Dawning of Light (3 page)

Cecilia, who was not very good at dealing with such serious topics, ignored her question. She pulled a maxi dress with an empire waist out of the closet and offered it to Olivia.

“Try this one,” she encouraged. “And stop worrying. Alexa says it’s bad for the babe. Or pup. Whatever.”

Cecilia observed her cousin’s body as she switched dresses. Olivia’s waist was wider, and her stomach was just beginning to round. Cecilia thought about Finnegan’s comment from earlier in the day. He no doubt thought Olivia was gorgeous right now. Not that she wasn’t, but it was slightly annoying that he didn’t find Cecilia’s waiflike figure attractive. No other man had ever complained about her figure before.

“Even if he is a shifter, which of course makes sense, we know he won’t come out looking like an animal. We were both there when Lisa birthed little Freddy.”

Olivia analyzed her image in the looking glass. “Much better, thank you,” she announced with a satisfied nod. She looked at Cecilia through the glass again. “Tanner has already come up with a dozen names. All boys’, I might add.”

“Well, we know you are carrying a male.”

“Yes, but he intends to use all of them,” Olivia said with a laugh. She lifted her skirt and turned away from the looking glass. “Come, let’s go down to the party.”

Cecilia chuckled and then sobered. “I really don’t want to stay for the party. Why can’t I just sneak out the back?”

“Because your parents will be here too. My mother has invited a hundred of her closest friends and the obligatory family.”

“What is she celebrating today?”

Genevieve Bennett had a reputation for throwing lavish parties for just about any reason she could think of. It was her way of battling the depression she suffered due to her lack of producing more than one child for her mate, the king. Considering that the lightbearer king could only declare a male offspring as heir, the queen had felt as though she let him down when she could not get pregnant again after birthing Olivia. Unfortunately, when Tanner took over managing the budget, he severely limited the number of parties the queen was allowed to throw.

“I have no idea,” Olivia replied. “Tanner insists he doesn’t know either, which is strange, considering she has to have his permission to do it.”

Cecilia thought longingly of the small tavern in the human town that was less than a mile outside the protective wards. No doubt Finn would be at the party. He loved the head chef Carley’s cooking, and the queen adored the shifters who had taken up residence within the coterie. Not to mention, he would assume Cecilia was at the party as well, so he would not have to watch her too closely.

It was the perfect opportunity for slipping away.

“Finn told Tanner he caught you trying to sneak out of the coterie again today,” Olivia said, bringing up precisely the subject Cecilia was thinking of.

“Tanner has been relaxing the rules when it comes to leaving,” Cecilia protested. “Why must I still remain inside?”

“He allows the guards to leave, so that they can scout the surrounding area and make sure there are no threats nearby,” Olivia qualified. “Which I think is a brilliant idea, by the way.”

“I’ve been practicing self-defense.”

“That is a far cry from becoming a guard, and you well know it.”

Cecilia threw herself onto the bed and sighed gustily. “I am convinced Finn exists to make my life miserable. I even flirted with Samuel earlier, just to get away from him. That’s how he ended up escorting me back here and then wouldn’t leave.”

A giggle burst from Olivia’s mouth. “Oh no.”

“I know.” Cecilia grimaced. “I’m afraid he has visions of mating again. I am certain he is even now paying a call upon Uncle Sander, trying to convince him to mate the two of us.”

“My father won’t agree,” Olivia said firmly. “Not without your consent. He learned his lesson when he attempted to mate Dane and I.”

“He only learned his lesson because you were already mated to Tanner, and Tanner led him to believe you were already with child, although if that were true, then you are about to suffer through a ten-month pregnancy. Plus, Tanner had just given him a check that would help him save face as king,” Cecilia pointed out. “I don’t have any such backup.”

“He still will not,” Olivia insisted. “He cares about you as if you were his daughter too. He will want you to be happy. And Samuel would
not
make you happy.”

“Being mated to Samuel would make me want to leap off the cliff at the first available opportunity,” Cecilia muttered.

