The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,33
She said no. I said no. Hell, even Tiger said no.”
“Good for you,” Jaycee said approvingly. “Dylan is always eager to recruit people, whether they like it or not. Well, we’re here for you, Rhianne. Whatever you need.”
“You are very kind,” Rhianne said sincerely. “And you’ve already lent me your clothes.”
“I can find you much better things than that. There’s a boutique on—”
Dimitri’s groan turned into a growl. “And we didn’t come here to go clothes shopping.”
“Again, why not?” Jaycee turned on him. “You are such a shit.”
“Yeah, but you love me, baby.”
Dimitri used to stutter, badly, but after he’d mated with Jaycee, the stutter had faded until it was now almost nonexistent, unless he grew agitated.
Rhianne turned to Ben. “I have had a wonderful day, but perhaps we should go back to the house. We are safe there?”
“Yep. No one goes into the house that the house doesn’t want there.” Ben rubbed his upper lip. “Including me sometimes.”
Rhianne’s brow furrowed in worry. “Do you believe it might not let me in?”
Ben slid his arm around her, trying not to get lost in the curve of her waist, the warmth of her body. “I think it likes you. And when it likes you, it will defend you to the death.”
Rhianne did not look reassured. “There is a way into the house from Faerie, though. We came through it. Can others?”
“No, sweetheart.” Ben tightened his embrace, pleased when she didn’t pull away. “It will keep them out.”
“An uninvited Fae did get through once,” Dimitri said. “The house took care of him. It wasn’t p-pretty. But the dude had had me beaten and thrown into a dungeon, so he kind of had it coming.”
He grimaced in memory, and Jaycee leaned closer to him. Dimitri calmed instantly, his face smoothing. Shifters could ease each other with a mere touch.
Ben realized he was watching the two in wistful envy and rose abruptly to his feet.
“Rhianne is right. We’re starting to push our luck. Let’s go back. You two coming with us?”
Dimitri leisurely stood and pulled Jaycee up with him. “Yeah, we were going to ask if we could crash at the house. It’s a long ride back to our compound. We’re from Texas,” Dimitri told Rhianne. “From the very flat, very dry, very empty part. Which is most of it.”
“Crash?” Rhianne accepted Ben’s hand to assist her to stand. “Why would you crash yourself into the house?”
Dimitri chortled. “It’s an idiom. It means sleep, flop, snooze, get some kip.”
Rhianne listened carefully. “I see.”
“English is a hell of a language,” Dimitri said. “I learned it when an American family adopted me. I was confused for the first few years I lived with them.”
“That hasn’t changed.” Jaycee wove her arms around him as he feigned offense at her quip.
Dimitri leaned to her, and Jaycee rose on tiptoe and kissed him. The darkness gave them relative privacy, not that human couples weren’t doing the same thing forty feet away.
Ben drew closer to Rhianne as Dimitri’s and Jaycee’s kiss went on. And on. Dimitri smoothed his hands over Jaycee’s hips, and she flowed up to him.
“They share the mate bond,” Ben said in Rhianne’s ear. “Have you heard of that? It’s a Shifter thing.”
“The mystical binding created by the Goddess found only by true mates.” Rhianne turned to Ben, her eyes flickering when she realized how close he stood to her. “It isn’t only a Shifter thing. Most creatures of Faerie can find it. Goblins included.”
Ben hadn’t heard that. “I’ve been out of Faerie for a thousand years, and I didn’t exactly have the chance to take a mate among my own people. I’ve thought once or twice that it might happen for me, but no.”
He recalled how he’d believed the mate bond had been forming between him and a Shifter woman, and his disappointment when he’d discovered he was mistaken. He hadn’t minded all that much—Kenzie had found great happiness with her gruff mate, Bowman—but he’d concluded that perhaps goblins couldn’t form it at all.
Rhianne slowly lifted her hand and placed it on his chest. Her fingertips stirred tingles in his blood, and a painful dart of longing lanced his heart.
“I believe it will happen for you, Ben.” Rhianne’s whisper was soft in the warm darkness. “You are a champion.”
She said the last words in Tuil Erdannan, ones he knew. Champion for the Fae was the highest honor, a person who would sacrifice themselves without hesitation to save others from harm.