Page 34 of The Bookseller and the Alpha (Witch Twins #1)

Their ID’s checked out, as did their familiarity with Sam. Shame tugged at my chest. I’d stormed out of Luc’s apartment, not caring that I was making life difficult for these two officers, who were just trying to do their jobs.

“Don’t apologise,” I said. “It’s my fault. I left in a hurry and didn’t tell you what I was doing.”

“Caly, is everything okay?” My neighbour must have come up behind me without me noticing, because her voice was right at my ear.

I turned to see that she still held the knife at her side.

Her expression was grim. Nothing at all like the cheerful, slightly eccentric neighbour I was used to.

Whoa. Remind me never to get on the wrong side of Mrs S.

“It’s safe, Mrs S. You can relax. The Palace is taking an interest in the situation and I’ve been assigned personal security until the threat is over.

” Mrs S knew that my sister worked at the Palace.

She gave me a nod, probably assuming that my sister was behind the security, and moved silently back through her living room to the kitchen.

“Thanks for looking after Pompy, Mrs S. I’ll be off now. ”

***

The two bodyguards insisted on letting themselves into my apartment first, checking every room before they let me in. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I’d already been inside. I could tell that they would take it as a personal failure that I’d been out of their sight.

“You think they’ll be back.” It wasn’t a question.

“Can’t say for sure,” said the guard whose ID had identified her as Akira. “But they are throwing around a lot of magic and they obviously want something.”

Akira was dark-skinned Shifter and looked dangerous in a lithe, cat-like way.

Her partner Leylani was blonde and human, as far as I could tell.

She studied me, tilting her head to one side.

Her eyes were an unusual amber and her stare was unnerving.

“You’re very powerful,” she said, eventually.

“I wouldn’t have thought you needed protection.

What’s your skill? Is your magic not suitable for self-defence? ”

Powerful? Me? I huffed out a small laugh. “I’m a Null.”

“No, you aren’t,” Leylani contradicted. “I can feel your power.”

I cuddled Pompy more tightly to my chest and she whined, sensing my distress. This was turning out to be a weird day. I didn’t know how to reply. I’d always been a Null, but now maybe I wasn’t.

“Leave it, Leylani.” Akira stepped between us and I immediately relaxed now that the woman’s strange eyes weren’t on me anymore.

I turned away, looking out the window, watching the grey sky.

It looked as though it would rain. Great.

My carpet would get wet unless I got a barrier up against the weather.

Akira’s voice was low but I hadn’t stepped far enough away and I could hear her chewing out her partner. “It’s our job to protect her. It’s bad enough that we’re invading her privacy as it is, without you asking personal questions.”

“But she has power,” Leylani muttered back.

“So what? We’ve got our orders.”

“And they weren’t weird?”

“Enough.” Akira’s voice snapped into the space around us. “Do your job.”

Okay then. As if this whole thing wasn’t already a shit show I had bodyguards who didn’t want to be on babysitting duty.

I stopped pretending that I couldn’t hear their whispered discussion.

“Listen,” I said, keeping my tone polite.

“You don’t want to be here and I don’t need you to be here.

I’d much rather just be left alone to tidy up and get my life back into some semblance of order. ”

Akira’s spine snapped rigid. “Sorry ma’am, but we can’t do that. We have orders that you’re to rest while this mess gets fixed.”

I ran one hand through my hair. I felt better than I had expected, sure, but who wouldn’t want to rest after the day and night I’d had?

The emotional blows of two break-ins plus a head injury and a very confusing morning left me wanting to curl up under my mound of blankets and hide for the day.

Preferably while binge eating ice-cream.

But the only person who was going to get my apartment back under control was me.

“I can’t rest, Akira. The apartment needs to be fixed up and I don’t have staff to do it for me. ”

Did I sound bitter? Perhaps a little. My sister lived in the Palace.

It came with the job. She worked damn hard, but she didn’t have to cook or clean for herself.

Nor did she have to go grocery shopping, do laundry or worry about her appliances breaking down or intruders in her apartment.

It was the biggest perk of her job. Being the personal pre-cog for the Council President—who was probably as annoying and bossy as Luc, given that he was his brother—was no easy job, but it came with all the trappings of living in the Palace.

I sighed. If I was getting bitchy about my sister, I definitely needed a nap. “I’m sorry,” I started to say but Akira’s phone chimed and she pulled it out to look at a message.

“About that,” she said, smiling. There was a knock at the door and Akira stepped forward, checking the peephole.

“Are you expecting someone?” I asked. Moron much? This was my apartment.

“Your staff,” she said, giving me a wink and opening the door.

