“Esther, are you sure you are fit for this meeting?” Anthony asked Esther who was trudging behind him, supported by Freya and Maya. “You just woke up. You shouldn’t be stressing yourself already. You should be in bed.”
His gaze flitted to Margo who was talking with Sheila. Margo gave no indication that she had heard him. Sheila, however, gave him a subtle look to leave the girl alone.
Anthony wished he could. He never understood why Esther had that much hold on him. She wasn’t his mate. Yet, he couldn’t stop himself from always wanting to be near her. His wolf was just as confused as he was.
When she had been attacked by Eva, when everyone had thought that she was the culprit, he hadn’t been among the many. He hadn’t been surprised either when Yodah had told the story of Eva’s possession. As much as Esther had betrayed them the first time, he hadn’t canceled her totally. As much as he had been hurt by her first betrayal, he had understood the reason for it.
“Anthony, I am fine. I have been absent from a lot of meetings. I have been out of the loop for so long. I can’t continue in that way. My body might still be recovering, but my ears are sharp enough to hear clearly. And I need to hear a lot of things. But thanks for your concern.” Esther finally spoke, heaving in sharply and pausing, very tired.
Yes, Anthony was right. She should be lying down. But hearing just a snippet of what had been happening, from Freya and Maya, who had readily filled her in on the happenings that had occurred in her absence, she had been rejuvenated suddenly to partake in the meeting. Never mind that her head was pounding as if a carpenter was knocking nails into her nerve cells. And since her aunt hadn’t said anything to dissuade her, she took it as an affirmation; her aunt wanted her to join the meeting.
Esther’s eyes widened suddenly when Anthony approached her with determined steps. What was he doing?
She darted a look at her aunt; the woman was also looking at Anthony with furrowed eyebrows, her conversation with Sheila put to a halt.
Esther had always had the feeling that her aunt never wanted boys around her. She still remembered the unlucky boy who had thought giving her a surprise visit, armed with flowers and chocolates, was romantic. It had been romantic until her aunt had suddenly returned from her trip to the forest to gather herbs to help with her magic concoction. The unlucky boy had gone home defecating on himself.
She had wondered, still did, but she never asked the boy how he had gotten home, or how the defecation had stopped; and the boy never spoke to her again. Rather, he had spoken to the male population of her high school about the issue, and they had all avoided her. They had also recruited the female populace too. And even though they hadn’t bullied her, for fear of her aunt who they had termed an evil witch, she had been miserable, until she had entered college.
Meeting others like her, had rebooted her confidence, and had sponsored her false image of being a bully. She hadn’t liked it but it had kept the wolves at bay; she had refused to be treated as a puppet like she had been at the witch’s community.
Now, she tried to glare at Anthony, she tried to infuse steel in her voice when she asked him what he was doing, when he told Freya and Maya to run along to the meeting, when he supported her himself, but she hadn’t been able to, not when he gazed at her like that.
“Is this better?” He had asked, balancing her properly by his arm. “Or should I carry you? I doubt you weigh much…”
Howbeit, Esther’s eyes were on her aunt, who had gone before her, and stopped. She watched as the latter tapped Sheila on the arm, turned aside and started walking toward them.
Esther didn’t know what her aunt would say to Anthony, but seeing the determined scowl on the latter’s face, she believed it wouldn’t be good. So, she glared at her aunt.
Guilt reared its head when Margo halted and stared at her warily, but the guilt died, when Anthony suddenly lifted her in his arms.
“Better now…?”
The feelings of guilt were replaced with that of longing, as she stared into deep brown eyes. He smiled, and she forgot that her aunt was standing right beside them.
“Hurry up, Anthony… the meeting would start without us.” Esther heard Sheila’s words, but it was like it was coming from a distance. Esther almost thought that being in a coma for so long was idling her brain, until she saw Anthony’s confused look, like he was trying to figure her, like he was trying to figure himself.
Esther smiled then, still looking up to a confused Anthony, who couldn’t explain the tingles roaming around his body at a breathtaking speed.
“Didn’t you hear your aunt, Anthony?”
Margo’s voice was anything but gentle as she stood before the couple. Her hand twitched to get her daughter away from the handsome youth, but she knew that she wouldn’t live Esther’s anger down. She didn’t know when the two had first met, but she didn’t want her daughter falling in love with a species that didn’t love, except the person was their mate. Esther would be setting herself for heartbreak if she loves Anthony.
Already, her mind was formulating plans on how to separate the two. She watched as Anthony gave her a curt nod, before walking around her, and continuing on the path to the living room.
“What are you doing, Margo?” She heard Sheila ask, and sighed. “You are acting like an overprotective mother hen. Anthony wouldn’t do anything stupid. He knows the concept of mates, and wouldn’t lead Esther on…”
Margo shook her head, turning to her old friend who she yet couldn’t believe was alive. “I am not scared for Anthony, but for Esther. Did you see the way she looked at him?”
Sheila sighed, placed her hand on Margo’s shoulder, and turned her to the path they were supposed to take. “Let your niece make her own mistakes. She would hate you, if you try to control things; she wouldn’t understand the good you are doing. Even though I am sure that she knows the concept of mates, still let her know, and then let her be.”
Margo inhaled deeply, wondering if now was the right time to tell her friend that Esther was her daughter, not her niece; that Malone was her father. But she shook her head mentally. Tempest was Sheila’s closest friend. She had just found the latter; she didn’t want any tension between them already.
***
Nathan looked around the people in the room, and then his eyes settled on Esther who was sitting near Anthony, and the aura which hovered around the two. Did the duo know that there was a bond between them, or were the gods playing around again?
He looked away from them, choosing the more important things he had discovered than trying to find out why the two weren’t mated yet. “Welcome everyone. This meeting will be a short one. Just some discoveries, and new matters to talk about, and everyone would be dispersed to continue their training, or other things.
A significant pause.
“So, as you all know I had sent word to my people, requesting some of them to join us here, while tasking them to create impenetrable safeguards around the community. Fortunately, a couple of them will be joining us in this cause, and they will be arriving soon, in a week or two. Word had been sent to those not in the community too-they will be coming from diverse countries and continents of the world. The threat against our kind had been taken seriously. But there is a condition…”
His gaze found Peter and stayed. The Alpha already knew what the Prince wanted to ask from him. The Abstenum. Access to the cave that housed the mineral which he had never gotten around to using, not knowing its use, not knowing what to use it for. He had only guarded it because his father had said so. Could Agrip have told his old man about the prophecy, or did something else? Did Agagog?”
“What is the condition…” Melvina asked, darting glances between her mate and the prince of the ancients.
“He wants the abstenum in exchange for helping us.” Peter answered blandly.
“Then let him have it. let them have it.”
All eyes turned to the entrance in incredulity, watching as Derek staggered into the sitting room, his hand holding his left side, as if he had been shot there.
“Who said you lot could have a meeting without me?”
The smirk that coated his lips fell off when he grunted and fell into the nearest sofa to the entrance.