Cody made introductions. The redhead and the beauty were Sorcha and Anna, the female warriors Bree had told Shay about. Duncan was the one who resembled Faelan, and was in fact his descendent, as they all were.
“We thought you were still at the hospital,” Duncan told Shay. “Brodie forgot to leave his knife in the car, and we got chased by a security guard.”
“We ended up in the maternity wing and had to drag Brodie away,” Sorcha said. “He wanted to see the babies.”
“I like babies. What’s wrong with that?” Brodie grumbled.
Bree and Shay exchanged a knowing glance.
Sorcha pulled out a chair next to her. “No one’s sitting here, Cody.”
Shay wasn’t sure if the look Cody gave her was a plea for help or understanding.
“Better get food while there’s some left,” Bree said. Her plate was loaded with enough for two men. “We have bacon, sausage, eggs, biscuits, pancakes, doughnuts, and orange juice. Ronan went grocery shopping this morning.”
“A man’s gotta have meat,” Ronan said, holding a heaping plate.
“You’ll make some woman a good husband,” Shay said, taking a seat between him and Lachlan, which didn’t seem to please Cody.
“You proposing?” Ronan asked, grinning, “I hope you like long engagements. I have two more years of duty.”
“So?” Shay asked.
“Warriors can’t marry until they’ve finished their duty, according to clan law,” he said.
“There are clan laws about marriage?” Shay asked.
“Who a warrior marries is important to the clan,” Lachlan said, unusually sober. “I’m surprised Cody didn’t tell you that too. He told you everything else. Our mates are destined long before we’re born.”
Chapter 8
Shay’s stomach felt like a bag of rocks. “Your mates are destined?”
“You gonna talk all day or pass the food?” Cody asked.
Ronan grinned. “Hey, I may be getting a proposal here.”
“Won’t that put a kink in your sleeping habits?” Cody asked, pouring a glass of orange juice.
Ronan threw a biscuit at Cody. He snagged it and added it to his plate.
“Destined mates?” Shay repeated.
“Kind of like love at first sight,” Bree said, her green eyes softening as she gazed at Faelan. “But usually it happens after a warrior retires.”
Like Cody.
“Sometimes it happens before, but it doesn’t make the Council happy,” Lachlan said.
Brodie grabbed a piece of sausage as the plate passed him. “Does anything make the Council happy?”
“The mates have to be from one of the clans. They get a mate mark, something like Faelan’s.” Bree touched a round, jagged circle behind his ear, visible with his hair pulled back.
Shay glanced at Cody’s tattoo peeking out from under his hair. It was different from Faelan’s, larger, but were they all the same? Did it mean that somewhere out there was a woman destined to share Cody’s heart and his bed? Shay’s gaze swung to Sorcha, who was staring at Cody’s tattoo as well. She wasn’t married, and she was part of this clan. So was Anna. Did one of them bear a mate mark that Shay didn’t have?
“That’s an interesting place for a tattoo,” Sorcha said, running one red-tipped fingernail over Cody’s neck. Shay wanted to throw a biscuit at her, or maybe a fork. “I noticed it when you were in Scotland. Nice. Duncan has one there too.”
Duncan lowered his head and kept eating.
“Thanks. It’s just a tattoo,” Cody said. “We need to bring everyone up to date and figure out sleeping arrangements, now that we’re all here.”
Shay knew him well enough to recognize an evasion tactic. It was probably wishful thinking on her part to hope he just wanted Sorcha to stop touching him.
“I’ll sleep at Shay’s,” Ronan said.
“Over my dead body,” Cody declared, drawing several curious looks. He scowled. “I’m not even sure I want you sleeping next door.”
Ronan lifted an eyebrow. “What I meant was I’m sleeping wherever Faelan and Bree aren’t. You try sleeping in the room next to the honeymooners.”
Shay looked at Bree and Faelan, sharing passion-laced glances between bites of toast. Her own food was about as appealing as dirt. If Cody had a predestined mate, eventually he would find her, no matter what unresolved passion he and Shay shared. Jamie would find his mate too, and she would be alone, again.
“This is the only honeymoon I’ll get for a while,” Faelan said, digging into his breakfast.
“Well, have a little pity on the rest of us who’re sleeping alone,” Sorcha said, giving Cody a seductive glance. “Where’s Jamie?”
Duncan gave Sorcha a dark look but didn’t respond.
“Jamie’s sleeping. Matilda drugged him,” Lachlan said, forcing Cody to awkwardly explain that the women had been making a misguided matchmaking attempt and thought Jamie was in the way. He didn’t mention that it was to clear the way for him, but every eye was on the two of them.
“Maybe we need to recruit Matilda, if she can neutralize a warrior like Jamie,” Brodie said. “Have her slip the demons a sleeping pill.”
“Isn’t Jamie your boyfriend?” Sorcha asked.
“No,” Cody blurted out before Shay could shake her head.
“He used to be,” Lachlan said.
Cody frowned. “Anyone else think it’s odd how he watches Shay?”
Lachlan snorted, while Faelan and Ronan grinned.
“I find it interesting that Jamie wormed his way in here, claiming this table was shipped to him, when it’s obvious he’s obsessed with her,” Cody said.
“Are you saying Jamie could be her stalker?” Sorcha asked, slathering a blueberry muffin with butter. Shay doubted Sorcha worried about getting fat. Slaying demons probably melted off calories. “I thought the guy was blond.”
“I’m not accusing him, but we’ve got a mess of trouble and no one to blame. We shouldn’t rule out anyone.”
“He was injured,” Shay said. “You think he did that to himself?”
Cody shrugged. “Could have, if necessary.”
Lachlan broke off a piece of bacon and slipped it under the table. There was a soft meow. “Bro, I think you need more sleep.” He glanced at Shay. “Or something.”
“Have you got that cat under there?” Cody asked.
Shay lifted the edge if the tablecloth. The cat was sitting at Lachlan’s feet. “I thought you were going to call the Petersons.”
“I did. It’s not theirs,” Lachlan said. “Ronan’s going to take him to Montana if you don’t want him.”
“Go ahead,” Shay said to Ronan. She couldn’t take care of herself, much less a cat.
Sorcha raised an eyebrow at Ronan. “What are you going to do with a cat? You’re never home.”
“I’ll put him in the barn. I have someone watching the place.” He smiled at Shay. “Or we could share joint custody.”
“You’re not sharing anything with Shay,” Cody said. “Cat or otherwise.”
Ronan settled back in his chair, not bothering to hide his grin.
“You see what I have to put up with?” Faelan said to Cody.
“You live in Montana?” Shay asked Ronan.
Ronan nodded. “For now.”
“That’s where he goes when he gets sick of demons. And humans,” Brodie said. “He owns a mountain. It’s so isolated I doubt a demon could find it.”
“Think we could train the cat to be a guard cat?” Lachlan asked and then grew serious. “Whoever broke in, and it wasn’t Jamie, he knew how to avoid the cameras and get past the alarm.” That led to a discussion of the recent events with Shay’s stalker in Scotland and here.
“You think Jamie’s and Shay’s intruders are the same?” Duncan asked.
Lachlan swallowed his bite of egg and biscuit. “Shay’s was blond, but we thought there might have been another one in the woods. Jamie said there were three of them at his house, but he saw only two clearly, both brown-haired, average height, slim. Said they moved fast, hit him before he could even reach for his dagger.”