4. Emrie

We parted ways, and I made the twenty-minute drive to King Draven and Consort Mia's Italian villa on the edge of town. It was gorgeous, and had an amazing location along the coast. Which made sense, as King Draven was the founding member of the town, so he'd had first pick of properties.

I hadn't met Consort Mia, King Draven's wife, yet—they'd gotten married just two weeks prior. I'd seen her around town, but our paths had never crossed in a meet-and-greet sort of way.

I rang the doorbell, and an elf with the most arresting aqua eyes answered the door. "May I help you?"

"I think I'm expected? My name is Emrie."

The elf nodded and opened the door, letting me into the entry way. My eyes probably grew two sizes as I looked around and into the next room. It was lavish, with high-end fixtures, furniture, and dimensions, but it also managed to be homey. In my business, I could always tell a little bit about the personality of someone by what they chose for their home, and how they decorated it.

This one said the owner had money to burn, had a tendency toward elegance, but was also warm and had a very big soft side.

The manservant showed me to a sitting room, where he pointed toward a white couch and asked me to make myself comfortable while he retrieved Consort Mia and King Draven.

I sat down and tried not to fidget. Even though I was accustomed to catering to high-profile customers, I'd never actually done anything for a king before. I knew King Draven was a decent supernatural, so I imagined he wouldn't be like, "off with her head" if I didn't do the project the way he wanted, but I was still nervous.

Consort Mia came in first, nearly at a run, and I leaned back against the back of the couch in surprise. A big gargoyle, obviously her bodyguard, was right on her tail, although he was moving at a more sedate pace. Consort Mia saw me and made a beeline towards me, offering her hand with a bright smile. "I'm so glad I got to you first," she said in greeting. "It's so good to officially meet you!"

I shook her hand, blinking at the force of her personality. She was like a whirling dervish. Did she come off this way to others, or was it just me?

She threw herself into the seat next to me, smoothing down her hair and catching her breath from her run through the villa.

Meanwhile, her bodyguard had come in and put his back to a wall, folding his arms over his chest. He snorted at Consort Mia's words. I couldn't help but glance at him out of the corner of my eye in curiosity for a moment. He was massive. I wasn't sure about his height, but I estimated it to be above six and a half feet, and he was built to the scale of a bear shifter, but slightly bigger. He had light-grey skin and short, dark hair. Personally, I didn't think I'd feel afraid a day in my life if he were my bodyguard.

I blinked and refocused on Consort Mia, nodding at her. "Hi, I'm Emrie. It's good to meet you, as well."

Consort Mia was beautiful, with long, brown hair and copper eyes. Her smile was friendly and open. I'd heard through the grapevine in town that she was an empath, so...she was probably figuring out what I was feeling right now.

Nervous. Uncomfortable.

"Please don't be uncomfortable. That's why I wanted to get to you first. My husband is all things awesome, but he can be a little bit intimidating when you first meet him." She smiled, then frowned at the choking gargoyle leaning against the wall. "You know he is, Mesmer."

"He's the Vampire King. He's exactly the right amount of intimidating."

Mia wrinkled her nose. "Agree to disagree." She turned back to me. "Anyway, I wanted to meet with you first while my kitty cat tries to stall Draven because I wanted to assure you that, if you choose to accept our contract, we will keep your name a secret, like you prefer, and we will be very nice, and not at all slashy or stabby."

Mesmer, the gargoyle, was guffawing over against the wall now. Like, full-on guffawing.

"Mia," a long-suffering voice said from the doorway.

I turned in surprise, and then had to blink yet again in confusion. Draven, the king of the vampires, stood there. His suit was mussed and crooked, his tie looked like it had been forced through a shredder, his curly brown hair was really messy, and he had huge dirty paw prints on his suit jacket with accompanying shred marks.

Also, he was holding a black tiger in his arms like a baby, and the tiger was purring like an overlarge kitten.

Suddenly, Consort Mia's explanation made way more sense. I pinched my lips to hide the laugh that wanted to explode out of me, and wished desperately that my best friend were here to see this.

