Zane’s jaw dropped. Whatever he’d expected, that hadnotbeen it. It took a long,longtime to scrape enough brain cells together to say, “I take it things are going well with Aaron, then?”
A vivid combination of relief and embarrassment swept Dion’s face. “He’sincredible, Zane. Have you ever met somebody and just felt instantly like youknew? Well, obviously you haven’t or you’d be with them, that’s a stupid question, but—but it’s like fate. Like we’re meant to be together. And, oh, there’s so much I can’t tell you, it’s private, but?—”
Zane, very,veryunwisely, said, “You mean like the fact that he turns into a giant rabbit on occasion?” and this time Dion’s jaw fell open. After another long, painful moment, Zane muttered, “God, I hope he’s already told you that, because otherwise I have just fucked up beyond allpossiblecomprehension.”
“But how didyouknow?!” Dion’s voice shot up like a schoolboy’s, astonishment at war with outrage and excitement.
“Oh, thank God.” Zane finished his shot of whiskey, exhaled, and said, “This is how I know,” before shifting into wolf form.
He’d asked Vicki not to scream. He’d forgotten to suggest as much to Dion, who absolutely did screech, although he managed to clap his hands over his mouth first, so it was somewhat muffled.
Almost instantly, the door burst open and Aaron Jones burst through it, huffing and puffing with the expectation of danger. Almost anybody else probably would have been at least a little alarmed at a man his size bludgeoning his way into the room, butZane, at the moment, was a wolf, and the wolf thought,mmm, rabbit!
We do noteatother shifters!
The wolf shrugged, and Zane shifted back to human before the animal decided to act on its more hunterly instincts. Aaron Jones relaxed with a huge sigh, and closed the door behind him. “Oh. He told you. I thought something terrible had happened.”
“Something terrible did happen!” Dion said indignantly. “Nine years, Zane!Nineyears! We’ve been togethernine years, and you never told me you were a shifter?”
The way he said it made Zane blink. “Did you know about shifters before Aaron told you?”
“No! Obviously! Of course not!Because you never told me, you—you—” Apparently the English language lacked the words to describe whatever offensive thing Zane was, because Dion spluttered into miffed silence. Aaron, trying hard to look solemn, came to sit at Dion’s side.
“Secretive son of a bitch?” Zane offered. Dion sniffed, which seemed to indicate agreement. “Look, Dion, I’m sorry, but I’m also not, because this is obviously not something shifters admit to very many people. If I’d been going to tell anyone, it would have been you, but I’ve literally never told anybody who wasn’t from Virtue, before coming back here.”
Dion sniffed again. “IsupposeI understand.”
“I know you do,” Zane said gently. He couldn’t help the smile that started, though, as he looked at the two of them. His PA wasn’t a small man, but beside Aaron he looked rather delicate and fragile. Furthermore,Aaronlooked like he was probably a bear shifter, not a rabbit, and would knock the head off anybody who bothered Dion in the slightest.
They were, in Zane’s estimation,adorable.“I’m really glad for you. You two look great together. I mean, I’m never going toforgive you for stealing him away, Aaron, but…I’m really happy for you. Tell me everything.”
“I’m gay,” Aaron said, somewhat unnecessarily, under the circumstances. “All the stories I’ve ever heard about fated mates are heterosexual and end up with people shacking up and having zillions of shifter babies, so I didn’t even know if it was possible to find one if you were gay. I just kind of figured I was out of luck. Until you and Dion showed up, and just…I knew,” he said in stunned happiness. “I just knew.”
“Did your rabbit tell you?”
Dion giggled. Actually giggled. “I’m sorry, that’s never going to not be funny.”
Aaron looked pained. “My rabbit isn’t very coherent most of the time. Overexcitable, yes. Convinced of Dion’s perfection in every way, yes. Afraid of the wind? Also yes. So in between the gibbering, yes, it did tell me, but it’s like being informed of something by a toddler hyped up on sugar. I wasn’t sure it wasreliable, you know? But it didn’t matter,” he added more softly. “Iknew. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this man from the minute I first saw him. And that I was going to have to negotiate with you for visiting rights.”
“I would never do anything to stand in the way of Dion’s happiness.” That was the simple truth. “I’m also never going to find another PA of his calibre, but that doesn’t matter. I genuinely hope you live happily ever after, whether it’s in Virtue or anywhere else.”
“I’ll find you somebody,” Dion promised. “Theywon’tbe as good as I am, but they’ll be good. And they’ll be on a temporary basis in case I can’t handle small town living and have to convince Aaron to come back to LA with me.”
Zane ducked his head, smiling and half wondering if he could be as brave as his assistant, then looked up with genuine joy.“However it works out, I’m happy for you, Dion. I had no idea coming back to Virtue was going to be this complicated.”
“Oh my God, yes, tell us about the meeting tonight. Did you punch your father in the nose?” Dion’s eyes widened. “Wait, is he a wolf, too?Is your mother?”
“Ah, no, Mom is a true human.”
Dion’s eyes narrowed. “Pity you said that so fast, I had a follow-up line about her being a stone cold fox on the way.”
Zane laughed. “I’ll tell her you said it anyway. She’ll be delighted. No, I didn’t punch him in the nose. Better yet, a crazy old man from the woods punched him in the ego, and turned the town against him. I haven’t missed Virtue,” he said honestly, “but I’m not sorry to have been here for that.”
“You’re going to have to come back to visit.” Dion actually sounded worried. “Aaron has eight thousand siblings, but you’re the only person Iknowin Virtue. God, Zane. Imagine if Ms. Hawthorne hadn’t won that dress. My whole life would have been different, and not in a good way.”
“Imagine,” Zane murmured. “Thank goodness for luck, right?” He rose and said his goodnights, and went to bed thinking hard about luck.
CHAPTER 19
