“Jesus, Caelan. Couldn’t you have brought the bloody clothes with you or something?”
“It wouldn’t have the same effect.”
“Cat shifters?”
At my nod, Rowan snorted. “Bunch of assholes.”
“Evie no longer has to worry about them.”
His eyes widened a hair. “Not in the mood for a warning, I guess?”
“Nope.”
He helped himself to a cup of coffee set up in the middle of the table. “How many?”
“Two today, at least one the day before. Probably a few others she hasn’t told me about.”
Rowan winced. “How many are still standing?”
“Depends on if I find the others.” I let the violence come through in my smile.
Rowan sighed and sat back down. “I told them this was a terrible idea.”
Unsurprising Rowan had nothing to do with this. He’d always been my staunchest ally and remained one of my closest friends, but even more importantly, he cared about Evie as much as I did, something that had almost ended in a fight or two between us. “You know for sure it came directly from the Lords?”
To my surprise, he shook his head. “I don’t think it originated with us.”
I was afraid of that.
“I can’t tell you for sure where the suggestion came from, but we all know Ethan isn’t smart enough to come up with something like that on his own.”
We both laughed. Ethan was a Lord, so he had to be intelligent, but he’d never been crafty. Ethan controlled his territory through brute force rather than subtle manipulation or true leadership.
The man sitting beside me was the opposite. And I hoped I was too. But occasionally, I killed two people in the woods who dared hit on my woman.
Life required balance.
Footsteps came down the hall. I lowered my voice. “We need to chat once this is over.”
Rowan glanced at me. “Anything I need to know before the meeting starts?”
“Keep a close eye on Thorvin and Ethan.”
“You do like to keep things interesting, friend.” Rowan shifted his chair to put some distance between us before the other Lords arrived.
Soren entered the room a few seconds later, an eyebrow lifting as he spotted us. “Colluding already?”
“Collusion is illegal,” Rowan said, his eyes unreadable.
Soren and Rowan weren’t enemies, exactly. None of us were. But neither were they friends. The other Lord and I had come to an uneasy alliance. I still didn’t trust him anywhere as near as much as I did Rowan, but he hadn’t stabbed me in the back yet, and he’d sided with me on a few important things.
However, I was still pissed off at all the Lords over what happened to Evie.
Minus Rowan. In fact, I owed him a great deal of thanks. He’s the one who got me to pull my head out of my ass over Evie, and she and I had come to a better place because of his interference.
I had already known he was a good Lord. But after what he’d done for me, I knew without a doubt, he was a good man as well.
Soren was still an unknown player, though wouldn’t life be grand if we all trusted each other?
