis only just began running in the same circles?”
Lisa waved a hand dismissively. “Pfft. No. He’s been lingering for years now. He doesn’t really speak much to me. Acts likes he’s too good to be bothered or something. But he tries very hard to catch and keep Sabrina’s attention.” She shook her head at Sabrina. “Honey, the man screams money. I don’t know why you don’t give in and date him. He showers you with gifts. And talk about surrounding himself with man meat. Those guys who are always with him are hot.”
Gardelle undid his top shirt button. Sabrina knew he was pissed and trying not to blow up in front of Lisa. “He showers you with gifts?”
“He tries to,” Lisa said. “Brina doesn’t accept them. Doesn’t mean the man stops trying. Even calls her his queen.”
Lazar’s entire body tensed, and he looked lethal.
So did her uncle.
Gardelle met her gaze. “His queen?”
Lisa chomped her gum and kept digging Sabrina into a bigger hole with her uncle. “Yeah. Makes these weird comments about some gods or something getting it all wrong and that she should be with him instead. It’s creepy in one respect but way romantic in another. I don’t know why Sabrina holds out on him and doesn’t give in to his advances. I’d be so open to rich, hot and horny.”
Sabrina squeaked, wanting desperately to fade away.
“Strange how Brina has never once mentioned this suitor to me,” Gardelle said, anger evident on his face.
“Not really,” Lisa replied. “You treat her like she’s ten sometimes, so she tries her best to minimize upsetting you in any way. I know your thoughts on her and dating any man, so I’m not shocked in the least she’d keep Latravis a secret.”
“Lisa,” Sabrina scolded.
“What? It’s true. He’s barely home anymore, and you still obey almost all the rules he gave you when you were a teenager. It’s kind of sad. I’ve been telling you for years to move out and get a place of your own. You’re going to be twenty-four soon, Brina. I get that you love the guy and have this huge amount of guilt because he’s raised you since you were little and your parents died, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend the rest of your life with him—letting him act like a warden.”
She glanced at Gardelle and offered an apologetic look. “I don’t think of you like a warden. And I like living here—with you. I don’t want to move away just yet. Unless…” She bit her lower lip. “…you want me to.”
“Most certainly not,” Gardelle snapped. “You are an unmated young female. To permit you to live on your own is too much, even for me. Already I’ve given you more freedoms than other women, and it is clear you have abused those.”
Sabrina hung her head in shame. Keeping Latravis from him was a mistake, but she’d honestly thought it was a harmless one. Latravis had always been overprotective of her. In fact, he’d gone above and beyond on more than one occasion to make sure she was safe. Arguing the fact with her uncle was pointless. When it came to Latravis, there was no reasoning with him. Things were very black and white in regard to Latravis—at least according to her uncle.
“Hold on one minute there,” Lisa argued in her defense. “Unmated female? What does that even mean? Are you trying to say that because she’s not married off to some man that she’s incapable of thinking on her own or living on her own? And you’ve given her too much freedom as is? You have got to be kidding me. Who are these women you know, and are they from the Stone Age?”
“Lisa,” Sabrina pressed apprehensively.
“Grow a backbone with him, Brina,” her friend advised. “You have one with everyone else in your life. Everyone but your uncle. You worry nonstop about him when he’s off on his seemingly endless business trips, and I can see the guilt in your eyes when you’re out at a place you know he’d disapprove of. Stop acting like a child, and stop acting like he’s your father. He’s some loaded rich uncle who took you in. He’s barely been around enough to qualify as anything more.”
Gardelle took a step back.
Lisa advanced on him. She was hardly the type of woman to back down, unlike Sabrina who often found more comfort in nodding and remaining silent. “I’ve known her since she was fifteen. That’s nearly ten years, and don’t think for one second I haven’t noticed how rarely it is you’re home or even around.”
“When I could not be, and she was young, I assured someone was here to care for her and watch over her,” Gardelle stated in a defensive manner, some of the fire leaving his eyes.
Lazar leaned forward more, listening intently. This wasn’t the conversation Sabrina wanted to have in front of him, but with as hardheaded as both Gardelle and Lisa were, there was no stopping it.
