King Cave (32 page)

Again with the whispered breath against my ear. “Is that what it’s called nowadays?”

I snorted before I could stop it, then quickly coughed. “Brunch, as in lots of plates full of yummy treats.” I paused, but quickly added, just in case he came up with something raunchy for that, “Food. Substance.” I slapped at his hand as it started to brush up my arm. “I’d rather see you on the mat than have you groping at me.” And yes, I said it loudly, just in case Ezra was listening. Although, I wasn’t quite sure why. “Let’s do this once more so I can go eat.”

Elder Merrick chuckled, sneaking in a quick kiss against my sweaty, disgusting neck — served him right — before he slapped my ass, saying, “Then do it.”

I rubbed my forehead. “You’re a pain in what you just inappropriately touched.”

“That position is one of my favorites if you would care to find out.”

I blinked. “Huh?”

He laughed gravelly, murmuring, “Innocence is for the young, Ms Ruckler. Branch out a little.”

I had no clue what he was talking about. “Whatever.” I threw a scowl over my shoulder. “Can I hurt you now?”

“Now you’re getting the idea.”

“You talk in riddles,” I muttered, then jumped, giving him no notice. I tucked, rotating in the air, then reached out and gripped his neck as I started to descend behind him. I shoved down hard as I untucked, the act where I would jerk an enemy’s head clean off. I landed beautifully on my feet as he thumped hard on the mats below me.

He grunted, grabbing at his ear. He blinked. Gave his ear another tug. “Cahal taught him well.” A slow grin up at me. “Your escort is much less innocent than you, Ms Ruckler.”

My gaze shot to Ezra. I saw the glow swiftly diminish from his eyes, returning them to their normal stunning green. My lips pinched, realizing he had used an old form of Vampire communication to say something to Elder Merrick during my take-down. My gaze moved to the intended recipient as he jumped to his feet. “I took you down fair and square.” I wasn’t about to let Ezra’s distraction say otherwise.

“You did.” Elder Merrick rubbed his neck. “A bit too hard, really.”

I nodded once.
Truth
. “See you tomorrow.”

He waved absently, popping his neck, and I went to where Ezra was sitting on the bleachers, next to my bag. He was reclined with his arms on the seat behind him, watching me move toward him. His gaze was guarded, even though his lips were lifted in a predatory way. I grabbed my bag, tossing him a dirty look, and pulled a sweatshirt out along with a water bottle.

Quietly, he murmured, “I didn’t say anything until he was already on his back.”

My hands stalled. “Promise?”

“Yes.”

I nodded, glancing at him as I pulled the sweatshirt on. “What did you say?”

He grinned, his fangs slightly lowered. “Nothing too bad.”

Yeah, right.
“Just be careful.”

“Always,” he whispered, eyes moving around the room and not staying anywhere in particular as I began guzzling my water. “So, my dad.” He cleared his throat. “Well anyway, he stopped by the kitchen this morning and asked if I’d join him and my mom for lunch. I told him I had plans already for brunch…”

I blinked, watching as his eyes flittered everywhere but me. “It’s alright if you’re cancelling. I can just meet with King Fergus earlier.”

His eyes did meet mine then. With a bit of irritation. “You’re still going to meet with him?”

My eyebrows rose, but I whispered, “He’s lonely. I was lonely. We’ve become…friends, I guess. I’m not going to leave him hanging when he needs someone.” I shrugged, drinking from my water bottle again. “Plus, it’s fun.”

His lips pinched, but he didn’t say anything further about King Fergus. “I wasn’t cancelling our brunch.” His fingers tapped on the bleacher. “My dad asked who I had plans with,” he paused, clearing his throat, “and I told him you.” Another pause. “He somehow manipulated the situation to where he and my mom are now joining us.”

I stared. “You didn’t.”

“Not on purpose,” he groused, sitting forward and rubbing his neck. “He got the better of me.”

Goddamn Cahal and his wily ways.
“Well,” I guzzled the rest of my water, “I think I’m not feeling well.”

Ezra shook his head. “Don’t try to back out. It’ll only arouse his suspicion more.”