* * * *

Occasionally, being assigned to
Cecilia Duty
was worth the hassle. Today was turning out to be one of those instances. When Finn left Cecilia earlier, he’d flown straight to Daisy’s cottage, only to discover she wasn’t home. He then headed back to the beach house, although he purposely avoided going anywhere near Cecilia. Instead, he sought out Tanner, who was happy enough to spar with him. When they were both exhausted and sweaty and ready to call it quits, Tanner suggested Finn join the queen’s party.

“Olivia’s mother is putting on what she calls an intimate dinner party.”

“What does that mean?” Finn asked, suspicious of the way Tanner said the word
intimate
.

“No more than a hundred people.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” Finn replied. Mingling in close quarters with a hundred lightbearers he barely knew did not sound like his idea of a good time.

“Carley’s cooking.”

That
was the reason Finn had changed his mind. Carley was the best chef Finn had ever experienced in his life. If Carley was cooking, he supposed he could endure damn near anything, even playing nice with Cecilia, who would of course be there. She was always at the beach house. She and Olivia were as close as sisters, and the king and queen had all but raised Cecilia, according to Tanner.

“Her parents have some pretty fucked-up views about lightbearer segregation,” Tanner told him not long ago. “They’ve always been that way, but it’s gotten worse now that there are shifters living here. And Cecilia has always had a contentious relationship with them.”

Finn supposed that might explain why Cecilia was forever attempting to sneak out of the coterie, her own safety be damned. Classic rebellion-against-the-parents motivation, even if she was nearly thirty years old and still doing it. He wondered if her parents’ beliefs were why she wasn’t yet mated.

He hadn’t been kidding when he said she attracted males like flies. It wasn’t just a particular kind of male, either. It was all of them. She could have her choice of any of the single male lightbearers of her acquaintance, including that lovesick bastard, Samuel, whose voice he swore he could hear as he wandered through the halls of the beach house waiting for the party to start.

Actually, that
was
Samuel’s voice. He thought he heard the king, too. His curiosity piqued, Finn followed the sound of their voices, until he stood outside the library. The door was slightly ajar. He looked through the small opening and saw Samuel, standing with his back to Finn, and the king, sitting behind his desk, looking world-weary and slightly harassed.

“I will discuss it with Cecilia, Samuel,” the king said. “And if she agrees, I will perform the ceremony.”

“We should not wait for her compliance,” Samuel insisted. “I would rather do it sooner than later. Even this evening. I understand the queen has planned another party. A mating ceremony would be the perfect addition.”

A mating ceremony?
What the hell was Samuel up to?

The king stood and stepped out of view. When he returned into Finn’s line of vision again, he held a tiny crystal glass in one hand. The glass was full of burgundy liquid, and as Finn watched, he tipped it back and swallowed the contents. Faery wine, Finn suspected. Tanner told him the king kept a stash hidden away in his library. Tanner also mentioned that the stash never seemed to deplete, which suggested that the king still maintained a connection with the land of the fae, despite Tanner’s request he sever those ties.

“I have learned my lesson in that respect, Samuel. I tried to do the same thing to my own daughter, and the result was disastrous.”

“Yes,” Samuel agreed. “Now she is mated to a shifter.” His tone implied he found that idea to be highly unfavorable. Finn had never noticed that Samuel held the same beliefs as the small faction of shifter-hating lightbearers that he and Tanner were well aware existed. Yet his tone insinuated exactly that.

“Cecilia needs someone with a firm hand, to keep her in line,” Samuel continued. “She requires discipline, someone who can teach her self-restraint. She needs a babe in her belly, so that she can learn to settle down and stay where she belongs.”

Finn almost laughed out loud. If Samuel thought any of those things would win over the stubborn, bullheaded, independent Cecilia Druthers, he was sadly mistaken. Their mated life would be living hell, without a doubt. Although Finn was positive that Samuel would be the miserable one, because if those two were involved in a battle of wills, he knew damn well Cecilia would win. Hands down.

The king sighed and dropped into his seat. “She tried to slip out yet again today. Finnegan had to detain her.”

Samuel shook his head. “He should not be in charge of maintaining her safety. I should be.”

“What makes you better qualified?” Sander asked. “Tanner says Finnegan is the best tracker in the country. If Cecilia manages to slip outside the coterie, he could certainly find her again, quickly, before she comes to harm.”