Five guys in work clothes trooped in. At my evident confusion, even Leylani allowed a small smile to crack her face.

“You go rest,” she said. “We’ll handle it all.

” My bed was calling me. I really, really wanted that nap.

But there was one problem. Leylani must have seen the hesitation on my face.

“The bill will be covered by the Palace. Don’t worry. ”

Two hours later I woke up from a long nap, feeling much better. Lying in my bed, my hands idly stroking Pompy’s back, I wondered why the Palace was going to cover my repair bills. I’d have to follow it up with one of my bodyguards later.

As if she could sense that I was awake, Akira called through the half-open door. “Want coffee?”

“You’re my hero,” I said, stretching out the kinks in my back as I rose from the bed. Five minutes later, I stumbled past the living room, and into my kitchen, taking the mug of coffee Akira was holding out to me. I inhaled the rich aroma and took a big mouthful.

Wait. I turned slowly, eyes roaming my living room as my conscious brain caught up with the changes in the space. All the changes. The glass-free carpet. The glass sliding door to the balcony repaired and whole. The room was warm and cosy. And my couch...

“That’s not my couch,” I said, pointing to the much larger and newer couch that now had pride of place in my small living room.

“’Tis now,” Leylani said, from where she stood, watching out the balcony window.

I really, really liked the couch. The dark blue leather was perfect. And the style looked familiar. So familiar, in fact, I was sure I’d saved a picture of that exact couch on my phone. I couldn’t afford it, but I’d saved the picture in case I ever won the lottery.

My phone pinged.

Annoying Alpha: Did you have a good nap?

Me: How did you know I’d had a nap?

Annoying Alpha: I have spies everywhere.

I rolled my eyes. Of course the two women in my apartment reported to him.

Me: Of course you do.

Annoying Alpha: Do you like the couch?

Me: ….

“Of course I like the couch,” I muttered out loud.

My heart was thumping in my chest. I wasn’t going to tell him that though.

I didn’t know what to say. Had he seen the picture of the couch on my phone and chosen it?

Surely not. It had to be coincidence. Right?

If it wasn’t coincidence, then he’d looked at more than my contact list in my phone when I’d been asleep last night.

It should feel creepy. It was a deep invasion of my privacy, but… hello… couch of my dreams.

Annoying Alpha: Caly? Do you like the couch?

Me: Yes, but I’ll pay for it. Somehow. Maybe I could donate a kidney.

Annoying Alpha: It was a gift. Keep it.

Muttering to myself under my breath, I started to type my reply. It was too much. I couldn’t accept it. A small sound from Akira, who was still standing in the kitchen, had me lifting my gaze.

Very slightly, she shook her head.

I looked down at my phone and my draft reply.

I looked back at Akira. She looked tense and uncomfortable.

Something was going on here. Something that I was missing.

“Yes?” I mouthed to Akira. She nodded, her eyes locked onto mine.

It seemed important. She wanted me to accept the couch. Accept the gift.

Oh.

No, surely not. Butterflies took off in my stomach.

Akira was a Shifter. Luc was a Shifter. I carefully deleted the words I’d started to type.

I had to be wrong, but if I wasn’t, I did not want to fuck this up.

For some reason, Luc was giving me a gift.

And I knew enough about Shifter culture to know that receiving a gift from a single Shifter male was significant.

At least, if you were a Shifter. Which I wasn’t.

So although it couldn’t be serious or permanent, it obviously still meant something. It meant that he was pursuing me.

The idea was mad, but my heart was racing.

He was bossy and rude; he had no concept of privacy and he’d walked out the door this morning as though what had happened between us had been a mistake.

At least, that’s how I’d read him at the time.

I chewed my lip. Had I misunderstood his tense shoulders? His refusal to meet my gaze?

He had said he was sorry for leaving. Perhaps he had some weird hero complex going on and he would snap out of it in a few days.

But based on Akira’s reaction, even though I wasn’t a Shifter, it would be a very big deal if I turned down the gift.

I’d be saying that I wasn’t interested in him.

And despite my better judgment, I couldn’t deny that I was very interested in him.

Foolish, foolish Caly. He would likely steal my heart and shred it to bloody pulp when he moved on to his Shifter mate.

Seriously, what was I doing? He was way out of my league.

“Okay, thank you,” I said as I typed into my phone. Akira wore an expression of intense relief. I hit send before I could change my mind.

The reply was short.

Annoying Alpha: Good girl.

Good grief. I wasn’t a girl anymore and the words should not have given me an image of him growling as he ate my pussy. They should definitely not have made me soak my panties and clench my thighs together.

But they had.

I was so screwed.

I needed a distraction. It was time to go to the shop.