"Yes, love?" Mia said, all innocence.

"Why did you send your assassin to attack me?" His words were laced with exasperation, but his eyes were warm as he focused his very intense gaze on his wife. There was adoration and a deep, deep love in his gaze. It actually made my eyes sting a little. A strong desire for that kind of love overwhelmed me for a moment, drowning me, until I took a deep, subtle breath through my nose, and the feeling softened enough to stop squeezing my heart in a vise.

Mia raised a hand to her chest like an award-winning Southern belle and gazed at him with an expression dripping in feigned shock and hurt. "I would never!"

Draven dropped the tiger and it landed on its feet. I mean it wasn't far to fall, just a few feet, but the tiger looked woundedly at the king for a moment before coming for congratulatory pets from his mistress.

Mia crooned in his ear what a good boy he was while Draven attempted to straighten his messy clothes and hair as he sat down on the love seat across from Mia and I.

I had to admit, Mia's tactic had made me less nervous. Now I felt like I was part of an elaborate prank, and Consort Mia and I were co-conspirators. Never in my life had I immediately respected another person's supernatural ability as I did in that moment.

Also, empaths were a little scary.

King Draven attempted to straighten the cuffs of his dress-shirt but when attempting to re-button it discovered that the button was dangling at the end of a very long and loose thread. He sighed and ripped the button off, placing it in an inside pocket of his jacket and just rolled up the sleeves.

"What, may I ask, my love, was the purpose of my mauling?" Draven said, rolling up his other sleeve.

Mia smiled a secret smile and shrugged. It seemed she and the king had the ability to communicate with each other mentally, like I did with my Clan, because Mia laughed and nothing aloud had been said.

Draven turned back to me. "I'm sorry for being late. I was detained."

I had to pause before I responded because I wanted to laugh so badly but didn't want to be unprofessional.

I cleared my throat. "No problem at all. Consort Mia has been very welcoming."

The kitty cat came up to me and started nosing around my clothes. When he'd gotten enough of my scent to decide whether or not we would be friends, he decided to give me a bath by licking my hands. And when that didn't satisfy him at all, he jumped up on the sofa between Consort Mia and I, and laid half of his body on my lap, purring and chuffing.

I blinked, shocked. Did tigers like bears? Was this a thing I had been unaware of? I scratched him behind his ears and along his broad forehead. This guy must weigh easily three hundred pounds. He didn't look like he'd reached full maturity yet, so I was sure that he would grow and broaden out more and become more muscular. As it was, he was giving my thigh a charlie horse. I discreetly massaged my outer thigh under his massive head before I went back to petting him.

"Zian," Mia said as she pulled on his huge black collar. "Get off the poor girl. You're squishing her."

Zian sighed and scooched back a little so it was just his massive head on my lap now, and not half of his body weight. I felt like I could breathe again. "I would love to play with you in my bear form kitty. Then we'll see who's bigger," I whispered into one of his furry ears. Zian's ears twitched but he otherwise pretended not to hear me. The king, however, looked like he wanted to laugh.

Consort Mia stood. "We have a large room that we're making into a library upstairs. Will you check out the space and discuss the build with us? It's a really large project, so we understand if you can't accept it because of other prior commitments."

"Of course, I'd be happy to take a look," I said, getting up, too.

King Draven stood up and reached for his consort's hand. "Mia loves your work. She frequents the Pirate's Chest often just to see what pieces of yours are up for sale. If you have too many commissions right now, we can talk about a future date that you might be available as well."

No pressure or anything.

My anxiety started to come back a little as they led me through their gorgeous house to an upstairs room that was literally crying out to be made into a library.

It was a huge circular room with a dome shaped ceiling that had glass inserts to let in natural light. A large, broken fountain stood in the middle and in the back was a staircase that led to a second level which had the same layout as the ground floor. A beautiful ornamental parapet circled the top floor, providing space for plenty of shelving along the walls, and book-seeking patrons to stroll its walkways.

Wow. It was perfect!

