Warriors of Poseidon 02.5 - Shifter's Lady Read Free Page A

2.5

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    watched the panther as he visibly forced himself to calm, straightening his hands and quirking his lips into a semblance of a smile as he stared at Bastien.
     
    “As I said, Atlantean, I will protect your sister as my own. Do you doubt my word or honor?” His words dropped like heated stones into the sudden silence, and Marie felt the tension between the men shoot up to an unbearable level. “Even now, my pride-brothers surround this area to guard and protect.”
     
    “I doubt neither, shape-shifter, but you would feel the same about Kat, and you know it,”
    Bastien returned, in a tone far more reasonable than Marie had expected from him.
    Evidently the liaison role he‟d undertaken had affected him in more ways than merely touched the surface. The brother she‟d always known would have led with his fists. This new brother used logic. Marie smiled at Bastien, delighted at the change.
     
    “And yet Kat is now under your protection, and I am at peace with her decision, however wrongheaded it may have been,” Ethan said smoothly.
     
    The interplay between the men was fascinating to observe, but for once in her centuries of existence, Marie was impatient with merely acting as observer. She held her arms out at her sides, palms up. “I find I have tired of being talked about as though the decision were not my own. Lady Kat, perhaps you will take me into your lovely home, so I might freshen up and be settled?”
     
    Kat grinned and gestured to the small cabin. “It‟s Kat. And I‟d be delighted to, Marie. I have a feeling we‟re going to be great friends.”
     
    Marie crossed to her brother and stood on the tips of her toes to press a kiss onto his cheek. “Be well, and find Lord Justice. Do not worry about me. As I have repeatedly told Alaric, Conlan, and what seems to have been three dozen of your fellow warriors, I am not defenseless. The goddess protects her own.”
     
    Shifter’s Lady – Warriors of Poseidon 2.5

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    Bastien lifted her off her feet in a strong embrace. “I know this is true. Be well, and I will return as soon as we find Justice and free him from—”
     
    Marie touched his lips with her fingers. “Do not speak her name here in this place.
    Names hold power, and I do not wish to attract her attention to your beloved‟s home.”
     
    Bastien nodded and stepped back, then bowed. “I will return as soon as I may,” he repeated.
     
    Alaric, who had remained uncharacteristically silent, spoke up. “Send a message should you have need of me, First Maiden.” He bowed to her, then gestured with one hand to draw the portal to open for his and Bastien‟s return to Atlantis.
     
    Marie nodded her thanks, then turned to walk toward the cabin and give Kat and Bastien a moment for a private farewell. Ethan, who had remained standing behind her as if frozen into place, now blocked her path. He stared down at her, and the heat she‟d felt earlier at his mere glance intensified until she wanted to lean into him and soak up his warmth, wrap herself in the flames that the touch of his skin must surely generate in her body.
     
    She drew in a deep breath and forced her expression to one of calm amusement. “Must I have the same talk with you that I have had with my brothers so many times over the centuries? The one about individual responsibility? Where I explain in very simple words that I am no fragile Atlantean flower to be cared for and coddled in a hothouse?”
     
    Ethan leaned forward slightly, his hands behind his back, and raised one silken, dark eyebrow. “Simple words might be a really good idea, beautiful,” he said softly. “Because I‟m having a hell of a fight with my inner cat right now, who wants to carry you off, strip you bare, and lick all of that deliciously creamy skin of yours.”
     
    Shifter’s Lady – Warriors of Poseidon 2.5

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    She inhaled sharply as his words sent tsunami waves of shock and heat slapping through her