by A Y Venona
A few mutterings floated around in the lecture hall, insults and unflattering remarks I knew were directed at me.
“Hey, nectaric-cheeks, you’re disgustingly smart,” Tela said. She honestly looked proud.
“Nectaric is not a word.”
“It is,” she answered.
“According to what dictionary?”
“Unpublished,” she said, grinning.
I turned in time to see the professor striding over to us. Alarm bells started ringing in my head. Methinks it was a whole orchestra in there.
“Elian,” Melo said. “See me in my office. Now.” Then he proceeded toward the door and out of the hall.
“Am I in trouble?” I asked Tela.
“Why would you be in trouble? He looked impressed like Freko looking at his son who’d just cast his first spell.”
I stared at her, frowning. “Freko? What disgusting teledrama have you been watching lately?”
“It’s a new one called Land of Dreams. It’s actually—”
“Never mind I asked.” Then winking, I said, “To the dungeon, I shall go, to see the master.” It was a line from the last movie we’d seen together. She looked at me with her mouth hanging open.
“It’s to ‘save’ the master, you darling wormwood son of Hades!” Her voice was the only one left echoing in the hall.
I sprinted out to the hallway, thinking about what the reason could be for Melo’s sudden invitation to his office. Rewards? Points? Special projects? Then something broke into my train of thought that turned my smile grim. What if Melo knew about the incident in the forest and wanted to interrogate me?
My pace slowed down, and my heart started racing like it had just received a triple shot of dopamine inducer.
CHAPTER 6
Claws was a direct competition of the fae-favored Moonstone Cafe. For faes, Claws was obnoxiously loud and served unsavory non-gourmet food. For the werekin, it was a paradise. It took up the whole first three floors of the Central West Tower where the werekin hung out to quench two types of thirst: one, their thirst for specially made werekin beer that was apparently not available outside of the island; and two, their thirst for some kind of fighting where a loser only ended up a few RPs short and with a bloody nose and a good laugh. Claws had a fighting saloon designed to cater to this need. Adrian often laughed at me whenever I called it “fighting.” He called it sports.
The bartender appraised me with a curious expression on his face before he pointed toward the direction of the second floor—the floor with the private booths. Great. I hoped he wasn’t engaging in some funny business as the fae side of my genetics just wanted to have a nice and cozy evening with him.
I climbed up to the second floor and bumped into a few drunks and a couple of flirts.
“Hello, gorgeous,” one said.
I responded with a sly smile.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
I loved being around werekin. They all liked me.
“Maybe later. Adrian’s waiting for me,” I answered. His brown eyes registered surprise at the mention of Adrian.
“Oops, my bad. Please, don’t tell the captain I ever said anything to you,” he said. At my nod, he walked away, muttering, “Forbidden fruit.
For-fucking-bidden my ass. But he was right even if it was one-sided. I resumed my search in a dimly lit room designed to affect anonymity. But then I had a scent to guide me, so it only took me a couple of minutes to find him. He was sitting in a booth befitting of his station—the prince captain and the captain of the guardians. He was staring at me like a lion would a lamb. I chuckled softly thinking about how literally accurate my description of him was—him, being the prince of the werelions. And, of course, I was the lamb, though it did not sound flattering.
Coming closer to him, I was immediately assaulted with a full blast of vanilla scent with a tinge of musky masculine bloom. All Adrian’s. I’d once told him how he smelled to me, and he just laughed, saying, “No, I don’t.” I told Tela too, and she said that there was no such thing as musky masculine bloom.
“What was that about?” Adrian asked, looking deliciously grouchy.
I raised my brows. Then my confusion morphed into a feeling akin to victory when my brain finally figured out what he’d meant with his opening line. It was about my encounter with the flirt. He’d seen it.
“Oh, is that why you look jealous?” I said. Daringly. I was capable of this, sometimes.
He rolled his eyes. “I found it disrespectful to flirt with my baby brother right in front of me.”
