Page 22 of Elusive Mate

This time it was a full-throated laugh. “I think you’ve forgotten who your brother is. Was he pissed that you’d outfoxed him? Definitely, but there was also a grudging respect. He was worried about you being out on your own with no one to protect you.”

“I can protect myself. Present circumstances notwithstanding.”

“You had us all fooled. We all thought you were the same young girl who defiantly went off to vet school to get away from Alaska. We didn’t realize how much you’d changed.”

“Then maybe you’ll agree I am not your fated mate.”

Lucian shook his head. “You are, but I can see where it is nothing you ever wanted and a role you can’t see for yourself. But I’ve changed, too. While I cannot see myself with anyone else, I have watched you grow. I thought your commencement speech was inspired and probably pointed more at me and your brother than your fellow graduates, but poetic and meaningful all the same.”

“Thanks. I worked hard on it.”

“It didn’t seem that way.” He held up his hand. “That didn’t come out the way I meant it. It sounded natural and caring, as if you wanted to give the rest of those students a way to find their own path, even though you felt yours might be denied to you.”

“And I was right—or at least, if you have your way, it will be.”

“It doesn’t have to be…”

“Fine. Just tell your pilot to set this plane down. Lucky and I will be happy to part ways with you and never trouble you again.”

“That I will not do. But you can choose to be happy. I’ve watched you working at your clinic. You are incredibly talented at what you do. You’ve also made friends easily and made your cottage a lovely, comfortable place to be. You could do the same at Ice Storm. I’ve always made it a strong fortress, but you could make it a home for our people—something more along the lines of Windsong.”

“How do you know about my life away from you?” she asked suspiciously.

“In the spirit of the honesty I believe we have always shared, I’ve been watching you. Being close to you—even when you wouldn’t see me—was soothing and pleasurable for me.”

“You’ve been spying on me? You bastard,” she snarled, causing Lucky to do the same.

“You have a staunch defender in your pet.”

“He’s not a pet. I plan to release him when he’s fully recovered.”

“If he’s anything like Colby Reynolds, he’ll much prefer the role of pampered pet. For the record, as long as you can assure me he won’t hurt anyone, I would have no objection to you keeping him.”

“Lucky is not domesticated…”

“Then maybe he can have a kind of hybrid life. You can turn him loose, and he could come and go as he pleases. If you’re worried about him, maybe you can put some kind of tracker on him.”

She sat back and regarded him. “Maybe, but you think he’d prefer to have his creature comforts as well as his freedom.”

“I don’t think he’s the only one who would prefer that.”

“What you’re offering me isn’t any kind of freedom. You may be offering me a gilded cage, but it is a cage nonetheless.”

“This is the wrong time for any shifter, much less a female one, to be out on her own. There are forces at work—some connected to the Shadow League and some not…”

“So, you’re joining the Resistance?”

“I have yet to make that determination.”

She snorted derisively. “So, you’re hedging your bets as usual.” Zenya shook her head. “You call yourself alpha, as does the rest of our clan. I have to wonder what that says not only about you, but them.”

Lucian growled deep in his throat, leaning forward aggressively and provoking the same noise from Lucky. “Silence your pet.”

“He’s not any more impressed with you than I am.”

“What the hell did anyone in the clan ever do to you that was so wrong?”

“My sire…”

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