I debated for a few minutes about wearing a long sleeve shirt to breakfast. Deciding I wasn’t that cowardly or ashamed of the mark on my arm, I wore my usual cut off tank top. I may not be sure I wanted to be mated, but I’d be damned if anyone would look down on me because of it. It had been feeling weird since I woke, but it wasn’t burning anymore, just a tingling that I figured would either fade eventually or I’d have to get used to so I wouldn’t go insane.
Tucking the raptor in its holder at my back, I grabbed my phone and headed to the door. As I walked down the hall, I was thankful I didn’t run into anyone else. I wasn’t feeling like small talk. My first thought upon waking was of Troy, not in a bad way, just an awareness of him in my mind. As I’d dressed I could only think about seeing him, regardless of whether his brothers would be present or not. All of this was new to me and the only thing that kept me positive was it was new territory for him too.
I skirted down the little hallway, going into the kitchen through the back rather than walk into the dining room. I stepped through the door and froze. Troy was leaning down on the counter, near Mitz, a tender look on his face as he spoke to her. Having never seen that side of him, my heart jerked in my chest.
His head snapped up and he zeroed in on me instantly. Straightening from the counter, he looked over at me with relief in his eyes.
Mitz looked from him over to me and smiled. “I’ll just take this out to the table.”
Neither of us acknowledged that she spoke. Our eyes were only for one another. I stepped into the room, feeling unsure if I should go over to him or not.
Tucking his hands in his pockets he stood where he was looking as undecided as I felt. “Did you rest well?”
I shrugged. “Off and on.”
He nodded. “Same here.” His eyes moved over my arm before going back to my face. He offered me a small, almost vulnerable smile and it was that gesture that helped me decide I wanted to go over to him. We were in this together at least and he was as lost at what to do as I was.
Moving around the island, I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. He exhaled like he’d been holding his breath and closed his arms around me. It seemed to cure the antsy feeling that had been chasing me and eased my doubts. It also felt right, and that worried me a bit, but for now.
Resting his head on top of mine, he continued to just hold me. “Is it just me or is breathing easier like this?”
I snuggled my face into the warm muscle, taking his purely male scent in. “Mitz said there would be discomfort for a while if we’re apart.”
He chuckled. “Slight understatement.” Lifting his head, he looked down at me. “Daxx, I am two hundred and sixty years old. I thought I’d tried it all and, for the most part, I was content with life.” He grinned and shook his head. “And then you come in my life and I have been spinning out of control ever since you stomped into my office.” Leaning down, he placed a soft kiss on my mouth, lingering only for a second. “Now you have me feeling like an awkward teenager.” Stepping back, he held my waist, keeping me at arm’s length. “All I ask is that you keep in mind that I am going to say and do stupid things as I blunder my way through this.” He offered me a sheepish grin. “And not stab me when I’m an idiot or walk away when I’m a fool.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. First, he’d spoke to me like a normal man not cool and regal and second, I didn’t know what to say to that so I just nodded.
With a huge sigh, he released me and motioned to the door. “The natives will be getting restless and hungry.”
I looked at the door and took a deep breath, knowing that as soon as I stepped through it life would change, again. Nodding to prepare, I moved over to the door. Troy opened it and followed right behind me.
As I stepped into the room, chairs scraped the floor as seven men stood. I stopped and glanced around to see their reactions, all but Chase had a silly grin plastered on their mugs. Chase wasn’t smiling, but he wasn’t frowning either. Our eyes connected and he tilted his chin down slightly in a motion of acceptance.
Looking to Rafael, I wanted to groan, it looked like he was barely able to contain himself as he stood there with a foolish smile on his face. Backing up a step, I found myself against Troy’s chest. All faces around the table sobered and I knew without looking that the King behind me had just issued a silent command in the form of a glare.
I moved past everyone heading to the chair I always sat in beside Quinton. Baby steps, one change at a time I was telling myself. When I sat down the chairs scraped again as the men followed my lead.
Quinton didn’t miss a step as he grabbed the coffee urn and filled my cup, like he had done every morning I ate here with them. Picking up the cup, I inhaled the wonderful fragrance of coffee and took a sip. Putting it down, I looked over at Victor. “Any word?”
He paused and studied me for a moment and that was all the time he was going to spend on this new event in our lives. I knew what his look really meant was now he was going to be forced out of bachelorhood and it was all my fault. “I expect something soon.”
Nodding, I accepted the platter of home fries from Quinton and heaped some onto my plate. Hesitantly, I glanced at Rafael, who still looked a little too excited, but was containing himself rather well. “Did you reach Clairee?”