Faekin ass! There was that brother treatment again. Here’s my deal: although I grew up in his ex-stepfather’s household, I was on public record under the wardship of Angus Larsa. Take note, not a son or nephew, or any relative. People teased me about that. Not good enough to be adopted. But despite what the registry said, Angus was the only father I knew.
Adrian was different. He was my mate! He just did not know it yet.
“I’m not your baby brother,” I blurted out unintentionally. The look on his face said it all—that he was not happy about it. “But I love you anyway.”
This he received well.
“Come here.” He pulled me into his arms and hugged me so tight I could hardly breathe. But it was wonderful.
When all was well and we straightened up, he asked, “What do you want to drink?”
“Bloom-ale.”
He chuckled. “You’re in a werekin bar; they don’t serve fae drinks here.”
Oops. “Then give me Vertigo.”
“It’s too strong for you.”
“Nah, I can handle it.”
Ambivalence graced his face. “Tempting. Part of me wants to see you drunk. Another part is still scared Angus is going to get mad.”
“What’s he going to do? Ground you?”
He laughed. “But Angus has a way of making me feel guilty. And besides, I have something to talk to you about.”
There was an ominous tinge in his voice. My heartbeat quickened. No, not the An-Kian Forest incident again. I had no good excuses for that.
“Are you ready to order, Captain?” a waiter said. He was huge and chubby and had a beard braided to perfection.
“Give me a bottle of Vertigo and Bloom-ale.”
I raised my brows.
“Excuse me, Captain, but we don’t have fae drinks here,” the waiter said. I gave him props for braving Adrian’s intense “do not argue with me” gaze.
“Clay, I’m sure Randy can make one. His spouse is a fae. Either way, how you procure my order does not concern me. What I want is for you to deliver it to my table—soon preferably.”
Our waiter, Clay, winced as though he were being reprimanded by the elders. “Yes, Alpha, I meant…captain…Captain Alpha.” Oh, lord. Realizing that he was embarrassing himself enough, he hastily retreated down the aisle of tables and no doubt headed toward the manager’s office to report Adrian’s unreasonable demand. I’d bet my sampi ass they were going to send someone to get a Bloom-ale in Moonstone Cafe.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” I sounded a little irritated. I didn’t like it when Adrian would use his delta alpha sway over something as trivial as a fae drink.
He merely smirked at me like the whole scene was to his amusement. “So how’s school?”
I grinned when I remembered my meeting with Professor Melo. Noticing it, he leaned closer to me, close enough that I could smell his fresh and minty breath.
“Melo hired me as his apprentice.” And I was so proud of myself. The look on his face suggested he was equally proud of me too.
“That’s something to celebrate. Melo has not had any apprentices for millennia.”
I was pretty sure Adrian was merely exaggerating. It was preposterous to think that the professor had not had an apprentice for thousands of years. Adrian engulfed me in a full hug, one where I was half sitting on his lap and my head was buried in his chest while both his arms were wrapped around me.
“I’m so proud of you,” he said, his chin perched on my head.
My short moment of blissful existence was cut even shorter when Clay came back to deliver Adrian’s drink and surprisingly mine—Bloom-ale. Adrian kissed me on my cheek before he released me back to my miserable existence, me sitting beside him in a brotherly companionship.
As a reward for landing the most coveted and elusive job—that is, becoming Melo’s apprentice—Adrian took me shopping. Inside the clothing store, I made sure to try on every different piece of sexy clothing I could get my hands on just so I could see his reactions. Yet so far, I’d only received raised brows, a disoriented look, sexy smirk, and bemused smile. I wanted to see more. I wanted lust in his eyes and not the brotherly adoration kind. I wanted acknowledgment, signs that he wanted me, that he longed for me, that I was his mate.
“What happened to your usual gray tunic and baggy pants?” He regarded me with an amused look. His gaze sent an instant flush to my skin. “Never mind. You look cute in those clothes anyway.”
