Love's Nudging Read online

  “Or tell Drake I offered and asked you to work with Henrik to coordinate it all along with a list of who to invite,” I said gently. “It’s a better lead in and a chance for you guys to design your own place instead of choosing his friend or your friend.”

  “Thanks, Mark,” he whispered. “Yeah, I’ll handle it with Henrik since I’m done for the day and so is the construction.”

  “Good luck reining him in,” I chuckled, rubbing my hand over my head as I accepted the first cell phone to handle. “He’ll want to import from a quarry in Denmark or something so it’s authentic and fitting of my station. My suite will probably be the size of a normal house, but whatever.” I shrugged, not wanting to get into it. It was a conflicting topic for me.

  On the one hand, it sounded great to have a place that wasn’t my family home where I had so many painful and lonely memories. But at the same time, that seemed almost disrespectful or like I was closing the door to that part of my life. So basically I was completely jumbled and didn’t want to deal with it.

  Henrik got along famously with London and was thrilled with the idea of my friends living in the castle as well. And that was what he had planned already, a massive castle even if it was a modern one. He said firmly that Jordan had ordered three of them so there was no reason not to, as it would fit the area.

  “Hey, why is everyone going to live with you instead of us?” Zibon demanded, Verge standing next to him and frowning.

  I shrugged. “I just offered, but it’s my place, not your mate’s for both of you.” I rolled my eyes when they both pouted. “We’re in the same subdivision even if they’re monster houses and castles. Does it really matter? You were fine if they were living at the dorms.”

  “Because we thought they wanted to,” Verge grumbled.

  “Boys and feelings, I swear,” Marissa teased us as she handed her phone over to Wally. “Thank you for asking Gary. He’s thrilled, and I think it healthier than him planning to live with Proximo to keep an eye on us and if he’s behaving with me.”

  “I’m glad that’s going well,” I said, biting back a smirk. Gary was still having issues with his mom dating for the first time ever really or seriously. It hadn’t been that long, and they weren’t even jumping into living together, but it was amusing, and both Marissa and Proximo were understanding and patient about it.

  Clean sweep was much easier with so many people who knew how to do it and jumped in to help, even if there were a ridiculous amount of people compared to normal to cover. The best was when Rune said he would offer the program to my family to help them stay protected in payment for the suite he wanted with Helios.

  Fine, but I never asked anyone to pay for anything. I wouldn’t say no to that since it was such an awesome program and I appreciated his sense of fairness so he didn’t take advantage of me.

  Still, it was a long day, and I crashed hard. I dreamed about Bricius again, the intensity worse than the night before. He made my body come alive, and it felt so real I woke a bit shaken. How were my dreams so much better than anything I’d experienced in college? I’d experimented, but I’d never gotten serious.

  I wouldn’t ever get serious. Not ever.

  That morning there was a massive delivery of international treats, bigger than what Zibon had received from Alastair when they had started. He’d gotten there first and handed me the card with a smirk.

  Yesterday meant so much to me. Please accept my gift and know I did put thought into this. Bricius.

  I didn’t crumple the card this time, but I didn’t react much otherwise.

  Zibon pulled out a box and gave me a challenging look. “I believe you said that I should mate any man who would treasure me in such a way, valued me.”

  I flinched, realizing this gift had another meaning I hadn’t understood. I glanced over to Bricius and saw the truth in his eyes. He hadn’t asked Alastair what he’d done to court Zibon… He’d witnessed it. He’d been hanging around that long. He said he’d checked in on us, but I’d thought it only the past two months when I’d gotten the reserved jokes. No, he’d been watching much longer than that.

  I wasn’t sure if that freaked me out—and not just from a stalker perspective—or made me melt because it meant he’d taken a really good look at me before wanting to get involved. It wasn’t frivolous or wanting my name or title. I couldn’t just turn my nose up at that.

  But I didn’t want to encourage him either because it wouldn’t work in the end.