“If I were responsible for her, she would not feel the need to slip from the coterie,” Samuel boasted. “She undoubtedly does so now to try to get away from him.”

Sander chuckled. “She may be trying to run away from herself, but I do not believe she is trying to run from Finnegan. Knowing Cecilia as I do, she most likely enjoys the heated banter between them.”

Heated banter?
What the hell was the king talking about?

Samuel continued to cajole the king, and Finn could tell he was wearing the man down. Tanner was right, Sander Bennett was a lousy ruler. He had no backbone whatsoever. Finn was half afraid he would agree to mate Cecilia to Samuel just to get Samuel to leave him alone. The idea spurred him to shove open the door and step into the room.

Both men looked up with surprise registered on their faces. Samuel quickly covered his with a scowl. “What are you doing here?” he demanded.

“The queen sent me to hunt down her mate,” Finn smoothly lied.

The king pushed to his feet. “I will never hear the end of it if I do not answer the summons immediately,” he explained, and then he paused. “I will talk to Cecilia,” he said to Samuel. “That is the best I can do.”

Samuel did not look pleased with those parting words, but as the king was already heading out the door, he had no choice but to accept the decision.

“Training,” Finn said before he followed the king down the hall. “Tomorrow. Nine sharp.” Then he grinned, relishing the idea of kicking the guy’s ass and having a legitimate reason to do so.

* * * *

Tanner caught up with Cecilia and Olivia in the hall as they headed down to the party. His pale blue eyes watched Olivia with an unsuppressed hungry look. His long dark hair, normally left loose to curtain about his face, was pulled back into a ponytail. The dark shadow of stubble had been shaved, per his mother-in-law’s request. The clean-shaven jaw and tamed hair did not detract in the least from the scruffy, intimidating shifter underneath.

“Hey, Cecilia,” he said, and then he strode up to his mate, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her until she was breathless.

“Don’t mind me,” Cecilia said drily.

Tanner broke the kiss and laughed, as he hooked his arm around his mate’s waist and hauled her against his side. “As many times as you’ve walked in on us while we were otherwise occupied, Cecilia, it is truly amazing that we were actually able to conceive this pup in the first place.”

“I did used to have a problem with barging through closed doors without knocking first, didn’t I?” Cecilia mused.

“Used to?” Tanner barked a laugh. “When did you stop? You just walked in on us not three days ago.”

Cecilia narrowed her eyes. “If you two would refrain from having sex in the parlor and the library and—and the kitchen, for the love of the light. I mean, really? Why should I announce myself every time I round a corner? You two should keep your extracurricular activities limited to the bedchamber.”

“It’s the pregnancy,” Olivia explained. “I swear, I cannot ever seem to get enough.” She shook her head in bemusement. Tanner grinned like a fool, clearly having no issue whatsoever with his mate’s newly acquired urges to have sex anytime, anyplace, all the time, everywhere.

“Lights above,” Cecilia muttered. Perhaps if she were having sex fairly regularly, she would not be so annoyed by the fact that her cousin was—all the damn time. Unfortunately, she was going through a bit of a dry spell at the moment.

She blamed Finn. Normally, she sought sexual gratification outside the coterie, with human males. Since Finn had come into her life some four months ago, she had not been able to slip away and find a willing bed partner, not a single time. Her situation was becoming desperate. She wished again that she could leave while everyone else was at the party. Just for a few hours.

Tanner chuckled. “You look beautiful, by the way,” he commented, his gaze on the cleavage spilling out of the top of Olivia’s dress. She smiled demurely.

Cecilia cleared her throat, to remind the blissfully in love couple that they were not alone. The way Tanner looked at Olivia, Cecilia suspected he was contemplating pressing her back against the wall and ravishing her on the spot. Her increased randiness had apparently affected him as well, which Cecilia supposed wasn’t entirely surprising, considering they shared her magic.

“We have to go down to dinner,” Olivia reminded him. Tanner reluctantly pulled his gaze away from her and nodded.

“Are you coming, Cecilia?”

“I suppose I do not have a choice,” she grumbled as she allowed Tanner to escort her and Olivia both down the staircase.