Page 40 of Bearly Yours
He nodded. “You should still be able to do those things. We’re just being cautious right now. When Roarke can’t be with you because of his Council or restaurant duties, I’m going to send Mateo with you.”
Mateo looked like he’d already been told this and had no issues with it, but I did. I wanted to protest that sending his First with me when another enforcer would do just fine was silly, but I didn’t. Still, Mateo seemed to sense my reticence because he eyed me and raised an eyebrow, even though his gaze was kind and his posture was non- provocative.
“Did you have a problem with me being your guard, Emrie?” he asked politely.
I squirmed in my seat, and finally nodded. “I can take another enforcer, Alpha. I don’t want to take your First away from you and the Clan.”
My alpha’s voice grew gentle. “Emrie, Mateo will be with you when Roarke can’t be.Youare Clan as well, and it’s you who needs the extra protection right now. And I didn’t ask. Mateo volunteered.”
I grew a little misty eyed. There went my big emotions again.
Chapter 10
Emrie
The next few days were eventful. I moved into the Clan lodge, and with Mateo guarding me, I finished Roarke’s ocean table. Roarke moved into the lodge as well, and took a room just across from mine on the bottom floor. I didn’t mind Roarke being there, of course, but I wasn’t so keen on being on the bottom floor where all the hubbub happened in the lodge. If you think a house full of teenagers is loud, you should hear a house full of adult bear shifters.
They’re worse than the cubs, because the cubs, after a gentle reminder, remember to modulate their voices. The guys...not so much. Let’s put it this way—they’d probably get kicked out of every library in the nation. And Roarke sitting among them during dinners and game nights was like a big, grumpy, cuddly panda bear being in a room full of loud-mouthed hyenas. He didn’t say much, but he still seemed to enjoy himself. I think he just wasn’t used to being around so many people all the time. At least with his restaurants he could escape and go home. Here, he’s stuck with all my goofy, over-exuberant Clan. I’m just waiting for him to torch them a little bit when they go too far one night.
It has yet to happen, but I’m keeping my eye out for it.
One thing I didn’t mind was all the time I got to spend with him. Suddenly, we were living in the same house together, and we saw each other all. The. Time. In the morning when I opened my door, at meals, chilling in the evenings before I headed to bed. I saw him all the time. And unlike my Clan, I never wanted to smack him over the head with a phonebook, so I had a good feeling we could possibly make this mate thing work.
I’d never really needed space from him when we were friends, I don’t know why I suddenly expected everything to change. I mean it had—it so had—but really, it was also the same. It just felt like we’d suddenly leveled up. And let me tell you, in the game of life, I would rather level up, then die in a pit of alligators. I’m just sayin’.
Roarke wasat one of his restaurants while Mateo and I headed to King Draven and Consort Mia’s home to have a meeting about their new library. I’d taken a few days to draw up the plans, and we planned to go over them this evening and get them okayed so I could start ordering supplies.
I went to knock on the door of the villa, but to my surprise, it was already open a crack. My recent experiences had made me a little gun shy, so I was more than happy to let Mateo go in first to check it out. I didn’t hear anything off as I hovered near the doorway—until a yowl split the silence and Mateo shouted something garbled. I gasped and bolted inside. “Kitty, don’t hurt Mateo!” Honey badgers! What was the tiger’s name? I couldn’t remember it for the life of me.
Strangely, the tiger stopped tenderizing Mateo and looked at me with its large amber eyes. Umm, okay.Words, Emrie. Words are good here. The out loud kind.
“Zian? Your name’s Zian, right? Good kitty. Nice kitty. Mateo here is just protecting me. The front door was open, you see.”Great job, Emrie. He’s eyeballing you like you’re crazy. When the tiger thinks you’re crazy, things are getting out of hand.I needed a staff member or the King or Consort Mia to save me, and Mateo too, I suspected. The cat still looked like he wanted to tenderize him some more.
I moved toward the very large feline and held out my hand, even though I got the sense he knew and remembered my scent from my previous visits. There wasn’t much that tiger familiars missed. I’d looked them up in the Clan library. They were much smarter than the average tiger, and the average tiger’s intelligence was nothing to sneeze at.
“We’re not tasty. If fact, Mateo’s probably gamey.”
Mateo, who was hovering near me to see what the tiger would do, chortled under his breath.
Zian nuzzled my hand and chuffed. “Are you the new greeter?” I asked. He chuffed louder at my words, and I smiled. “You’re excellent at it. Ten out of ten. I’m going to cover your ears for a moment. I know they’re sensitive.” Zian let me cover his ears, and Mateo did the same behind me—bears had sensitive hearing too—and I shouted for Consort Mia. I figured I was less likely to get my head chopped off if I shouted for Mia than King Draven. Where were the guards? The staff?
I cocked my head. “Do you hear that?”
Mateo and Zian were warily getting to know one another when he turned to me. “It sounds like a party?”
“Oh, man. I hope I didn’t botch this and write the wrong date down. I’ve had a lot on my mind. Maybe we should leave?”
But Zian blocked the front door, grabbed my sleeve, and gently dragged me toward the raucous laughter and shouting. We arrived, at what I assumed, was a ballroom, but a ball was the farthest thing from what it was currently being used as.
“Mateo—what am I looking at?” I gaped around me. There were at least a hundred vampires in here, as well as many other types of paranormals. They were all wearing pajamas. Some were in casual pajamas—like pajama pants and a pajama shirt—but some were in funny or ridiculous pajamas—like onesies that looked like a chicken. One lady was even wearing what looked like an avocado onesie, and all I could think was that she really must love avocados.
And they were all doing...something. One group was in a corner doing rolley chair relays. Another group was doing what looked like rubber band archery. A few groups were using sharpened pencils as javelins and throwing them at a target, and another group was tossing paper plates and balls of wadded paper. I was going to take a wild guess and say they were attempting paper plate discus and shot put. The funniest and craziest by far was the side of the room attempting rhythmic gymnastics toShake Your Groove Thing.
I put a hand over my mouth, trying to hide my wide smile and the giggles that kept spilling out. Oh. My. Honey badgers. They were forming a pyramid. Oh, nope, the pyramid fell. Bummer. Some die-hards were on the side, still doing the routine they’d obviously rehearsed, but then one of the office chairs in the relay race went wildly off course and crashed into them, and suddenly there was a pile of paranormals on the ground, cracking up laughing.
Consort Mia was walking the room with what looked like an expensive camera, taking action shots of everything, and trying to avoid the stray missiles and out of control rolley chairs. It took me a minute to find King Draven, but when I did, my eyes grew to probably three times their size and I gaped at Mateo, who gaped back at me.
King Draven was in pajama shorts that looked like an elephant—including elephant ears—and a heather-blue tee shirtthat saidI am ear for you.He was in a secluded area of the ballroom, fencing with another vampire with a pool noodle while several fans cheered them on.
