“But you wouldn’t give me an address. You know I would worry until I actually saw you.”
Growls at the door, behind Ethan and Jake, stopped Zelina from asking how the hell they had found her as she popped around Jezzie and into the hall. Standing there were her two mates, bristling with anger and staring at the two men in uniforms at their bedroom door. Zelina was sure someone had summoned them when the cops came. The shifters of the compound were trying to pass themselves off as human, and no one would have touched them for fear of exposing their secret. Zelina also knew that Jezzie would have sprouted off about her, and those who knew she was the Lunar of the clan would have let them through. Coming here had been a stupid mistake the three of them hadn’t even known they’d been making.
“Rion, Quin, this is Jezzie, Ethan, and Jake. Remember I told you about Jezzie.”
Rion never took his eyes off his brother, but when Quin looked over at him, relaxing marginally, she knew that he had told him about the phone conversation that had started the most amazing experience of all their lives.
“Ah, Jezzie, Zelina’s best friend. I apologize. We were worried something was wrong when we saw two men at our door and not you. Forgive us. I am Quin.” Quin bowed gracefully to her, and her friend had the nerve to giggle. She actually giggled.
“So you must be Rion, Z’s boyfriend,” Jezzie said to Rion, removing her eyes from Quin for only a second.
Zelina felt herself get hot before she realized it. She walked over to her mates and stood between them, grasping a hand in each of hers.
“Part right, J. But, they are both my boyfriends. Welcome to our home.”
“Well, I think this is our cue to leave. Everything looks all right here, J. See you all later. Um, you guys have a safe night, and don’t hesitate to call if you need something.” Ending with that, Jake and Ethan hightailed it out of there like cartoon characters.
Chapter Nineteen
“You gotta be shitting me!”
“Jezzie, look—”
“No, Zelina.”
Jezzie stopped her, raising one perfectly manicured hand into the air. Her thick hair fell around her shoulders in perfect layers, the coal-black color mesmerizing against her lighter skin. Snapping brown eyes, though, told Zelina it wasn’t the time to admire her friend’s usual chic style.
“Zelina, less than a week ago, you had no boyfriend. I was setting you up on dates. Brian disappears. Like really disappears. So do you. Then I find you three days later with one boyfriend, get you tracked down—and you don’t want to know what I had to do with Geez the Sleaze to do that—just to find you butt-ass naked. Now I find out you have two boyfriends. Right . . . This makes sense to someone, so that someone better explain what the hell is going on to me.”
Of the two of her mates, Zelina was surprised to see Rion be the one to step forward. She was at a complete loss for words. There was much she wasn’t sure she could tell her friend, and she didn’t know how to answer her questions without leading to more. She was grateful one of her mates took that off her shoulders. Something else to chalk up to the beauty of mates—she really didn’t have to face the world alone anymore.
“Jezzie, yes, I am Rion. We met under some . . . delightful circumstances,” he finished, winking over at Zelina with a satisfied smile on his face. She returned that smile with a raspberry.
“I’ll be sure to put that to good use later,” he returned, laughing in her head. She chose not to respond to that.
“As you are someone that means more to Zelina than I think you even know, we will tell you the absolute truth. Please.” He directed her away from the bedroom and down the hall. Jezzie hesitated for a second, looking to Z for confirmation, before she turned and strolled where he directed.
Her heels clicked in the silence in rhythm, her black business suit and white silk blouse looking smart on her thicker form. Of the two, Jezzie was the earthier. She didn’t see it that way, of course. To her, she was fat, further away from the generally accepted stick-thin figure. Zelina wasn’t near that either in a size twelve, but Jezzie took her size sixteen to heart. Most days Zelina ignored her whining about it and moved on. One day she’d find someone who would worship those curves she had, Zelina just knew it. That brought an idea to her head, one she’d have to talk to her mates about later.
The door they stopped in front of interrupted her thoughts. The sitting room was all mahogany and white, from white carpet, to accent walls, to even the cushions on the couch. The wood pieces, though, added warmth and life to the place. If she didn’t believe before her clan made money, she did now.
“Sit,” Rion invited her.
Jezzie sat, watching him carefully and looking over at Zelina from time to time. Rion let her sit in between him and Quin, curling up her legs under her. Quin grabbed a blanket off the seat next to him and draped it over her legs. The move was done with ease, never interrupting the surrounding events, and Jezzie lifted a brow at that. It was too smooth to have been done to impress her, and she knew it.
“Can we trust you?” Rion asked her finally.
“I should be asking you that. It’s my friend you have sitting there beside you. My friend whose life you’ve suddenly entered.”
“I understand. The concession we are about to make to you is because of that friendship and the fact that Zelina holds you close to her heart. Still, my job is to protect. So, I must ask you again. Can we trust you?”
“That’s why you spoke first. To protect Quin from a threat.”
“It is my job, inaestimabilis. It is what I am supposed to do. Do not worry. We will bring your friend into our fold. I think you would kill us if we hurt her.”
“Most likely. Inae-stema-whata?”
“It means ‘priceless,’ Zelina.”
Quin chuckled over their connection, but stayed silent outwardly as Jezzie looked at them. Finally she folded her hands over her lap and nodded her head. “You can trust me.”
“This is the Alpha of the South Texas clan, Tarquin Vespillo. I am his Beta and brother, Centurion. You know the short forms of our names.”
“Brothers? Damn, nice, Z . . . Wait, Alpha and Beta. As in shifters?”
Chapter Twenty
The brothers sat frozen, looking at her in open confusion. If Zelina hadn’t been so surprised herself, she would have her ass off. She was positive neither brother had ever been stumped in his life.
“So I am guessing she is your mate, so you couldn’t exactly fight your need for her. As your kind is not a large population, siblings mate to one person. She is now your mate, and that would explain the disappearing act and . . . dominance show Rion put on when I was on the phone.”
“You heard that!” Zelina screeched, turning red.
“You were on the phone, and I wasn’t on mute, girl. I was just so worried at the time. I was just trying to find out where you were. Anyway, this is why trust was so important?”
“Why are you not freaking out?” Zelina finally asked. Statue One and Statue Two were still deciding not to talk yet.
“Gentlemen, let me tell you what my job is. I am an editor for my company. My genre is fiction, specifically looking at the subgenres of romance, urban fantasy, and paranormal romance.”
“Paranormal,” Quin started.
“Romance?” Rion finished, finally coming out of the fish-out-of-water stare.
“Books about beings like you. You know, shifters, vampyres, witches, mages, or wizards, you name it. The possibilities are endless. I find myself in awe more so than fear knowing that you all really do exist.” She sat back then, hand over her heart. “You are real,” she whispered.