“A cat bed?” I laughed.
Caelan’s smile turned sheepish. “He likes it.”
“And a blanket?”
Caelan tipped Seymour’s pot on its side and covered the flytrap with a blue flowered blanket.
I covered my mouth with my hand so he couldn’t see me grinning.
He bent down and murmured a few words to Seymour before he straightened.
“Aren’t you worried about the dirt in his pot spilling?”
“I keep extra in the cabinets and fill him up when he needs some.”
I might explode with the cuteness of it all. “He doesn’t need to lie down.”
The sight of him tucking Seymour in for the night was so adorable I wanted to lean over and squeeze his cheeks.
“He likes it,” Caelan grumbled. The first time he did it, I thought the pot tipped over by accident, so I lifted him back up, only for him to thump right over again. The next time I reached for him, he growled at me.”
I’d created Seymour out of anger and fury at Caelan’s behavior and ended up creating something never seen before. The Red Dragon flytrap had somehow become sentient and wasevolving into not quite a pet, but something. A companion, maybe.
Once Seymour was settled in, his traps turned away from us and facing the window, Caelan gestured toward one of the sofas. After I kicked off my shoes and sat, he settled beside me, pulling my legs onto his lap.
I leaned against the edge and sighed.
“She won’t be here long,” he rumbled. “I’ll ensure it.”
“Why is she here in the first place?”
His expression darkened. “She won’t come out and say. Rogue shifters are becoming an issue across the world, and she claims she’s here because of them, but she’s lying.”
Caelan shook his head. “Whatever the reason, I don’t think it bodes well.”
I agreed. Caelan’s fingers dug into the arch of my foot, sending a delicious ache through my body. “She wants you.”
The Shifter Lord sighed. “Evie?—”
“I trust you,” I said hurriedly. “I know we’ve had our issues, but I can’t help but think this situation is different from Gianna. She’s here because she has her sights set on you, for whatever reason. And with the history between you, she sees you as an easy catch.” I eyed him. “I don’t know everything that went on between you, but if there’s anything I need to worry about, I hope you tell me now. I’d like to avoid flying off the handle again.”
I gave him a somewhat sheepish smile. He was wrong to keep Thalia’s heritage from me, but I should have also understood how much pressure he was under from my father. Caelan couldn’t think only of himself or me. He was a Shifter Lord, responsible for thousands of shifters all across a swath of the country. And with Donovan’s territory still in dispute…
“Rachel is a viper,” he said to my relief. “I’d rather cut off my arm than be involved with her again.”
“Then I think you should assign someone to keep a careful eye on her. Can you get her out of the Keep without an incident?”
He sighed. “Protocol is allowing her here for five days. Then I can move her to local lodging.”
Five days could be a lifetime with a toxic presence living in close quarters. Rachel could do a lot of damage in less than a week if left to her own devices. “Maybe you should make yourself scarce during that time.”
A flash of teeth. “Are you inviting me to stay over?”
My blood thrummed. “Always.”
Caelan’s deep chuckle made me grin. “I can’t leave for the entire five days. Things are still unsettled with the Lords.”
After the events of a few weeks ago, Caelan had finally exploded. I didn’t know everything that had gone on, but I hadn’t seen a Lord around since then, and none of them had contacted me or tried to force my hand in any way. The breathing room was a long time coming, but Caelan’s actions had led to a rift between him and the other Lords.
