Page 36 of Mated to the Enemy
Jessica nodded. “So what happened? Why aren’t you at war now?”
“A hair over a century ago, there was a huge battle between shifter and mage forces in Alaska. The mages tried to bring the entire volcano Novarupta down on us. They made it erupt, but they missed us, and we wiped out a massive portion of their forces. They were too weak to continue the fight, and so they gave in to concessions in order to be able to live. Now, they are forbidden from practicing any blue magic and most green magic as well. If they do, they are declared rogue, and the Assassins of any of the Houses will hunt them down.” Klaue tapped his fingers on the couch. “At least, they’re supposed to. It seems Canis isn’t doing their job though.”
“The mage who attacked today,” Jessica said, filling in the blank. “He’s practicing banned magic, and is workingwiththem.”
“Something stinks.”
“If the Magi of House Ursa is supposed to be an all-powerful magic user, how was it he lost to this rogue?”
Klaue shrugged. “No idea. Surprise, maybe? It’s probably why Korred is so mad at you. This mage comes waltzing onto the property without setting off any alarms, and then nearly takes us out and manages to take on the ‘great and mighty Korred’, and lives to tell about it.”
“I’m scared, Klaue. This is way more than I can handle. I thought maybe I could slip away, move across the country. Even if they did catch me, I didn’t want to put you in danger, but now it’s too late. They’re attacking here. What do we do? What doIdo?”
Klaue couldn’t meet her gaze. Looking down, he bit his lip. He too was lost, unsure of their next steps. “I don’t know,” he said heavily after a long period of silence. “I don’t know everything going on, and I don’t want to give you bad advice.”
“I know.” Jessica shifted uneasily at the reminder that she was still holding out information from him. “Thank you for not prying, even now,” she said softly.
Klaue nodded. Truthfully, he’d been hoping that she would perhaps open up now that members of his House had put their lives on the line for her, but clearly whatever it was she was hiding was powerful enough to keep her quiet still.
“I guess,” he said, feeling the need to speak, “that I want you to stick around. And if prying is going to send you running, then I’ll have to find a way to be patient until you figure it out, or feel comfortable enough to share the burden with me.”
Jessica reached out and gently patted his knee. Her hand lingered there for a moment as they shared a look. Klaue remembered kissing her forehead in battle, and the way she’d clung to him for safety. It had felt good, having her near him like that. Klaue realized he wanted more of that. More contact. He started to reach out for her hand just as Jessica looked down and pulled it back.
Klaue coughed, using that to cover the moment of his hand, acting like he’d been intending to do it all along. It was an awkward motion, but it worked. Maybe. He wasn’t sure. Jessica’s attention was on the table next to them though.
“What’s this?” she asked, picking up a rectangular piece of paper.
“It’s my invitation to a wedding,” he said, trying to contain his smile.
“A wedding?”
“Yes. It’s tomorrow, actually. My good friend and boss is getting hitched to his mate, human style.”
Jessica giggled at the termhuman style. Most shifter-only matings didn’t involve weddings. It wasn’t a big deal to them. But given how few in number female shifters were, it meant that more often than not, male shifters found themselves mated to human females, and the tradition there was a wedding.
Klaue paused, waiting for Jessica to say something, but when she didn’t, he plunged ahead with his crazy idea.
“Would you like to come with me?”
Jessica looked up, her brown eyes wide.
