He leans against the countertop next to the grill. “No. Arcadia is pretty spread out, unlike Ever. The trolls primarily live in their villages deep in the mountains. The shifters stick to the forest in the foothills. We didn’t cross paths often. A lot of havens are like that, disparate communities.”
“Ever’s a little like that,” I offer. “What with shifters, pegasus and centaurs living down here in the Hollow instead of in downtown with everyone else.”
“I love it, though,” Lou says quietly. “It feels more peaceful to me out here.”
Connall gestures around us. “When I came here, Richard gave me the pick of what was available in Shifter Hollow, and I knew it’d be this treehouse the moment I set foot inside. You can’t beat this view. In the evenings, I get to watch the pegasi court in the meadow on the other side of the house.”
“Court?” Lou gives him a skeptical look.
“Yeah,” he says with a laugh. “Pegasi are very public in their courtship, and it involves a lot of sky dancing. They love an audience.”
She looks over at me. “You sure you’re not half pegasus or something? Sky dancing sounds like something you’d do.”
I laugh and take a sip of my drink, leaning forward to rest my forearms on my knees. “I’ve taken yeh both into the sky, yeh might remember. We danced on the currents, my beauty. That’s how an air elemental courts, partially. And it’s true I don’t mind an audience. I’d court yeh both in front of the entire haven system, if yeh wanted that.”
Connall blushes slightly and takes a sip of his drink. Am I pushing him too far? Dinner in his home is private, secretive. We can do whatever we want here without it feeling like an announcement. But maybe saying it aloud is still shocking for him.
He turns and throws the steaks on the grill, checking how we like them cooked. As he grills, we talk about everything and nothing. Simple things like how he feels about being Second to the shifter queen’s mate. How Lou feels about her work with Malik, which she loves. I give high-level answers about their questions regarding my work as a hunter. I don’t have to go back just yet. That’s a problem for another day, and it’s sure to be a problem indeed.
Once the steaks are cooked, we help Connall plate everything. Then I insist on feeding my Louanna every bite of food. She protests but allows it as Connall laughs at us. He likesit, though, seeing us together. I can tell in the way he observes whenever I touch her.
By the time he brings dessert outside—a strawberry shortcake—I’ve refilled our drinks twice, and Louanna’s getting a touch tipsy. Her cheeks are flushed. Elementals don’t absorb alcohol. I couldn’t get drunk if I tried to. And shifters run so hot, it takes a boatful of booze to bypass their metabolisms. So, Connall and I are stone-cold sober as Lou begins to laugh more easily and touch us when we touch her.
It’s so perfect being with her like this—having the both of us focused on Louanna is a dream come true.
I hold her in my lap, seated sideways on a sofa with Connall at our feet. He holds a forkful of drippy strawberries.
“Open wide, Lou.” His wolf’s green flashes through his beautiful irises as he leans forward, reaching for her mouth with the fork. When she snaps at it but misses, strawberries and cream coat her lips, and she falls into a fit of giggles.
“Well,” I tease him, “you gonna clean her up, or shall I?”
He licks his lips. “Allow me.” Leaning forward, he crawls up our bodies until he’s hovering above us. We’re dwarfed beneath him. He’s so fookin’ big.
Lou’s head falls back against my chest as he dips down and licks a slow, sensual path along the seam of her lips. They fall open as he makes his second pass. It’s a steady, commanding perusal of her mouth as he licks the cream from her, wolf-green eyes flashing to mine. For a moment, I think he’ll growl out a challenge. But instead, he licks her again, focus returning to Lou’s pretty bow mouth.
He’s teasing me, testing this new thing I put into his brain. The idea of me. Of us. Separately from Louanna but also together with her.
“Ouch,” she complains, shifting against me. “Dirk, this gem thing is poking me in the back. Can you take it off?”
Connall’s eyes flick to me. He already knows it’s a big deal for me to remove it. When I sit upright, he pulls her toward him to give me space. Reaching underneath the gem’s housing, I unclip it and shrug the straps down my shoulders, my fingers trembling.
I want to share the same story with her that I mentioned to Connall. Mostly I want to give them both insight into me. “I haven’t taken this off since I was a teenager,” I admit. It feels awkward as I remove the gem and straps and hold them in my hand.
Lou spins and leans back into Connall’s arms. “Tell us about it. When did you get it? What all does it do? I want the full story.”
I sit back against the arm of the sofa, clutching the gem tightly in one hand. “Feels so odd removing it.” I stare into the blue depths that signify my power, then look up at my mates.
They look so comfortable at the other end of the sofa. Connall’s thighs are spread wide, Lou relaxing between them, the fingers of one hand rubbing circles on his thigh. It’s perfect, seeing them like this.
“I wasn’t a powerful elemental child,” I share. “I was small, overly confident but powerless. I got picked on a lot. Well,” I say quietly, “‘twas more than that. Elementals are solitary as adults but tend to stick in groups when there are young ones. We’re a harsh race, though. Lack of power isnae tolerated. I got roughed up a lot by the more powerful younglings.”
Lou stiffens in Connall’s arms, her amber eyes flashing as her nostrils flare. “Roughed up how?” Her tone is full steel.
I shrug. “They’d use their power against me. Trap me beneath a rock in the river or steal my starter gem so I couldnae focus my power. When we’re young, we’re not so good with our power. We’re first given small gems to channel the power until we can sense it well enough to use it. I could never quite seemto grab the wind, so I was a disappointment to me folks. I know that.”
Connall and Lou say nothing, but Lou looks ready to fly off the handle on my behalf.
“For years, I tried until I was all but shunned from my community. My parents left the group for the wilds, as is my people’s way. They left me to fend for myself. Looking back, they shoulda done more. But they couldnae think of anything to try. I simply wasn’t blessed with the kind of power they expected.” I wink at my mates, despite their shocked, sorrowful expressions.