Dragging his eyes away from my arm, he cleared the smile from his mouth but it continued to shine in his eyes. “I can’t find a trace of her. Wanda probably has her in deep hiding again.”
That wasn’t the news I wanted. It meant when we did confront Marcus again we wouldn’t have any protection aside from my immunity to his power. I paused with my fork in the air, waiting for Quinton to dump eggs on my plate. “That sucks. I’d hoped for a little of her help again.”
Chase looked down the table at me. “We’ll make it without your little protection charms, kitten, no worries.” He turned to look at his twin for confirmation and then stopped.
Troy wasn’t looking back at him, he hadn’t even looked at the food on his plate, he just sat at the head of the table looking at me. Chase elbowed him and he jumped and finally looked at him.
“Isn’t that right, brother King?” The note of amusement was plain in Chase’s voice.
Troy gave him a blank stare.
I watched a few of the men grin and then look down at their plates, suddenly interested in anything in the room that would keep their faces turned away from the lost man at the end of the table.
Sighing, I waved my fork around the table. “That’s enough you guys. This is a whole new place Troy and I have gotten ourselves into, it’s going to take a while to adjust.” I stabbed a potato with my fork a little harder than required.
Troy cleared his throat and looked around the table. “Do we have numbers yet?”
Quinton glanced down at me and then to his brother. “Nothing exact, maybe forty.” He set his cup down. “They stick to small groups, neither Daxx or Crissy have caught a glimpse of Marcus.”
Troy glanced at me for a second, his eyes moving over me slowly before he turned to Chase. “How many guards can you spare?”
Chase finished chewing his food while he considered. “Roughly twenty,” he motioned around the table, “we can use them as fall-back, most of Marcus’ followers are going to run for it when they realize its over.”
Nodding, Troy looked around at his brothers. “I’d like to see this compound with my own eyes before we strategize any further.” Michael and Vince nodded.
“I can sketch it out,” Quinton mumbled with a mouth full of food. “Crissy and I spent more than our fair share of time staring out at it.”
Rafael nodded. “It’s nothing special.”
“Still,” Troy looked from his brothers to me. “I’d like to check it out for myself, a picture is fine but I need actual visuals to plan.”
Was he asking my permission? I wasn’t sure what the look on his face meant. I shrugged. “I can take the three of you over, later. I have to go see someone first.”
Troy’s eyebrows shot up. “Who?” His tone was no longer a conversation level.
Frowning, I set my cup down and gave him a startled look. “Arius set me up a meeting with one of the higher level mages.” I said in a matter a fact way, not sure why he sounded so brusque all of a sudden.
Troy gave his brother an inquisitive look.
Arius set his fork down, sent me a look saying he wasn’t happy at the mention of his involvement. “Romeo, uh, Romulus has agreed to meet with our huntress to give her some pointers on what some of the movements Marcus might use for certain casts…” He stopped when Troy’s curious look turned to anger.
“You are taking her to see Romeo?” Troy asked in broken words.
I glanced at Quinton, he gave me a quick look and shook his head. Romeo, Romulus, I didn’t care what they called him just as long as he could help me. I glanced from Troy’s glare to Arius’s scowl and felt for a moment I had missed something important. “What is the problem?” I leaned on the table and watched Troy. “I can see Marcus, none of you can. If I can get a bit of a heads up on what he’s up to, then that’s a bonus for us.”
Troy’s eyes finally flicked to me, a possessive expression on his face. “I can’t…” I widened my eyes at him, daring him to use can’t allow or any other form of it that meant the same thing. He took a deep breath before he spoke again. “I can’t allow this.”
The only sound heard was cutlery being set on the table. The men on the side of the table I sat on all sat back, giving me a clear line to their King at the other end. Chase cleared his throat and shook his head before looking at his twin with disbelief on his face.
I leaned forward in my chair and looked down the table at him. “Allow what exactly? My learning Marcus’ moves, or going to see Romeo?” I spoke very clearly and quietly.
His jaw clenched a few times, his hazel eyes not straying from mine. “Both.”
Chase rubbed a hand down over his face and then shook his head again. “Brother, I’m going to risk life and limb here to save your ass, again.” He motioned toward me. “She has a point. If she can give us a heads up on what he’s trying to do, then score one more point for us.”
Troy glanced at his sibling out of the corner of his eye for a moment before they slowly moved back to me. “Very well,” he said quietly. “I will accompany you for this meeting, Daxx.”