I looked down at the floor, where white tiles interspersed with bronze to create a shield pattern on the floor, and then up at the hanging plants that were scattered throughout the room. I felt like I'd stepped into a fantasy world. I laughed when I remembered I was technically part of a fantasy world. Humans at large speculated but did not know we existed, and it was much better that way.

Even though they cosplayed about us, if they found out we were real, they'd aim a heat-seeking missile at us.

I mean, it wouldn't hurt us, obviously, because we had magic shields, but it'd be annoying.

Consort Mia and King Draven let me take everything in, while Zian nosed around the huge room, sniffing various things and sneezing a lot. It was probably due to the cleansers that had been used to clean the room. Those always made me sneeze as well.

"It's perfect for a library," I said. I couldn't stop staring at everything around me. This room was going to be epic.

Consort Mia nodded, beaming. "I know, right! It's like those Pinterest fantasy libraries, except pre-build!"

I laughed. "I was just thinking the same thing. You guys are interested in what, exactly? Shelving and seating?"

"Yes, to both," King Draven said.

I nodded, still feeling a little heady from being in the presence of a king. Roarke would probably laugh if he knew. Speaking of... It was like I'd summoned him from the deep beyond with my thoughts when King Draven's phone rang, and he laughed as he answered and put it on speaker.

"What can I do for you, Roarke?"

"Is my bear there yet?"

King Draven's eyebrows did a very expressive thing that made me wonder if he could hold whole conversations with them. Was this a secret vampire ability? Expressive eyebrows?

Also, my heart melted a little bit at Roarke's voice calling me his bear. Seriously, the things you learned when the other person was not aware they were on speaker phone. They should all be written down in a book somewhere. A Thousand and One Embarrassing Conversations You Were Never Aware You'd Had. On sale for $19.99.

Mesmer chuckled from behind us, and King Draven cleared his throat, clearly trying to contain his laughter. "You're on speaker, Roarke, and yes, your bear is here."

Roarke sighed. "I'm going to have to kill you now, you realize."

King Draven laughed. "You're welcome to try. You keep promising violence and never deliver. I'm starting to get my feelings hurt. Am I not good enough for you?"

"You know I could eat you with one bite, right? Maybe two?"

"Don't say—"

"You'd be good with ketchup."

King Draven groaned. "That's so overdone. I can't believe you went there."

"Can I speak to you without being on speaker phone, please? I have some less-than-gentle expressions I'd like to re-acquaint you with."

King Draven chuckled and took him off speaker, meandering away from Consort Mia and I. She shook her head fondly at her husband and took me through the library while I pulled out my design notebook and pen and started taking detailed notes while she described what she and her husband wanted.

"I'm going to need to come back and get the dimensions of the room and the spaces. Once I get that information, I can give you a better estimation of cost and time." I glanced around the huge space. "I can tell you right now, I do all of my work myself. With just me, I'm guessing it will take close to a year to complete this project, and I wouldn't be able to do any other pieces for anyone else." I glanced at Consort Mia as the king got off the phone and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, snuggling her to his chest.

Consort Mia looked desperately hopeful while King Draven looked like he was about to go in for the kill on a billion-dollar business deal. I was trying not to feel completely flattered, but the feeling welled up inside of me anyway. The idea that they liked my work enough to commission something of this size and scope blew my mind and made me feel incredibly grateful.

I knew I had a talent with design and woodworking. I'd honed it carefully since I was a tiny cub. But this was a next-level project. I'd never done anything of this size before, unless you counted building houses for my Clan, which didn't count because they all pitched in. I was just the foreman who worked alongside them.

"If you decide to do it, we'll pay you a million-five," King Draven said, his intelligent eyes measuring me.

My heart jolted and started pounding as fast as a hummingbird's. One million, five hundred thousand dollars! I did my discreet breathing-through-the-nose thing to calm myself and tried not to blink a lot, which I sometimes did when I was overwhelmed.

I swallowed thickly. "Can I give you my final answer tomorrow morning?"

