Sweat prickling his skin under his thin shirt, Nick added logs to the hall’s fire from a wood box next to the fireplace. Lydia sat on the sofa nearest the heat, her blue fisherman’s sweater a gift Nick had knit for her two Christmases ago, but so far, the adventure tour company had kept the lodge warm enough for the oddity of a visiting human. Additional layers were unnecessary. Nick intended to keep it that way.
“Him, I understand,” his best friend said, her eyes sparkling when Rolan settled beside her on the sofa. “Rolan won’t pass up a single night of sex while his heat is on him. Of course, he trekked back to the lodge rather than staying at the upper camp after hunting. But you?” Her gaze narrowed on Nick. “What the fuck?”
Nick could have told her, despite last night’s submissive displays, he didn’t trust the tribes—including the Ural tribe—with his human friend, particularly a human involved in mating another shifter. Many in the tribes still objected to pair bonds that bridged their species, and he also wouldn’t leave either Lydia or Rolan unprotected in an environment in which the tribes must have surely realized controlling the ones Nick loved most was a potential means of controlling Nick. By virtue of their relationships with him, Rolan and Lydia were targets. Nick had dared joining the hunt, risking hours away from Lyd, only because most of the security team he’d brought with him from the lands of men had stayed behind at the lodge with her.
“This is a working trip for me, not a vacation.” Nick pushed back from the hearth, a believable lie that would keep the ones he loved safe already swirling in his head. “As much as I would have preferred a night at the camp, I’m obliged to make myself available to Elder Benjic and the council to finalize negotiations.” He smoothed his palms down his thighs, brushing aside any lingering dirt and debris from handling the logs for the fire as readily as he set aside any qualms over manipulating his brother and best friend. “The faster we hammer out those details, the sooner we can return home.”
Having claimed another couch across the room, Benjic sniffed in disdain at the laptop he’d been working at since the pack had streamed into the lodge from their hunt.
Human or shifter, Lydia didn’t miss the slight. “Yes?” she said, drawing out the word in a disapproving drawl. “Something you want to say about Rolan, Nick, and I going home?”
A deep V furrowed the elder’s brow. “This is where His Highness belongs.” He tipped his head at Nick, then at Rolan. “The tribes are your mate’s home, too.” He scowled at her. “You? If you reject Rolan as your mate, you can go, but not them. Tribe should be with tribe.”
Lydia clenched her jaw, temper lighting up her dark eyes. “The tribes tried to kill Nick. Some would gladly finish the job if they could. Every day we stay in the territories, his danger climbs.” She jabbed an accusatory finger in Benjic’s direction. “You don’t deserve him. You people aren’t his family, and this is not his home.”
Rolan grabbed Lydia’s hand and threaded his fingers through hers. “It’s all right, Lyd.”
“No.” Her eyes narrowed on Rolan. “It’s not.”
Too bad Nick couldn’t let his best friend’s anger rule the day. “Lydia doesn’t trust easily. She needs to see more of the tribes than hotels, trains stations, and ballrooms.” He pushed from his crouch in front of the fireplace and plunked onto the oak floor in front of the sofa occupied by Lydia and Rolan. He nudged his brother’s leg with a shoulder. “She wouldn’t feel as antagonistic toward the tribes if she learned more about the peoples, our culture, and history. You should take her on one of the driving tours, show her the Urals while we wait for the forensic team to complete their work.” If Rolan also wandered far enough to learn the fate of his own lost family, all the better. Nick grinned.
“Leave you alone with him?” His brother scowled at Benjic. “With them? Not a chance.”
Lydia nodded. “We promised your mom we’d make sure nothing happened to you.”
“And nothing will.” Nick elbowed Rolan’s calf, and when he’d captured Rolan’s attention, he jerked his chin at Arit, who glared at him from the other side of the room, a cluster of lodge staff gathered around him. “He’ll never be far.”
Leaning forward, Lydia mussed Nick’s hair. “He doesn’t want you.”
Laughter rolled from Nick’s chest. “He isn’t happy about it, but there’s nothing he desires more than me.” Nick sensed his mate’s longing, his fascination in the link building between them, but also in the physical cues Arit couldn’t hide. His hot stare followed Nick’s every move. The flush of arousal painted Arit’s stark features. His scent, musky with lust, taunted Nick incessantly. Arit hadn’t left Nick’s side since Nick had exited the imperial suite for breakfast, had run with Nick during their hunt farther up the mountain in the afternoon. “His people will fight to the last against any intruder who means me harm, too.”
“That’s true.” Benjic closed the laptop. He handed the machine to a member of his security team and stood. “Because you are human, you can’t know, but it wasn’t only our group who offered him submission on the patio last night. The lodge staff, to a man and woman, also recognized him as high alpha.” Face smoothed to a placid mask that revealed nothing, Benjic joined them near the fireplace. “Ask your mate. Rolan will tell you the same. His Highness has never been safer than he is here.”
“Nick,” Arit growled at his sire from across the room. “He wants to be called Nick.”
Benjic waved a careless hand at his son. “See? Even from perceived social slights, Arit protects him.”
As galling as playing this game was to Nick, he had to go along. For his brother. “I realize the pomp and circumstance in the capitol was difficult for you.”
Rolan snarled. “Dog and pony show is what it was.”
“I appreciate your forbearance. Stealing a day or two away from the lodge to enjoy normal people and do normal things will do you both a world of good. Get away from the press and politics for a while. You can’t negotiate the funeral arrangements or the abdication ceremony for me anyway. Cooping you up here at the lodge is pointless. You should explore the countryside. Who knows if we’ll ever have another chance. Take lots of pictures. Eat local. Buy gifts for Mom.” He arched an eyebrow. Search for news of your birth family. “I’ll be fine.”
Towering over him, Benjic crossed his arms over his chest and glowered. “Why wouldn’t you visit the Urals again?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Political ugliness and intrigues. The murders of his entire family. The lengthy laundry list of wrong-headed and demeaning assumptions the tribes have made about him since he reclaimed his identity and his title.” Lydia rolled her eyes. “The question is why you’d believe he’d want to step foot in the territories at all.”