Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
Timothee wasn’t happy about much of anything these days.
Though, I thought it was interesting he shared this information with Gayle, rather than being a jerk and ignoring her or something.
Maybe Aleksei sequestering him to the Palace was making him think on things.
These were my first thoughts because I wasn’t going to allow myself to think my next ones.
Those being why Princes Bainon and Cormac were here now, since the Masque was still two days away, and Aleksei probably knew they were coming when we last spoke, but he didn’t tell me.
But if they were already in a meeting, at least that explained why he didn’t come to me after the last one.
“Yikes,” Cat said as she looked at her watch. “We need to get on that. Pre-dinner drinks are at six thirty, and it’ll take us an hour to walk there, but we only have ten minutes.”
I smiled at her, not feeling totally better about Aleksei and me, but it felt good to hammer it out with my gals.
And I did feel better, even if just a little bit.
Aleksei and I were new. We did have things in common. We were facing scary, unknown issues that we had no control over.
It didn’t excuse Aleksei getting cold and quarrelsome, but it explained it.
My gals were right.
I just needed to suck it up.
“Why were you reading about Aerin and Iphelia?” Monique asked, waving my tablet at me.
“That article came up in a search about how the True Heir would react to the vulnerability of his Bride,” I shared.
“Well, an epic fuck-fest is always fun,” Monique said on a grin, waggling her eyebrows. “But you two don’t need to plant the next beast in the burner just yet.”
I one hundred thousand percent wanted to give Aleksei babies.
I mean, little black-haired baby females and males?
Definitely.
But she was right.
Not just yet.
“And anyway,” Gayle put in, “Iphelia was a kickass warrior. No shade, babe, but you are not that. Your talents lie elsewhere. So her ‘vulnerability’ and yours are two different things.”
I felt no shade, seeing as she spoke truth.
“Okay, before we head out, I want updates on Bash,” I said this to Cat and shifted my attention to Gayle. “And Sirk.”
“Bash is still on,” Cat shared with a smug smile that turned wonky. “And I’m nervous. He’s escorting me to the Masque. So he’ll meet Dad.”
We all gave her understanding looks, because Mr. Truelock might be pressing Cat to get her life sorted (meaning, in demon dad terms, find a husband), but he was even more picky about the prospects than she was.
And it seemed Cat actually liked Bash.
It had been just over a month since she met him, and they were still together.
It wasn’t a record for Cat, but it was promising. Especially since he shared her love of art, fine dining, he was generous, he had an impressive credit line, and pedigree (the last two more important to Mr. Truelock than Cat), and reportedly, he was very good in bed.
“Sirk?” I asked Gayle.
“Okay,” she replied, throwing up her hands. “I’ll admit. I’m into him. I’ll also admit, he was comming, but he’s stopped, because I’ve planted us firmly in the friend zone.”
Another collective groan rang out.
“What gives with that?” Monique asked.
“He’s Aleksei’s best friend,” she explained.
“It’s very sweet you’d worry about that,” I told her. “But we’re all adults.”
“There was something…” she looked away.
“What?” Monique pushed.
She returned her attention to us. “When he got all pissed on my behalf when they took me in for questioning, it felt…” Her focus homed in on me. “I think it felt a little like what you feel for Aleksei.”
Oh my gods!
“Do you think he’s your mate?” I asked breathlessly.
“I know he’s not,” she replied, and my face fell, because she sounded sure of that. “And that’s just it. Feeling that little feeling I had when he was trying to protect me, watching you and Aleksei fall in love, I want that. I want my mate.” She squared her shoulders and announced, “So, I’ve decided, after this plot gets thwarted, I’m going on my quest.”
Whoa!
Awesome!
But wait.
“I did a lot of reading this afternoon, and it said sometimes fae don’t recognize their mates right from the jump,” I told her.
She nodded. “I know. You have to be open for it. And with Sirk, I’m so open for it. I’ve searched deep because I really like him. But he’s not the one.”
She lifted a hand our way to stop us speaking, because we all were about to say something, and continued.
“I want to go there. I’m attracted to him. I think he’d be great company.” She gave us a small smile that was a bit melancholy. “And he’d feed me well. But then, what if he finds his mate? What if I do? What if it doesn’t end well? We can’t have one of Laura’s best buds being weird around one of Aleksei’s best buds. We’re all in this for a lifetime. And it shouldn’t be weird.”