I get up early to make breakfast for Tate and me, but he beat me to it. When I walk into the kitchen, there’s a pan of eggs, a plate full of bacon, and a pile of banana pancakes. Tate walks in—looking unbelievably sexy in his jeans and a tight gray T-shirt—and there’s no denying the sexual tension between us, especially after what happened last night.
His eyes meet mine. “Faith, I …”
Before he can finish, the front door opens. “Good morning!” Kami walks in and smiles, her eyes darting back and forth from me to Tate. “It smells amazing in here.”
Tate nods toward the food. “I made plenty. Dig in.”
Her stomach growls. “Don’t mind if I do. I was going to see if you both wanted to go to Granny’s café for breakfast, but it doesn’t look like we need to do that.”
Tate pours himself some coffee. “Nope. You two enjoy it. I’ll be outside making some phone calls.” Then to me, he says, “After you eat, we’ll head to Jason and Anna’s.”
I grab another plate out of the cabinet for Kami. “Sounds good.”
As soon as he walks out, Kami rushes over to me. “What the hell is going on here? There is some serious sexual tension.”
Groaning, I hang my head in my hands. “Tate and I kind of had a moment last night.”
Her mouth drops open. “What kind of moment? Did you two sleep together?”
“No,” I gasp. Then again, the thought has crossed my mind, and I did dream about us having sex last night. I spoon a bundle of eggs onto my plate, along with a couple of pieces of bacon.
Kami does the same but waves her hand in the air for me to continue. “Explain. You can’t leave me like that.”
I pile two pancakes on top of my eggs and sit down at the kitchen table. “I’m starting to have feelings for your brother.”
She sets her plate down and slowly lowers into the seat across from me. “Seriously?” All smiles are gone.
“Yeah,” I reply.
“And let me guess, no mating signs yet?”
I shake my head. “Nope. Do you see the dilemma?”
With a heavy sigh, she takes a bite of her food. “This sucks ass, Faith. You and Tate would be perfect for each other.”
He’s everything I could ever want in a mate. I wish we could make the choice for ourselves. “I guess it’s just not meant to be.”
Kami huffs. “I don’t get it.”
“Don’t get what?” Anson asks as he strolls into the kitchen. I didn’t even hear him walk through the door. As far as second-in-command’s go, he’s similarly built to Tate with his height and muscular body.
Kami bats her eyelashes at him in a sarcastic way. “I don’t get why you think it’s okay to walk in without knocking.”
He drapes his arm over her shoulders and winks at her. “Because I can.”
Kami shakes him off. “Men.”
Anson glances at us both. “Where’s Grayson? He told me to meet him at nine at Jason and Anna’s, but I thought I’d stop by here first.”
Kami snorts. “I wonder why,” she says, mumbling under her breath.
Anson understood her and turned his eyes to me, but I quickly focus on my plate of food, pretending I didn’t hear anything. Tate walks in, and my gaze instantly lifts to him.
“Hey, man,” he says to Anson. “I thought you were meeting us at the house?”
Anson opens his mouth to speak, but Tate’s phone rings, interrupting him. Tate stares down at the screen, his gaze narrowed. “I’ll be right back.” He walks into the living room and answers the phone. A few seconds later, he comes back and grabs his truck keys off the counter. “It was the lumber warehouse,” he says to Anson. “There was an issue with one of our orders.”
Tate peers down at my plate and over at Kami, clearly in a hurry to leave but too polite to tell me to eat quickly. “Go,” I say. “Anson’s going to the house so he can give me a ride.”
Anson nods. “I’ll be happy to take her.”
Tate’s jaw clenches, but he agrees. “Okay.”
Kami raises her hand. “I’ll go too. I can help Faith finish up the nursery. That way, she’s not spending her entire week with us working.”
Tate shrugs. “I told her we didn’t have to.”
I hold up my hands. “I didn’t want you all putting your lives on hold because I’m here.” To Tate, I wave him toward the door. “Go. We’ll see you soon.”
Turning on his heel, he gives Anson a warning stare, which is definitely an alpha move. His words replay in my head about him not wanting to share me. Shivers run down my skin, and I smile. I find it sexy as hell. Kami grins at me, but we straighten up when Anson turns back to us.
“Guess we’ll go when you two are ready.”
“It won’t take long,” I say, eating a bite of my banana pancake. I’ve never had them before, and it’s delicious.
Kami snickers. “They’re good, aren’t they?”
“Yes,” I gush, savoring the next bite. “I’ll have to tell your brother so.”
Anson sits down beside Kami. “How are you liking it here?” he asks me.
I nod. “I love it. It’s been nice getting away on my own for a change. There’s so much I haven’t seen and so many places I haven’t been.”
“What will you do when it’s safe to go home? Will you go back or head out and explore the world?”
“I don’t know,” I say, glancing down at my food. “I’ll have to figure that out when the time comes. Something tells me I’ll never be safe until I find my mate.” The room falls silent, and I use this time to finish eating. Kami helps me clean the dishes, and when we’re done, she hops into the back seat, leaving me to sit up front with Anson.
I look over at him, and he smiles as he starts up the truck. “How did you get that scar?” I ask him.
He rubs a finger over his right eyebrow. “It happened the night we helped rescue your sister from the Yukon pack. It was a wolfsbane laced dagger.”
It’s not common for a shifter’s skin to scar, but it does happen if wolfsbane is involved. I remember that night very well, even though I was far away. “Thank you for helping save her. I knew what was going on, but Micah refused to let me get anywhere near Wyoming. I had never felt so helpless in my life.”
He sighs. “And now people are after you. Does it make you wish you weren’t a royal?”
“No,” I say in all seriousness. “I’m happy with who I am and where I came from.”
