Page 19 of Shift of Morals (Shifter Lords #2)

Chapter

Eleven

CAELAN

I sat at my desk reviewing Council reports from across the country. Halvar still had not been found, a fact that had begun to press on the Lords. If there was no sign of him in the next thirty days, the Council would be forced to elect another Shifter Lord.

Every time an election happened, things would destabilize while all the older Lords got used to a new personality. Sighing, I tossed my pen down.

The pockets of rogue attacks were building, expanding to other Lords’ borders. In a way, it was good news. The rogues were testing others’ borders now, not just mine. But it would require a response sooner or later.

Simone sat in a chair across the room, studying something intently on her tablet. Her presence was soothing, as I hated being alone. Garrett was off trying to track down the missing Lord, and Ben…Well, things weren’t the best with him since he was trying to steal Evie right out from under my nose.

And how could I be mad? I had a fiancée waiting for me in the other room.

A shift of wind before I could react, and a feisty flytrap had chomped onto my forearm.

“Shit!” I hissed, extricating Seymour from my sleeve and righting his pot, relief flooding me that the damn thing hadn’t broken the skin.

Evie had boosted the plant by making its bite poisonous.

Or venomous. Hell. No idea, but Seymour held a dangerous paralytic in his teeth, one that had gotten more than once of us before.

The Red Dragon flytrap announced his displeasure by chomping at me.

Amusement filled me, but I couldn’t let the little bastard know I liked his violent tendencies. “I know you like those special worms your mistress sends you, so if you don’t behave, I’m going to feed you houseflies.”

Seymour dramatically keeled over, the edge of his sharp teeth catching on part of my report. He chomped down, leaving several perfectly spaced holes at the top of the paper. I folded up a tissue paper and wiped the glistening poison from the edges.

“Last warning, Seymour.”

The plant went still. I reached for the base of the pot once more and righted it, careful not to position my arm where he could grab it. At first, the plant had amused me, but once he’d bitten me, I almost turned it into ash, but how could I destroy a piece of Evie?

The grumpy, dangerous flytrap was like having a piece of the Floromancer with me. Even if it still didn’t know whether to like me or try to kill me yet.

What pissed me off the most, though, was that Seymour adored Ben, the Keep Healer, allowing the shifter to gently stroke the top of its head when he visited.

I tried and spent the next two hours unable to move my legs.

What an asshole.

An amused snort made my shoulders tense. “You’re early,” I said to the other Shifter Lord. Rowan pulled up a chair at the opposite end of the table. “Seems like your plant has better instincts than most of the other Lords.”

I gave him a quelling look. “Seymour has trust issues.”

“Seymour knows how fixated you are on his mistress and has opinions about it.”

“Why are you ruining my peace, Rowan?”

Out of all the Lords, I liked him best. Rowan was as good as his word, but lately, he’d gotten closer to Evie than I was comfortable with.

And even though she wasn’t my property, and we were technically nothing to each other, the thought of her being with another Shifter Lord, or hell, anyone, made me grit my teeth and suppress the urge to gut the guilty party.

Unfortunately, the unrepentant bastard knew it. Rowan kicked his legs up on the table, out of Seymour’s reach (or so he thought) and grinned. “Caelan, you haven’t had peace since Evie saved your sorry life.”

I rubbed a hand over my face. Rowan wasn’t wrong.

Simone spoke up from her corner. “Evie’s volatile nature intrigues Caelan. Despite my repeated warnings.”

I gnashed my teeth at her. “You like her, too, and you know it.”

Simone scoffed but fell silent.

“I can’t help it,” I admitted quietly. “There’s something about her that keeps drawing me in against my better judgment.”

Rowan, one of the few Lords I trusted, studied me. “You need to decide. Are you going to protect her, or are you going to use her to further your goals?”

Magic flared in my eyes.

Rowan laughed and held a hand up. “Peace, Caelan. Evie and I are only friends. We respect each other. I’ve never met another person so in tune with nature.”

I didn’t believe him. “And if the other Lords try to force you into marriage?”

Rowan grinned, his eyes sparkling. “Hell, I’m not blind, man. I can learn to love the violent little Floromancer given enough time.”

I sighed. “Seymour. He’s the one you need to bite. Not me.”

Seymour turned his freaky little head to study Rowan. The Lord stilled.

“Not cool,” he hissed.

I laughed.

“She makes the Council nervous. We all know what happens when the Lords get itchy.”

People died. I was no stranger to violence. Peace reigned in Joy Springs because of my power, and I hadn't had a viable challenger since I'd taken over.

“They either want her dead or neutralized,” Rowan murmured.

“Through marriage,” I growled.

Rowan’s teeth flashed in a grin. “I see you’re still pissed about why you weren’t chosen for matrimonial bliss with favorite Floromancer.”

“They’d be too powerful together,” Simone observed. “The question remains, who are they saving her for?”

“Bite her, too,” I muttered to Seymour.

“I’m only pointing out the obvious,” Simone insisted.

“The same problem will occur if she marries another Lord,” I said, pushing the reports away.

Rowan snorted. “You can’t be that blind, man.”

I looked up at the Lord.

“You’re the most powerful Lord on record right now. That’s the only reason they haven’t shoved Evie at you. The only two Lords who aren’t afraid of her are sitting in this room.”

“Caelan is afraid of her sometimes.”

I bared my teeth at my Omega.

Rowan barked a laugh. “The woman makes my balls shrivel occasionally, but the others are genuinely terrified of Evie. You and I both know she’s not merely a Floromancer.”

If only he knew. “As long as she continues presenting herself that way, we have to operate under the assumption that’s what she is, otherwise we’d break our own laws.”

“Forcing a woman to marry one of you is breaking about a dozen laws in this country,” Simone groused.

“We fall under our own law,” I said to her, “as you well know.”

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t piss me off,” Simone grumbled.

Powerful magic pulsed from Seymour, a tourmaline-colored flash cracking in the room. The plant stilled, motionless for a long moment before it shivered, the magic gone as suddenly as it had risen.

Every hair on my body stood up. That was Evie’s magic. Had something happened?

Rowan stared at Seymour. “What just happened?”

Simone was already tapping at her tablet. “I’ll check on Evie, Lord,” she said simply.

Dangerous things were moving around my Floromancer.

The gods help me. I should not have let that woman wiggle her way into my heart.