He caught sight of Niamh across the way, exiting her house in black pants and a black T-shirt, a small hat with a black veil pulled down in front of her face. She looked like she was headed to a funeral.
When she reached him, she said, “Well, what’s the craic?”
“Not a thing. I see you dressed for the occasion.”
“That bollocks is thick if he thinks I’ll dress how he says.”
“I did it for Jess and Jimmy. This is apparently what people wear at Easter parties.”
“What is the deal with the Easter Bunny, do ye suppose?” She headed for the side gate leading to the backyard, where the house crew had fanned out.
“What do you mean?
“Well…it’s a bunny that secretly lays eggs. Is it some sort of science experiment gone wrong, or have we gotten the laws of nature wrong, and the proof is in the mutant bunny?”
He laughed, the decorative gravel along the side of the house crunching under his feet.
“Jessie is goin’ta be a puddle of sad when the boy leaves.” Niamh slowed as they reached the grass. “She almost seems…softer when he’s around.”
Jess stood in the center of the bright green grass, dressed in a cream summer dress flowing in the breeze, two little straps clinging to her shoulders and the bodice hugging her torso. Golden light glinted off her shoulder-length brown hair, and she had a hand perched over her eyes, shading her beautiful face from the sun. Her smile lit up the yard, outshining the bright pops of fragrant flowers hugging the grass.
“Her softness seems to make yer personality a wee bit harder, no?” Niamh said.
“I hadn’t noticed her being softer, just happier. And no, it doesn’t make my personality harder.” He gritted his teeth, trying not to complain about his job. Then, because they were technically in Jess’s territory and he wasn’t the alpha here, he just admitted it: “Having to ask my brother for help with defense makes me want to scrap the whole alpha thing and go back to my old life, where I had very little responsibility.”
“Ye were wasted in your old life. Look, it’s a load of shite right now, with all these people creating hassle, but as soon as you get a few capable people in yer top tier, it’ll take the load off. I think yer just about to turn the corner, so I do.”
He really hoped she was right. Because he was about to face his successful, good-at-everything, stable older brother, and Austin didn’t have much to show for himself. He wondered how long it would take before he got the disappointed look he remembered so vividly from his youth.
“Who died?” Mr. Tom asked Niamh as they neared the tent setup on the lawn, fluffy pastries and square-cut cheeses laid out on a tray. “Couldn’t be your good mood. That has been dead since I’ve known you.”
“Yer sense of humor died, actually,” she replied. “May it rest in peace.”
“Hey!” Jess turned, her eyes sparkling with merriment. Austin stared for a moment, unable to help himself, lost in that glittering smile. “I didn’t know Mr. Tom invited you. I see you put on your garden attire.”
“Hey, alpha.” Ulric walked up with a fuchsia plastic egg in his hand, no shoes on his feet, and a sense of ease that Austin admired. “Good of you to join. We’ve just about found all of the eggs, but there might be one or two more if you want to help? At first we weren’t allowed to help, but Mr. Tom got a little too creative when he was hiding them, so Jimmy had to call in aid.”
“Yeah, sure.” Austin shrugged, falling in beside Jess, his arm brushing against hers.
“Only you could make that outfit look good,” she said softly as they strolled across the grass, eyes down but neither of them really looking.
“What do you like best? The nearly see-through pants?”
She laughed, hooking her arm through his, sending shivers racing across his skin. “I think the shirt that screams ‘I’m a nice boy’ really does it for you.”
He let himself smile, something he could no longer do outside of this property. “I’m just hoping to throw people off the scent.”
“Make them think you’re nice and then offer them a beat-down?”
“Works every time.”
They stopped at the flowers near the woods, and she leaned around to look at him. Their gazes locked for a moment, and his world spun.
“A deeper blue would really suit you,” she said. He turned so they fully faced each other, their bodies close. “It would bring out your eyes.”
Unable to help himself, he reached up and traced his thumb across her full bottom lip.
“When you became alpha, was it forever?” she asked, so softly that he had to strain to hear.
“Being an alpha is never forever. It is until someone tears you out of your position, sometimes taking your life to do so.”
“So if you don’t like being alpha, you could just step down?”
