Lia’s heart pounded long after Kane disappeared down the hall, and Courtney grabbed her hand and immediately pulled her up to her bedroom.
“You just proposed to my dad!” Courtney exclaimed. “What the fuck!?”
“You know he would never do it himself,” Lia said, still somewhat dazed. “This way, at least he wasn’t cheating on your mom’s memory. Even if it was just pretend.”
“You’ve got some serious guts, girl,” Courtney said, shaking her head in disbelief. “I never thought I’d see the day…”
“Look, it’s not even like it’s real. And this was all your idea anyway, so why are you making such a big deal of it?”
“I didn’t expect either of you to actually go for it!” Courtney exclaimed. “I honestly thought of it as a huge joke and nothing more, you know?”
Lia sighed, her heart drumming painfully in her chest.
“It’s just pretend, Courtney. You know how I feel about marriage. It’s not even a big deal. If it happens later in life, great. The guy I end up with won’t even have to know about this.”
“What makes you think my dad is going to give you up so easily?” Courtney asked. Her voice was joking, but her eyes were serious. Did she know something that Lia didn’t?
“What do you mean?” Lia asked, frowning.
“Shifters can be very possessive with the people they claim, Lia. Haven’t you learned anything from my dad’s class? Anyway, I don’t know,” Courtney said, her light-hearted smile returning. “It’s just that you’re a great person. Maybe you’ll change his mind about only wanting to love a dead woman.”
“You’re kidding, right?” Lia asked, shocked by her friend’s words. Sure, they were about to embark upon a strange fake engagement, but it wasn’t going to be anything more than that, no matter how attractive she thought Courtney’s dad was.
“I don’t know,” Courtney said again. “I just have a weird feeling about this. It’s hard to explain. Like maybe one of you likes the other one for real. At least just a little bit.”
Lia’s heart panged hard again. Of course. Courtney was a shifter. She could sense that kind of thing without even trying to.
“All right,” Lia said holding her hands up. “I’ll admit it. I think your dad is kind of hot. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to spend the rest of my life with him. So stop worrying, all right?”
Courtney laughed. “Well, just do me a favor and butter him up a bit about humans so that, at some point, when things get serious between me and Eric…”
“Of course,” Lia said with a laugh. “If there’s anything I can do to help you, I’ll do my best.”
“Well, sacrificing your freedom to a shifter for the sake of future shifter generations is a pretty decent start,” Courtney said, the humor returning to her voice finally. Lia sighed inwardly in relief. It was nice to see her friend feeling back to her old self. It was a strange situation for everybody involved, even if it had been Courtney’s idea.
“Here’s to hoping,” Lia said with a small laugh.
They fell into silence, each of them considering what it was going to be like for Lia to live there. Where was she going to sleep? Were they all just going to carpool to the school from then on? Would there be some kind of rule against Kane marrying one of his students? Although, if there was, it would probably have been brought up in the guideline that Franklin had given him.
All she really knew for sure was that things were about to change very drastically. Lia only hoped she would be prepared for the ride ahead.
***
“Courtney! Lia. Come on out here.”
Kane pounded on Courtney’s door again and the two were roused from sleep.
“The hell, dad?” Courtney grumbled, slipping out of bed. “It’s the weekend!”
“I know,” Kane said tersely. “But we need somebody to witness the exchange of the symbols of engagement.”
“Fine,” Courtney said, following her father out into the hallway in front of her bedroom. “But did you have to do this so early?”
“The sooner the better, child. Now shut your mouth and get out here.”
Lia followed close behind Courtney, her stomach sour. She hadn’t even brushed her teeth yet, let alone allowed herself to wrap her head around the reality that she had suddenly become engaged to a random man. The whole thing seemed to be happening way too fast. But when she caught Kane’s eye, her heart tremored and a sudden strength surged from deep inside of her.
She wasn’t just doing this for Kane. She was doing it for the youth that would be swayed by rogue shifters with dark intentions. And he wasn’t doing it out of love for her or even attraction. He was doing it because there was no other choice, and it would be over before they knew it. She would just have to be strong for now, even if it felt weird.
