Chapter Twenty-Three
Cassandra stirred slowly, touching Silas. Sex in the office had led to sex in the bedroom, where she could have stayed with him forever — or on the floor, or in the shower, where her dirty mind had already fast-forwarded to. She’d been on fire for Silas for days, but the mating bite had intensified the primal, desperate need for more.
More. I like that idea, a voice registered faintly in her mind.
Her eyes flew open. Yikes. Was she already sensing her inner dragon? It felt a lot like the instincts she’d always sensed, telling her where to go, what to do, and when her body needed release — but all that came with a voice now. A voice attached to a dragon that would reshape her body someday. She gulped.
Want my mate. Now.
She took a deep breath, telling herself she could handle her dragon the way she’d handled the Spirit Stone.
Patience, she said. My mate has responsibilities, which means we do too.
That seemed to shush the beast — for now. But, gosh. She had a lot of reading to do.
Better yet, private lessons from my mate, the voice purred, low and sultry.
Without thinking, she wound her arm around Silas’s body, sneaking closer to his groin. A second later, her cheeks heated and she detoured that hand to his chest. They couldn’t stay in bed all day, no matter how much she wanted to. The others would be waiting, unable to relax until they had been assured that the danger had passed.
So she curled into a sitting position and looked down at Silas. He lay on his back, gazing up at her as if she were some kind of goddess.
She chuckled. “What are you looking at?”
His eyes glowed a warm brick color, the color she’d come to associate with love.
“My mate. I’m looking at my mate.” He shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe it.
She couldn’t believe it either. But in one sense, she felt as though she’d known all along that her destined mate had been waiting for her somewhere. And now that they were together, nothing could drive them apart.
“Well, my mate, I think this bed isn’t going anywhere, and we could both use some breakfast.” She turned her eyes to the clock. “Oops. Make that brunch.”
Her clothes were still at the guesthouse, which was fine because she got to pull on one of Silas’s dress shirts and a pair of boxer shorts. She hugged them to her body, and her nostrils flared. Every scent seemed a little more intense. Fresher, newer. Were her dragon senses awakening already?
“How is it that you make those look so much better than they look on me?” Silas asked, watching her every move.
She laughed. “I beg to differ, but if you want to keep dreaming, dream on.”
He shook his head slowly and kissed her. “Not dreaming. Not any more.”
Which nearly had her detouring back to bed, but she broke off the kiss, remembering the others.
“Come along, mister. Like I said, I’m not going anywhere.”
Silas pulled on his usual slacks and button-down shirt, and she made a mental note to get him some jeans. Something more casual to help him relax.
My mate is relaxed, the inner voice hummed.
She peeked sideways and grinned. Silas’s version of relaxed may not match Boone’s barefoot-in-the-grass style, but he did look different. His shoulders weren’t quite as stiff, his jaw not clenched quite as tight.
She’d have to keep working on him. Every day…
…and every night, the inner voice added in a lusty whisper.
She swatted a nonexistent mosquito, keeping herself on track. Silas wrapped his hand around hers and rocked it as they made their way down toward the meeting house. The brook that ran alongside the path had never sounded so cheery, and the sky seemed bluer than ever before. Silas’s skin had a radiant tone despite all they’d been through, and her cheeks were probably no different.
Okay, so it would be obvious to everyone that they’d screwed for most of the night. But this was no walk of shame. Silas was her mate. The other shifters of Koa Point would understand that feeling of pride, of completion. So she strode into the meeting house, more conscious of the man at her side than of the knowing looks from the others.
“Hi,” Tessa said, casual as can be.
“Hi.” Cassandra grinned.
“Cassandra, meet Jody and Cruz,” Tessa said as two people rose.
Jody was a freckled blonde, part tomboy, part cover girl. Cruz had dark, flashing eyes and an edge that only eased when his mate slid her hand over his arm.
“So nice to meet you,” Jody said, doing the talking for both of them. “I’m so sorry we couldn’t get here sooner.”
“So come on already,” Kai urged. “Have a seat. Eat. Tell us what happened.”
Cassandra looked around the table. The rich scent of coffee tickled her nose, as did the aroma of hibiscus tea, and her mouth watered at the sight of freshly baked muffins, still steaming on a rack. Yum.
But there was one problem. Silas always sat at the head of the table, and so far, she’d taken a seat several places down one side, beside Dawn. But even that seemed too far from her mate.
Hunter, the bear, was the first to act. He rose quickly and switched to the chair on his mate’s left side, leaving the chair next to Silas free for Cassandra. She closed her eyes as emotions welled up in her. It wasn’t just Silas she had won over. It was this family. This community that had embraced her so graciously from the start. A tear slipped from her eye – a happy tear – and she didn’t bother whisking it away.
