Moira looked shellshocked. “Evie.Married? Are you sure?”
“I’m right here,” Caelan drawled.
I tugged my hand away and went over to Moira. She dragged me into a tight hug and whispered against my hair. “Are you sure about this? Were you under duress? Is everything okay?”
“We’ll talk about it later,” I whispered. “I’m sorry I forgot to tell you.”
Moira sighed. “You should think more on why you forgot rather than feeling bad about not telling me.”
“Stop being so wise,” I hissed back.
“I want you to buy the most hideous bridesmaid dresses ever created.”
I let out a wet laugh and stepped away. “We’ll see.”
Ethan walked up to us and held out his hand. “I know we have our differences, but it’s not every day a Lord meets his match. Soon we will be…” He paused. “Not quite family, but close enough. Congratulations.”
I shook his hand, surprised by the work-roughened feel of his palm. “Thank you, Lord Ethan.”
He inclined his head and shifted once more before trotting off into the night.
Ethan being nice to me? The world really was about to go apocalyptic.
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
“Acurse?” Caelan blurted. “On an entire shifter line?”
He’d said the same thing a few minutes before. The Lord was having a lot of trouble fathoming how a witch could have done such powerful magic. Our working hypothesis was her mating bond with the shifter. The bond allowed her to access the heart of the Pack’s magic, allowing her to perform the curse and make it stick.
Information like that could be deadly if it got into the wrong hands. Mating bonds couldn’t be faked, but if someone wanted to take a Pack out from the inside, accessing its magic could be effective.
We had not discussed the elephant in the room.
Our impending nuptials.
Caelan was too concerned about Nadia’s plan for me and had been hard pressed to let me out of his sight lately.
It was getting extremely annoying.
Garrett and Thalia sat in the two chairs opposite Caelan’s desk. I lounged on a couch on the other side, wishing I could sink into a deep and endless sleep. When Caelan brought me inside,I was surprised to find those two here, but Caelan told me they knew everything.
Everything being what happened and my Chimera heritage, something I’d chosen not to disclose to anyone, especially a stranger like her. But bringing it up in front of them would be in bad taste, so I tamped down my anger and tried to focus on the next steps with the swans and how we’d handle them now that they knew what I was. Their plans for me wouldn’t come to fruition if I had anything to say about it, and I did. I’d wipe out the rest of their line if they came for me.
The last two weeks had been a whirlwind of wedding activities. Booking the flowers and the baker and the caterer and remembering all the tiny but necessary details was enough to make me scream.
I’d rather get married on my land in the spring, but when I brought it up, Caelan had vetoed the idea and insisted he couldn’t wait to marry me and wanted to do it as soon as possible.
He prowled back and forth across the office, barely restrained energy leashed tightly to his body.
“Caelan?” I asked.
“Hmm?”
“Have you seen my father?”
The room went so silent, we could hear a pin drop.
