Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifter, #3)(73)

“I wondered where all the salmon and beef were going,” he said with a low chuckle.

I shrugged. “Look, I’m not gonna lie, the food here is amazing. And a lot of it is similar to Earth food, so I feel right at home. My favorite is the stew, though. My god—”

His glare cut me off, and I shrugged. “It’s a turn of phrase, damn you,” I said. “Stop editing my words.”

He leaned back in his chair, arrogant as fuck. “I’m the only god around here, Sunshine.”

I wrinkled my nose. “It was ‘god’ with a small ‘g.’ So it could be referring to anyone. Maybe it was referring to you.”

He leaned over and kissed me, hard, not caring that almost everyone in the room stopped talking again and took a moment to stare at us. I didn’t care, either, mostly because I forgot all about them the moment he pulled me into him, his tongue stroking greedily against mine. “Yes, Sunshine. Me and only me.”

My head spun and my reply was slower than normal. “Goes both ways, Shadow.”

He nodded. “It does.”

That shut me up. Now all of us were silently staring at the beast who ruled us all.





40





Before I could combust from the mere weight of Shadow’s scorching gaze, our food arrived, and I was once again thankful for the gift of food and all of its delicious distractions. Angel’s face lit up when they placed her usual tray in front of her, and it was one of those rare treasures that sent my heart into happy flutters.

She must have noticed me looking at her with a stupid goofy smile, which oddly had a dark cloud descending over her features. She went from angelic beauty to badass-who-would-kill-you in a heartbeat. “What?” I said, looking around for the threat.

Angel actually growled, drawing my gaze back to her. “No one will take my family from me again.” Gold glittery power fluttered off her. “Dannie made a grave error in judgement, and even though she’s Shadow’s mother, there’s no redemption for her.”

My throat was dry, and when I tried to swallow, I couldn’t make it work. “She might release the stone,” I managed to say.

Angel’s expression did not soften. “I’m not sure that’s enough.”

My face crumpled, and Angel dropped a hand on my shoulder. “For you, and only you,” she said, “I’ll give her the chance. Maybe she’ll convince me to allow the option of redemption, but I need you to prepare yourself. If she’s anything like the many powerful beings I’ve known, she won’t stop until we destroy her.”

Shadow closed his arm around me, pulling me away from Angel. “You’ll find no resistance from me. Mother or not, she’s gone too far.”

It hurt to think of them destroying Dannie because she was basically the only mother figure I’d had, and maybe, a part of me understood why she’d swallowed the stone to save us all. I wasn’t okay with her choices, far from it… I was fucking furious. But sitting here tonight, with our pack once again whole, I just wanted it all to stay like this. War was the path that would tear us to pieces.

Shadow and Angel were not like me, though. Their pride was strong, and their need to remain dominant meant they could not tolerate anyone messing with the magical balance.

I, on the other hand, knew when it was best to just get out of there and thank the fates it hadn’t been worse. Hopefully, I could convince the others that there was no dishonor in all of us walking away alive.

Everyone at our table focused on their food after that. Unsurprisingly, Shadow, Galleli, and Len had ordered nothing, but Alistair did have a fishy stew, its scent interesting but not unpleasant. Lucien only got a drink he sipped at occasionally, which I assumed was blood, but maybe I was stereotyping vamps there. I actually had no idea what they consumed for energy, and I’d add it to my list of questions to ask when we had the time.

“Eat,” Shadow ordered, interrupting my observation of the table.

“Yes, sir,” I smartassed, snapping my heels together.

His eyes held a warning, but there was no fixing me at this stage, so I smiled cheekily and went to work on the multiple meals I’d ordered. As optimistic as I was, there was still a chance tomorrow was our last day, so I’d chosen all of my favorites.

Once I started to eat, I found I was ravenously starving, stuffing my face until I felt like I was about to burst. Leaning back, I sucked in a deep breath, my lungs mildly uncomfortable by how full my stomach was.

Len let out a low burst of laughter. “That was damn impressive,” he said, shaking his head like he couldn’t believe what he’d just seen. “I knew shifters could eat, but… where do you even put it all? You’re tiny.”

I tried to smile, but I was just too full. My eyes had been bigger than my stomach and now I was paying for it. When my gut swirled, I wondered if I might vomit up everything. I must have gone a little green, because Shadow reached out and brushed a hand over my braid, the soothing heat of his power settling my stomach.

“Would you like dessert?” he asked, his voice vibrating with humor, even if his face didn’t show it.

I thought about it. Despite what Shadow had just done, dessert would probably push me over the edge again.

“I’d like to try chocolate,” Angel said suddenly.