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Chapter Eleven

By the time I got to Conn’s meeting with both guardians and the far darrig in tow, the yelling was already underway. Conn and Henry were standing nearly nose-to-nose. We slid into the room, ignoring them as best we could, to find seats at the conference table Henry had put in here for us.

“Posting a guard at the end of the driveway is ridiculous and unnecessary. This is a home, not a fort, Henry. It also would look like we were charging a fee to get inside. Random people would be stopping to ask for a tour of the property.”

“I was responsible for what happened with the rogue fairy,andnow I will take whatever steps I feel necessary to protect thishomeand all those in it. You asked Gale and I to becaretakersof the entire grounds and all the houses. That means I get the final say on what measures are required for our safety.”

Seated on each side of me, I heard Rasmus sigh and Zara giggle softly. The female guardian loved watching a good fight.

I did too, when the fight didn’t directly concern me.

I could only imagine what Rasmus was thinking about all the anger floating around the room. It was full of emotion and contained very little logic. He considered such discussions beneath him, yet he ended up being in the middle of so many.

I grinned as I did my usual to calm things, which meant I brought up something random to bring the tension. “How about we buy a guard animal instead of assigning a demon to guard duty? We could get a three-headed Cerberus. No one messes with those.”

Both demons looked at me like I was the one with three heads. See? It worked every time.

Zara turned to me and shook her own. “That’s not a good idea. The demon wolves would be upset by the strange animal. They feel quite possessive of this property.”

“Did they tell ya that?” I asked.

“No,” Zara admitted. “They told Dylan. They tolerate me, but they adore him.”

Across the table from us, Dylan looked uncomfortable at Zara’s statement but cleared his throat to speak when I kept looking at him. The far darrig was learning to assert himself, and I was oddly proud of that fact.

Dylan looked back at me. “I’m quite sure the demon wolves could guard the place if allowed the freedom to roam without boundaries. Zara is right that they feel this is their home now.”

I shook my head. “They’re not animals. They’re young, naïve women barely old enough to be out on their own. They’re both around Fiona’s age.”

Dylan shook his head as well. “They areactual wolves, Aran. Their genetic makeup is as much animal as human. They’re more animal than Ben. They might be taught to shift into humans again, but they will remain wolves forever. Which is okay because they’ve acclimated quite well.”

“I saw them in their human forms in a vision. They were young and vulnerable women. How can ya know for certain they’ll be animals forever?”

Dylan pulled the artifact out of his shirt to remind me of how knew. He had carefully wrapped his stone with copperwire, skillfully shaping the wire into the form of a falcon. Then he secured the stone around his neck using two strips of supple brown leather.

It appeared to be nothing more than a masculine necklace. Now the artifact was expertly concealed and hard to detect.

“I love what ya’ve done with yer stone. It’s a nice look for both of ya.”

Dylan slipped it back inside his shirt. “I never take it off. Its council flows easily into my mind when it’s this close. I trust it completely and it told me they would be wolves forever. The spell was for transfiguration, which means their offspring will inherit the changes to their DNA.”

“I’m glad ya trust yer stone, Dylan. I think ya should. Forgive me, though, because I don’t find that to be good news.”

“Would you rather I not tell you and let you learn it later?”

“No. Never hold back. Even when the news is uncomfortable.”

My hand went to where my own magickal stone rested. In hindsight, I probably should have done as Dylan had. Instead, I took additional steps because Jack once took it from me.

I made most of my important life decisions to thwart my evil ex-husband. Now I was paying the price. And I hoped I wasn’t making the same mistakes with Rasmus. I was putting a lot of effort into our relationship.

Since the guardian turned back time to save my life, at least he seemed worth it. Jack had never been worth it. He even confessed to me that I was a job.

But I couldn’t change my past with him. Neither could I change what I did with the stone.

I shook my head to clear away my unhelpful thoughts. Dwelling on things I couldn’t change was a mind game I didn’t let myself play often.

I looked at Dylan. “My instinct is to protect the women, not use them like ya would use dogs.”