He trailed his fingertips along her jaw before skimming them down her throat, running the pads of his fingers over her jugular. A shifter would only allow someone they trusted implicitly to touch so vulnerable a place. She didn’t know that, of course, but his body responded like she did know, hard in some places and languid in others, savoring the touch. The heat of her skin.
“No, it’s not that simple. I couldn’t just let someone else challenge me and take it, either. In becoming alpha, I’ve drawn people to the area, violent people, who need a strong hand to lead them. I’ve bought businesses and am helping others flourish. If I were to pull out, or allow someone unworthy to take my place, it would have negative effects on the community. It would hurt the territory and, most importantly, the people living here. I’m in it too far now to responsibly back away. Which is starting to chafe at present. No one told me the growing pains of starting a new territory would be so…arduous.”
“Uh-oh, you’re bringing out the thesaurus. You must be getting diplomatic on me.”
“Can you guys stop gazing into each other’s eyes and help me?” Jimmy threaded through the flowers at the edge of the wood. “This is way harder than when I was a kid.”
“Oops, Master Timmy, no.” Edgar jogged to the edge of the grass.
“It’s still Jimmy, bro,” Jimmy said dryly, moving on. “Just like yesterday, and the day before. Do vampires have terrible memories?”
“It has nothing to do with the memory,” Niamh said, hunting around the edge of the hedge labyrinth off to the right. “That one is just Froot Loops.”
“I really don’t think he’d hide anything in the flowers, Master Jimmy.” Edgar leaned over the flurry of color, his flower design like a flower fairy had drunk too much, stumbled to the area, and thrown up all her seeds in one go.
“Ah-ha!” Jimmy reached down and plucked a pastel purple egg out of the flowers. “Got it.”
Edgar’s brow lowered. “I’ll need to have a word with Mr. Tom about that next year. My flowers are not the correct place for fun and games. They are prizewinning flowers, and they should be treated as such.” Still grumbling, he wandered away.
Jess gave Austin an apologetic smile and turned, back to scanning the ground.
“Are you having second thoughts about this place?” Austin asked quietly, keeping pace. He could smell Mr. Tom’s scent, fresh in some places and stale in others, working around the garden in a set pattern. It wouldn’t take long for him to find all the eggs, even if blindfolded.
“Just.” She took a deep breath, stopping again and looking out at the woods.
It took him a moment to feel it, a creature crossing the threshold at a fast clip, headed straight for the house.
“He must’ve realized we were looking for him,” she said.
“The basajaun.” Warning shocked through him and he glanced around the large garden, noticing the positioning of everyone he would have to protect if things went wrong. The mage wasn’t here, either not invited or not interested—he really only hung around when training—which was a pity. He was powerful and precise, his magic incredibly effective. He could’ve helped end any sort of altercation much more quickly. A prolonged battle might scare Jimmy for life. He may have enjoyed his introduction to the fun side of magic, but he wasn’t ready for the horror show it could devolve into.
“It’s good.” Jess laid her palm on Austin’s forearm. Electricity zipped through his body, tightening his gut. “Even if he turned violent, Ivy House would handle it. She’d love to, actually. She’s much too violent, if you ask me.”
“I wondered…” He barely felt the anxiety coiling within him, wrapped up as he was in those shimmering hazel eyes. “If my brother doesn’t use my invitation as his opportunity to beat me senseless for what I did to him when I left…” A crease formed between her brows, but she didn’t say anything. “You need to meet him in a professional capacity, but I wondered if you would also have dinner with us. Just us. Family and…friends.”
She blinked at him, as though realizing the importance of what he was asking.
“Of course,” she said. “Should I bring clam dip? In a cooler?”
The laughter bubbled up unexpectedly. When Jess’s mother had come to visit a couple of months ago, she’d brought her dip and eggs, repeatedly talking about belated Christmas.
His smile dripped away. “My family isn’t like yours. I’m from a long line of alphas, and they—we—are trained young not to show too much emotion. We’re not welcoming and warm, not with smiles and hugs, at any rate. My brother might seem a little…cold, but just know that it isn’t personal.”
“Cold? Well, where did you go wrong? You were smiling and giving muscle shows the first night I met you.”
Austin should’ve known it then. He should’ve known what she’d become from that very first night. She’d started seeping into the cracks in his defenses from the word go.