Page 57 of Power Shift
Caelan snorted. Sliding calloused thumbs over the top of my hands, he looked into my eyes. “I am a Lord and always have to consider the good of my territory. So yes, you’d be good for me and my land. You already have been.”
“Debatable.”
“But you refuse to recognize there is more between us than duty. You cling to your identity and your secrets and refuse to believe I care or that I would stand beside you when you choose to reveal them.”
“Some secrets are too terrible for another to bear.”
Caelan froze. “Evie?”
I slid my hands from his and rose. “I’m tired. It’s been a long day, and I still need to check my greenhouse.”
“Just like that, this discussion is done?” Disapproval shimmered in his eyes. “Do you want pretty words, flower girl? Lovely words of adoration? Poetry written in the sky? Roses strewn at your feet, perhaps? Do you want to be wooed? Showered with diamonds and emeralds? Is that what you require?”
Every word he said was another dagger to the heart. I could not care less about any material thing. All I needed to be content was a few close friends and a plot of land to make my own. I wanted to walk in the woods and trail my fingers through fern fronds and run them against a tree’s rough bark. But if I ever took a husband? Another one? I wanted; no, I needed so much more than I ever had before.
And so I laid my soul bare to Caelan for this one thing because he needed to understand I was not someone he could shove into a loveless box and abandon. “I want to be loved in a way that leads to madness. I want someone who cares more for me than anything else in the world. Someone who will choose to stand with me against the world when it comes for me. And it will, Caelan. Soon enough, my secrets will lay bare. Will it be you who stands with me? Or will I stand alone?” An eternity of sadness sank into my bones. “I know the answer, Lord. It’s the same no matter who answers the question.”
Caelan rose, his face a blank mask, and came so close our noses almost touched. “How little you think of me, flower girl.” A snort of disgust and he was gone, out the door and off my property in a blur of speed that sent a spiral of fear through my bones.
Chapter
Seventeen
CAELAN
Isent the edict down less than twenty-four hours later.
All Shifter Lords were to be out of the Lord of Texas and the Borderlands’ Territory within eight hours of receiving notice.
Soren sat in my study watching me carefully. “What happened?”
“Evie happened,” I snarled.
“All terrible decisions do seem to stem from a woman,” the other Lord said dryly.
When I sent him a dark look, Soren merely laughed. “I’ll be out of your property within the hour, but this edict will raise some eyebrows among the others. Maybe not your precious Rowan, but Donovan will come sniffing around.”
“Let him come.” I was itching for a good fight anyway.
Seymour sat beside me, traps waving around like he was at a rave. He hadn’t lunged for Soren, surprising both of us, though Soren knew better than to reach for him. The Red Dragon flytrap had shown a disturbing sentience and grew more intelligent as the days passed.
“Would you like to talk about it?” Soren asked, the whiskey tumbler he held glinting iridescent as the light hit the crystal.
“She flat out refuses to have anything to do with me,” I said before I could zip my lips.
Evie was the most frustrating woman I’d ever met.
Soren’s brows flicked up. “Even a carnal relationship?”
“She’d just as soon I never darken her doorstep than let me show her my dick.”
Soren’s laugh made me snarl softly. “Maybe your Floromancer needs a gentler wooing.”
I told him what Evie said to me. Even repeating the words sent pain through my soul. What had happened to her to make her think such things? After everything, why would she think she’d stand alone?
Soren’s expression sobered. “Someone has profoundly hurt your Evie. Do you know anything about her ex-husband?”
I didn’t think her ex had everything to do with it, though he probably held some responsibility. “Not much on record. They were married for a while. The divorce was abrupt and went fast. Evie left without much of anything other than the clothes on her back.”
