A Hippogriff for Christmas - Zoe Chant Page 0,52

later, so you’ll have that in common.”

The thought warmed Annie’s heart. If nothing else, she decided, she’d get through this simply so she could have some of her more pressing questions answered.

“Other shifters will be able to sense you’re my mate, just like Declan could,” Beau continued as they approached the doors. “So we shouldn’t have any questions. But if we do, just let me handle it. Some shifters can be… well, let’s just say they tend to think of shifters as being a bit superior to humans. Try not to let it bother you.” He shot her an apologetic glance.

Annie nodded, understanding what he meant. It wouldn’t be a smart move to draw any more attention to themselves now than was absolutely necessary.

As they got close to the door, a massive security guard materialized out of the shadows that surrounded it. Annie could barely hold back a gasp as she looked at him – she’d never seen such a massive man before. He wasn’t only tall, but he was broad as well, his neck thick with muscles and his chest looked wider across than she was tall.

Despite his size, Annie noticed there was a holster by his side, a gun inside it. It seemed unlikely a man like him could need something like that, but, Annie supposed, if this place was really all that it seemed, security couldn’t be too careful.

“Here for the event?” the security guard asked, his voice a deep bass rumble.

Beau nodded, and Annie tried not to hold her breath.

Pete had told them that there was no password – just knowing about the event was enough to get you inside. But now that they were here, Annie wasn’t sure how far they should trust him.

The security guard’s inscrutable gaze flicked from Beau to Annie, as if assessing them – or sizing them up. Not that Annie would have been able to do much even against this guy’s little toe, and she thought even Beau, for all his height and brawn, would probably have trouble with him.

But after a moment, he simply nodded his head, stepping aside.

“Well, go on in then.”

Annie swallowed, before forcing herself to smile. “Thanks.”

Just act like you belong here, she told herself as the massive doors swung open. Ninety-nine percent of anything is just confidence.

That was what her foster father – the one who’d taught her to play poker – had once said, but Annie hadn’t really remembered it until now. But she recalled the way he’d told her he’d talked his way into any number of tournaments simply by having the confidence to believe he belonged there. Sure, Annie suspected that he had been a conman beyond his issues with the IRS, but that didn’t mean that everything he’d told her had been bullshit, did it?!

Squaring her shoulders, Annie raised her chin and stepped through the doors, into the most opulent entryway she’d ever seen in her life.

The glass ceiling seemed somehow to float above them, buttressed only with one or two dark stone supports hung with crystal chandeliers so delicate they looked like a mass of water droplets suspended in midair. The hardwood floors were covered with dark, expensive-looking rugs, and the sound of refined laughter could be heard from the vast room ahead of them.

“Can I take your coat, Madame?”

Annie had been too busy glancing around her and trying not to stare in open-mouthed amazement at the vast wealth on display that she hadn’t noticed the woman arrive by her side until her voice sounded in her ear.

“Yes, please,” she managed to get out, slipping the coat from her shoulders with as much elegance as she could muster, the woman taking it from her hands as she did so.

Annie glanced at Beau, but he didn’t seem fazed at all – maybe seeing this was something he was used to, or else he was professional enough that it was simply impossible to tell. Either way, he looked like he belonged here: he carried himself with a kind of quiet strength and confidence that would have looked at home literally anywhere. It was one of the things she’d first noticed about him and been attracted to. Beau was tall, muscular, and broad, but he didn’t carry himself with the kind of over-the-top machismo a lot of those kinds of men did. Instead, he seemed simply effortlessly masculine in a way that came with true confidence, rather than trying to compensate for something.

“Welcome to ladies’ night,” the woman continued smoothly as she made