Neo had hated when she asked if he would let her go, but Neo had been honest. As much as it would hurt, if that's what it took to make her happy, he would let her go. He hoped to the gods it wouldn't happen. Though, with the way his life worked, that's probably exactly what he would have to do. Maybe the fates had found a new way to punish him. Give him his mate, dangle that kind of happiness in front of him, and then make him give it up. Losing her just might break him in a way nothing he'd lived through yet had.

Gwen had looked so sad and heartbroken when he'd admitted if it was what had to happen for her to be happy, he would let her go, that he'd had to lighten the mood somehow, and the gnawing ache in his middle had been as good a reason as any.

Now, as he sat in an out of the way corner of the all-you-can-eat buffet, which was just one of the many facilities inside the MesoAmerican he oversaw, he waited for her to bring her plate back to the table, thinking about how to keep things more upbeat. He didn't want her to think too much about going home, or the possibility of losing the negotiation job.

“Looks like you had no trouble finding something you like,” he said as she set her plate on the table and took the seat across from him.

“No, there's plenty to choose from, and it all looks fresh and tasty.”

“I do try.” He shot her a grin as he popped a cube of chilled cantaloupe into his mouth.

“You?”

“Me. This is my normal position. My assistant is handling things this week, but I oversee all the restaurants in the resort.”

Their plates were about half-empty when Neo spotted Teya heading in their direction.

“Hey, there you are,” his sister said as she came up beside their table.

“Gwen, this is my sister, Teya,” Neo made introductions. “Teya, this is Gwen, she's the negotiator for the Welsh clan.”

Gwen coughed and tried to make it to her feet.

“No, no. Sit down, enjoy your breakfast. I just needed to talk to Neo for a moment.” Teya waved a hand in Gwen's direction. “Can you take a break in your meetings this afternoon to come by my office, at about three?”

“We’ve decided we need to postpone our official meetings until tomorrow, so sure.”

“Oh? Is there a problem?”

“I wouldn't call it one but Gwen is afraid her alphas won't see it the same way.”

Teya frowned and looked back and forth between the two of them, Neo knew she was waiting for someone to explain.

“Pull up a chair, sis. I think you're going to need it.”

Teya's frown deepened but she pulled out a nearby chair and sat. He let her wait a moment, enjoying the suspense before he told her.

“I found my mate.”

“No way.” Teya shook her head, the disbelief on her face echoing what he'd felt the day before. Neo just grinned and waited. After a moment, she looked back and forth between Gwen and himself and her eyes went wide. “You're serious? You two are mates?”

“I didn't believe it at first either, but we are.” He looked over at Gwen, who looked uncomfortable, then back to Teya.

“Maybe the fates decided you’ve made up for your transgressions. That you’ve redeemed yourself, and the curse has been lifted.”

“I don’t know,” Neo admitted. “I tried to ignore what I was feeling, thinking I was fooling myself, but we ran into each other at the pool early this morning and things just kind of happened after that. That's why we are postponing the meeting. Gwen contacted her alpha to let him know what happened. Now she's afraid he's going to replace her here.”

“But why?” Teya turned to look at Gwen. “Surely he knows it's not something you could have controlled. Mates, once they find each other, are driven to be together. How can he punish you for that?”

“I don't know that he will, ma'am, but I had to give him the opportunity to make a different choice. He trusted me to come here and negotiate with our clan's interests uppermost in my mind, and I can’t betray that. Grigor didn’t seem to think it would make a difference, but Rhiannon may not believe I can if I'm mated to one of your dragons, much less if my mate is the other negotiator. Besides, if I went ahead and finished the negotiations without informing them of the change of circumstances, it would put things into question, and I don't want that. I've worked too hard to earn enough respect to be given this assignment.”

Teya was quiet a moment, watching Gwen as she thought. “I take it you haven't bound each other yet?” she glanced at Neo then back to Gwen.

“No, ma'am. That would only complicate things further.”

“Yes, it would, but I'll say it now. You're welcome in Vegas. You two bind things, you’re free to decide between where you want to live. If you choose to stay here, and I want to assure you, you're more than welcome, I will find a position for you. I have no problem putting women in jobs others might not.” She winked at Gwen before turning back to Neo. “Congrats, little brother. Don't forget, three o'clock, my office.” With that, she stood and spoke to Gwen one more time. “It was nice to meet you.”

“You too, and thank you for the welcome.”

“No problem.” His sister left the two of them to finish their breakfast.

“I can't believe you told her,” Gwen said under her breath.

“Why not? You told your alpha.”

“I had to.”

“She needed to know we were postponing things a little, besides, she's my sister and she's happy for us.” He smiled as he stared for a moment in the direction his sister had disappeared in, then turned back to Gwen, “I'm remiss in asking, do you have any family?”

