“Tomas?” Sarika turned on him.
“I’m all for hitting Lojos over the head as often as possible,” Tomas said and leaned down to feather a kiss across her nose. “He isn’t an environmentalist.”
“I want to point out that Luiz cleverly manipulated everyone by changing the subject so he wouldn’t have to weigh in on his opinion of balloons,” Lojos said.
“He did do that,” Dominic agreed.
“Have you considered giving Lojos a good brotherly beating?” Luiz asked.
“Many times,” Tomas answered. “But he often is right, and in this situation, I believe he is. You are deliberately trying to get out of answering. That means you do have an opinion. You just don’t want any of us to know you do.”
Sarika would have thought it meant Luiz didn’t have an opinion, but she realized Tomas had read the situation correctly just by the way the other males were looking at Luiz. She could feel their shared amusement. Best, she could feel Solange’s. That had been the ultimate goal: to get her to feel relaxed and even, maybe, to have fun.
Luiz waved a dismissive hand. “If it is necessary for me to share an opinion on the hideous and frivolous invention of the balloon for children, I know Riley and Dax’s daughter, Maureen, is afraid of them. She becomes very anxious around them. She doesn’t convey this to her parents as she should because she doesn’t want to upset Riley, who always has balloons at any party.”
“How would you know this if Riley and Dax don’t know?” Solange asked immediately.
Sarika couldn’t detect any humor in her. She’d gone into protective warrior mode. In that moment, Sarika saw the true woman. Solange wouldn’t hesitate to take on an ancient warrior if it meant she was protecting a woman or child. The man standing behind her, with his good looks and scars, arms around her waist, would back her up without hesitation.
“I feel her when she is afraid, Solange,” Luiz confessed. “I speak with her to calm her fears. Dax is aware of my connection with her.”
There was a sudden silence as comprehension dawned. Solange pressed back into Dominic, one hand going to her throat as if protecting herself from an attack.
“Maureen, Dax and Riley’s daughter, is your lifemate?” She whispered it. “Luiz.”
“They know, but we do not want this getting out because she would be in more danger than she already is. Dax is a powerful Carpathian, very ancient, and he has enemies. Many of them. I stay close to help protect Maureen and Riley. So yes, when she has fears, I comfort her. I do so from a distance. She is far too young to give me back emotions and colors. It can be…difficult to be so close to her and know it will be many years before I will have my lifemate with me.”
“Dimitri found Skyler when she was far too young,” Dominic said.
Skyler is the adopted daughter of a legendary Carpathian, Gabriel Daratrazanoff. Her birth father is Razvan, a Dragonseeker like Dominic. She is unusual and is held in very high regard. She saved Dimitri when a faction of the Lycans took him prisoner and sentenced him to death by silver. A war was nearly started over that particular incident. But it is true, she was far too young when Dimitri found out she was his lifemate. Over time, they developed a very unique bond before he ever claimed her. That bond was what allowed her to save him when no one else could track him. She was very young, and no one even considered that she would mount a rescue with two of her friends.
Sarika wanted to meet the famous Skyler. She sounded courageous, a woman to be admired. The more she learned of women like Solange and Skyler, the more she felt she had a chance of being happy as Tomas’ lifemate. It was clear the women weren’t shut away in a safe house while their men went out to do battle.
Luiz nodded. “They have a good relationship. I have spoken to Dimitri often and am learning from him how best to keep my lifemate safe when enemies would target her should they know. Valentin Zhestokly has a young lifemate as well. She is protected by several Carpathians, but he stays close. It happens, and we have to take extra precautions. I am grateful for her existence and take her safety and well-being very seriously.”
Sarika felt her cousin’s heavy burden. She had thought it would be a good thing to know one’s lifemate was close and in a few years could be claimed, but apparently that knowledge could increase the stress onthe male. She understood he would be aware his lifemate was in even more jeopardy than most.
She knew the cost to the male wasn’t sexual. She had been concerned by Solange’s initial reaction that a male might develop those feelings for his lifemate, but it was an impossibility. She didn’t quite understand it, but she was aware through Luiz that he didn’t have those kinds of feelings. He had been a jaguar shifter with the urges of that species, yet once he had been converted to Carpathian, despite vague memories, he had no interest in sex.
Trying to understand Carpathian customs was going to be hard enough, but to understand who and what they were fundamentally was going to be much more difficult. How did one navigate through such things quickly?
“So, the answer to the balloons,” Tomas said, taking the spotlight from Luiz, “is a resounding no. I think ‘not good for the planet’ is a good reason to use.”
“That makes sense,” Dominic said, backing him up. “Out of the eight hundred things on your list, we managed to resolve one. That’s good news.” He tipped up Solange’s face toward his with two fingers under her chin. “See how easy that was? The logic of males.”
Solange and Sarika both burst out laughing. That felt so good, to see and hear Solange’s genuine laugh.
“So, Solange,” Lojos said. “We have a pointless party so you can get things from people for your baby that you and Dominic can make yourselves anytime you want, but you’ve got a list of problems you have to take care of before this party takes place. Have I about covered it?”
Immediately, Sarika felt the distress rushing through Solange at the reminder of what she was supposed to be doing. Before the woman could answer, Sarika did it for her. “It’s a celebration of life, Lojos. You have so much to learn. I have no idea if I have the time to educate you, not only about women but about life, in the time before you find your lifemate. Seriously, Tomas, your brother has been very poorly educated.”
She heaved a long-suffering sigh and exchanged a long-sufferinglook with Solange. “You have one man to deal with; I have four. Two of the four seem to have zero knowledge of women. Zero. Can you believe that? I thought I’d be happily learning about Carpathians and customs, but I fear I will be needed to educate Lojos and Luiz in the ways of women.”
Solange sent her a small smile, but it was clear that tension in her was rising just at the mention of solving other problems for the party. Sarika became aware of the child growing in Solange. She was further along than she looked, but the more upset she was, the more distressed the child was. The two beings were locked together, highly sensitive, and both unable to cope with the amount of stress.
Faintly, far away, Sarika heard a chant, the voice feminine, but it began to swell in volume. She hastily ensured she was cut off from the male Carpathians. Now she was highly stressed, as if she were one and the same with Solange and the unborn child. The more agitated Solange became, the more that emotion flooded Sarika until she was nearly shaking with the knowledge that she had to de-escalate the situation or Solange would lose the child. The knowledge was there, also that she had the ability to prevent the loss and aid Solange in coping. She just didn’t know how yet.
It was there inside her. Deep. Unexplored. But she knew there was an untapped well of something unnamed that only she could provide. Not for the Carpathian in Solange. For the female jaguar. That was the side of Solange unable to cope with anything feminine. She’d had to reject that side of herself in order to fight her father’s cruel regime. In doing so, she had perfected the warrior at the expense of her female jaguar shifter. Her shifter would never allow her to carry a child to full term—especially a female child.
