She heard the rise and fall of voices and the rumble of luggage wheels on the hardwood following her down the hall. Ignoring them, she yanked open the fridge, grabbed herself a soda, and nearly sent the cap flying across the room from the force with which she wielded the bottle opener.
Wynn actually had to duck as she entered the room. “Um, we didn’t mean to interrupt. You know that, right?” Her grin had faded, and now she looked concerned and a little bit guilty. “Knox told me what he saw, but it wasn’t like we deliberately barged in.”
Kylie lowered her drink with a sigh and let her shoulders slump. “I know. And I don’t really hate you.” She pulled one of the high stools away from the center island and climbed onto the padded seat. “At the moment, I think I just hate myself.”
Her friend sat beside her. “Why would you hate yourself? Did you drug him? Was it sexual assault?”
Snorting into her cola, Kylie shook her head. “No, that’s not how I would say it happened.”
“Well, he’s a Guardian, so I know he didn’t assault you. These guys have a code of honor that makes jarheads and saints look like moral degenerates. So why the crazy over two consenting adults doing what consenting adults like to do?”
Kylie looked at her friend like the crazy had come from an entirely new direction. “Wynneleh, he’s a member of another species!”
Wynn rolled her eyes. “Nominally. So yeah, Guardians aren’t exactly human, but it’s not like you screwed a donkey, Ky. Get over yourself. Are you trying to tell me there’s a woman on this planet who could look at one of our guys and not think they’re damned sexy?”
“Oh, why am I bothering with you? You’ve already gone over to the Dark Side.”
“Damn straight. And the cookies are awesome.”
“Do you mind? I’m having a personal crisis over here. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Yeah, I mind, because I think a crisis is a huge overreaction. I’m also betting that you weren’t thinking at the time, which is just the way it should be. I sure as heck can’t string two coherent thoughts together when Knox touches me. That’s just the way it is between mates. Frankly, I count it as a pretty big perk.”
Kylie held up a hand and cocked her ear. “Wait a second there, Pooh Bear. Mates? Where the hell did that word come from, and what is it doing in my conversation?”
“Our conversation. Don’t be a greedy bitch. And what, you thought you and Dag were just good buddies?”
“Um, I thought we were about half an insult away from sworn nemeses. And I kept thinking that, right up until my pants fell off.”
Wynn snorted. “All by themselves, right? Come on, Koyote. You heard about me and Knox, Fil and Spar, and Ella and Kees, and you thought every one of the new female Wardens turning out to be the mate of the Guardian she woke was just a big ol’ coincidence? I thought all you geek types had to know about things like statistics and the laws of probability.”
Stunned—literally; she felt as though she’d just taken a softball to the side of her head—Kylie thought back to her initial conversations with Wynn about the Guardian situation. She remembered their talk. She remembered the mention of those couples. She even remembered being informed of her new Wardenship, but she did not remember the M-word ever entering the picture.
And, oh yes, she would have remembered.
She pointed an accusing finger at her friend. “You never said anything about mates. You said the two of us would have to work together because he’s a Guardian and I’m a Warden and those twains just meet like that. There was no mention of mating. Mating was never in the handbook.”
Wynn pursed her lips and looked up at the ceiling. “You know, there really should be a handbook, shouldn’t there?”
Suddenly two hulking figures stood behind them, one of them crowding close to Kylie and growling low in his throat. “What have you done to upset her?” Dag demanded, glaring at Wynn.
The witch glared right back. “Actually, I’m not the one who upset her, big guy. I think that honor goes to a little story you never bothered to tell her. I swear, what the hell is it with you guys and withholding vital information? You’d think having Ella and Fil both contemplating ripping your balls off would have taught you all a lesson on sharing means caring.”
Knox gave his fiancée a hard look. “You believe I withheld vital information from you, little witch?”
Kylie had always dismissed Dag’s claims that he ranked as one of the smallest of his kind, but after seeing Knox in person, she felt forced to reevaluate. The gargantuan man—even in human form, which she had to admit was a lot nicer to look at than the gargoyle side she’d seen in her guest-room window—looked to be in imminent danger of overflowing her kitchen. Her enormous, remodeled, showroom-ready kitchen her Realtor had described as the focal point of the house. In comparison, Dag’s size seemed almost, you know, normal.