Gwen shook her head. “No. My parents died almost a hundred years ago and they were my only blood family. My father’s best friend stepped in, took me under his wing, but Uncle Tristan has been gone some time now as well.”

“I'm sorry to hear that. We lost our parents about forty years ago. It was hard, and Teya and I had each other, I can't imagine going through it alone.” He reached across the table and covered her hand with his. He didn't know what else to do.

“I won't lie, it wasn't easy, but my clan did what they could to support me, and I learned to be stronger because of it.”

They got to know each other a little bit better while they finished eating, then went back to his apartment.

––––––––

NEO STEPPED OFF THE elevator at five minutes to three, waved at the receptionist and headed down the hall toward Teya's office.

“Hi, Rachel. Is she ready for me?” he motioned at the closed door behind Teya's second in command's desk.

“Yep, she's ready and waiting.” She looked up and smiled as she saw him approach.

“Any idea what's up?”

“It's best to let her tell you. Go on in.” Rachel tilted her head toward Teya's office.

“Thanks,” he stepped past the desk and pushed the door to his sister's office open. She was sitting in her swivel chair behind the desk facing away from him, toward the wall she'd had painted to look like an ancient Aztec city. He knew it calmed her, to him, it was just another memory, and not a particularly pleasant one. “Hey, sis. You said you needed to see me?”

Teya's chair spun, and she sat for a moment watching him. “Have a seat.” She waited until he was comfortable and continued. “We have a problem, one that could seriously hamper tourism if word of it gets out.” She pressed her lips together and took a deep breath. “This is not something I want to saddle you with, but you need to know to make sure you and our visitors remain safe. At the same time, you need to be very careful what you tell them because it could severely cripple our side of the negotiations.”

“Speaking of the negotiations. What exactly are we negotiating? It's been widely known for a long time, everyone is welcome in Vegas. I'm not sure why we're just now concentrating on making special treaties for individual groups?”

“Vegas being an open territory is common knowledge in this country, but they do things differently in the older countries. Most of Europe and Asia want treaties in place, even if they just state we have an alliance, they can visit and we will take any offense against them as an offense against the clan. We want them to feel safe enough to come visit.” She paused, then shot him a knowing smile. “My hope is it will bring more dragons in, expose us to more people and help some of our people find mates. So far it seems to be working in our favor.”

“I'm not going to complain, it seems to be working out so far. But you've danced around the real issue long enough. My questions about what kind of deal I'm supposed to be making weren't why you wanted to meet with me. What's going on?”

“I had a meeting this morning. I knew it was big news, but didn’t know exactly how big when I saw you this morning.” She leaned back in her chair and watched him for several seconds. “The other Fractions have discovered who is behind the disappearances we've been dealing with and it's not good.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a rush. Neo could tell she didn't want to have to say it. “There's a daemon in Vegas.”

“Holy shit.” Neo was stunned for a moment, “I always thought they were a myth.” He realized how stupid that sounded. “Well, not really, I mean I know there are Angels, who around here doesn't, so I guess it makes sense daemons are real too. But here? Wow.” He sat watching her for several minutes. Teya watching him in return, as if waiting for something, then it hit him like a bolt of lightning. “Oh, shit, this could really foul up the treaty, couldn't it?”

“It could. That's why I need you to be extra diligent that the visiting dragons remain safe, and yet ignorant of our issue until it's resolved.”

“They already know about some of it. But only that there are disappearances, one of the body guards brought it up last night.” He told her about the conversation the night before over dinner about what areas were safe and what to avoid.

“That's all right. It's good they know basic safety for now. I just don't want them finding out about this Donas until we've figured out how to get rid of it. Until it’s been defeated and is no longer a concern.”

“All right. I'll do my best.” Neo didn't know how well this was going to work. He could keep from telling Gwen if the subject never came up, but if his mate asked him if they had figured out who was behind the disappearances, he didn't know if he could lie to her, and he told his sister that.

“I don't expect you to lie to her. That would be a very bad way to start your relationship.” Teya fell silent for a couple moments. “Have you told her about yourself? About what happened?”

He knew what she was talking about, how couldn't he? “Things have moved really fast, but it seems to work that way with mates,” he nodded in her direction. “But yes. I told her I was cursed and most of it before anything really happened between us. I told her the rest this morning.”

“And what about her? Does she have anything in her past?”

“Nothing like I do.” He filled his sister in on what he'd learned about Gwen, well, the parts he was comfortable sharing. There was no way he was going to tell his sister Gwen giggled when he licked the backs of her knees.

“I'd like to get to know her a little better, when you're comfortable with it. Has she given any indication on whether she'd be willing to come here or are you going to go to Europe and live with her clan?”

