Hidden Moon

C H A P T E R 8

ANSWERING SUMMON

Dylan

"Not off to see your princess?"

Nadia, in her jeans and shirt, emerged from her room and with a towel over her damp hair. She has just returned from another pack gathering in the hopes of finding her mate. It has been five days since she, together with her a few males and females from Crescent Moon, arrived for the annual visit to match unmated shifters. Instead of staying with the others, she invited herself in my suite.

"Isabel had a prior engagement," I sighed. Spending time with her was getting too infrequent than I want, "How about you? Why are you here?"

Judging from the faint redness and swelling around her eyes, the little mutt cried in the shower. Despite her effort to hide much of her face with the towel, her rough voice gave her away. Still mate-less, Nadia inherited Kai's unfortunate lot – she was on the wait-list too. Her mate was not from this pack hence, she returned to lick her wounds after a bout against other shifters to let some steam off. Shifting left some large fading bruises that meant it was a heck of a 'friendly' spar. She did not just blow some heat, she set off an explosion.

I may find Nadia a little irksome at some point but she grew on me. She also got the latent ability to heal others, although not strong. She could have been honing her skills as a healer but she chose train as an enforcer because as a healer, her movement would be restricted.

"What a rare break from your knightly duties," she left the wet towel hanging around her shoulders and stretched her arms up to flex her muscles before sitting on the couch beside me. "Want to hit the malls or would you rather continue building your Isabel her shrine in your bedroom?"

"Neither. I am doing no such things."

I never understood why she would always pick on Isabel. Nadia was a good-natured woman and has an outgoing personality but with her, she was just a snap away from going rabid. A perfect one-eighty attitude from what she was with Cora.

"Why don't you call that newly acquired friend of yours and go tour the city," I could not help but be bothered when Nadia flashed me a Cheshire grin.

She moved like a she-wolf on a mission and managed to exchange numbers with the woman before we left the restaurant. Nadia was a gorgeous woman in her own right and I could not blame anyone with twenty-twenty vision for having such an impeccable preference. But I was beside myself with an nameless emotion when Cora was so over the moon that I think she would not have given it a second thought and straight up told Nadia where she lives.

"Cora?" the little imp teased and zipped her mouth shut long enough to think her next words through before spouting nonsense again. "I called her for lunch but she can't."

"Indeed?" I bit back a smile of my own when I heard that. Perhaps she was not into Nadia after all. "I mean, why did she say no?"

"Tsk tsk tsk," she wiggled a finger and corrected me, "I said she 'can't' not that she declined."

"What's the difference? Regardless, she did not come to you."

"Shame... real shame," she conceded. "But compared to you, I like my chances with Cora better."

An exaggerated hand on chest and another forefinger up, she mouth the word 'one'. The same finger pointed at me, she said, "Zero. You're as free as poodle on a leash, Dy."

"As free as I can be than a wolf pup chained waiting for her destined."

"That's rich coming from you who I have been told has been chasing after one woman for three lifetimes."