Atria gave his arm a soothing stroke as she fearlessly greeted his grandparents. “Hello. I’m Doctor Atria Le Roy. You must be Frances and Tosun Rione.”
“A witch?” Frances blinked, taken aback by the sight of the lush woman in his arms. “I thought for certain you’d end up like your mother—”
“Fran,” Tosun interrupted, more firmly this time. Kaz was only a little satisfied to see her lips pinch and the green skin of her cheeks darken as Tosun stepped forward, hand outstretched in greeting.
A wide smile deepened the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Atria reached out to shake his hand. He didn’t understand the suddenly hard set of her jaw until, not half a second later, Tosun’s eyes dropped to her wrist. They went comically wide as they darted first to her feet, where the bottom edge of her ankle tattoos werejustvisible, and then up again to her unmarked neck.
“Oh,” he breathed, taking a hasty step back. “You’re a priestess.”
Kaz really did growl that time.“Retired.”
Frances propped her hands on her boxy hips. “What’s the story here? How in Burden’s name did you end up with apriestess?”
Before he could answer with a firmnone of your fucking business,Atria smoothly interjected, “It’s a long story, but suffice it to say we met on a plane.”
A sudden guilty twisting took up residence in his gut. While it wastechnicallytrue that they’d officially met on the plane, he knew who and what she was long before then. Over the week, he’d thought about broaching the subject, but what good would it do?
Despite everything, Atria seemed happy with him, and he didn’t want to rock the boat by revealing that he’d known about and avoided her for three years before he finally pulled his head out of his ass.
He was, of course, a survivalist — and since he couldn’t survive without her, he saw no reason to tempt fate by admitting he’d been a coward.
Did he feel good about it? No. Would he risk hurting her with the truth when it had no bearing on their future? Also no.
Frances and Tosun exchanged a long look. “Well…” he grandfather began, “why don’t you come to the ranch and tell us about it over dinner tonight?” He flicked a glance at Kaz. “Your aunt Suhana still lives at home. She’ll be so excited to see you.”
Kaz fought a grimace and yet another stab of guilt. “Suhana lives on the ranch?” He shot Frances a questioning look. “I thought for sure she’d be going to college by now.”
His grandmother straightened her shoulders. “She doesn’t need to go anywhere. The ranch is better for her than any college or city in the whole UTA. Now, are you coming for dinner or not?”
Atria tilted her head back to look up at him and raised her eyebrows. Her expression clearly read,“It’s up to you.”
Kaz was sorely tempted to say no. He’d already had his fill of hostility, and he wanted nothing more than to drag his mate back into the nest for a long, cleansing afternoon of fucking her senseless.
But their time was running out. He couldn’t just conjure their blissful bubble back into existence. Not only did he doubt they’d give up if he told them to leave, but he also felt the niggling compulsion to check on Suhana.
It was strange that she still lived at home. Not because it was a bad thing, but because the little girl he knew was constantly yammering about how she couldn’t wait to see the world. She wanted to be a wildlife veterinarian, and rarely stopped talking about animals long enough for him to get a word in.
All of five years old when they met, Suhana had been his only friend on the ranch — Clark obviously excluded. They’d kept in touch sporadically over the years, but had lost contact after she passed her Basic Education Assessment. He assumed it was because she was naturally busy with school and life.
Now he had a suspicion that he’d missed something, and that was unacceptable. Though they were distant, Kaz had always counted Suhana as one of his people.
And he protected his people.
Sucking in a fortifying breath, he grunted, “Fine.”
Tosun beamed and clapped his large, work-roughened hands together. “Great! She’ll be so happy.”
“You still remember the way, boy?” Frances asked, her tone withering.
Kaz met her stare with a cool one of his own. “I do.”
“Good.” She turned to walk back to their truck, her back stiff and her heavy boots stirring dust in the rarely used path. “Nice to see you still remember some important shit.”
ChapterThirty-Nine
The atmospherein the kitchen of the Rione family homestead was, to put it lightly, tense.