“We haven't talked about that yet, but I get the impression there's nothing holding her there. She has no family left and if we can get this treaty in place, there's no reason her friends in the Welsh clan can't come visit here anytime.”

“That's good.”

“I've always lived in the desert, I like the heat. I'm not sure how my old bones would handle the cold and damp over there. That said, if she wants to stay with her clan, I’ll follow with bells on if she’ll have me.”

Teya laughed and shook her head. “Go back to your mate. Spend time with her, get to know her better, and enjoy, but carefully. The treaty will be good for us all if we can get the details hammered out. And ask her about getting together some time, maybe you two could have dinner with Jericho and me.” 

“Will do.” Neo stood and walked out of her office, waving one hand as Rachel looked up while he walked by, but his mind was on how he would avoid telling Gwen or her bodyguards about the daemon.

––––––––

NEO WENT BACK TO HIS apartment, his mind still on the daemon. He went straight through the living room, to the bedroom and used the bathroom off his bedroom, noticing on the way back through that his bed had been made. That meant housekeeping had been and gone, which in turn meant the water in his fridge had been re-stocked. Neo wasn't used to spending so much time at home, or having guests, and he and Gwen had gotten the last bottles shortly before he'd gone up to see Teya.

In the kitchenette, he pulled a bottle from the fridge, opened it and took a long drink before noticing Gwen sitting in one of the chairs in his living room, watching him. He blinked and lowered the water to the counter.

“Did I just walk right past you?”

“No,” she frowned for a second. “Did you just get back?”

Neo nodded and took his water into the living room and sat on the sofa, his eyes never leaving her face. “Did you hear from your alphas?”

“I did.”

Neo didn't know her well enough yet to read her face. “What did they say? Are they going to send someone to replace you?”

Gwen took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “They're not replacing me, but I've been given very strict instructions on what they want in the way of terms for the treaty.” She made an unhappy face before letting her head fall against the back of the chair.

“Well, it's something.”

“It is. How did your meeting go?”

“Oh, fine,” Neo wasn't sure what to tell her, “just some clan business. Teya asked if you've given any consideration to staying in Vegas once we have this treaty nailed down. I told her we hadn't talked about it yet.”

Gwen was quiet a moment. “I've thought about it a little, but I don't know. I've worked hard to gain my alphas' trust and I don't know if I'm ready to walk away from that. Would you consider coming back with me and becoming a part of my clan?”

“I told you I'd let you walk away if it made you happy. Do you think I wouldn't join your clan to see you happy? If that's what it takes, of course, but I want to look at things carefully and take some time before we make this decision. It's a big one and I don't want to rush into it.”

“Like tying your life to a total stranger for the rest of eternity?” she smiled at him as if she had a secret. Neo stared at her for several seconds before realizing she was talking about mating. Smiling, Neo shook his head and chuckled.

“Yeah, kind of like that. Biology and our other halves tell us who the right person is, but it's up to us to make it work.”

“Or decide we can't make it work.”

A sharp ache shot through Neo's chest and his dragon roared in his head. “Is-” he had to stop and try again. “Is that the way you're leaning?” He didn't know why the idea hurt so bad. He never thought he'd have a mate, but in the last twelve hours she'd come to mean a lot to him. Even the idea of losing her, for any reason, hurt. Maybe she objected to his past after all. She hadn't seemed to mind this morning when he'd filled her in on what he hadn't already told her the night before, but maybe she was having second thoughts.

“Not really, but I thought it should be considered. Your sister seemed eager for me to join the clan, but I can't see why. I have nothing to bring into the clan, no money to speak of, no extended family, no connections.”

“Is that how your clan works? Dragons are accepted or rejected based on what they can bring to the clan?”

“Isn't that how they all work?”

“Not this one. It never has.” Neo hated she was so far away, sitting all alone in her chair. He wanted her next to him where he could touch her skin while they talked. Where he could stroke her arm and sooth her fears. “We accept or reject dragons based on who they are. On whether they are good people. Sometimes whether they have skills we can use, or if they don't but they can be taught. With the resort, we have plenty of money. Connections are nice, but not required, and we are each other's family. Teya, and my parents before her, worked hard to make the clan like this.”

“I just can't see why your sister would welcome me without knowing anything about me.”

“I can.” It was obvious to him, but then, he knew Teya and she didn't. “Have you heard about her new mate?”

“No,” Gwen frowned, “I'd only heard she's recently mated. Was there something special about her mate?”

Neo hesitated. “How about I let you meet him first. Teya wanted me to ask if you would be interested in having dinner with them, let me call her and ask her about tonight.”

“I don't know, it's awful short notice.”

“It's not like she's cooking. Besides, the worst she can do is say no, right?”

“All right, if you're sure.”

“I am.” He picked up the phone and called Teya.