I groaned, chucking the empty water bottle into my bag, which I then zipped up. “I’m all disgusting and stinky. If I’m going to,”
Christ
, “have a meal with your parents, I would prefer to be clean.” I paused. “And possibly drunk.”

He glanced at his watch. “No time for either.” He stood, grabbing my bag and tossing it over his shoulder. “We’re meeting them in ten minutes.”

“Perfect,” I mumbled, walking with him as I tried to fix my ponytail, half my hair wet from sweat. “Maybe I’ll stink them out.”

He chuckled. “Vampires, sweetheart. Not Shifters.”

“Any clue why he wanted to have lunch with you?”

He peered at me, eyes roaming my face. “Just to have lunch.”

“Oh.” I glanced forward. It had been so long since a parent figure wanted to have a meal with me just for the mutual pleasure of it that I had forgotten families actually did that. “Right.”

I could still feel his eyes on me as we wound through the Mysticals, who were watching us warily since we weren’t arguing, and he finally asked, “Did you and your mom have a favorite place to eat?”

My smile was soft. The hurt of her death was no longer unbearable. “At home. She loved to cook.” My grin increased, memories invading. “She used to slap at Antonio’s hands when he tried getting to the food before it was ready.” I chuckled. “I remember a few times when he chased her around the kitchen while she held a bowl of cookie dough like it was a football. She would always threaten to beat him over the head with her skillet when it got to that point.”

“Sounds nice,” he murmured, standing close to me when the walkway became too crowded. “We ate out a lot since my mom could burn water she was so awful at cooking. Our favorite place was this little Italian restaurant with the most hideous red décor, but the food was amazing. We’d go there every Wednesday night for family night, no matter our schedules.”

I blinked. “Is it Wednesday?” Time had blurred here, days becoming weeks as we waited, at the brink of war, in this sanctuary.

“I don’t know,” he said absently. A pause. “We should get a calendar so we’re not oblivious.”

I nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly as we paused before the dining hall’s doors. “Show time.”

Ezra grunted and then inhaled deeply, opening the door for me.

It was deja vu all over again as the place went quiet when we entered. Ezra and I ignored them the best we could as we peered around the dining hall. Leave it to a scary-ass mom to embarrass her son fully by shouting from the far corner, “Ezra, dear!” She waved grandly. “We’re over here!”

My lips pinched in an effort not to laugh as Ezra sighed, giving her a little wave as everyone’s heads flew back and forth between mom and son, watching. He pointed at the buffet, and herded me in that direction, just as we heard his mom state loudly and gruffly to the
entire
packed dining hall, “Show’s over, people. Eat your damn food and quit gawking.”

A chuckle did escape me as Ezra sighed again, rubbing his face, cheeks pink. “Aw, she loves you.”

“Damn embarrassing,” he muttered, grabbing two plates. “I’ll never hear the end of it from the Vamps.”

I snorted, and whispered as the dining hall began to resonate with quiet chatter, “Just threaten to invite your mom to their gatherings and they’ll shut up.”

Ezra hummed as I picked up two plates. “Not a bad idea.”

Sitting at their table with our trays loaded with plates and drinks, Ezra and I politely ignored the way his parents eyed our food. It was the usual wide-eyed expression most adults had at seeing our normal intake of yummy grub. Although, they didn’t seem surprised by Ezra’s — their gazes pretty much stuck to my tray, which held just as much as his. In their silence, we did our normal: set the desserts between us, eyed each other’s food to see what the other had gotten — just in case we had missed the other sneaking in something extra tasty — then pretty much reached over each other to snag items we really wanted…because it never failed that someone else’s food looked better than your own.

Grass…greener…yada, yada.

But I was proud I remembered to place my napkin on my lap. I wasn’t one to go without manners, so I carefully stuffed my mouth full of sausage drenched in syrup from Ezra’s plate.
God, that was good.
Okay, maybe a little moan escaped as I forked another one, even as he nabbed a few strawberries off my plate.

But he did the unthinkable. He tried to take my strawberry jam packet. I growled, my wolf taking voice, slapping his hand. “Mine.”

