Chapter Twenty-One
It was too early. Even hovering beneath the upper veil of sleep, Priest’s humming mind insisted it wasn’t yet time to rise and face the day. Though, to be fair, his brain might be biased by the soft, welcoming press of Kateri next to him and her breath whispering against his chest.
He stroked her bare back and palmed her pert ass, every spectacular detail of last night rising to the top of his consciousness like a cloudless sunrise. Taking her again was tempting. Disturbingly so. But between their first wild joining and the two more tender ones through the night, she had to be sore. Not to mention exhausted.
Hugging her tight, he nuzzled the top of her head and tried to slip back into sleep, hoping the tangible contact would ease whatever had woken him and left his cat on edge.
But the mental nudge came again, even more insistent—and this time the source was unmistakable.
His eyes snapped open to the pre-dawn darkened room and the inner compass he’d come to rely on homed in on the tugging sensation.
A soul quest.
Damn it.
As shitty timing went, this was the worst. Yeah, Kateri was a reasonable woman. More so than many he’d known. But last night had been huge for her. A step into something completely foreign. Reasonable or not, odds were good she’d be pissed if she woke up the morning after and found herself alone. Hell, he was pissed and he wasn’t even gone yet.
He rolled to his back and fisted his hair on the top of his head. Whoever’s quest it was, they were reaching the Otherworld fast. Far faster than normal. Either that, or he’d simply been so preoccupied with his mate, he’d subconsciously turned a blind eye to reality.
Beside him, Kateri lay perfectly still, sleeping so deeply his movement hadn’t seemed to faze her. It was odd seeing her like this. He’d grown so used to the nonstop intellectual fire burning behind her blue gaze that studying her in repose was like spying on an intimate moment.
He liked it, though. Loved how innocent she looked. How even in the shadows her pert nose, cupid lips and high cheekbones made him think of a sleeping yet mischievous pixie.
Yeah, definitely shitty timing. The first time since the Keeper named him high priest that he’d regretted his responsibility.
He propped himself up on one elbow and skimmed his lips across hers.
They parted only a fraction and a soft sigh slipped free, but otherwise she kept sleeping. Interesting, because every other kiss he’d given her she’d woken in an instant, eyes flashing with awareness to find him not only close but naked against her.
Chuckling low, he pulled the covers up around her shoulders and eased from the bed. His poor kitten. Clearly, he’d worked her harder than he’d thought. He snatched his jeans from the floor near the foot of the bed and tugged them on, the rough denim offensive compared to Kateri’s warm, silky skin.
Screw the soul quest, the darkness prodded. Stay with her. We’ve earned it. She deserves it.
He hesitated at the door to his room, fisting the knob nearly hard enough to do damage.
Bundled under the blanket, she looked so tiny. Engulfed by the size of his bed and achingly alone. Giving in was tempting. Painfully so. But it was the wrong choice. One even Kateri wouldn’t ask him to make.
Forcing himself into motion, he strode across the catwalk that separated his suite from the rest of the bedrooms toward Tate’s room. With every step the urgency lashed harder. As if the distance he put between him and his mate drove the quester closer to the Otherworld.
But that couldn’t be right. Kateri might have accepted him physically, but she hadn’t accepted their bond yet. He’d have felt it. Every male he’d spoken with who’d ever earned their mate’s bond insisted the merging was unmistakable. A welcome tether even beyond what they’d experienced when gaining their companion animal. And even if Kateri had accepted their bond last night, a soul quest wouldn’t involve her.
Unless the quest was hers.
He paused at Tate’s door, both hands braced on the frame at either side as the thought rattled through him.
Surely not. She’d not shown any signs. Definitely none as prominent as Alek’s. But then women seldom did. They were better at navigating emotion. Better at rolling with shifting physical changes that often marked an impending quest.
Except Kateri wasn’t an average woman. And she’d been highly emotional yesterday. Conflicted. Wrestling with not only the idea of a fated mate and the overwhelming physical response that went with it, but the death of her parents, too.
And she’d been almost still as death beside him. Not responding to his kiss.
Fuck.
Not bothering with a knock, he barged into Tate’s room. “Alek, get up.”
Splayed in the center of Tate’s pullout and barely covered with a single sheet, Alek grunted and covered his eyes with his forearm.
Always a light sleeper, Tate propped himself up on one forearm in the queen bed along the opposite wall and rubbed one eye with the heel of his hand. “Something wrong?”
“Not wrong, no. But if I’m reading things right, I’m about to have a hell of a challenge on my hands.” He shook Alek none too gently by one shoulder. “Need you up, primo. Now.”