“Besides Tyla and Sebastian’s baby girl, are there more royal arctic females in the world?”
I’ve been waiting on someone to ask this question, and my answer will always be the same. “No. I’m the last full-blooded royal arctic.” Tyla and Sebastian’s daughter is half arctic and half gray, but she’s still a royal because of Sebastian’s blood. Right now, she’s not in any danger, but I have no clue what it’ll be like when she gets older.
When we pull up to Jason and Anna’s house, Tate’s truck isn’t there. Kami pats my shoulder and opens her door. “Come on. I’m dying to see what you’ve done.” I jump out of the truck, and we go inside. The nursery door is closed, and when I open it, Kami’s mouth drops. “Wow. This is absolutely magical.”
I wink at her. “That’s exactly what I was going for.”
My heart races as I watch Jason and Anna walk up the front porch stairs to the door. Their house is done, and even though I only contributed to the nursery, I’m excited to see what they think of everything. Tate and Anson worked hard on finishing the house. They meet the young couple outside and point out everything they did to the exterior.
Seeing Tate smile brings a smile to my face. I’ve enjoyed watching him work and how he takes pride in what he does. Kami stands by my side and gently nudges me. “You know, you don’t need magic to tell who your mate is. If you and my brother have feelings for each other, you shouldn’t ignore them.”
“You know it doesn’t work like that.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she stands in front of me, blocking my view of Tate. There’s a seriousness to her I’ve never seen before. “Who says it doesn’t? We’ve all been waiting to find our true mates, but I say we go out and find them ourselves. Why can’t we?”
Her passion is what I love most about her. She reminds me a lot of Tate. It makes me wonder if people see similarities between me and Colin and Bailey. I would hope so because they’re two of the strongest people I know.
Kami steps out of the way just as Tate leads Jason and Anna to the front door with Anson following behind them. She makes a valid point. Why can’t we mate with who we fall in love with? The answer is simple … we can.
“You’re right, Kami. We should be able to make the choice.”
Her eyes light up. “What are you going to do?” Tate and the others walk in.
I lean in close to whisper in her ear. “I’m not sure yet, but I’ll figure it out.”
Jason and Anna already know Anson and Kami, so Tate introduces them to me. I shake their hands and walk with them through the house as Tate shows them everything. My nerves are shot. Anna wanted to save the nursery for last. I’m dying for her to see it, but I’m also afraid she’ll hate what I did. I may have overdone it a little.
My palms grow sweaty the closer we get to the nursery. Tate stops at the door and smiles at me. “Do you want to open it?”
Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly. “Okay.” I walk over to the door and stand next to him.
Anna bounces on her feet excitedly. “I can’t wait to see this.”
Jason chuckles and squeezes her shoulders. “You’re gonna make the baby pop out early jumping around like that.”
Kami bursts out laughing. “I don’t think it works like that, Jason.”
He shrugs. “Hey, it could. You never know. Back in the day, they put pregnant women in confinement so excitement wouldn’t make them go into early labor.”
I nod. “That’s true, especially with the royals. How did you know that?”
Anna snickers and pats him on the stomach. “He’s a huge Tudors fan. I think we watched the show a gazillion times.” I haven’t watched the show, but I had plenty of time to read as a kid.
Placing my hand on the doorknob, I slowly turn it. “All right, here we go.” When I open the door, I step aside so Jason and Anna can walk in first. What used to be a navy-blue room has completely transformed into a magical faerie garden. The ceiling is a bright blue with dreamy white clouds. It almost feels as if you’re outside. The rest of the room is where the magic is. There are flowers and grass painted on three of the walls, and the rolling hills behind that make it look like the faerie land keeps going on and on for miles. On the final wall, I painted a serene lake with a gazebo covered in an array of rainbow pastel flowers.
Anna clasps her hands over her mouth and circles around, her eyes instantly filling with tears. “Oh. My. God. This is …”
Kami is the one bouncing around now. “Isn’t it amazing? When I walked in here yesterday, I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
Anna walks over to the wall and grazes a hand over the flowers. “It’s exquisite. I don’t know of anyone who can do this kind of painting.”
I look over at Tate, and he’s just as shocked by the look of awe on his face. He turns to me and lifts his hands in the air. “Why didn’t you tell me you could do stuff like this?”
I shrug. “I didn’t want to toot my own horn.”
Kami snorts. “I would be if I had this kind of talent.”
Anna opens her arms and pulls me in for a hug. “Thank you for this, Faith. I’m starting to think I want this room for myself.” She lets me go and laughs. “When people find out about this, you’ll be swamped with work. I have so many friends who’d love something like this painted in their homes.”
“Unfortunately,” Tate cuts in, “Faith’s only here for a few more days.”
Anna frowns. “That’s a bummer. If that changes and you find yourself back here, let me know. I know some people who’ll pay big bucks for your work.”
I wink at her. “I’ll be sure to call you.”
Jason asks Tate and Anson to show him the rest of the house again, so they leave the room along with Kami. Anna circles around, and I love how it feels to see people admire my work. A piece of my soul goes into every painting I paint.
“Where did you get the inspiration for this?” Anna asks.
If I told her, she wouldn’t believe me. It came from Laila’s journals her fae mother had written. Only a thin veil separates the fae world and the mortal realm. Laila’s mother lived in both places. In her journals, she described the Land of the Fae with such detail that I could see it as clear as day in my mind. I’ve been waiting for a chance to paint it, and what better way than for it to be in a little girl’s room.
I smile at Anna. “It came from a book I read.”
She giggles. “I’m starting to think I want to live in that book.”
No one other than the fae can cross into the Land of the Fae. If I had the chance, I’d go there in a heartbeat. “Me too,” I say in all seriousness. “It would be an enchanting place indeed.”