She took a seat and croaked out a grateful, “Thank you.” Not just to Hunter, but to everyone.
Nina smiled in a way that said she knew just what Cassandra meant, and the other women did too. The men all leaned closer to their mates as if reliving their first days together, and a thoughtful silence filled the room — until Keiki bounced onto the table with a loud purr.
Cruz chuckled. “Hey, Keiki. Want some milk?”
The kitten purred under his hand then tiptoed to Hunter and looked up expectantly. From what Cassandra had gathered, Hunter and Cruz were the ones who had initially adopted the kitten, and it showed.
When Hunter petted Keiki, the kitten disappeared under his massive hand. Cruz poured some milk into a saucer and smacked his lips, but Keiki detoured around it and walked straight to Silas, staring up into his eyes.
“Hey, little one,” he murmured, gently stroking her fur. His eyes shone with love and gratitude.
Cassandra hid a smile. Had Keiki been taking care of Silas when he needed it most?
Keiki flicked her tail, obviously satisfied with what she saw, and meandered back down the table to lap her milk.
“Spoiled little thing.” Kai chuckled.
“No manners.” Hunter sighed, though no one made a move to set the kitten on the floor.
Tessa pushed a muffin toward Cassandra, who gratefully accepted. She couldn’t find any words to express what she felt anyway. The sweet taste of papaya filled her mouth, along with a hint of vanilla, and she closed her eyes.
“Oh my gosh. These are so good,” she murmured between bites.
“Everything Tessa makes is good,” Kai agreed.
Nina poured her a coffee while a gleeful Boone held up a newspaper. “I think this even beats the helicopter on Molokini.”
Cassandra’s eyes went wide. What was that about?
Boone straightened the paper and read from it. “Spectacular nighttime eruptions reported on Big Island. Volcanoes National Park rangers unable to pinpoint exact source of lava outbreak…” He looked up, grinning from ear to ear. “I wonder why.”
Silas stirred his coffee but didn’t say a word.
Boone read on. “Storm-force winds prevent rangers from investigating.” He pushed the newspaper across the table to Cassandra with a wink.
“Damn good thing,” Silas muttered, taking a sip from his mug.
Cassandra nodded. Now more than ever, she understood why shifters guarded their privacy so fiercely. And really, locals were better off not knowing what had truly transpired.
“I doubt they’ll find much evidence this morning,” Tessa said with a proud smile.
Cassandra grinned, remembering how Tessa had swooped overhead to chase away Drax’s henchmen. Tessa had mentioned that she’d been practicing the art of breathing fire, so maybe it was a watershed moment for her as well.
Cassandra glanced at the article which featured a photo of a startled local pointing over the ridge and an interview in which words like amazing, incredible, and inexplicable were repeated again and again.
She folded the paper and pushed it away. Yes, it had been incredible, all right. But she was glad it was over.
“You did it,” Kai said to Silas. “You defeated Drax.”
“We did it,” Silas said, locking eyes with Cassandra.
Cassandra shook her head. “You did it.” All she had done was allowed Silas to fight a fair fight.
“And the Windstone?” Dawn asked, leaning forward. “Is it safe?”
Silas looked at Cassandra and squeezed her hand. She took a deep breath, pulled the diamond out of her shirt pocket, and held the stone out on her scratched, open palm. As she did, the sea breeze drifting through the meeting house shifted, stirring the edges of the tablecloth. Everyone stopped, and even little Keiki looked around.
Cassandra pushed the diamond toward the middle of the table and drew her hand back. Yes, she had been able to harness its powers, but that didn’t mean she enjoyed handling the diamond any more than she absolutely had to.
“It’s safe,” Silas said.
For a moment, everyone was silent, and she wondered why. But then she realized that they were waiting for her to explain what she was planning to do with it. Everyone seemed to accept that the diamond was hers and that she had the right to determine its fate.
Her heart thumped harder. How could she ever have doubted these good folks?
“We’ll keep it safe here,” she said firmly, looking at Silas.
He nodded, and everyone exhaled a tiny bit. “We’ll keep it safe, together with the other Spirit Stones.”
Cassandra half expected the conversation to conclude there, but one by one, the other women each drew out a jewel and laid it on the table beside the Windstone.
“The Lifestone,” Tessa said, setting out a huge emerald the color of her eyes.
“The Firestone,” Nina whispered, gently positioning a ruby beside it.
Dawn slid out a gorgeous amethyst. “The Earthstone.”
“The Waterstone,” Jody said in a hushed voice, pulling out a sapphire.
Each gem was bright and beautiful, but the radiance increased when they were placed together. They all pulsed with colored light that reflected on the white tablecloth. The collection seemed to radiate heat — stirring up energy, a force of its own.