My brain was fixated on that word “cute.” Would I ever get past that “cute” phase in Adrian’s eyes?
On our way home, Adrian drove his monstrous silver truck over the bridge. The bridge was divided into two types of road—one meant for the trains to use, and the other for private vehicles. A train passed by, momentarily blocking my view of the lake from my side of the window. Its speed fanned the already frisky wind that almost destroyed my neatly tied bun. Several strands of hair came loose and fell all over my face.
We rode in companionable silence. I did not mind it because I loved watching Lake Gaia, especially at nighttime when its bioluminescent residents glowed, making the water look magical.
When we arrived home, Adrian followed me to my room. And when he closed the door behind him, my heart thudded in my chest.
He padded across the room and sat on the edge of the bed. He patted the side where he wanted me to sit. I walked to the bed and sat on the spot he indicated.
“I’d like to talk to you about the incident in the forest this morning,” Adrian started. The sharpness of his voice commenced another round of frantic heart beating.
“I swear I had nothing to do with it.”
His brows knitted in a frown, making him look like he was deciphering a puzzle. “You had nothing to do with it?”
“Whatever happened there—”
“What do you think happened there?”
“Tela took me there,” I said softly, hoping that regret was evident in my voice.
“Your lover took you there?”
“I swear to Lord Zeus she’s not my lover, or anything. She is my friend. She took me there because she wanted to show me this castle she said was the gate to Atlantis. And then she challenged me to approach the gate, and then I got thrown to the ground.” I stopped talking when I realized I’d just made a full confession. I stared at him staring at me as though I’d grown a horn on my forehead.
“You got what? And when did this happen?” he asked with unnecessary concern in his voice. Both his hands were holding my shoulders.
“It was three days ago.”
“Three days ago?” He paused, thinking, and then: “Listen to me. Did you see anything or anyone who might have been there in the forest at that time?”
I shook my head. “No. It was just me and Tela.”
He released a frustrated grunt. “You said you were thrown to the ground—that means the Shield was still working then. It’s either you shut it down yourself, or someone shut it down when you left. And anyone who is capable of shutting off a very powerful Shield must be very powerful himself. We were in this same situation last year in the academy, and something horrible happened there. I don’t want it to happen here.”
The fear in his eyes was so real. So raw.
“The Gatherings is fourteen days from now,” I said.
“Yes, I’m aware of that.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I already sent Sara for reinforcement.”
CHAPTER 7
The Gathering Counter: Friday, ten days before the Gatherings
The reinforcement arrived in the house four days later, which coincided with Adrian’s twenty-eighth birthday. They brought weapons appropriate for the occasion. In other words, they were all dressed to kill—pun intended.
There was Sara Larsa, the warrior princess and cousin to Adrian. She was in a long golden satin dress where one side was sleeved and the other side sleeveless. It looked simple, yet she wore it with an elegance that perfectly matched the cat’s-eye choker she wore around her neck.
There was Anthony Kish, brother to the prince-heir of Wulfscir. He wore a very see-through and very thin chain mail with a long-sleeved silver shoulder overcoat, matched with loose silver pants and boots.
Then there was Alexander Brunn.
Alexander’s entrance was always preceded by a sudden change in the air. He looked like a golden-haired Apollo in a fitted silver tunic, tight black breeches, long flowing sleeveless brown overcoat with silver linings, and brown mid-calf boots. His eyes were golden green and his body lean and muscular. He looked alluringly firm and tight underneath the confines of the clothing that must have long been ripped in the privacy of the onlookers’ minds and imaginations.
My Adrian immediately came to greet this godlike newcomer with an unnecessarily enthusiastic embrace and long, searing kiss that did nothing but tantalized their poor and hapless audience. Oh, how I wished I had been blind, that I had been spared from this sight. Adrian with his perfect masculine beauty, ruggedly handsome face, and beautiful piercing gray eyes was a perfect match to Alexander Brunn. How beautiful they looked standing side by side together, a perfect couple. Yes, give me blindness, oh Zeus! And delete my memory while at it.
