“Something else, right?” Ronun was shaking his head with a wicked smile as he watched the two slink off. “Imagine being that mad over someone and they won’t give you the time of day.”
“If I remember right, Kelly kinda made you work for it,” Aurora chirped.
Ronun’s head spun around in surprise, and she cringed at how forward that was. The drinks were really loosening her tongue!
“You know what? Yeah. Damn right she did.”
He raised his glass, and Aurora lifted hers to meet it. A tiny chill ran through her veins, and not the kind that heralded Dane’s appearance. Before she could inspect it further, Kelly was upon them, pressing half a beer into Ronun’s hand.
“So, they’re just pouring half-beers now,” he smirked at her.
“Mmm-hmm,” she nodded vigorously. “But don’t worry, I’ll help you with it!” Then she linked her arm through his and tugged him along. “Come on, guys, a booth opened up at the back!”
Ryan arrived with drinks in hand and they moved en masse to the back of the bar. The moment of public solitude allowed the fullness of Aurora’s discomfort to wash over her. Ronun’s comment about not giving the time of day to someone who was mad about you stuck like a craw in her side.
Dane had made it abundantly clear from the first instant they’d spoken what his desires were. More than desires, really, it resonated inside him like solid fact. And here Aurora was, doing everything she could to push it back. Apart from kissing him that is.
But that was just a one-time thing. Right?
Looking at the rest of the group, something else bothered her. Ryan was walking briskly, holding two drinks, but Nathan made no move to take one or to offer him any affection at all. Granted, he was taciturn by nature and not given to be public about much of anything, but it still felt off.
“Jesus,” Kelly said when they had all snuggled into the cracked vinyl seats. “Don’t tell me you’re gonna be a melancholy drunk. All we’ve done is show you a good time, and you look even worse than when we walked in.”
Aurora felt called out but had to admit it was true. While she hated to think the drinks were bringing her down, she quietly noted that they had been allowing her to examine things she’d been trying to keep tucked away.
“It’s just that… Look, with our witness gone, I can feel that the triune is going to call a mistrial in the morning. Then, it’ll all be over.”
“Oh, hell,” Kelly waved her hand in a broad dismissal. “It’s just a trial.”
“That’s right, sweetie.” Ryan reached across the table and patted the table in front of her. “It’s just the first one. There’ll be other trials.”
“Yeah, but it’s not just the case.” Her tone was so wounded, the others fell just a little quiet. “If the triune is disbanded, Dane’s going back to Florida. It’s the only reason he was here, and now he’ll leave.”
She hadn’t realized how miserable that thought made her until she really let herself mull it over. And in that moment, the others had to sit in it too. Kelly inhaled deeply through her nose and leaned forward over the table.
“Or, he could, you know...stay.”
The thought of it thickened in Aurora’s chest, and she wasn’t sure if that was what she wanted either. She wasn’t sure about anything, which was unfamiliar to the point of agony. She leaned back into her seat, shaking her head lightly.
“Listen, kiddo,” Kelly had her tough-love voice on. “If the guy thinks he’s fated for you, or whatever, why not pursue it? I think you should.”
“Me too.” Ryan raised a hand.
“I mean, come on,” Kelly rattled on. “He’s a judge, so he’s clearly got brains. Plus, he’s wicked hot. No offense, honey…” She reached over to put her hand over Ronun’s.
“None taken,” he muttered as Kelly rambled on.
“Besides all that, he’s clearly into you. Like, so into you that to say, ‘he’s into you’ would be a colossal understatement. Add those things up, and I don’t see what the hold-up is.”
“It’s just…” Aurora looked up into the air, trying like the dickens to quantify what exactly was keeping her from leaping into it with abandon.
“Look,” she said at last, “we’ve been over this. It’s not that I don’t believe in fated mates. I do. It’s just, whoever heard of a witch and a wolf together? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Okay, so,” Ryan proffered. “I grew up with this fae girl, and she was cute as all get out. We shopped together. She had the best taste in clothes. Anyway, that doesn’t matter. The point is, she had a fated mate too, and do you know what he was?”
“No.” Aurora shook her head gently, which made it spin a little.
“One of the great cats. Panther or something, I forget. Handsome. So what I’m getting at is... isn’t that kinda the same thing? Fae, cat. Witch, wolf.” He leaned back, evidently satisfied with the case he’d just laid out. “Face it, girl, you can’t stop true love.”
“Yeah, well. That’s if it’s true,” Nathan quipped drily, and slowly lifted his bottle to his lips.
Ryan looked stung but did everything he could to hide it while a thick blanket of silence fell over the table.
If it hadn’t been for the bustling bar around them, Aurora was certain crickets could be heard chirping. With a sudden move, Kelly plucked the beer out of Ronun’s hands and chugged down the rest of it.
“Oh my god, would you look at that? Time for another round, huh?” She scrambled over her lover’s lap and stood brightly at the edge of the table. “Who else is in? I’m buying!”
Fifteen
Griffin Finch sat at the defense table, his chair rocked back on its hind legs, and his hands folded easily over his belly. He must have heard that the witness against him had come up dead, and he was the picture of cocky seediness. The guy reeked of guilt. Surely that alone would be enough.
But Aurora rubbed her damp palms across the fabric of her charcoal grey wool skirt and stared hard at the prosecution’s table. She knew as well as anyone that looking guilty wasn’t enough. In this world, you had to have an actual case, and the one on her plate had a gaping hole square in the middle of it.
Fuck. She was going to allow herself just one, but it felt so good that she took another. FUCK.
Sitting beside the spindly, sour-faced Finch was Urelia Mallow. Lord knew how a career criminal managed to land a defense attorney as skilled and powerful as Urelia, but there she was. She sat at the table, her straight spine and calm shoulders looking ever so poised in an expensive purple skirt suit.
She was everything Aurora aspired to be, and their first genuine encounter revolved entirely around Aurora’s failure. Going down like this in front of a hero only made her more miserable.
Dane sat to the left of the head judge on the dais, subtly trying to catch her eye. As soon as they met, he attempted a small smile and the barest hint of a wink. If anything, it sent the horde of bats in her stomach flapping so she snapped her eyes back down to the table.
Again she ground her palms against her thighs, hoping not to leave dark spots where she was wiping away the sweat. Surely some surprise had to be waiting in the wings, some detail that hadn’t quite cracked open yet. But that only happened in movies.