Page 57

It took a moment for me to realize his voice was coming inside my head and he wasn’t speaking out loud.

You get to make all decisions that don’t include Davy’s work, and that means you’ll be deciding this unless you decide he should have a say. Think your answer back at me, and I’ll hear it.

I don’t know the question, but it’s possible I’ll need to have a private conversation with Davy so I can figure his wishes into my choices. If he feels completely different than me and I respect his reasoning, I’ll let him make that decision. If we’re close to the same page, he’ll either have to be happy with my choice, or I’ll figure out some kind of compromise that worksfor both of us. I can’t decide which until I know the question and check in with him.

He nodded.Then I shall make this explanation out loud.

“Supernatural rules say humans who know the secret must be bound to it. Josef and I have placed markers in your heads so we can erase all memories beginning when Aaron and Nathan arrived with Micca and ending once we get you back home, so you won’t remember anything of Alfheim, dragons, shifters, vampires — nothing. If you or any human present chooses not to take the oath, or if you refuse to allow it to bind you, then that’s what will happen.”

He looked around the room. “I believe the three of them need some time alone.”

“Stay put,” Kirsten told us as she walked to us. She sat beside me, and the next thing I knew, our sofa was in one of the fanciest rooms I’ve ever been in, and that’s saying something.

“There are guards at the doors to make sure no one enters your suite. I’ll have some food brought up shortly, and you’ll find water near the door. There’s a pull cord with a bell on it near the door — pull it and someone will come to see what you need. You aren’t a prisoner here, but a protectee. This is an inner room in my castle, with no windows and no balcony. You’re completely safe as long as you stay in this suite.” She looked around the room and back to us. “I suggest sex, and a lot of it, at least two orgasms each, more if you can pull it off. There’s more magic here than back home, and both Will and Micca have magic in their blood. Lots of sex and fluid exchanges while you’re here will unite you and make you stronger.”

“How long do we have?” Davy asked before I could ask what Kirsten meant about me having magic in my blood.

She held her hands out and a second later she held an hourglass in each. “It should feel like approximately four Earth hours. These are twin hourglasses, and I’ll return when the sandruns out of mine.” She turned them both over at the same time, settled one on our mantle, and held onto the other.

“Food should be here within five or ten minutes — steak, potatoes, vegetables, and a variety of finger foods. Not exactly potatoes, but close enough. Again, this isn’t like Faerie, where you mustn’t eat or drink anything lest you find yourself trapped. There are things you shouldn’t eat, but none of that will be presented to you.”

Chapter 27

Micca

I was an emotional wreck, so as soon as Kirsten was gone, I said, “Please don’t hate me, andpleasedon’t be afraid of me. I have total control now. The three shifters you saw were all born to it, but you’ll be able to pet me and climb on me and…” I shrugged. “I haven’t turned into a beast and hurt you before, and I won’t now, either.”

Dave stepped to me and pulled me into his arms. “I know you won’t. I could never hate you.”

I wasn’t so sure of that. I’d freaked the first time I saw one of the Drake Security wolveschangeand kill a man on an op, but I didn’t argue with Davy. Hopefully, they’d never see my bear have to kill. So far, she’d only killed animals to eat — rabbits and sheep, mostly.

Will met Davy’s gaze and asked, “How do you feel about the oath they’re demanding.”

“I don’t think we have a choice, Master. We need to know all we can about Micca, and that means doing whatever we have to so they let us remember what we’ve learned.”

Will pulled both Davy and me into a hug and kissed both of our foreheads. “My thoughts exactly, but if you were against it, I wasn’t going to order you to do it. I could’ve, based on our contract, but this needs to be your decision.”

“Agreed, so it’s good we both feel the same,” Davy told him, and he wrapped his arms around both of us as well.

What could I do, but wrap my arms around them? I’d worried they wouldn’t want to be in the same room with me, much less touch me, and now I found myself wrapped in their arms, and I was overwhelmed with feelings. Relief, love. These men loved me, and had accepted the fact I turn into… okay, so they don’t yet know I turn into a bear, but they saw Collosa’s bear and didn’t freak. Also, they know I turn into some kind of monster, they just don’t know which flavor of beast, yet.

“You were both hit with alot,all at once,” I told them. “I didn’t find out about supernaturals until I’d been working at Drake a couple of months, and I held it together while I heard about it from coworkers, but then pretty much lost it once I was away from them. Fucking werewolves! And birds of all kinds! And lions and dragons and bears!” I sighed. “And the oath taking process, the lock it puts on you, was fucking scary, and I get that it isn’t for everyone, but it was for me.”

I remembered the night I’d been told, and how I’d had to hold it together to be professional, since I’d just found out the two people who owned Drake Security, my bosses, were a dragon and a lion. “I found out in the evening, and I had to work that night,” I told them. “It was late the next day before I could fall apart, but…” I couldn’t tell them Razor and Matty were there for me and helped me work through a major meltdown, so I said, “If ya’ll need to freak out, it’s fine. I get it.”

“Is it enough?” Will asked. “Knowing you shift into something, but not specifically what?”

“I think that’s the way it has to be for now, Master,” Davy said. “I want to know, too, but her bosses seem to think it’s best if we wait until they get some things worked out before she tells us. We know enough now.” He tilted his head and focused on me. “I knew something was different when you came back, but I couldn’t explain what it was. Matty said you’d be back toyourself once you dealt with whatever had happened while you were gone. I guess he knew?”

“He did, but he couldn’t tell you because of the oath.”

Davy nodded and asked, “So, you knew what Hailey is? And Ghost?”

Hailey hadn’t especially wanted her bandmates to know what she was when we first talked about it, but then she’d thought it through and understood why they needed to know about me. She was still a little worried they might freak and not want her, I think, but she’d agreed that it wasn’t fair to keep them in the dark that their lover could shift into a bear, thankfully. So, it was important they accept her and understand why she couldn’t tell them.

“There was no way she’d have gotten permission to tell you. Even as my lovers, I was denied permission.”

“We know,” Will said. “It bothers me, of course, but I get it.”