“Lia, you have to come over here and take my hand,” Kane said, his voice strained. It was clear where his mind was as he avoided the large family portrait in the hallway, where his face was beaming next to his wife’s, with their little baby daughter between them. He was probably unable to take his mind off of the first time he had done this ritual, in earnest, with the woman he loved. Right now paled in comparison, and Lia felt an irrational twinge of jealousy toward the gorgeous woman in the photo. The woman who had Kane’s heart, whether living or dead. And who could blame him? She was flawless.
Lia nervously extended her hand, dropping it lightly in Kane’s outstretched hand. His fingers tightened over hers, and she looked up at him, certain he would be able to hear the fierce beating of her heart. But his eyes appeared troubled, and she quickly lowered her gaze for the next part of the ceremony.
“Take this,” Kane grumbled, thrusting a brown paper bag into her free hand. She looked inside and saw a pendant, and pulled it out. It was solid gold, with some kind of deep red gemstone set in the center of an octagon.
“That goes on my dad,” Courtney whispered. “As a symbol of your willingness to be his wife. The gold is supposed to symbolize your purity.”
Lia’s face grew hot, and Kane mercifully continued with the ceremony.
“It is my honor to pledge the power of my protection to you always, and ask that we may join in ceremony in one month’s time,” Kane recited, his eyes completely avoiding Lia’s. He stuck a ring on her middle finger, and it suddenly glowed bright white. Lia gazed at the ring in disbelief as the glow died down into a solid white gold.
“You have to put the necklace on him now, and say what’s on the paper in the bag.”
Kane bent forward, his dark eyes glued to the ground, as Lia hesitantly placed the pendant over his head and dug in the bag for the paper.
“I accept your proposal, and vow to surrender the power of my purity to you.”
The words felt stuck in her throat, but finally Kane caught her eye and she felt a little bit better.
“That’s it,” Kane said, dropping Lia’s hand and clearing his throat. “You’re going to have to sleep in my room, though, for the next few weeks until this is all over with. It’s custom to guard the soon to be bride from the advances of any other shifters who might taint her.”
“You don’t think she can just stay in my room?” Courtney asked, her voice slightly alarmed.
“No, the council does random checks once they are informed of an engagement. Particularly in the case of a candidate to inherit as much power as I would receive as the head of the university. It’s just safer that way.”
“Shit,” Courtney said. “I was kind of liking the idea of having a month long slumber party.”
Kane’s lips tugged into a brief smile. “It will still be like that. But your friend will just have to stay with me when it is time to rest. Don’t worry,” Kane said, his serious eyes flickering to Lia. “I won’t let any harm come to you.”
Lia’s heart pounded hard in her chest and she nodded.
“I know.”
“All right,” Courtney said, her voice cheerful. She seemed to sense that both her father and her best friend were feeling some very difficult emotions, and her eyes sparkled as she held her dad’s gaze first, then Lia’s. “Now that you two are good and engaged, I say it’s time we go out and celebrate! Breakfast, on me!”
“Sounds good,” Kane said with a slow nod. “That will probably make this engagement look like it’s real.”
“Yeah,” Lia agreed, trying not to let Kane’s words hurt her. It was silly for them to sting. The engagement was fake, after all. Why would she take it so personally that he didn’t want to marry her? It was stupid! They barely knew each other, really. Just having a man as a teacher didn’t make him husband material anyway.
“Cool,” Courtney said. “Everybody be downstairs by 11:00 and we’ll go out for breakfast and tell everyone the good news. By the time 11 pm rolls around, this house is going to be filled with people here to celebrate your upcoming union.”
“Court, don’t you think that’s a bit much?”
Before the words had left Kane’s mouth, his daughter was already bounding off toward the bathroom, leaving Lia and Kane alone in the hall.
“This isn’t going to be so bad,” Kane said, as much to himself as to Lia. “It will only be a few weeks and then everything will go right back to the way it always was.”
Kane turned away and left to go back downstairs, and Lia watched him go. Sure, it was only going to be a strange few weeks. That was all.
For some reason, Lia couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t going to be quite so simple. Still, it wasn’t worth thinking too deeply about it. No matter what was going to happen, she was just going to have to get through these next few weeks without messing up. If she could manage that, then everything was going to be fine.