Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121389 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Payal blinked once. “In DarkRiver territory?”
“Exactly so.” Ena slipped on a light evening coat of a soft camel hue over her tunic of rich brown and simple flowing pants of the same, the heirloom ruby pendant she always wore a familiar weight against her upper abdomen. “Lucas Hunter’s pack is known to have Psy and human members, so it may not be a changeling.”
She slipped her hands into the pockets of her coat. “If it is … Well, I didn’t expect Valentin, either”—a truly vast understatement—“and next month I am to stay in the bear den for a weekend.” Ena often wondered if her grandchildren had conspired to unsettle her in her later years.
“Talking of unexpected things,” she said, “how are the wedding plans progressing? Canto mentioned musicians.”
Payal’s smile was a stunning dawn. “Traditional tabla players,” she said, motioning with her hands to indicate flat drums. “They’ll announce Canto’s entrance into the wedding venue.”
Yes, Ena’s grandchildren were making her later years interesting to say the least.
“Are you and Magdalene still available for wedding lehenga shopping?” Payal asked, her tone even.
But Ena sensed the need within this woman who’d grown up in a pit of vipers. Unlike with Ena’s clan, family had never been a safe place for Payal. She hadn’t yet internalized what it meant to be embraced as an honorary Mercant—including the loyalty that came by default.
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Ena said. “Has Magdalene shared her portfolio of color scheme combinations for your wedding décor?”
Payal’s eyes widened. “No.”
“Ah, I may have jumped the gun. Do act surprised when she presents her gift. And know that it is given without any expectation that you will utilize one of her schemes. She just wishes to be involved.”
Though Canto had long forgiven his mother for the inadvertent part she’d played in his ugly childhood, Ena knew that Magdalene continued to carry a knot of guilt deep within. It was Ena’s hope that seeing Canto so happy with Payal would soften that terrible knot in her daughter.
“Do you believe she’d wish to take over the general planning?” Payal asked with a gentleness not many people ever saw in the tough CEO. “Canto and I would remain involved, but it’d take the heavy administration off our shoulders.”
“I think she would find it an honor to be asked,” Ena said to this woman with a capacity for empathy so strong that it had survived the evil toxicity of her childhood.
“I will reach out to her.” Payal glanced at her timepiece. “It’s time.”
When Ena indicated she was ready for the teleport, Payal put a hand on her shoulder. A moment of spatial disorientation before Ena found herself standing under the spreading branches of a huge tree, the sky streaked with the golds and oranges of early evening in this part of the world, and the ground littered with leaf debris.
More trees surrounded them on every side, though there was plenty of space between their aged trunks, the entire area warm with the diffuse light that rained down through the canopy.
Ivan had told her the provided teleport lock would bring her to a spot on the very edge of DarkRiver’s forested territory—it was a complicated emblem that hung from the branch of the nearest tree that created the teleport point. Take that away and this was just another patch of forest indistinguishable from thousands of others.
Ena took no insult in not being invited into the inner sanctum. This was a new mating, Ivan’s welcome in the pack currently an unknown to Ena. The bears had “stolen” Silver with joyful glee, then opened their entire pack to the Mercants, calling them family.
Leopards were not bears, however, Lucas Hunter a very different alpha from Valentin Nikolaev. The leopard alpha reminded her an unusual amount of members of her own family. It was the glint in the eye, the sense of things prowling beneath the surface.
A stir in the trees, Ivan striding out hand in hand with a tall woman with dark hair that was pulled off her face by two simple combs, her lovely oval face marked by a scar on one side. She carried the scar with comfort, the warmth of her eyes and the depth of her smile the most striking things about her.
Ena was struck by a perplexing moment of familiarity.
“Grandmother, thank you for coming,” Ivan said. “Payal, it’s good to see you again.”
“I look forward to many such meetings,” Payal said, then nodded a greeting to the woman at Ivan’s side. “With both of you. I’ll leave you now so you can converse privately with Grandmother.” She teleported out, having already telepathed Ena that she’d return as soon as Ena wished to go back home.
Ivan met Ena’s gaze with the impenetrable paleness of his own before turning to his mate. “Soleil, this is my grandmother.”
“I’ve been waiting for this moment since Ivan first told me about you,” Soleil said. “I’m so happy to meet you, Grandmother.” Open admiration and warmth in her expression, not a single shield or self-protective instinct in sight.