when the suns set. It turned to cat-calls and loud screaming until the servants began bringing out the platters of hot food and placing them on the tables.
“Where’s Shalin?” Ailean asked Arranz, who only stared at him. Blankly.
“You lost her?”
“We didn’t lose her. She’s around somewhere. We’ll look after we eat.” Of course Arranz said that around a mouthful of food.
Afraid she might have gone off to handle all this on her own, Ailean searched the castle for her.
He went to her room first but found it empty. He went down to the small dining hall in the back of his home, thinking she might have gone there in search of food. But he found that empty as well, except for a few of the dogs playing on the floor.
Ailean walked into the kitchen, getting more desperate by the second.
“Something we can help you with, Ailean?” asked Madenn. An older human, she’d worked for him since she’d been a young girl, as had her mother and her mother’s mother. He liked Madenn very much. She made him laugh.
“The lady I brought home today? Have you seen her?”
“Last I saw her, she was in the library.”
Ailean tilted his head to the side and stared at Madenn. After a long moment’s pause, “I have a library?”
Madenn snorted. “Aye, m’Lord,” she replied, not bothering to hide her laughter. “With books and everything!”
“Truly?” He grinned now that he knew Shalin was safe and not sacrificing herself for the dragon nation. “I never knew.”
“As I’d guessed.”
“Fascinating.” He started to walk away, then gestured to the door. “Uh…can you point me…”
With a good-natured shake of her head, Madenn walked with Ailean out to the hall, giving him quick directions. “Once you’re in that part of the castle,” she finished, “go down the hall, all the way to the end, turn left, and the very last door on the right.”
“Thank you.”
“Welcome.”
Ailean followed Madenn’s directions and, as she suggested, he found Shalin in the library. Still wearing that dark red dress and barefoot, she sat on the floor, completely engrossed in a book. She probably had no idea how late the time had grown.
Even more fascinating, she had one of the new batch of black-furred puppies asleep in her lap. When Ailean had taken over this land, he’d begun to breed the animals to create bigger, more battle-ready dogs. They were wonderful pets and companions but could easily tear the limbs off a good-sized man. And had when the situation called for it.
“Shalin?”
“Mhhm?”
He couldn’t help but grin. “Shalin?” he called again.
She finally lifted her head. “Yes?”
“It’s time for evening meal.”
“Evening…” She turned her head toward the window. “Oh. It is dark.”
“Aye. It is. And I’m starving.” He held his hand out for her. “So let’s go feed, then.”
“No.” She waved him away. “I’ll be fine until later.”
“You will?”
“Aye.”
“If you’re sure…”
“Of course.” She ran a hand down the puppy’s back while staring at her book. “This little one will tide me over until I—oiy!” she barked when Ailean reached down and grabbed the puppy from her lap. “He’s mine!”
“Not if you’re planning to eat him.”
“What else would I do with him?”
“He’s a pet, Shalin. A companion animal. If you wish, you can keep him as such. But if you’re planning to eat him—no.”
“That’s unfair.”
“On my territory we don’t eat dogs.”
“You have the most ridiculous rules. You do know you’re not human, yes?”
“I’m well aware of that, Shalin.”
The puppy, now awake, yawned and tried to scramble out of Ailean’s arms and back to Shalin. When Ailean held him tight, he began to cry and paw at his hands.
“You’re hurting him,” Shalin accused, quickly getting to her feet.
“You were going to eat him.”
“Give him back to me,” she ordered as only a royal could.
Ailean moved away from her grasping hands. “Only if you give me your word you’ll not eat him.”
“Fine. I give you my word.”
“Good.” Ailean shoved the puppy back at her and Shalin snuggled him close. “He seems to like you. I’d hate for that affection to be betrayed.”
“It won’t be.” She giggled when the puppy licked her face and nipped her nose.
“Then he’s my gift to you.”
Shalin looked at him in surprise. “A gift? For me?”
“Of course.” He reached over and stroked the puppy’s head, smiling when the little bastard tried to bite his finger off. “While you’re here, I’ll show you how to care for him.”
“No one but my father and mother has ever given me a gift before.” She smiled, and Ailean wondered if he’d ever seen anything so beautiful. “Thank you.”
He cleared his throat and stepped back from her, wondering why he had this sudden, almost overwhelming desire to give her everything he owned and fuck her beyond reason. He’d never felt both tenderness and lust at the same time for anyone and he didn’t much like those feelings now.
“Let’s go in and eat. You can bring the puppy.”
With the puppy and the book she’d never released still in her hands, she peered up at him. “I don’t spend much time with others, Ailean. I mostly keep to myself.”
That surprised him a bit. “But all that time in Devenallt Mountain with Adienna…?”
“I just followed. No one ever expected me to do or say anything.” She gave a devious little smirk. “Very few at court find me very interesting. And I’ve found if I stay unbearably boring long enough, they wander away and stop talking to me altogether. I like when they don’t talk to me. Before I went to school in Kyffin, I could sometimes clear a chamber simply by entering it.”
