Page 31 of The Bookseller and the Alpha
Then the woman just started to pick up books from the floor, as though she did it everyday. Huh. Freaky but notunhelpful. Could definitely be worse. Pompy supervised from the comfort of her bed.
My guards took turns: one helping me clean up while the other one stayed on watch. During the afternoon my friends from the other shops came by to visit and gossip. Drew, the florist, brought me a bunch of tulips. Marcie brought me some crystals for ‘clearing the air’. Their thoughtfulness touched me deeply. Especially given that my mother hadn’t returned my text telling her what had been happening. Why did I still bother? By dusk, the shop was looking good enough that I could open tomorrow, even though I might still have guards in tow. Perhaps the novelty would bring extra customers.
By 7 pm we were back in my apartment. There was a new fancy lock on my front door and Akira gave me the code to get in. Which pretty much screamed that the Palace was behind my new security.
“Don’t you two have homes to go to?” I asked. “Surely you should be off duty by now.”
“Boss is taking over from us. We’ll stay till he gets here.” From time to time, Akira had been talking to someone through her earpiece. They seemed to know more than I did. Luc had sent another peremptory text. “I’ll be at your place before eight. Pack a bag.”
“Do I need to feed you?” I ran through the inventory of my cupboards. I was going to eat cereal. There were no leftovers from last night’s meal and I hadn’t planned any other meals.
Akira smiled. “No ma’am.”
Of course, I had not packed my bags. He didn’t get to hijack my life. I showered and put on a clean pair of fluffy pyjamas. Then I ate a bowl of cereal on my new couch while my guards politely pretended I wasn’t failing as an independent adult. I rubbed my face. I didn’t care anymore. I was exhausted and ready for bed. My own bed. I could feel the events of the lasttwo days catching up to me. The shock of my beloved shop being broken into, then the attack in my home. The violence. Sudden and shocking. And the intense sexual attraction between me and Luc this morning, followed by the gift.
Sighing, I dragged myself up from the couch. It was every bit as comfortable as I had dreamed. The apartment was warm. I needed to feed Pompy and then I was going to bed. Bossy Alpha Shifter be damned.
I could feel Leylani’s eyes on me as I pottered in the kitchen, getting Pompy’s meal ready. She danced around my feet, making happy grunting noises. She gobbled her food and I smiled down at her. She was loved and happy and fed. Nothing else mattered in her world.
“I’m going to bed,” I told my watchful shadows.
“Ma’am,” Akira said, her tone cautious. “We have orders that you’ll be leaving with the boss.”
“Well, he’s not here to tell me that, and I want to sleep in my own bed.” Leylani didn’t even bother hiding her smile at my petty defiance. Sometime during the day she had warmed up to me and she no longer seemed so strange.
“Please keep the door open so we can see you,” was all she said.
Despite the light coming in from the open doorway, I fell asleep almost instantly, Pompy at my feet.
Chapter 34
Luc
It took me much longer than I’d hoped to get back to Calypso. After the warehouse, Billy and I headed to the Palace to review the security footage. The manager had been right. There wasn’t much to see. It was the same as at Caly’s shop. No sign of the intruder. Another cloaking spell and they hadn’t gone in through the warded doors.
Then I had a holo-meeting scheduled with Bas to discuss the security arrangements for the upcoming Summit. As usual, Electra was with him, listening intently to my briefing.
“Any more details?” I asked her, once I was done. Electra had a hunch that something was going to go haywire at the Summit so we had put additional security in place. As far as I could tell, there would be no way for terrorists to get within ten miles of the building, but her paranoia was infectious. I drummed my fingers on the conference table.
“Nothing specific yet,” she said, frowning. “Something feels wrong but I can’t pinpoint it. The threat is still too vague.”
Her pre-cog skills were off the charts but gave her only a few seconds’ warning of specific threats. The danger had to be immediate and real for her talent to lock on. But a hunch that something was wrong was normally an indicator that somethingmore specific would eventuate. The how and when wasn’t something she could identify in advance.
Caly had told me that Electra had called her just before the attack last night. Her ability to sense danger to Calypso from a distance was a side-effect of the twin bond that had formed in utero. For anyone else, Electra had to be in close proximity to her client to feel their future. Which meant that for the last five years, she’d been my brother’s shadow.
“Don’t worry,” Bas said. “You’ve always been in time. I trust you to keep me safe.” Bas gave her his most charming smile, but, as always, it had no effect.
“Sir,” she said simply, inclining her head, not meeting his eyes.
Physically, I could see the resemblance to Caly. It lay in the shape of their faces, the colour of their eyes, but there was no mistaking one twin for the other. Electra was a fitter, leaner…harder… version of Caly. She lacked the generous curves of my mate. Caly was soft and gentle. Electra was not. In the Palace uniform of solid black, she looked like the dangerous Witch that she was.
And in personality she was totally the opposite of her sister. Caly was sweet. She smiled and laughed and teased. When she was annoyed, she scrunched up her cute little nose and you could almost see her wanting to stamp her foot. It was adorable. Electra, on the other hand, lacked any warmth in her usual expression. Her emotions were locked down so tightly that it was impossible to read her. It had prompted some joker on the Palace staff to give her the nickname ‘Ice Queen’ not long after she had first been appointed his bodyguard. Bas had used it once and the rest of the staff took it as their cue to adopt the name. It had been unkind, and unlike him. He was far better than me at managing difficult personalities, well-versed in negotiations with ambassadors and politicians vying for favour. Getting hisemployees to like him was child’s play for him and yet the person with whom he spent much of his time had never softened towards him, and he had been needlessly cruel to her.
I had long suspected that something had happened between them, something that caused a rift that had festered. Bas had refused to talk about it when I had tried to broach the topic. But I was sure I was right. Once, I caught her eyes on him, when he wasn’t looking, and she was definitelynot coldtowards him. She was not an Ice Queen. Her eyes burned.
Several hours after I had initially planned, I was finally driving through the light traffic, as Beast and I planned our next steps to win our mate. I had texted Caly to let her know I was running late, but she hadn’t replied. Perhaps she was still angry with me from this morning.
YOU WILL APOLOGISE, Beast demanded.
