Me needing to be fed was causing at least some of Tiago’s irritation. Apparently he’d hired a concierge chef who was supposed to cook three meals a day for me, as well as keep the refrigerator stocked, but there was some confusion about the credentials of the person, as well as where their quarters would be. Beneath what I was calling our loft was Hadrian and Tiago’s enormous personal residence that, I was told, was bigger than a penthouse apartment. They had made it that size because they’d knocked out the wall between their individual quarters years before. Those meant for my champion, my hendr, were also larger. Clustered around the two larger suites were the smaller studios of the individual dreki, as well as the various common rooms. There was, it turned out, a tiny room on the end that was open, but no one had noted that or mentioned it to Tiago. Food was not a possibility unless someone was making a run. And normally it wouldn’t have been a problem, but at the moment, we were quickly coming up on the time that Varic and I, mostly Varic but me too, were expected to appear in front of the king.
Hoping that the water and the granola bar I’d found in my backpack would help, I was concentrating on not becoming nauseous. Into the chaos stepped Eris, which I found somewhat ironic.
“A runner just arrived from the king’s rajan,” she informed Varic, head bowed before she lifted it, grimacing. “The king is waiting.”
He growled and then turned to look at me. “You don’t have time to shower, just change.”
Even though I hadn’t noticed, at some point in the last few minutes, he’d apparently lost his mind.
His scowl, when he realized I wasn’t moving, darkened. “You’ll be fine.”
I crossed my arms and glared back at him.
“Change,” he barked out the order as Tiago fussed with his suit jacket, brushing it gently to remove stray pieces of lint. “Now.”
“Are you kidding?” I asked, deadpan. “I smell like stale airplane, sweat, and cum, and you want me to meet your mother?” I drew out the word. “Is that the first impression that you expect me to make on her?”
“I can, in fact, smell your seed on him,” Tiago chimed in.
I was surprised that Tiago wasn’t incinerated by the look Varic gave him.
“Well, I can,” he said belligerently, gesturing at me. “And your blood as well as… what is that?” He inhaled deeply, and his eyes got huge like an anime character.
Hadrian coughed. “Why, my prince, does your consort reek of the musk of your wolf?”
Varic rounded on them and answered the question through clenched teeth. “I shifted.”
They were both standing there in their suits—Hadrian in a black bespoke one that hugged every muscle in his powerful frame, and Tiago in one that was velvet and deep purple—looking like they’d seen a ghost.
“You shifted,” Hadrian stated after long minutes of silence. “And did what?”
Varic squinted at them. “What do you think?”
Everyone in the room, including Eris, who turned fast and beat it out of there, knew what he’d done once he’d shifted, but the question just hung there awaiting an answer.
“I claimed my mate,” Varic said hoarsely after a long moment.
Both heads slowly turned to me.
“You know, I feel like this is an overshare,” I told them. “I think what happens in our bedroom stays between us from now on.”
“I concur,” Varic rushed out, snatching the brush from Tiago and placing it on the counter. “I’m having several chairs and ottomans and some barstools delivered tomorrow, because I just realized that we need them.”
I grinned at him. “You’re thinking of entertaining in here now?”
“It’s our home, together, while we’re here in the palace, and I want it to be a place of warmth, like you, and so we need chairs.”
“I think that sounds great,” I said softly, loving just being there, looking at him.
He took a step toward me.
“No, no, no,” Tiago shouted, slipping around in front of Varic. “You have just newly arrived,” he whined, sounding pained. “It would behoove you not to anger your father so very quickly. Let us not have repeated history.”
Varic raked his fingers through his thick, glossy hair, glanced at Tiago and then back at me. “I will leave Hadrian here with—”
“No,” Tiago told him. “You cannot appear before the king without your contingent, as you well know,” he finished curtly. “This is the palace; Jason is safer here than anywhere else in the world. All he has to do is retrace his steps and he will be back at the main stairs.” He turned to me then. “When you arrive at the entrance to the throne room, text me and I will come out and escort you in.”
“Perfect,” I told him, smiling at Varic.
He shook his head.
“I’m not going smelling like jizz,” I assured him, grinning. “Gimme a kiss and go. I’ll be right behind you if I don’t pass out in the shower.”
“Why would you—”
“Jason!” Tiago scolded me, because now I was the one not helping.
Moving quickly around Tiago, Varic reached me, took my face in his hands, and laid a kiss on me that ran through me like a live wire. I melted against him, and he chuckled under his breath, smugly satisfied with my response, before he eased close for another.
“Oh for the love of God, no!” Tiago railed, nearly shrieking. “We must go!”
Varic turned and glared at him.
“Apologies, my prince,” Tiago snapped perfunctorily, not meaning it at all.
Varic huffed out a breath and then stalked from the room, Tiago running to keep up and Hadrian shaking his head as he trailed behind them, his walk turning quickly into a jog when Tiago yelled. I smiled after them until Eris leaned back in the doorway.
“What are you doing?” she snapped at me.
“Shit,” I groaned, and crossed the room to where the bathroom was, closing the outer door, because of course there were two, and then walking the ten feet to the second, heavier door made of camphor glass, letting it click shut behind me. I was in the shower seconds later.
The stall was so big, it didn’t have a door, no water was going to splash anywhere out of the Moroccan-tiled oasis, and between the powerful water pressure and my flagging blood sugar, I would have fallen asleep on my feet if I wasn’t so concerned about where I was supposed to be.
Once I was out of the shower, shaved, moisturized, and wishing the bags under my eyes weren’t quite that noticeable, I realized there were no closets anywhere that I’d seen up to that point. There was nothing near the bed either. Not wanting to hunt around, I texted Tiago and asked him where my suit was.
He told me to check my closet outside the bathroom.
When I walked out of the inner bathroom door, I found a vestibule I hadn’t noticed earlier; to my right was a sliding door, and to my left, another. Moving to the one on my right, I saw a short hall that opened up into a large room with a chaise, mirrors, and built-in shelves and racks. My clothes were all hung up, my shoes were there as well, and the rest of the large space was empty. When I walked out, crossing in front of the still open bathroom door, I slid open the one on the left and found Varic’s much bigger closet. Unlike mine, it was packed with clothes, every drawer, every shelf, every space that was for shoes had a pair filling the cubby, and in a long middle drawer was his hoard of jewelry and watches. I had never seen so many bracelets, pendants, rings, and every variation of high-end timepieces imaginable. He could have had his own luxury store.