“Do not begrudge your lifemate his duty. Better if you ensure that it is a duty he need not be burdened with very often.”
Excellent advice she intended taking to heart.
Her mother had some advice of her own to impart later that day. “Now that you’ve grown up, Shani, try keeping a lid on your newfound courage. A lack of fear comes in handy on occasion, but it can also get you into the damnedest predicaments.”
Shanelle just stared at her. “What courage?”
“The courage that stands up to your lifemate, quite frequently, I hear. The courage that socked that Sunderian witch on her ass-”
“Did Brock tell you about that?”
“No, Martha did. She was quite proud of you, actually.”
“Martha did,” Shanelle repeated with a frown. “You mean Martha was there! She could have- Martha!” Shanelle exploded. “You misbegotten metal-!”
“Take it easy, baby. You were found, remember. There wasn’t anything else Martha could do at that point except let matters take their natural course. I understand you weren’t complaining about it on the way home.”
“That’s beside the point.”
“No, that’s exactly the point. Martha usually knows what’s best for you, whether you think so at the time. I’ve learned that firsthand over the years, to my own exasperation. She allowed your father to claim me when she could have prevented it, because she knew he was what I was missing in my life. Well, she allowed Falon to find you because she knew your fears had to be faced before you believed they could be faced.”
“And was I right or was I right?” Martha purred from Tedra’s waist.
“Oh, shut up.”
And then Shanelle’s fembair wandered into the hall that evening and had warriors leaping to their feet and drawing swords. Shanelle had to quickly assure everyone that he was a pet and not to be confused with wild fembairi. Drevan was fascinated and, with a child’s lack of caution, was the first to approach the animal to pet him. The boy didn’t know it, but he gained the respect of quite a few warriors by doing so.
Shanelle joined them to say, “He likes to be scratched behind the ears.”
Drevan looked at her, then quickly away. “I-I thought you would not speak to me again.”
“Why on Sha-Ka’an would you think that?” Shanelle asked in surprise.
Drevan looked positively miserable. “I sent for your lifemate when you went to fight my mother. I have seen her fight. I had not seen you fight. I feared she would do you serious harm.”
“It’s all right, Drevan, I understand.”
“It is not all right. Everyone could hear your screams after.”
Shanelle’s face burst into heat. “Well, I’m not surprised,” she tried to joke. “You should have heard it from my vantage point. I’m not sure, but I think I broke my ears.” He gave her a stricken look. She sighed. “Really, Drevan, it’s okay. I shouldn’t have let your mother goad me into losing my temper, and Falon was just making sure I’d think twice about it the next time. I might not have appreciated it at the time, but I knew it was only done for my own good. And I’m not mad at him any longer, so why should I be mad at you?”
“Truly?”
“Absolutely.” She grinned.
He smiled back at her before he said, “Then I would tell you, my mother, she has been looking at me very strangely since the fight, as if she does not know me.”
“She doesn’t know you, Drevan, but maybe something I said to her actually sunk in.” And then she asked carefully, “Would you like her to get to know you? She owes me a challenge loss, and I’ve got nothing better to do with it.”
He shook his head. “I would not force an interest on her that is not there.”
“Could be it’s there now. But you’re right. Forcing the matter wouldn’t count for much.” She grimaced, adding, “Of course, that puts me back, to wondering what I can demand of her for her loss. Knowing me, I’ll probably just settle for an apology and leave it go at that.”
“You are much more merciful than I would have been,” Aurelet said behind them.
Shanelle turned with a raised brow. “Oh, I don’t know. Some people find apologies almost impossible to get out.”
“That is true, yet have I come to say I am sorry. Your mother has assured me that you could have done me serious damage with or without a sword. She also said she would ‘wipe the floor’ with me if I ever ‘bad-mouthed’ either of you again. I was not sure what that meant, yet was it unnecessary. I am able to learn from my mistakes.”
“Are you?”
Aurelet was staring at Drevan when she replied.
“Yes. I would like a word with my son, if you do not mind.”
“Sure.”
As Shanelle walked away, she noted Drevan’s surprise at hearing himself called “son” by that woman. She couldn’t begin to guess what might come of Aurelet’s newfound awareness of Drevan as an individual, rather than as an extension of the man who had long ago hurt her. Nothing, probably, but you just never knew. Children were much more forgiving than adults.
Chapter 44
It was late when Shanelle finished with her bath and entered the bedroom to find Falon there waiting for her. He was already in bed, a muted glow from the gaali-stone shelves on each wall showing him watching her. She was wearing a two-piece sleep suit of softest Morrilia silk. He lifted a brow at this, for it was the first time she had come to bed other than naked.
“Do you mean to sleep in that, Shanelle?”
“That was my intention, yes.”
“I think not,” he replied, adding with a wolfish grin, “yet you are welcome to try.”
The familiar taunt made her snap, “I just might do that, warrior.”
He sighed. “So you are still angry with me? I will not touch you, if that is your wish.”
“That isn’t my wish,” she said in exasperation.
“And I wasn’t angry when I came in here, but you sure make it easy to get that way.”
She moved to her side of the bed and shrugged out of the sleep suit, then quickly tried to get beneath the covers. She wasn’t quick enough, not when his blue eyes were so intent on her. She heard him draw in a sharp breath, and then she was being rolled onto her stomach.
“Now do I see that you merely meant to spare me from knowing the results of my handiwork.”
His tone was filled with self-loathing, forcing Shanelle to assure him, “It’s not as bad as it-” She stopped as she was lifted into his arms and Falon started from the room. “Where are you taking me?”
When he didn’t answer, she trusted him enough not to ask again. And then she found out as he entered a room and she glanced back to see the meditech stored there. She was amazed to find herself laid in it.
“I don’t understand, Falon.”
He bent down to kiss her gently before he closed the lid, again without answering. A minute later gently the meditech opened by itself, the last effects of her punishment now gone. Falon lifted her out and started back toward their rooms. Shanelle wrapped her arms around his neck, well pleased with her warrior at the moment.
“I guess you changed your mind, huh?” she said, grinning up at him.
“A warrior could wish the skin of his lifemate was not so delicate.”
He gave a long-suffering sigh, as if she had managed on purpose to have skin that bruised easily, just to thwart him. Shaneile chuckled and squeezed his neck a little tighter.
“It really wasn’t so bad,” she told him. “By this evening I’d even stopped flinching when I sat down.”
“You think to assure me you can withstand future punishments? This is already known to me, kerima, in closely observing you this rising. Merely will you go straight from the crying to the meditech next time, before your bruises appear.”
“Why, you farden jerk.” She hit his shoulder even as she laughed. “You’re all heart.”
“You would prefer it did I speak to your brother?”