Chapter Five

“You should probably know this mating is not an easy one.” Castor tossed the words in her general direction as they crossed the lobby of the hotel.

She kept the pleasant smile plastered to her lips despite the desire to glare at the man beside her. “Delilah’s involvement and it being an arranged mating was a pretty strong clue,” she muttered between clenched teeth. “But what else haven’t you told me?”

Her frustrating boss flashed another smile. Two in one day had to be a record. This one, she figured, was only meant to buy him acquiescence. “Great dress by the way,” he said.

While she did like the knee-length, blush-colored dress with a sweet belt tied in a bow at her waist, he wasn’t going to distract her. “Thank you, but you’re not off the hook.”

“Too late, they’re right over there.” He put one hand to her back while he raised the other to catch his friend’s attention. “Marrok.”

The wolf couple was waiting for them in white wicker chairs on the large porch at the front of the hotel. Leia was glad she’d changed, as both were dressed casually. Like Castor, Marrok wore jeans and a button-up with the long sleeves rolled back. Tala Canis wore a stylish single-piece pantsuit in a striking blue. They appeared to be deep in serious conversation until Castor hailed them. They stood, and Leia noted both were tall and lean, typical build for wolf shifters.

After the two men shook hands, Marrok introduced his bride-to-be. The male wolf’s voice had a dark rasp to it, like a rumbling growl. Deep laugh lines around his eyes spoke of an inherent kindness. She decided she liked him.

“Congratulations on your upcoming mating.” Leia offered her felicitation to them both.

Behind Tala’s shoulder, an older woman did a double take, probably at Leia’s word choice. Damn. She’d have to remember they were among humans here.

Marrok simply nodded. Deep blue eyes gazed back at her from under thick black eyebrows. He had silver at his temples, not unusual for an alpha, even a relatively young one. She placed his age around thirty-two.

The small smile she received from Tala was shadowed by a wariness in the elegant blonde’s stunning green eyes. Castor had said this wasn’t a love match, but was the bride reluctant?

“I’m surprised the dragon shifters in the area didn’t have something to say about it,” she said. “Isn’t the Alliance headquarters close to here?”

From what she understood, the kings and clans had established colonies in the Americas, and the Alliance were their trusted men who ruled in their stead.

“Farther north,” Marrok confirmed. “We have a—” He glanced at Tala who rolled her eyes. “Let’s just say we have a truce of sorts. We don’t get involved in their stuff, and they leave us the hell alone. Not that they care about wolf shifters.”

Interesting.

“How long have you two been dating?” Tala asked with a polite smile.

Castor turned to Leia, his hand at her back again, warm through the thin silk of her dress. She resisted the urge to lean into that hand and straightened away from him instead, then shot him a pointed look.

Resisting the man was supposed to be part of her job. Dammit.

He cleared his throat. “Lyleia is my executive assistant.”

“An office romance? That’s new for you, old man,” Marrok teased.

“I’m not his date,” Leia explained tightly. “Just his camouflage.”

Marrok looked back at Leia with a grimace. “I hope my changing your rooms to a suite isn’t an issue, Lyleia?”

She gave him a serene smile. “Call me Leia, please. Everyone else does. And not at all. I’m a nymph, which means I have a natural resistance to demigods.”

If only she could remember that fact. Especially through the ceremony.

“Oh really?” Marrok’s drawl cut through Castor’s warning grunt.

She tipped her head up. “Of course. In fact, it’s why I was hired to be his assistant. Dark, movie-star good looks, brooding personality, and adorable though rarely sighted dimples do nothing for me whatsoever.” She gave Castor’s arm a patronizing pat even as she lied through her teeth.

His eyebrows winged high. “You think my dimples are adorable?”

She rolled her eyes. “You would only pay attention to that part.” She turned back to the other couple, who’d watched the exchange with wide-eyed interest. “Shall we?”

At least that got them moving. Marrok led them outside and around to the valet parking. “It was a good idea to bring a shield to the ceremony.”

“The unclaimed women will be naturally drawn to his power during the ceremony,” Tala murmured. “He’ll have to beat them off with a two-by-four even with you there.”

“So now I’m a giant bat?” She shook her head at Castor who just shrugged. “I think I need a raise.”

They got into a sleek gray Jaguar sedan with Marrok behind the wheel. The wolves’ scents, which had been subtler in the open air, swirled around them, reminding Leia of warm days in fresh plowed fields of fertile black earth, like the land close to her spring in Greece. She inhaled appreciatively, giving a small hum of contentment, muscles letting go of tension despite herself. “You smell like home.”

