Authors: Marian Tee
Domenico was of a mind not to answer, but the quivering note in the boy’s voice told him it had taken the student a lot of guts to speak out loud. Pulling his shirt over his head, he asked, “What is it? And this better be the last question, you little punks.” His words, uttered in a menacing tone, had everyone laughing, albeit nervously.
“A-are you even afraid of anything?”
The question had him pausing.
Something he was still afraid of?
Domenico frowned as he slammed his locker door shut. The sound had the young shifters jumping, which almost made him smile. They really were still kids.
Only one answer came to mind. “Losing my wife.” He bared his fangs. “It’s my greatest fear, but it’s also my strength because it's what keeps me fighting…even in the darkest times.”
****
Thirty minutes later, Domenico still couldn’t find his wife, who had become exceptionally good at masking her scent. Catching sight of his younger brother on guard at the training field at the back of the manor, he swiftly walked towards Alejandro, unaware that by doing so the young female shifters training in the same area had all stopped to gawk at him.
Calys Adelardi, queen and pack leader of the strongest panther pack, paused in the middle of her instructions about self-defense for women. There was no point talking when every one of her two hundred students wasn’t looking at her.
She sighed. What was new? These Moretti brothers, and that included her own Cavaliere, always caused a sensation wherever they went. Cavaliere basically meant champion, bodyguard, and P.R. man all rolled into one, a role that only Alejandro Moretti could successfully play.
She glanced at the two brothers fondly, the way they looked so much alike with their ebony-black hair and green eyes. For her, Alejandro was the more gorgeous, but the others could be forgiven for thinking otherwise, Calys thought generously. He was, after all, the reason all Lyccan packs had a united front now.
“Have you seen Misty?” Domenico asked with a frown upon reaching his brother.
“Nope.”
Domenico scowled at his brother. “You know I can always tell when you’re lying, right?”
“I have been sworn to secrecy.” Alejandro’s tone was solemn, but the smirk on his lips belied it. However, his amusement became short-lived when his older brother’s gaze narrowed, his arms crossing over his broad chest before he said, “Queen Calys?”
Shit.
This time, Alejandro was the one scowling. Trust his sly older brother to get his Queen involved.
Calys headed towards them and bowed at Domenico.
The action had Domenico bowing back, although he did glance at his younger brother questioningly afterwards.
“When she’s in her fighting form, like now,” Alejandro explained, “she sees herself as a warrior rather than Queen. So she’s bowing because warriors,” he said in a very serious manner, “do
not
curtsy.”
“Ah.” Domenico and Alejandro’s gazes spoke of their amusement.
Calys protested, “It would look weird if I curtsied when I have a sword with me, wouldn’t it?”
“Absolutely,” Domenico agreed smoothly. “Your attention towards proper etiquette befitting warriors is to be applauded. It is more than what I can say for your Cavaliere here.”
A frown marred Calys’ forehead. “Why?”
Alejandro cursed under his breath.
“Sly bastard.”
“Last night, I caught sight of him with some of the younger male shifters, and I distinctly heard him—”
“Your wife’s in the forest. She left about ten minutes ago. If you go after her now, I’m sure you’ll have no trouble catching her.”
Without missing a beat, Domenico bowed low to Calys. “I’m afraid I’ll have to continue this next time. I must speak to my wife.”
“Oh. Of course.” After Calys’ bow, Domenico immediately turned back and walked swiftly towards the forest.
Bastard always had to have his way,
Alejandro thought. And of course, Domenico had succeeded. How the hell had his brother known about last night? Alejandro had warned the boys not to ever ask his Queen for any tips about fighting. It could have led to a physical demonstration, and no fucking way would he allow any shifter to lay a hand on Calys.
Of course, if Calys had known that, they would have had a fight in their hands since she would have thought it “remiss” of her if she ignored anyone asking for help. Calys thought of herself as a superhero, and superheroes
never
ignored calls for help.
Glancing at his queen, Alejandro scowled when he saw she was still gazing at his older brother. “Stop staring at him.”
The abrupt tone startled Calys into looking at her Cavaliere, and she couldn’t help but blink when she saw the hardened look on his gorgeous face. “Are you jealous?”
Alejandro took a fistful of her hair, using it to pull her close to him. It took Calys by surprise, causing her to fall against him, and just as she did, he captured her mouth in a deep, passionate kiss. When he lifted his head, he said in a low growl, “Does that answer your question?” But his hands were gentle as he helped Calys regain her balance.
She stood on tiptoes to place a quick kiss on his lips. “You know you have nothing to be jealous of. I love you,” she said seriously, “and you are and will always be the most beautiful man in my eyes. You are the strongest fighter in the land, the one—”
He clapped a hand over her mouth. “I get it.” His tone was a mixture of tenderness and exasperation. Calys had a knack of taking everything literally, and she also had a tendency to talk about him like he was
also
a real-life superhero.
Holding her shoulders, he used it to turn her around and have her facing her students. “Go back to work, my Queen. You need to remind them you’re a tough warrior and not just a woman who’s so in love with me—”
“Alejandro!” But one look at her students’ faces was enough to have her groaning, Alejandro was right, but unfortunately it was also too late to do anything.