His eyes narrowed, and he slowly took the banana pudding from its place between us. He held it far away, my eyes avidly on it. “Then this is mine, since I got it.” His head tilted toward the buffet, slowly grinning, his eyes still slitted. “And I got the last one.”

My hand fisted on the strawberry packet, lips pinched, the smell of bananas wafting toward me. “Fine, I’ll split the jam.” My other hand reached for the pudding, fingers waggling.

“Thank you,” he nodded, setting the banana pudding between our trays again. “Jam, please.”

I grumbled, but handed it over, watching him closely as he picked up his knife, positioning it over the opened packet. “Nope.” My finger flicked. “To the right a little.”

He gave me a cross look. “This is half.” And he sliced into it.

No, it wasn’t.

I waited a moment, then stole his knife with the jam on it. “My half.” I grabbed my toast before he could argue, spreading the jam. I bit into it, grinning around my bite. “And it’s good.”

He growled, his predator ticked, but grabbed his knife back and spread his jam on his bread.

Vivian cleared her throat, and we both jolted in our chairs, our attention snapping to her. Again, we had forgotten about the people sitting with us. I wasn’t sure if it was a food thing, but Ezra and I were making a very bad habit of this. His parents were both resting back in their chairs, staring.

Stupidly, I mumbled, “We like food.”

“I don’t believe that escaped our attention,” Cahal stated dryly.

“You would think they hadn’t eaten in weeks,” Vivian murmured absently.

Ezra cleared his throat and picked up a cup of hot chocolate, holding it out to her. “I got this for you.”

I stared at the wafting steam rising off it, the scent of creamy chocolate — my hot chocolate I had asked him to grab for me — filling my nostrils as he tried to give it away.

“Dear, I think you had better put that back down,” Vivian stated quietly.

“Shit,” Ezra mumbled, my attention avidly on my drink as he set it back on his tray and grabbed the cup of steaming tea next to it, holding it out to her. “I meant this one.”

Covertly, I lifted my hot chocolate off his plate, putting it on the far side of my tray so he wouldn’t try again to give away what was mine, as Vivian took the tea, saying, “Thank you. Although, I am surprised you thought of me during your raid of the buffet.”

“Was there anything left?” Cahal drawled.

“Give us a break, Dad,” Ezra grumbled. “You were young once.”

Cahal chuckled. “It feels like forever ago.”

Ezra grinned, grabbing his coffee off my plate. “It was.”

Vivian smiled at Cahal. “Wide open.”

I glanced at each of them while chewing my waffle — my mouth closed. They were one of
those
families. The cutesy kind. All smiles and love.

There had been plenty of smiles and laughter in my family, too, but there had also been an underlying caution. We were always watchful. A bit wary of those around us, at all times. Even at our dinners we would always have half our attention on the front door as we joked with one another.

Cahal caught me staring, his eyes quickly assessing. “So, Ms Ruckler,”
too late to glance away, dammit
, “we know scarcely anything about you. What can you tell us about yourself?”

Hardly anything.
I pointed at my chewing mouth. Stalling. Organizing my thoughts, I wiped my mouth and took a few swigs of my coffee, then stated, “You know Antonio and my mom, Angela Springs, raised me. After Antonio left, my mom passed away, and my uncle,” Ezra growled a bit, “took over my guardianship until King Kincaid took over that duty. I was mated to Dominic Kincaid before he was murdered. His power went to me at his death, and I became the Prodigy Shifter. The rest you pretty much know from there.”

My head tilted. “I also love to read for pleasure, my original degree being in Creative Writing before I was put on the fast track to graduate in Political Science. I enjoy the outdoors as long as it’s not snowing. Hate materialistic items unless they serve a valid purpose, although, I have a secret passion for tattoos,” I whispered, “They’re hot.” I cleared my throat, moving on, “I’m an extremely skilled driver. Need a getaway driver and I’m your gal. I’ll pick a romantic movie over an action flick any day, but give me a great comedy and it’ll be a toss-up…unless it’s cartoons, in which case, reverse everything I just said. I don’t agree with rules that hold no meaning except for ‘they just are’. I loved my mom, and amazingly, I still love Antonio. Also, my favorite food is ice-cream.”