  I grabbed a box and kept looking until I found one I wanted. “I like cheesecakes. They’re my favorite.” I knew he’d heard, so I took the box of mini cheesecakes to our normal table. I thought that was appropriate without encouraging him.

  There was an impromptu morning meeting where we agreed everyone from the castle would be evacuated to Morggyan’s new house since she had yet to go find people to rescue. The target on the castle was big given they would come looking for me, so I appreciated the quick and decisive action. She shrugged it off, saying she might invite herself for dinner if I had a full staff.

  Fine by me. She was nice, even if a bit distant and reserved. I was the same most ways.

  They were going to leave first thing in the morning, and Bricius agreed to go with, probably seeing how nervous and worried I was. That had to be why I dreamed about him again that night. He was swooping in to help me even if he’d been such a jerk. I couldn’t forgive him that yet, even if he’d given a heart filled apology, as I couldn’t see him changing his ways.

  Besides, I didn’t want to be with him.

  Apparently my dreams simply didn’t get the memo.

  The next morning there were a crap ton of shipping containers full of live crab like Zibon had received, but more… And another surprise.

  All twelve of the ancient knights waiting for me, not looking thrilled that they were.

  “If you’re going to eat me because he’s gone, I’d recommend cooking me low and slow so I don’t dry out,” I muttered, having trouble keeping my composure, as they were truly terrifying even if they all had orange eyes.

  Danek, the first knight and Bricius’s right hand, smiled at me. “I like you and think you’re good for him, so no worries. He asked me to give you the note in person.”

  I nodded, accepting the card from him.

  I thought a bit of fun after I caused you so much stress was in order. The only out of bounds is if someone is showering or using the toilet. Otherwise there are no limits, and happy hunting. I have prizes for each hit landed.

  I’ll hurry back to you,

  Bricius

  I blinked at it a moment and then glanced at Danek, wondering what I was missing. Someone handed him a box, and I saw a bunch of airsoft guns, getting what was going on then. Gaius had done the same for Falcon, but it had been messed up since council guards had showed up and there was the whole crazy with the inquisition into the Quebec coven slaughter.

  “You are to pick eleven, and any shots you land we are to admit to Bricius when he returns,” Danek explained.

  “Would you guys feel it?” I asked, giving him a confused look. “He didn’t seem to register when I was hitting him. Would you even feel a pellet?”

  “We didn’t think of that, only that paintball would make a mess,” another muttered. He reached in and seemed at a loss at how to use the guns. I took it and shot him in the chest. He shrugged. “I felt it, but it’s not like it hurt. I mean, we know it’s not mosquito season, so we’ll just have to pay attention.”

  My friends showed up and were filled in, all of them excited especially because these guys didn’t seem to know what we’d been plotting. Since Gaius’s plan had gotten messed up, Falcon had been working on a new idea for a larger game, and we had been equipping ourselves and plotting.

  Which meant we had way better gear and guns than the regular pistol ones.

  “You have to name your eleven, and only they get guns,” Danek reminded me.

  I nodded. “Lance, Nate, Wally, Bowie, No
rris, London, Zibon, Verge, Falcon, Ellison, and Gary.”

  He nodded as well. “We did all the construction that came in along with the list of ways to help the camp, so that should free up your days fairly well.”

  “Wait, we need to add to the rules,” Verge said firmly. “You guys can hear any of our plotting and like from a mile away. Is there some way to reduce that? Like ear plugs to muffle and level this playing field a bit?”

  A few chuckled, nodding in agreement like it wouldn’t be much help.

  Yeah, we were hoping they’d say that.

  Someone went and got them from the construction site, and we also declared the conference room in ops as off limits to them. They agreed, seeming amused we would take it so seriously. We had another change, as Norris had to take a flight with Philo for council business, so after a bit of discussion, we agreed on Dimitri, which seemed to shock him.

  I shrugged. “We sort of include you with us since you’re still really young even if you’re mated to someone almost ancient and friends with the older warriors.”