Minutes. Crawled. By. And my eyes were still fully functional. The memory of the two of them kissing still flamed in my head. But the evening was still young, and the torture had just begun.
This nice celebration was held on Friday evening at the dance hall, where long tables were set up. One of them was reserved for the family and close friends. During dinnertime, I sat between Angus and Adrian. Next to Adrian was Alexander. Just by looking at them interact with each other, there was no doubt in my biased mind that Adrian was completely besotted with him. All these touches and kisses they were doing right in front of everybody were making me ill.
I really thought they’d broken up. In fact, it was Angus who’d told me that last month. So what had happened?
With my need to distance myself far from them, I sneaked away from the family table to hide behind the cascading wine fountain near the hall entrance.
“So, pup, how’s school?”
Startled, though not enough to knock over the glasses placed around the wine fountain, I turned around to face the owner of the sexy voice behind me. Anthony Kish. He grinned after seeing my annoyed look.
“Challenging, but it’s okay.”
“I heard you have a double major.”
I raised my eyebrow. Anthony smiled, his left dimple making a pretty appearance. “Adrian told us you’re taking both Herbology and Archaelinguistics.”
“Well, it came from being partly fae. We love to experiment with weeds and utter curses,” I answered facetiously, filling up a glass of wine from the fountain.
Anthony grinned. “Indeed. And what a fine-looking fae you’ve grown to be.”
I spat out the wine that was in my mouth. Anthony expertly eluded the sudden splatter of wine shower.
“Easy there, pup.” He chuckled. He grabbed my elbow and guided me to a corner away from the wine fountain. I stared at Adrian’s best friend. Tall, dark, and handsome, he could certainly earn money selling underwear. He had a buzz cut, well-trimmed mustache, and a chin strap outlining his angular jawline. He was big—almost as big as Adrian but bigger in muscle mass. I sighed. Anthony had always treated me nicely. It was as if his mere association with Adrian made me by default his stepbrother.<
br />
“I’m sorry,” I said. My face was flustered.
“What’s the matter? Are you not used to receiving compliments? Didn’t Adrian notice your graceful transformation to manhood?”
My blush deepened. But despite it, I managed to say, “Well, Adrian’s only called me cute.”
“Oh, I see,” Anthony replied. His voice was intriguingly soft. I felt the intensity of his brown gaze probing me, assessing any slight uptick in the muscles of my face.
“It’s rude to stare,” I said, glaring at him. He grinned and then winked.
CHAPTER 8
The Gathering Counter: Saturday, nine days before the Gatherings
“Ouch!” I swiped the ember of the lit cigar off my breeches. When Angus’s pride was still dead to the world after a night of revelry and debauchery, I found a spot at the huge oak tree a few feet away from the mansion to enjoy the expensive cigar stolen from Angus’s collection.
“Mind if I join you?”
I looked to where the voice came from, and my eyes locked with a pair of golden green. It took a conscious effort to take my eyes off him. When finally I was able to lower my gaze a little, I caught a glimpse of red marks adorning my intruder’s smooth neck. Something stirred in the pit of my gut. I willed myself to divert my gaze somewhere.
“I prefer to be alone, so if you don’t mind…?”
“Well, you’re too hot to be left alone.”
I choked on a lungful of smoke.
“Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror?” My intruder’s eyes lit up. Literally. I understood that there were creatures whose presence was meant to be desired. I could not blame Adrian. Not. At. All. But it still did not lessen the pain.
Sitting across from me, he said, “I’m Xander.” Along with his smoldering golden-green eyes, Alexander needed no further weapon to conquer the world.
“You don’t have to introduce yourself to me every time we meet.”
“I’ll stop doing that if you start calling me Xander.”