Consort Mia nodded exuberantly like a dashboard bobble head, beaming again, and Draven pulled out a card from his inner coat pocket and handed it to me. It simply had his and Consort Mia's numbers on it, but it was printed on expensive, black, glossy cardstock.

We all walked me to the entryway together. I turned at the door. "I'll call you tomorrow morning and let you know. I just wanted to say thank you for this opportunity."

King Draven nodded. "No hard feelings if you can't accept."

Consort Mia fidgeted, and King Draven looked down at her fondly. "Mia, anything you want to add?"

She looked like she was about to burst, and finally blurted out, "Your work is so wonderful, and I really hope you accept." She moved in close. "Can I give you a hug?" And before I could even grasp her words, she was already in my space-bubble, giving me a hug. I patted her back while she squeezed my shoulders. I must have looked dumfounded, because King Draven looked like he was trying not to laugh. This must happen regularly, I imagined. His wife seemed to make him laugh frequently. Theirs seemed like such a healthy relationship, and that made me feel sentimental. Also, strangely...protective? Was this a Consort Mia thing? Did everyone that met her just decide that she was like this little innocent puppy and want to protect her? She finally released me and patted my shoulder again with a beaming smile on her face. "You're so relaxing to be around. Your emotions are super-chill. I like that. It's nice."

King Draven chuckled while I blinked. "Umm, thank you," I said.

She smiled again, still patting my shoulder.

"Let the nice woman go, now, sweetheart. You're going to leave a bruise," King Draven drawled as he gently tried to tug his wife toward him again.

"Oh!" she said, startled. "I'm so sorry!" And then she tried to rub the shoulder she'd been patting, while all the while the king was trying to tug her back to him. I couldn't help it. I started laughing. This was the most bizarre conversation I'd had in such a long time, and Consort Mia was completely adorable.

Consort Mia joined in in the laughter, and her husband just looked at us fondly. I waved goodbye to them both and saw myself out.

After the door shut behind me, I stopped for a moment on the stairs, smiling and shaking my head before heading to my SUV. That had been fun. I couldn't wait until Thursday to see Roarke, now, though. I needed his input tonight.

I could call him, but I wanted to have this conversation in person so I could read his body language. Maybe I could track him down at one of his restaurants? I tried to remember which one he'd said he was going to be at today. I thought he was at Flame. I'd try him there.

Flame was Roarke's steakhouse restaurant. Like Meum, it was more upscale than a traditional restaurant, with an excellent location along the river that ran through town. Flame only served dinner, but there was always a ton of prep happening in the hours before the restaurant opened.

I knocked lightly on the smoky black glass door and waited. I knew one of the shifter or vampire employees would hear me. After a moment, Saint, Flame's avian shifter chef, unlocked the door for me and waved me in.

"Hey, Saint, is Roarke in?"

Saint locked the door back up and turned to me with a mischievous expression. "Why are you hanging around that grump when you could be hanging with me?" Saint was an ever-present chaos storm who thrived in high stress environments. A typical falcon shifter.

Before I could respond, probably awkwardly, Roarke laid a huge palm down on Saint's shoulder and squeezed hard. "I believe my best friend is here to see me, Saint. Not you. Get back to work."

Saint laughed, rubbing his shoulder as he went back to the kitchen. I shook my head at him. Crazy bird.

I hugged my best friend. Even though I'd just seen him that morning, I'd missed him. His hugs always made me feel safe and dainty. Which was something I didn't feel very often, but Roarke managed it with his huge size.

He led me over to Flame's masterpiece rock fireplace, which dominated a cozy sitting corner with comfy leather seating. "Can I get you some dinner?" Roarke asked. "You probably haven't had a chance to eat yet."

I sat back and relaxed into a squishy chair. "Steak salad with Ranch dressing?"

He nodded. "I'll be right back."

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the back rest, letting my thoughts drift lazily. I imagined the room that King Draven and Mia wanted me to transform into a library, and started picturing design ideas for it, even though I hadn't decided to accept the project yet.