Beside her Castor gave a small jerk. No wonder, as Leia never talked about her life before.

Tala turned from her seat in the front. “Most people say we smell like dirt. Or wet dog.”

Leia shook her head. “I like it.”

“You said you’re a nymph?” the other woman asked, only mildly curious.

“I was.” Five hundred years of facing that harsh reality gave her the strength to keep the tremor out of her voice. “My spring was buried under lava and destroyed.” Thanks to a werewolf. Tala and Marrok’s ancestors.

She kept that last part to herself.

“I see. I’m sorry,” Tala murmured.

An off tone to Tala’s voice caught Leia’s attention and she cocked her head as Tala and Marrok exchanged an odd glance. “Have you met a nymph before?”

“No. But your gifts having me thinking.” Tala turned in her seat, eyeing Leia as though sizing her up. “I wonder if you might be able to help us.”

Leia was hard-pressed to think of what a nymph could do for a wolf. “I’d be happy to, if I can. What do you need?”

Tala and Marrok exchanged another glance. “In order to explain that, let me fill you in on the reasons behind our mating first,” Tala said.

“Okay.”

“Marrok and I are the alphas of our packs.”

“Castor told me. I know female alphas are rare. I’ve never heard of two alphas mating. Is it common?”

“Our union is…highly unusual,” Marrok said.

Tala’s lips thinned in a grim line. “Our packs have been ripping out each other’s jugulars for centuries. Marrok and I see this mating as an opportunity to end that fighting.”

Leia could appreciate the goal, but these two had a tough road ahead. “Who will be alpha of the combined pack? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“We will lead together,” Marrok said.

Tala’s lips tightened though. “As you can guess, there are factions within both packs against our mating.”

Made sense. A feud lasting that long didn’t die a quick death. “I fail to see how a nymph could help.”

Marrok parked the car in a crowded lot downtown where they were going for lunch, but instead of getting out, he turned in his seat. “I believe my intended is thinking that a sign of blessing from the gods might help.”

Leia glanced back and forth between them, still not following.

“A sign along the lines of a display of nature,” Tala added.

Oh… Oh, shit. Nature.

Of all supernatural creatures, nymphs were perhaps the most tied to nature, to the point that she could manipulate water with ease. Or she’d been able to once upon a time. These days she didn’t get close enough to larger bodies of it to try.

“You want me to help put on a show?” she asked slowly while cringing inside.

“Maybe you could recruit other nymphs in the area?” Marrok suggested. “The chapel is set in the mountains all by itself, surrounded by nature.”

Castor said nothing. She wasn’t entirely sure what Delilah had told him, but why did he suddenly feel closer, his heat nearer? As if he was ready to jump between her and pain if he could. But he couldn’t.

She dropped her gaze to her hands clenched in her lap. Working for Castor had been a big risk. She’d thought that, after all this time, she’d be okay poking her head up, but that was already in doubt if what she’d been sensing was correct. Showing her face to members of her extended family would make it harder to disappear. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why?” Tala asked.

After ages of practice, she was able to keep the pain that still ripped through her out of her voice, even if her hands shook. “I lost my spring and was shunned. Treated as a disease among them to be quarantined and cut out as quickly as possible.” Until she’d faked her own death and walked away from everything she knew.

Castor must have caught a trace of how shattered she still was, though, because he reached over to cover her hands with his. “I didn’t know that.”

She cast him a quick glance. “Why do you think I needed a job as your EA instead of guarding a spring?”

The warmth of Castor’s hand on hers and his silent support seeped into her, his strength warming her soul from the inside out. Thawing places she’d long thought frozen inside her.

She pulled her shoulders back and raised her gaze from her lap to the couple seated before her. A couple putting aside their personal needs to bring peace to their people. Their cause was worth her pride; she’d focus on that, rather than her pathetic little story. She was a stronger woman because of her past, dammit. Time to start acting like it.

“This is important?” she asked.

Tala grimaced. “It could be a huge help. Put to rest some of the doubts long enough for us to unite and settle the packs…” She trailed off.

“We wouldn’t ask, but…” Marrok also trailed off.

“I will try. That’s all I can promise.”

Tala reached over the seat and patted Leia’s knee. “Thank you.”

Leia tried to smile, though it felt stiff. There was no way this would go well.