“Live-in housekeepers don’t count as family, Gardelle,” Lisa snapped, her temper showing. “My God, the girl spent so many nights in tears, wanting to ask questions about herself and having no one around who could answer them, that I lost count. And don’t think I don’t know that before the two of you moved here, that it was the same for her. That as far back as she can remember, you’ve been running off—your job more important than her. Brina would never admit it to you or even herself. She’s that nice of a person. So don’t you stand there acting like she’s let you down so much, when in truth, I’m thinking it’s you who let her down.”
Gardelle opened his mouth and then closed it before exhaling. “I tried to provide her with everything she could possibly need. She wanted for nothing. She still wants for nothing.”
Lisa rolled her eyes. “Like Brina gives a shit about material things. I’m betting you she’d trade everything she has for extra time with you—her only anything. In her eyes, you’re a father and a mother to her. You’re way more than an uncle, but you don’t see it. You’d know that had you shown up to one thing she had schoolwise. I can’t recall a time you were ever at anything all through high school. And I know when she started college, you were equally as absent for anything important there.”
Her uncle gave her a questioning look. He didn’t understand what he’d done wrong, and she knew it.
Lisa didn’t let up. When she had a bone, she didn’t just run with it, she sprinted, buried it and then dug it up to run some more. “Who doesn’t even show to their kid’s graduation? High school or college? For Christ’s sake, she was the damn head of the class and had not one person outside of me there for her to show her support. And she’s let you down? Really?”
Gardelle appeared confused. “This graduation, it was something important?”
Lazar seemed equally as lost as to what graduation was.
Lisa tossed her hands in the air. “Were you raised in a cave or something? Of course it was important. Hugely important. So was every awards dinner Brina was honored at. Every science fair she won. All of it. Hearing about her first kiss or about how the other girls ridiculed her to no end because she was so smart and pretty. How they tried to make her life a living hell. How they would do everything they could to try to humiliate her. Or how about when she went to college two of the girl’s professors tried to get down her pants. One went as far as to threaten to flunk her if she didn’t give him what he wanted—her.”
Sabrina sighed, her shoulders slumping in defeat. Everything that she’d kept from him was being laid out before him. Not only that, it had all been spelled out in front of Lazar, a man she was drawn to in ways she couldn’t explain and a man she now felt humiliated before.
“Is it any shock she’d keep Latravis and his advances a secret from you? You barely know her,” Lisa said snidely. “Come on, Brina. Let’s go. You can crash at my place.”
Sabrina remained in place, her gaze moving to her uncle. She teared up. “I know you told me to stay away from him. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you the truth about him.”
“You’re apologizing to him?” Lisa questioned.
She looked to her friend. “Yes. I hurt him by lying to him about Latravis. I get you have no respect for your parents. But I
respect Gardelle even if he’s had to be gone a lot in my life. Without him, I’d have no one. He took me in when I was little. He didn’t have to. In case you missed it, he’s a young, single man. I’m sure having an instant family minus the wife to lend a hand wasn’t easy for him. I don’t think he was really that close with my mother either. I get the sense he only kind of knew her and sort of ended up with no choice but to raise me.”
Lisa shook her head. “Doesn’t make it right that he’s been gone so much and then talks to you like you’re a letdown. And what era does the man think it is?”
“He’s different. I know that and I actually like that about him. No, I won’t lie and say I loved the fact he’s rarely around or that a string of nannies raised me, but I’m not going to cry in my milk over it. He’s all I have, and I do think of him like a father. He didn’t come to anything while I was growing up because he either didn’t know about it or because I didn’t explain what it was or what it meant to me.”
Lisa arched her brows. “Was he really raised in a cave?” She glared at Gardelle, as if daring him to answer.
Sabrina snorted and smiled. She wanted to smooth over the situation. Peacemaker was a role she stepped into with ease and preferred. She didn’t like Lisa’s hard-as-nails approach to everything in her life. Quite often quiet observation got one further than instantly flying off the handle. “Sometimes I wonder. His upbringing wasn’t normal and his ideas on a lot of things are dated, but had I explained everything to him fully, he’d have found a way to be there for me. I just didn’t like bothering him. He had enough to worry about, and his job sometimes leaves him so stressed. I wanted home to be a place he didn’t have to worry about. That he could just relax.”
“Other children were cruel to you?” Gardelle asked, sounding so lost and out of sorts. “You would tell me you enjoyed your day and had lots of friends.”
Lazar’s jaw set. He looked as if he was ready to take on Sabrina’s long-gone cause. It made the situation easier to bear.
Shifter Fated Mates: Boxed Set Page 11