She gasped at it, astonished by how thick it was now.
“Is that because we slept together?”she asked softly.Her fingers came around to caress the link but it was wispy, ethereal.Impossible to touch or to hold.Even so, she craved it.Wished it was a physical entity so she could know it.
“Yes.It shouldn’t get much bigger now, but it will get stronger.”
“What’s the difference?”she asked, pouting when he blinked and the beam disappeared.
“It means that when you tried to touch it just now, there was nothing to hold, right?”She blinked, nodded.“Eventually, you’ll be able to touch it.”
A gasp escaped her.“No way.”
“Yes way,” he replied with a grin.
“That’s too cool.”
He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead.“I’m glad you think so.”
She smiled at him, stepped into him, and then let her forehead settle against his chest.She sighed, whispered, “Your mom won’t hate me, will she?”
“She’ll love you and pity you.You’ve got the worst of her tykes to contend with,” he teased.
El chuckled and settled into Ryan’s hold.In his arms, she knew everything would turn out for the good.It was when she stepped outside the embrace of her mates that everything turned to shit.
Chapter 14
Shawn eyed El’s toga and wished like hell he could tug it down and bare all of her to him.
She looked like a sexy Roman woman in that get up.Her hair hung loose about her shoulders, and interspersed with the swathes of fabric that covered her.
Outside of a fancy-dress party, she should have looked weird as fuck.But she didn’t.Not with the crowds of women dressed similarly.Although, she was the only one to wear white.
The rest wore jewel like colors.Anything from rich, lustrous eggplant to emerald.Anything was fair game.Just not white.
Trip, who’d been glued to his side most of the night, folded his arms across his chest as Ryan took a seat on the dais that was his by right, after he’d helped El to her seat first.
Marc was somewhere in the crowd, but Trip, who freely admitted to loathing crowds, was watching the event from a distance, and because Shawn didn’t feel like being eaten by a big cat who thought a human male was wandering around the event, he stuck close to his… hell, what exactly was Trip to him?
Because that thought process was way too complicated for this late at night, he asked, “Why are you huffing?”
“Because he was supposed to introduce El to the Pride before he went to the dais.”
“Does it matter?”
“Yeah.The crowd’s curious.Instead of letting her mingle, introduce her to our people, he’s shielding her.”
Shawn grimaced.“I can’t blame him.It would be my instinct too.”
Trip shook his head.“You don’t understand.Ryan’s the leader for a reason.”
“Explain.”
He blew out an impatient breath.“Okay, so, Ryan is the strongest male in the Californian Pride, but he rarely shifts.”
Shawn frowned, then thought back to the Shifters he’d known.“I thought you all shifted every day.Like, it was vital to you or something.”
“It is.To most Shifters who have to reconnect with their animals all the time.Think of it like a human going to the gym.We do it to stay at one with our beast, to stay limber and strong.”
“That makes sense.”Sort of.