Dawn motioned toward the jewels, whispering, “Can you feel it?”
One by one, the others nodded, and Silas scrubbed his chin.
“We did it,” Boone breathed, uncharacteristically quiet. “We united the Spirit Stones.”
Nina stared at the gems. “Wow.”
Wow was right, Cassandra thought. Still, that energy frightened her. She imagined the power of the Windstone multiplied times five.
“All five,” Tessa marveled.
Something niggled at Cassandra’s mind. A dim memory, a blur of a picture she’d seen somewhere. She frowned, trying to recall what that was.
Boone leaned forward, watching the jewels glow. “Wow is right. But, man. What now?”
“If they fall into the wrong hands…” Dawn warned.
No evil force can be allowed to command the powers contained in that gem, Eloise had warned.
Cassandra shivered, but the feeling passed when Silas touched her hand.
“They’ll be safe here,” Kai said firmly. “We’ll keep them safe. All of us will.”
Everyone looked to their leader expectantly, and Cassandra sensed the weight of responsibility settle over Silas’s shoulders again. Maybe not quite as crushing as before, but still. She grasped his hand and held it tightly. He locked eyes with her, grateful for the support, then took a deep breath.
“We’ll keep them locked safely away. We’ll make sure no one ever abuses their power.” His voice was resolute, just like the expression on every person’s face.
“What about Moira?” Cruz growled, posing the question no one dared ask.
Cassandra could tell the tiger shifter would be downright terrifying if caught in the wrong mood. But his mate, Jody, slid her arm across his shoulders, and the murderous look in his eyes dimmed.
Moira. Cassandra found herself wondering the same thing.
She glanced at Silas and saw crushed hopes, bitter betrayal, and anger in his eyes. But all of that was covered with a soft mist, as if he had pushed those emotions to a distant corner of his mind and locked them away.
His lips crooked at her, and he kissed her knuckles. He kept his lips pressed to her hand for a good ten seconds, bending his head, and she smoothed a hand over his shoulder. That part of his life was over, and it didn’t have to haunt him ever again.
Slowly, Silas straightened and looked at the others. “Moira escaped. And I suspect Drax had Moira to thank for his increasing powers.”
Cassandra had the same feeling — that Moira had been using Drax to obtain the stone.
Kai frowned. “What do you think Moira will do next?”
Silas studied the swirling lines of his coffee. “There’s no telling. Will she try to take over what she can salvage of Drax’s empire? I don’t know.”
When he paused, Cassandra held her breath. Drax’s empire made her mind skip to Filimore’s estate. The others still didn’t know about that.
Silas stared into her eyes for another few seconds then smiled. “Speaking of which…”
The others all leaned closer, and even Keiki tilted her head.
“Moira will probably try to take over Drax’s empire, but she’ll have to battle the lieutenants who want to carve a piece of that empire for themselves. However, one part of Drax’s holdings, she will never have.”
“What do you mean?” Boone asked.
Silas flattened his hands on the table. “I’m sure Drax is responsible for poisoning my uncle Filimore, the senior member of our extended clan, in an attempt to accelerate the inevitable.”
“What do you mean, the inevitable?” Kai demanded.
“Filimore never revealed the details of his will while he was alive, but Drax gambled — correctly, as it turned out — that Filimore would follow tradition and leave all his holdings to the senior members of each branch of the family.”
Kai’s narrowed. “That would be Drax — and you.”
Boone’s eyes went wide. “Whoa. Does that mean you get that penthouse in New York?”
A tiny smile played over Silas’s lips. “I get a lot more than that. Filimore owned property and businesses around the world. But I won’t be going anywhere soon.”
“Well, I hope not,” Nina said. “It’s been great meeting Cassandra, and now that we’re all home…”
Everyone bobbed their heads in agreement, and another wave of gratitude washed over Cassandra. She was part of that we. This was her home.
“I’m not particularly interested in the properties,” Silas explained. “But there is one estate…”
He was teasing, Cassandra sensed, and a grin grew on her lips as everyone went still.
“You mean…?” Nina whispered.
Silas nodded. “A very comfortable seaside estate with exceptionally good views.”
Kai, she saw, was breathless. Hunter raised one bushy eyebrow. Boone looked at Nina, confused.
Tessa gestured impatiently. “Come on, Silas. Tell us already.”
But Silas took his time, extending the tease. “I’d have to share the place with a few others, but I hear they pull their own weight.”
Tessa broke into a huge smile. “That we do.”
“I don’t get it,” Boone muttered, still not catching on.
Silas pointed around. “The owner of this estate – that reclusive, private man — was Filimore. My great-uncle. Koa Point belonged to him.”
“What?” Boone gaped.
