Page 34 of Dragon's Golden Mate
“I’m not admitting defeat,” Kendrick replied quickly. “I’m just…” He trailed off, unsure of how to finish.
“Giving up? Setting it aside? Putting it away for arainy day? Ignoring it and hoping it goes away?” Beck offered.
“You can be a rude little shit, do you know that?” Kendrick retorted.
Beck sniffed, pretending to be offended. “I can’t believe you’d talk to your Alpha that way!”
“Only if he deserves it.” He paused as he thought about that. “And I suppose I deserve to be questioned on whether or not I’m giving up. I’ve been sitting on the problem, lying to myself and saying I’m thinking about it, but where has that gotten me?”
“Pretty much nowhere.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Kendrick growled. “You don’t have to point it out.”
“I know, but it’s fun anyway.” Beck grinned and cracked open the soda can. “Do you think the issue of the cathedral would be easier to handle if Maeve weren’t involved?”
Kendrick’s initial reaction was to argue, to tell Beck that his problems with the building had nothing to do with Maeve, but he knew it was a lie. Maeve’s involvement meant the stakes were that much higher. He could put himself and his reputation on the line without even needing to think about it, but he couldn’t do that to someone else. Especially not someone who was probably more than a friend.
“Undoubtedly,” he relented, “but I can’t change it. I asked for her help, and she’s been happy to give it. In fact, I don’t think I would’ve gotten as far as I have if it weren’t for her.”
“There you have it, then.” Beck pulled out a chair and sat down.
“It’s not as simple as that, and you know it,” Kendrick reminded him. “Just because a woman is good for you, just because she’s smart and beautiful and all the things you want in a mate, doesn’t mean you can just be together. There are always at least a few obstacles in the way.”
“Like I said,” Beck replied, holding his soda in the air, “you’re not one to admit defeat easily.”
Kendrick glowered at his nephew, but he was exceptionally proud. If he hadn’t done anything else right in this world, at least he knew he’d helped raise the Alpha of the Alexander clan to be a good man. “So what do you suggest I do, since you know so much?”
A deep buzzing vibrated through the table. Kendrick was confused for a moment, but he soon figured out what was happening. “Help me find my phone. It’s around here somewhere.” Kendrick put his hand down on top of the papers, hoping to find the one that hid his device.
“Ah, here we go.” Beck retrieved the phone from under a stack of house plans. He looked at the screen and smiled. “I guess the first thing you can do is answer the phone.”
Kendrick took a look for himself, but Maeve’s name on the screen didn’t make him smile. It made him a little uneasy. He liked her, and he knew that at least on some level she felt the same way about him. There were things to work through in any relationship, but his determination to be anything other than coupled-up was warring with him. “Maybe I won’t.” Kendrick turned his phone face down on the table.
“Suit yourself, but the only one you’re punishing is you.” Beck stood up.
He was definitely punishing his dragon, judging by the way the beast thrashed and churned inside of him as the phone continued to buzz against the table. His dragon pulled heat to the surface of his skin, reminding him of the way it’d felt to hold Maeve in his arms and kiss her. It clawed and scraped and threatened to come twisting out of his human form, whether he liked it or not. Maeve—his mate—was calling for him.
He wasn’t one to admit defeat, as Beck had said, and he was right. Kendrick couldn’t let anything stophim from doing what needed to be done, whatever the hell that was. He pushed the button. “Hello?”
“Kendrick.” Maeve’s voice was breathless through the line. “You’re never going to believe what I just saw.”
“What is it?” He leaned forward on the edge of his seat, every muscle in his body poised to take action. Something had happened, and he hadn’t been there for it. Now his dragon was even more agitated than before.
“I can’t explain it all right in the moment, but Cassandra Deegan is a banshee.”
“A banshee?” he repeated.
Beck had his back turned, preparing to leave the dining room and let Kendrick talk, but now he’d turned around. “A banshee?”
“If that’s not what she is, then she’s something similar.” Maeve spoke quickly, as though she had to get it all out before she forgot. “I saw her. She had some sort of concert going with the name of her business all over it. The band was playing, but she was putting her own cries into the music. The whole audience was reacting to it. They were in such sync that they looked like trained dancers.”
“I don’t understand,” Kendrick admitted. “Why would she do that? Banshees call out when someoneis about to die, according to the old tales. They’re spiritual messengers, not backup singers.” He’d heard plenty of stories, but Kendrick had never given them any real weight.
“I can’t explain it, either,” Maeve admitted. “I just know what I saw, and I don’t think she’s doing it because she’s hoping to make a record deal. She’s doing something to the people at that concert. My instincts tell me that it can’t be good.”
He trusted her on that, especially because his own instincts had been telling him something very similar ever since he’d started working with Cassandra. Something about the woman just wasn’t right. “Where is this happening?”
She told him where she’d found the concert.
