CHAPTER TEN
“Mina, thank you so much for coming.” I hugged the polite and prissy woman, inhaling her…strawberry shampoo. She was the culprit of that particular smell. It suited her well, sweet yet tart. “Next time, when you and Finn come over, I promise not to turn into a bear.”
She grinned as she stepped back, teasing lightly, “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
I snorted. “I guess that’s entirely true.” I shook my head. “Is it always this crazy with them?”
She nodded her head—grandly. “Yes.”
“Oh boy.” I sighed.
Mina patted my shoulder, a sinful light gleaming in her eyes. “But there are perks too. I’m sure you’ll figure that out tonight.”
I raised my brows as Finn dragged her away and out the front door. They were probably headed for those ‘perks.’ I walked back into the large, rugged living room, and glanced around. A few people were still here.
Like a surly fox shifter in the corner. He sipped on whiskey—a whiskey bottle—while covertly eyeing a redhead. Poppy was currently talking with an attractive shifter with white hair. He was…Jonathan…or something like that. It started with a J, anyway. I remembered that much.
Theron strolled over to stand beside me.
He was the only shifter I wasn’t completely comfortable with yet. The fact that he was an Ancient didn’t bother me or the fact he was the king to their people.
It was the way he flip-flopped on moods.
The man was ice cold one second.
Searing hot the next.
It was unnerving.
“Has the evening been better for you?” I asked kindly, anything to fill the silence as he stood next to me. “It’s definitely been better for me.”
He scrutinized his son in the corner, drinking his worries away. “It’ll be better soon enough. Once he cools down. A raging seer is dangerous for everyone.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, whispering, “What is that all about, anyway? And why was Poppy…” I left it unsaid with so many sensitive ears around.
Theron’s dark eyes caught mine, and he whispered under his breath, quiet enough for only me to hear, “How would you feel if your brother got the girl,her heart, knowing that she was actually meant for you, even from birth? That spell he pulled. It’s as old as time, and it never changes. Never. It doesn’t matter if a person was mated, then her shifter died, and then married three other men down the road. She always turns into the animalshe was truly meant for.”
I shook my head slowly. “But the magic chose her for Godric. How could the magic then say she was truly meant for him? That doesn’t work.”
Theron’s lips thinned, sadness creeping into his gaze, a loss so profound I flinched. “Ah, but here’s the real conundrum. What if the magic knew all along that Godric would die, a magic that is all knowing and adapting to the world around it? The only way for Poppy to be with my other son forever, the seer of our people, is if she were mated first—to a shifter who was destined to die early.”
My eyes widened. My mouth bobbed.
No words came forth.
Until I sputtered, “But…that’s so tragic.”
“And, yet, the magic may still get the outcome it knows is right.” He tipped his head to his son, still whispering too quietly for him to hear. “If he can work it all out in his mind. And be able to live with it afterward. And win her heart. Those may be impossible feats for just one man. If it were I, it might be too much. But my son is better than I am. He always has been.”
“Jonathan, get your ass over here. I want to talk to you,” Cassander barked, waving the bottle in his hand. “Now, asshole!”
Our eyes darted to Jonathan.
His arm had somehow snaked around Poppy’s shoulder, with his head tipped toward hers, speaking privately. It appeared completely innocent, as if their conversation were truly platonic, his expression earnest—now surprised as he stared at the seer yelling at him. The man wasn’t doing anything wrong…
He was just touching Poppy.
“Fucking hell,” Theron grouched. “Dammit, I’ll amend what I said a moment ago. He’s a better man than me when he’s not drunk.”