“What the hell?” Alek pushed up on his elbows, squinted into the shadows and fumbled for his phone beside the pullout. “Man, it’s not even six o’clock yet. We only got home three hours ago.”
“The Keeper doesn’t care what time it is, and your grandmother won’t either. You’re Kateri’s brother. It’s your job to wake Naomi up and be with her while you wait.”
“Holy shit,” Tate grumbled, quickly putting two and two together, sliding out of bed and flipping on the light.
Either the urgency in Tate’s tone or the speed with which he’d started yanking on clothes must have penetrated Alek’s sleep-hazed mind, because his whole body finally went on full alert. “Wait with her for what?”
“Kateri’s soul quest,” Tate answered before Priest could.
Alek hesitated only long enough to gauge Priest’s expression then shot out of bed. “Holy shit. She’s gonna freak.”
Satisfied, both men were on track, Priest gave way to the need to get back to Kateri and stalked toward the door. “Like I said, I’m about to have a challenge on my hands.”
“You don’t think she’ll refuse them, do you?”
Alek’s question stopped Priest in his tracks, the fear behind it echoing his own. Yeah, she’d opened up. Had begun to embrace the woman she’d kept deeply buried growing up. But the Keeper wasn’t known for subtleties. More like a ringmaster comfortable with parading a person’s every deep, dark secret out into a three-ring spotlight and addressing it head-on. As a method for matching magic and companion to the quester, it was perfect. For Kateri it could easily backfire. “For her sake, let’s hope she doesn’t.”
The path back to his bedroom went by in a blur, the single intention of caring for his mate and the escalating tug from the Otherworld the only thing his mind could process. By the time he got there, she still hadn’t moved. Not even an inch. But the sun had risen just enough outside to show how pale her skin had become and the light sheen of perspiration dampening her hairline.
He shucked his jeans and dragged on his loosest pair of track pants, wishing like hell he could crawl between the covers and hold her skin to skin as he guided her through her quest.
It wasn’t an option, though. Naomi would no doubt park herself bedside through the whole thing, as was her right, and Alek, for all the level-headedness he’d shown the last many days, would likely pace like a caged beast. Their clan might be immodest by nature, but baring his mate in any way was out of the question. Not to mention, Kateri would kill him if she found out he’d allowed such a thing.
Moving fast before anyone else descended, he dug out his biggest, softest T-shirt and gently dressed her in it. No easy task considering her body was complete dead weight. He’d just tugged the hem to her hips when a host of footsteps and hushed voices sounded from the hallway.
Out of breath and smiling ear to ear, Naomi rounded the doorway first, trailed by Tate, Alek and Jade. “How close is she? Do you need anything before you join her? Water? Food?”
Priest grinned despite the insistent pull growing stronger and stronger by the second. Leave it to Naomi to not only assume her granddaughter would readily accept her gifts, but was likely already planning Kateri’s celebration in her head. “No time for that. She’s moving too fast.”
He piled the pillows up on his side of the bed, but paused before climbing in and pegged Alek and Tate with a harsh stare. “No one comes in this house until I’m awake. No one. No clan and definitely no strangers no matter what they say or who they are.”
Both dipped short nods, but where Tate was all business, Alek was clearly distracted, the worry etched on his face echoing his own concerns. “I should have told her more about what our magic was like. How it feels. I don’t want her to pass this up.”
“You shared your first shift. She saw what it was like, but the choice is hers to make.” Careful not to jostle her too much, Priest lifted Kateri into his arms, settled with his back against the mound of pillows and cradled her against him.
“You’re not giving her enough credit,” Naomi said. “Neither of you.” Not the least bit uncomfortable with whose room she was in, Naomi sat on the bed and smoothed the stray, sweat-dampened hairs off Kateri’s cheek. “Our girl might have been slow to wake up, but she’s not stupid. She’ll be too curious to bypass this chance. No matter what nonsense my son put in her head.”
She was right on that score. Kateri was nothing if not inquisitive. It was her level of willingness to face the next few hours he was worried about. Still, Naomi was right. If he didn’t go into this quest believing in her, he wouldn’t do her justice. Not as her high priest or her mate.
Forcing his breaths to slow and deepen, he focused on the light jasmine scent that clung to her skin and each exhalation that fluttered against his chest. “She’ll make whatever choice she needs to make.” He closed his eyes and the gray of the Otherworld rushed up to meet him. “And whatever that looks like I’ll stand beside her.”