It was a lot of money, but, thankfully, I was already pretty set for money. I wasn't rich like King Draven and Roarke and others of Moonhaven, but I lived in a house on Clan lands that was already paid for, my best friend fed me all the time (one of his love languages) and my business made enough to pay for incidentals. I really needed nothing more. I was a simple bear at heart, most days preferring the beauty of a stream to the beauty of a grand mansion.

That wasn't to say I didn't appreciate the finer things in life. If anything, being Roarke's best friend had made that a necessary adjustment for me. But for the most part, I enjoyed simplicity.

Roarke came out with a tray of food and drinks. He extended the legs out and sat it in front of our chairs, brought out a lap tray for our meals. then served me, pouring the ranch over my salad, placing my napkin in my lap, and setting my ice water and utensils down on the tray.

I bemusedly followed his movements, knowing better than to say anything. I would just get that look again that made me question all of my life choices. I think, for dragons, it was a common expression that made mortal men and women quake in terror and have really vivid flashbacks of their lives before they were eaten.

Not to say I was afraid of my best friend. I just had a healthy respect for him. Both for that look he gave and also for his other, more scalier half. His big, fire-breathing, razor-sharp teeth, half. Yeah, not intimidated. Not. One. Bit.

I smiled softly at him as he sat down next to me. The fire was making me drowsy. I just wanted to shift into my bear form and curl up in front of the fire and sleep the rest of the evening. I could if I wanted to. I'm sure Roarke would let me. He could tell the customers who came to dine later that I was a beloved pet.

"You wouldn't mind if I had a nap in front of your fire, would you?"

"In human or bear form, just out of curiosity?" Roarke said as he laid his own food on his lap tray.

"Bear."

His lips twitched. "You make life fun, Emrie."

I laughed and ate my delicious meal. The steak was seasoned perfectly and was incredibly tender and flavorful, and the salad was crisp and bursting with all of my favorite veggies, including avocado. Which was technically considered a fruit, but I digress. The point was that my salad was amazing, and I finished it in record time.

Million-dollar commissions made me hungry, apparently.

I set my lap tray to the side and added my plate and silverware to the standing tray, then I sank back into my seat with my ice water. It was in a large, tall stoneware mug with a handle large enough for me to get four of my fingers through. I hated regular sized mugs, because they were always too small. The mug also had a straw, which was, in my mind, an essential part of any ice-water drinking experience. Or any drinking experience, for that matter.

I closed my eyes again.

Roarke finished his lunch and sat back with his black coffee. I could feel his eyes on me.

"Want to tell me why I get the honor of seeing you again today?"

Aww. He always said stuff like that, and it made my heart so happy.

"King Draven and Consort Mia would like for me to build a library for them." I turned my head and opened my eyes, taking in his expression. He looked happy for me.

"And what do you think? Will you accept?"

I sighed. "It's a huge project. I wouldn't be able to take any other commissions, likely for up to a year."

"What about that troubles you?"

I shrugged. "Will my customer base still be interested in a year? And what about the ocean dining table I'm working on? I need to finish that for you." I gave him a questioning look. "Why on earth do you need a dining table that large anyway?"

He smirked. "I need it to be dragon-sized."

I snorted and shook my head. Dragons and their egos. I knew he wasn't being serious. His human half was huge, but not that huge, and he would never attempt to sit at a dining table in dragon form. An image of him trying to do that, carefully placing his napkin in his lap and picking up his cutlery flashed across my mind, and I busted up laughing.

Roarke smiled. "Laughing at me again?"

"I had a mental flash of you attempting to sit down and dine in dragon form at your table." I wiped tears of mirth from my eyes and sighed as I sat back. "If you ever try that I want pictures."

He shook his head at me, smiling that small, tender smile of his. "Of course."

"What am I gonna do?" I leaned my head back and looked at the softly lit chandelier above us. It sparkled in the reflected firelight, even as high up as it was. "Flame is one of my favorites, by the way."

He snorted. "You say that about them all."

I nodded. "And I adore them all, but this one is the only one with a fireplace."