Hands started shooting up in the air.
“Umm—”
Alejandro grinned at her even as he told the students, “Go ahead and ask.”
The girls let out an excited squeal just before the questions came at Calys in rapid-fire succession.
“What’s the best way to flirt with a Lyccan?”
“What’s the sweetest thing Prince Alejandro ever did for you?”
Good God. Why couldn’t she have been given boy shifters to train
, Calys thought helplessly.
“What are the unofficial duties of a Cavaliere?”
Having caught the wicked gleam in her own Cavaliere’s eyes, Calys hurriedly slapped a hand over Alejandro’s mouth. “You are not qualified to answer that.”
****
Domenico found Misty a few miles away from the manor, crouched before a long stretch of sawgrass marsh. Most strangers to the Everglades thought the area as one filled with cypress trees, but in truth a good portion of it was made up of marshes such as the ones located within Adelardi lands.
“What are you looking at?”
Misty nearly fell on her butt at the sound of her husband’s voice and would have done so if his quick reflexes had not enabled him to catch hold of her.
She allowed him to pull her up to her feet and when he turned her around to face him, her breath caught and her heart skipped a beat. Even now, she still had trouble believing that this man belonged to her.
Then she saw the look on his face—
Misty asked meekly, “You know about the Panthera?”
Domenico only looked at his wife in answer, wanting her to squirm. It was the best and only way to punish her. Of course, it was also one of his favorite habits. Small and curvaceous, with dark hair and dark eyes, Misty was not the type to invite second glances from men. But for Domenico it had been the total opposite.
Because he had known
of
her before ever meeting Misty, Domenico had been captivated by her character, had found himself powerfully attracted to her strength and loyalty. He had never met a human woman like her, someone who had an uncanny knack of making people either love her or hate her very passionately.
Misty fidgeted, trying not to say a word in her defense, but when Domenico remained silent, she blurted out, “It wasn’t my fault.”
“That’s what you said the last time also, my love.” But the tender smile that accompanied the admonishing words had Misty sighing in relief.
“It really wasn’t my fault, though,” she insisted. “And I know Calys would have sided with me if she was there. They weren’t right to talk about Anastasia that way—”
He looked at her.
She shut up. She knew that look. It meant he saw through her – or rather, her babble. She mumbled, “I admit that I may have gotten
slightly
carried away by my emotions.”
It was difficult to keep a detached face at his wife’s mumble, but he knew it had to be done. She always thought of herself as a wimp, but when it came to the people she cared about, Misty ended up acting like the fiercest she-wolf. While her courage was something he greatly admired, he wanted her to learn to be less impulsive. It always ended up getting her in trouble, and Domenico feared the day would come when he wouldn’t be in time to save her.
“How carried away?”
“I might have, umm, said that Anastasia would never marry a panther even to save her life?”
Domenico winced. “Misty…”
“But they were talking about her like she was trash,” she said unhappily.
“And that’s wrong. I’ll be the first one to say that. However, you cannot expect thousands of years of prejudice to change overnight. The changes you want will happen. I will personally make sure it happens, even if it’s only for your sake, but you must accept that it will happen gradually.”
She leaned against him in answer, and his arm curved around her, knowing how precious this was. When they were apart, Misty had fought hard to be independent but now that they were back together, Domenico knew that she was doing her best to show him that she trusted Domenico to be her strength when she needed him to be.
Misty was rubbing her nose against his chest, like a pup wanting affection. Domenico stroked her back.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be the proper mate for you.”
“Inconsequential,” he dismissed. “I’m the only one you’ll ever have, the same way you are the only one for me.” Taking her hand in his, he drew her next to him for a walk, knowing it would help clear her mind.
Misty leaned her head against his shoulder. It was rare for them to have quiet time like this, and she cherished such moments. They walked in companionable silence for long minutes, past the marshes and deeper into the Everglades, with its ever-gray skies and twisted, lanky trees.
Although she had lived all her life in Florida, she had never even considered coming here and probably wouldn’t have if not for the fact that a large part of it made up the Adelardi pack’s territory. There was something about its eternal fog that crept her out, making Misty feel like time had no meaning here.
The silence unnerved her, too. It was a deep kind of silence, one that had shivers running down her spine. She looked at Domenico, wondering if he felt the same—
Domenico, sensing his wife’s attention on him, glanced down at her with a raised eyebrow.
Nope.
Of course the Big Bad Wolf wouldn’t be afraid of the woods.
“Whatever it is you’re thinking, I’m certain it’s not something I’d like to hear.”
She grinned.
“Don’t even think about telling me.”
From afar, something tittered—
Misty jumped into his arms.
Domenico laughed.
“But it didn’t sound normal,” she protested even as she squeezed his shoulders so he could let her down.
“My love, you’re married to a shifter. Is that normal?”
“I’m used to fighting vampires, not…I dunno, it could be an
aswang,
you know?”
Aswang
was a Filipino myth, one of the many mythological creatures Misty would occasionally ask him about so she would know which were and weren’t real.