  “I have no idea how to play airsoft, and you guys seem up to a lot more than they think,” he admitted under his breath.

  He had no idea, which we all found amusing.

  We grabbed breakfast to go as others recovered what we needed and then met in the conference room. He burst out laughing when he saw it all and realized we’d already been plotting a much bigger game.

  “Okay, so what are the rules?” he asked, smiling widely. We told him as we showed him how to use the gun. “So we can only have the guns, but that doesn’t mean others can’t help us.”

  “Oh, right, we were plotting to take on Alastair and everyone, but now they’re not in this,” Zibon muttered, bobbing his head. “Good, good. Also, where are these guys staying?”

  “They’re in the old dorm because everyone had just finished moving out,” Dimitri told us.

  “Meaning the communal showers,” I chuckled. “It said no getting them while they’re showering, not waiting for them to shower.”

  “Nice,” several people said at the same time.

  “Good, because I have another idea that involves the pre-trans,” I admitted. Everyone was dying when I admitted what I wanted to do, and Dimitri promised he’d handle it. We had a ton of pre-trans after all, so why not use them a bit when we needed fun.

  We got to work with maps of the camp while continuing with all the clean sweep, and we had the first round of attack ready by lunch. I went to my spot with Wally to handle phones, which was near the trays. Several of the knights came in when it was time and smirked at us, basically daring us to even try since they’d be fast enough to dodge it.

  “Candy, please give us candy,” a bunch of the pre-trans said as they swarmed them. “You’re giving out candy, right?”

  “What? No we’re not,” Danek grumbled, giving them all confused looks.

  That was all the time we needed. Zibon and Bowie stood up from behind the buffet line and shot them as Wally and I did.

  “Seriously, you sent the kids to surround us like gypsies in Europe to steal wallets?” one of them drawled.

  I shrugged. “It worked.” I looked at the pre-trans. “Good job, boxes of treats are in the ops center for you.”

  “Don’t flatten us,” one of the pre-trans said to the knights. “It’s not like we had a choice here.”

  “It was pretty funny,” one of the knights admitted. “Wait, actually, reset it. I don’t want to be the only ones who fell for this.”

  “Good point,” Danek agreed, the rest of us shrugging.

  So we did it again. When the other half of the knights came in, the pre-trans did the same, the first group laughing when the second group fell for it as well.

  “Ah, this was a good game,” one of them admitted.

  Wally snorted. “Dude, we’re just getting started.”

  “Bring it on, kid,” he purred, everyone smiling in good fun.

  They were smarter at dinner time, all going together and grabbing food to go so they could watch each other’s backs… Which grouped them up nicely for Gary who was waiting in the main hall for them. He nailed them with the crazy minigun that shot them so fast and in rapid fire that there was no chance they weren’t getting nailed.

  The crazy laugh he let out as he shot them all up was a whole other issue we might need to discuss.

  “Please stop laughing at them or they might flatten me to get to you,” Lynx muttered when the hallway was littered with pellets, moving in front of Gary.

  “I wasn’t laughing at them, more just laughing that I was seriously shooting Wyrok who are older than like written history, and the top of my head just popped off then,” he admitted, peeking around Lynx. “If you’re going to destroy me, please let me say goodbye to my mom and bunnies first.”

  “Wait, your stuffed bunnies get a request but not me?”

  “You’re standing right here,” Gary reminded him, wincing at whatever look Lynx gave him. “I thought it wrong if I asked for one more round of sex. Does a blow job work as an apology?”

  “Yes, I’ll take a few,” one of the knights grumbled.

  “Um, no, sorry, I’m a one-man man,” Gary said firmly.

  “Hey, that wasn’t one of the guns Bricius gave them,” one bitched.

  “It wasn’t part of the rules to use the ones he gave,” I practically sang as I went over there with the stick vacuum. I turned it on, pointing to my ears that I couldn’t hear them before giving a quick wave for Gary and Lynx to get lost. “You’re safe to eat in the cafeteria.”