"You have a fireplace at home."

"Yep, but this one's better. It smells better, for one, and the atmosphere when it's full of people is de-stressing. There's this constant wall of background noise: people quietly chatting at their tables, servers taking orders and delivering them, drink glasses getting filled, cutlery scraping against plates, the chandelier crystals as they're gently blown about by the air conditioner... It's really relaxing for me. I love it."

"You are one strange bear."

I chuckled. "Thank you, I think."

"Emrie, what do you want to do? Do you want to design their library?"

"I think I do. It's a massive project, but I already have some great ideas for the space." I took a drink of my water and set it on the tray. "I think I'd already decided before coming here." I turned to him. "I guess I just wanted you to tell me I'm not crazy."

His expression softened. "You're not crazy, I promise. I think this is something you could really sink your teeth into. And designing a million-dollar library for the Vampire King could only lend your business more clout. It will bring in more customers in the long run, I promise." He smiled. "And Consort Mia is not one to stay quiet about it. Draven says she's a fan of your work. She'll probably tell the whole town that she's got a famous designer doing her library."

My heart thudded a little faster at his words, even as I laughed. "I don't want to be famous. She said she'd keep my name private."

Roarke gave me a look. "You know that's not going to last, though, right? They have a lot of people who work in their home, and a lot of people that work for Draven. Not all of them will remain quiet."

"So, I'd be giving up my anonymity?"

He shook his head as he set his coffee cup on the tray. "I'm not really sure why you want anonymity in your line of business."

I fidgeted with the leather arm of the chair, pinching the fabric between two fingers and rolling it to soothe my anxiety. "I don't really know." I closed my eyes. "But as far back as I can remember, my mom and dad always encouraged me to keep my identity quiet to the paranormal community at large." I swallowed the emotion that clogged my throat when I thought of my parents.

"And then they were killed," Roarke said.

I nodded.

Roarke gently used a forefinger and tilted my face so he could see my expression. "Emrie, sweetheart, do you think there's someone that was after your family? That you're still in danger?"

I started trembling for absolutely no reason that I could discern. My hands shook and grew sweaty. My mind went blank with an emotion stronger than anxiety, but thankfully less than a panic attack. Roarke immediately knelt down in front of me and gently took my trembling hands between his gigantic ones. His hands were dry, warm and soothing.

"Talk to me, sweetie."

I shook my head back and forth jerkily. "I don't know. I have these vague memories of my parents asking me to stay on Clan property as much as possible, to not share my last name, to try to stay off the paranormal community's radar. I was only ten when they died. I have no memory of them ever discussing why it was so important with me. But..." I fidgeted and drew in a deep breath. "I keep having these anxiety slash panic attacks for no reason. It's like my body is trying to tell me something that my brain doesn't remember or understand."

Roarke sat back on his heels, his massive thighs bunching under his dark-wash jeans. He soothed my hands with his and pondered my emotional state in silence for a moment before he drew out his phone and punched in a saved number.

I could hear King Draven pick up on the other end and I froze, wide-eyed. What the honey truffles was he doing? I wanted to snatch the phone from his hand and toss it into the fire.

"Already missed me?" King Draven said.

"About as much as a dinosaur misses a mosquito," Roarke drawled. "Listen, I'm here with Emrie and we're talking over your library commission. I'm not stepping on her toes and saying whether she's planning on accepting or not, but I wanted to be sure you could keep her name out of people's mouths. I don't want any of the many employees you keep around your mansion so you can feel big and strong and affluent to have her name on their tongues. Her name stays quiet, and she has guards at your house."

"Of course. My main staff in the house will never speak her name, and the guards I assign to her won't, either. I'll keep the other riffraff from that section of the villa. She'll be safe, friend. I promise."

Roarke said his goodbyes and got off the phone. He looked at me, waiting.

I knew I should protest his high-handedness, but I didn't. I felt cared for, and I knew that this was another one of Roarke's love languages. He took good care of the people he loved, and he protected them well.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"Always, Emrie. Always."