into the pale stone decor setting. I couldn’t believe this was my life sometimes. The old Maya… well, she would never have even known any of this stuff existed, let alone every thought to experience it.
“I love this restaurant,” I admitted, looking at the garden.
“We could do an indoor garden like this at the house,” Henry offered, running a hand over my thigh as Marco put his arm around the back of my pale pink chair. “Like a green room.”
“Really?” I blinked up at him, smiling.
“Anything you want,” Marco confirmed, his eyes tracking my expression as I softened between the two of them, making me feel a flush of heat at the fact that they truly felt that way.
Before I could respond, feminine, light laughter filled the space, and my stomach dropped. The council had arrived.
3
Henry
I hadn’t thought it was possible for my hatred regarding the council and its members to grow more than it already had in the past few years. Frankly, with the exception of Lucas, I would be perfectly thrilled if the council as an entirety was removed from existence. They didn’t serve a useful purpose except to rule over those that had chosen to leave the Dreki realm and escape such a toxic environment, but until now they had been an annoying pest that we chose to tolerate. After all, Marco had only joined to make sure that it was a level playing field when it came to dominance upon our arrival.
But now with their attempted interference in our life and our mate’s, they were verging on becoming something far worse. I didn’t think any of them realized just how much of an enemy they risked creating of us if they continued to poke and prod into business that didn’t fucking concern them in the least. They were much safer keeping to their small, self-centered universes. Unfortunately, knowing their personalities, they wouldn’t be able to resist causing a problem.
Anna was a vile, manipulative liar.
Edmund was a cold, egotistical bastard.
Larry was a self-serving narcissistic piece of shit.
All of those were fair reasons to dislike them. But what really got me? The way that Maya’s spine straightened immediately upon hearing their arrival. The way the soft, sweet excitement on her face regarding the concept of a greenhouse faded as she watched the group approaching with a level of caution that had my hatred growing exponentially. Everything about that, about her reaction, was wrong. So wrong.
Maya shouldn’t ever be made to feel anything but happiness, contentment, or desire. It was bullshit that we had to sit through this brunch to begin with since we knew that they would open the portal, so the only thing this was doing was making her uncomfortable, and they no doubt knew it. My hand tightened on her thigh, wishing that I was being tortured by the sweet smell of her lust rather than the uncomfortable sense of caution that seemed to surround her.
It didn’t help that I knew the real reason for this ridiculous brunch was to push further at the concept of Maya meeting with other flights about being their mate. Something that would only happen over my very literal dead body. Maya was absolutely ours, and I would rather claim her now than deal with any misconception of that. My jaw clenched as I considered the other flights that she would meet upon arriving in the Dreki realm. The ones last night had been distant and rather polite, but I didn’t trust bolder factions of our community to act similarly.
I also was positive the council was curious why we wanted to return, even briefly, in the first place. We had kept the appointment we made with the royal physician a secret, not informing her why exactly we wanted to meet, just that it was important. It was funny, because no one had yet to demand a reason for us going back yet despite the fact that I knew without a doubt that they were extremely curious.
A small rumble escaped my throat as Maya sank against my side, her gold eyes flashing up to mine as I realized that they truly had shifted in color. The brown that had been so apparent before was streaked with a metallic gold that shone like her skin, which seemed to glint in the morning sunlight, almost creating the illusion that golden specs of dust were embedded in her soft complexion. It was absolutely stunning and somewhat overwhelming, if we were being honest. Sometimes the woman