“All this time…” Kai murmured.
Silas nodded. “All this time, I respected Filimore’s wish for privacy. He hired me as chief caretaker and each of you in turn, exactly as I’ve always said.”
“And now that Filimore is dead? And Drax too?” Kai asked.
Boone’s eyebrows shot up. “Holy crap!”
Silas grinned. “My feelings precisely when I found out about the will.”
Everyone was silent for a moment before breaking into a hubbub that made Keiki scramble to Hunter’s shoulder and peer around.
“Oh my God.”
“I can’t believe it.”
“Wait, does that mean this place is yours?”
“Ours,” Silas corrected. “Koa Point is ours.”
Silas was a man of few emotions, and Cassandra watched him, savoring one of the rare times when he let them shine through. Of all the joys she’d shared with him recently, this was the icing on the cake. That Wow, we really did it sense of completion.
Tessa raised her coffee mug. “Well, then. I think we need a toast.”
Kai nodded, looking Silas in the eye. “You know what this means, don’t you? You could be the greatest dragon lord of all.”
Silas held up his hand quickly. “That’s not what I want. I never did.”
Tessa raised her mug higher. “How about being the one to bring peace and stability to the dragon world?”
Cassandra watched, falling in love with Silas all over again as he hemmed and hawed modestly. The man wasn’t about power. He was all about duty and honor.
He allowed himself a tiny smile. “That, I wouldn’t mind.” Then he gazed into the distance. “But, honestly? That’s a big idea to get my head around, and I’m too tired to think straight.” He looked up at Cassandra and grinned. “Too lost in love.”
“My sentiments exactly,” she whispered, imitating his voice.
Tessa clinked her mug against Nina’s and gave an exaggerated sigh. “Finally.”
“No kidding.” Kai grinned.
“Finally, what?” Silas asked.
“Oh, nothing.” Tessa winked and gave Cassandra a half-hidden thumbs-up.
“Oh! Tell Cassandra our idea!” Nina clapped and beamed at Tessa.
The redhead’s eyes shone brighter. “Well, I just finished my first book of grill recipes, and the publisher I’m hoping to sign with says it has to have something totally new for it to compete in a tight market.”
Nina flapped her hands in excitement. “So I was thinking you could help Tessa pair each recipe with a cocktail. Wouldn’t that be cool?”
Cassandra broke into a broad smile. “That would be fantastic. Although I am too tired to think straight right now. Can I tell you for sure tomorrow?”
Tessa nodded eagerly as Kai brushed a hand over her back and spoke. “I think we’re all exhausted — and frankly, a little distracted by our mates. It might not be a bad idea to bring in someone to help keep an eye on things over the next few months.”
Boone nodded immediately. “It is kind of hard to run a good night patrol when you keep thinking about your mate.”
Hunter scratched his beard. “How about the Hoving brothers? Weren’t they retiring from the Marines soon?”
Cruz shook his head. “They’ve got two more months, at least.”
“What about McElroy and those buddies of his? Weren’t they looking for work?”
Kai frowned. “They reenlisted from what I know.”
Boone smacked his hand on the table. “Wait. I know just the man we need. Make that, just the woman.”
Everyone looked over. “Who?”
“Ella. The desert fox. I think a working vacation in Hawaii is just what she needs. And hell, maybe she can bring one of the wolves from Twin Moon Ranch with her — or one of those bears that runs the Blue Moon Saloon. Those guys don’t mess around.”
Silas nodded. “Great idea. I’ll get in touch with Ella.”
Kai grinned. “I’ll do it. I think you might have pressing business with your mate.”
The bite marks on Cassandra’s neck itched, and her body heated up. Now that Kai mentioned it, yes. She would love to get Silas somewhere private again.
“His mate,” Tessa chuckled. “Music to my ears.”
Silas raised one chiseled eyebrow at her.
Tessa raised her mug again. “So here’s my toast. Everyone ready?”
Everyone raised their mugs, unconcerned they weren’t the finest crystal containing expensive champagne.
“To Silas, our fearless leader,” Tessa started.
“Hear, hear,” everyone cheered.
“To Cassandra,” Tessa added with a genuine smile. “You might be crazy for loving Silas—”
Everyone laughed.
“—but you’re perfect for each other. May the two of you discover the joy of being mated like the rest of us have.” Tessa winked, and everyone chuckled.
Cassandra felt the blood rush to her cheeks. She had to be blushing bright red by now. Silas kissed her knuckles again, unabashed.
“And to Koa Point,” Tessa concluded. “Our beautiful, cozy home.”
A sprawling estate shouldn’t seem cozy but Cassandra agreed it was in every possible way.
“To Koa Point,” each person echoed, looking at his or her mate. “Home.”