  “Well, we dropped most of the food,” one admitted. Yeah, they had, but it wasn’t too big of a mess. I left them to clean up that part, only handling the mess we’d made.

  Next we met at their rooms where London was already picking locks. Apparently Dimitri didn’t want to wait for that because he went to get the keys from his mate.

  “If anyone asks, London picked the locks and I owe my mate morning sex,” Dimitri muttered as he started using the master key. “I’m not sure what you’re planning since they’ll hear you in their rooms.”

  “Yes, they will, but we won’t be there,” I chuckled, ducking into the first room and opening the curtain and window. It was going to be cold as fuck in the rooms, but they should be coming back soon. Dimitri still didn’t get it, meeting me at the second window. I pointed to the top of the new warrior dorm where Verge was set up with the airsoft sniper rifle.

  “We should do this all the time just to stay sharp and not get lazy,” Dimitri muttered.

  “Plus, this is really fucking fun,” London chuckled as we started locking up rooms again.

  “Yeah, it really is,” he agreed.

  We finished just in time, acting like we’d tried to break in but had failed as they stepped off the elevator. I heled up my hands in surrender to show I was unarmed, and the others followed suit.

  “You guys do not mess around,” one of them praised. “Glad you like your game.”

  “Oh, I don’t think this is just for me, do you?” I purred, smirking at their confused looks. “You guys are known as the twelve horsemen of the apocalypse or something of nightmares. And yet he has you playing goofy games with us? I don’t think that was just for me and my friends but to show you are the good guys and not terrifying.”

  “Shit, that does sound like Bricius,” one muttered. “Fine, you’re good for him, you get him, I concede that.”

  I felt my face heat at the praise. “Doesn’t mean I’m going to date him or whatever.”

  “These mixed shots liquors are really good,” Danek praised. “I bet they mix really well too. You should be proud of such a good product.”

  “Thanks, but I didn’t come up with it,” I admitted. “No one would take the inventors seriously, as the alcohol market is packed with all kinds of everything. I just found the gem and polished it up when it needed it.”

  “You were still smart enough to see the quality and gem others missed,” h
e replied, giving a wave as they headed for their rooms.

  Only half of them were on this floor, and I bit back a smile when they unlocked their doors and people started bitching on the floor below us. They all stopped in the doorways as if trying to figure out what was going on, and then one by one cursed as they got nailed by Verge.

  “Seriously, this was supposed to be an easy win for us,” one of them grumbled. “That’s three in one day.”

  “Right, so how many plays could they have left?” another one drawled, bitching about how cold his room was.

  We were laughing so hard I couldn’t hear the rest of them as we got on the elevator. And we did have more waiting for them.

  That night I didn’t dream of Bricius. I hoped it had to do with the fun I was having or maybe just distracted between that and the clean sweeps. Relieved that people weren’t treating me differently even if Henrik kept giving us all looks like we were being improper?

  Or my alarm just went off so early I didn’t have time to dream?

  I made it to the communal showers on the top floor well before anyone should get ready for breakfast. It was hard to stay awake since it was cold in there and I was actually pretty comfortable snuggled in my jacket sitting against the tile.

  “Seriously?” one of the knights grumbled as he came into the bathroom. “Like I can’t sense you? I know I’m useless before coffee, but I’m not that bad.”

  I shot off the text to London and Zibon who had been waiting in the stairwells since there was no way to escape if we had all the options covered. Sure enough, I got him in the back when he went out into the hall and they were there. He cursed under his breath and actually dropped his towel when he rubbed his shoulder.

  “Wow, we score a point and got a show,” London chuckled. “Nice cock, but I have a fiancé, so as much as I’d have fun sucking it, I’m a reformed slut.”

  “I’m mated,” Zibon muttered, giving London a shocked look at the bluntness.

  “And Bricius is interested in you, and I don’t have a death wish,” the guy grumbled. “No matter how hot you are, dealing with him is not worth it.”