I mulled it over; taking my time trying to sort out what the hell was going on. Anything we could use to find and stop Marcus had been the plan yesterday, surely Troy still saw that. I looked at Chase, who only offered me a shrug. All eyes were on me, no one moved. The tension was so thick all of sudden it was hard to think beyond it. “Fine.” I said quietly.
Quinton visibly relaxed beside me. He cleared his throat. “I suggest we bypass practice today, I don’t think I could watch you two try to kill each other two days in a row.
Several nods confirmed there would be no battle, mock or otherwise today. Chairs scraped the floor.
“I’ll be at the cells,” Michael announced.
Victor stood up. “I’ll walk with you.”
Rafael nodded over to Quinton. “We should go make rounds.”
Nodding, Quinton gave me a brief glance. “Yeah, okay.” He got up.
Sighing loudly, Chase stood up. He smirked at his twin, who continued to stare at me. Walking around the table he came up behind me and leaned around the chair to speak beside my ear. “I wish you luck, kitten, you’re going to need it.”
I snorted in answer. Arius glanced from his Troy over to me. “I will be in Vic’s office when you’re ready to leave.” I nodded.
Leone offered no excuse, just pushed his chair back from the table and simply walked out of the room.
I glanced at the clock and then to the man still staring at me. “Well, you managed twenty minutes without being a jerk.” I stood up and moved down to his end of the table. “What was that?”
He looked down to the untouched food in front of him. “Romulus is called Romeo for a reason…”
“Yeah, I caught that. And?” I stood there with my arms crossed over my chest looking down at him.
“I don’t want you anywhere near him.” This said in a tone that implied his word was final.
It was so not final in my mind. “Troy, you don’t get to choose what I do, so you can get that notion right out of your head right now.”
He stood up so quickly, the chair rocked back. Suddenly he was towering over me his face only inches from mine. “It’s not a notion, its how I feel.” His eyes bore into mine. “I don’t want you near any male right now,” he growled.
A combination of annoyance and shock hit me, along with that was a flash of heat through my body responding to the alpha man thing. I swallowed. “Arius is coming with me,” I tried to sound reassuring.
“Arius is still a male.” His voice was shaking in a way that I knew he was trying to control himself.
“Arius is your brother.” I reminded.
Shaking his head, he straightened, giving me a few inches of breathing space. “It doesn’t matter. I watched you dance with him. He was smiling.”
“We were dancing, isn’t that supposed to be fun?” I was confused.
“You enjoyed dancing with all of my brothers,” his tone had dropped again.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and then let it out slowly before looking back up at him. “Troy, what is going on with you?”
With a strangled growl, he shook his head and paced to the other side of the room. “I don’t know.” Spinning, he looked at me with pain in his eyes. “I just…” he huffed out a breath, “the idea of another male, whether sibling or not anywhere near you hits me right in the gut.” His voice was a mix of misery and anger.
A quiet sigh from the other side of the room had us freezing like deer in head lights. Mitz stood there, shaking her head. “You’re going to be very possessive and protective of each other for a while.”
“How do we fix it?” Troy asked in an exasperated tone.
She smiled and looked at him. “Hide and never be near anyone else?”
He groaned, “lovely.”
“If it were meant to be easy, Troy,” she scolded, “everyone would be mated.”
He sighed. “I just about had a bloody fit when Arius told me he was taking Daxx to see Romeo…”
She laughed. “Don’t be silly, Troy. Daxx has far better taste than a man like that.” Her eyes moved to me. “He is a womanizer, a slimy one.” She informed me in a firm tone.
“Ah.” I turned and sent Troy an annoyed look. “You don’t think I don’t know how to deal with men like that?”
He shrugged, not committing to any comment either way.
I looked back over to Mitz. “So, what can we do to help cave man over there keep it together?” Grinning, I felt my cheeks flush slightly. “Alpha is fine behind closed doors, if you know what I mean.” Mitz smirked, “but in front of others, not so cool.” I glanced over my shoulder at him to see him giving me a heated look at the implication of my words.
Mitz came over and touched my cheek softly. “Something as simple as that has been known to reign in a possessive mate, a little reassuring contact.”
I raised my eyebrows and then nodded. “Okay, got it.” I found myself spun around by strong hands and picked up before I could react. Troy’s mouth crushed mine as he held me off the floor.
I had no time to do anything, before I found myself set back down with a spinning head and weak knees.
“Something like that works too.” Troy said with a glint in his eyes as he looked down at me.
Patting his chest, I shook my head. “We won’t be doing that in the middle of breakfast or a meeting though.” I turned around to see Mitz shaking her head, but smirking at the man behind me.
“You hit the nail on the head, love, a cave man for sure.” With a soft chuckle, she walked back over to the door and left us alone.