Chapter 22 - Things I Had to Understand

— Eveline —

I knocked on my brother’s door.

It was a beautiful day, the sun was bright, without a cloud in sight. Darren and I had planned a little romantic day. We would stay in bed all morning, go to a nice little café in town for lunch, and then rent a boat and spent all afternoon on the water. Picnic on the deck with a bottle of champagne, watch the sunset, and come back for a long bath and romantic evening at home.

And of course, we were awakened at four-thirty in the morning because a sewer main broke in town, and he needed to come in to help orchestrate the repairs and deal with the collateral.

It was a bit of a let down because we don’t have as many weekends together as we used to. But at the same time, we both liked our jobs and we took moments like these in stride.

So when my brother called me in the morning because he’d been dragged to the office, asking me to spend the day with Elaeya, it was on.

Might as well connect with my future sister-in-law.

I slipped inside before anyone opened the door and went to the living room, where I found her looking at some random books.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hello,” she told me.

I’ve had my mother tell me all my teen years that I should stop slouching and have a better posture. That girl’s posture would make her proud. It’s perfect. It makes me wonder if she’s been trained in a religious coven or Buckingham Palace. It’s a level of discipline I’ll probably never have.

“Did you planned anything today?” I asked her.

“Not really,” she admitted.

“Cool. Because apparently we have some money to spend.

She looked at me confused.

“Kaden told me you don’t have much of anything and you haven’t bought anything yesterday.

“Oh,” she said a little uncomfortable.

“So we can shop online, or we can use this day to let loose a bit. There’s a pretty big town on Blakemore Territory named Blakeden. It’s eclectic, and vibrant, and we can find pretty much everything there. There’s a shop I often go where they can get anything you want, custom. Plus, while you’re there, you’ll be treated like a queen. It’s awesome. You’ll love it.

“Ehm, I don’t need anything extravagant. I can do with very little actually,” she said.

“Sure you can,” I admitted. “Anyone can. But why do that when you can splurge? Live a little.

I took her hand and led her to the entry hall.

She was definitely not convinced.

I get that money can be intimidating sometimes, but once she starts, she’ll get the hang of it.

We put our shoes on and walked out.

I sent a quick text to Kaden, in case he comes back early, so not to look for us.

Don’t walk, I’m sending Sam. He texted back right away. What the fuck?

It’s like 20 min away. We can walk. I texted back.

Sam is on the way. He’ll stay with you all day.

Well, overprotective much?

What has gone into him?

So we walked to the garage instead.

It took Sam maybe fifteen minutes to join us. He was living in the packhouse, so he was always nearby.

I felt a little guilty for cutting on his weekend too. But he was friendly, as usual, and he drove us to town.

“Morea’s great,” I told Elaeya on our way. “She’s been here for ages. She was the one who took care of my mother when she arrived. She’s a dryad, so with her type of lifespan, she’s seen a lot of eras of fashion, and has a shop at the edge of town. She’s the one who dresses nearly all the Lunas around here, and she can get her hand on nearly anything.

Of course, when we came in Morea rolled the metaphorical red carpet for us. She then spent an hour gushing on how pretty Elaeya is. I guess no one can argue with this. Elaeya, on the other hand, looked like someone who was clearly not used to being under the spotlight.

She was twirled around a few times, measured, and Morea began picking clothes for her to try on.

During that time, I took my phone and ordered everything else she could need to be delivered at Kaden’s. Hair accessories, some jewelry, makeup, creams, soaps, shampoo, and hair products—I heard from Kaden she came with nearly nothing, I know he bought her a phone, but just to be safe I ordered a laptop, smartwatch, a good pair of headphones, a tablet—I pretty much raided the Apple Store—I did a massive Sephora order too, and ditto Amazon. I know Morea will get her a few things she has in stock, but now that she has her measurements and will find out what type of clothes fits her best, Elaeya will get massive deliveries from her in the upcoming week too.

Morea had gotten us the best sushi in town for lunch, and she had piled a dozen outfits at least for us to take.

While she was looking at accessories, I picked a few pieces for myself and an absolutely gorgeous purse.

Sam was sitting in a corner scrolling on his phone, looking around once in a while, but mostly being the faithful security guy slash chauffeur.

I never saw Kaden get this protective. I mean, Blakeden is on Blakemore Territory. Sure, there are more than a few visitors here, but everyone considers it neutral territory, and no one would be stupid enough to do something violent, let alone to us, especially us. He never sent a bodyguard with me or my sisters when we went to town. At most, when we were young and would go without our parents, he asked one of the house staff to go with us. But never an excessively muscled, highly trained, mini-giant.

More than a few males gets overprotective when they get their mates, but I never really pictured my brother to be one of those. I mean, for crying out loud, his main bodyguard is a woman. A very deadly woman sure, but he’s never been the type to really treat someone differently based on gender.

When he wanted my sisters and me to be safe, he made sure we would have some martial arts and combat training.

Well, maybe that’s the plan with Elaeya and Sam is just there until she can fight. But still, it’s odd.

Regardless, I am so glad Kaden found his mate. I was developing some serious anxiety regarding his health. I don’t know what it changes at the moment, or how quickly it can be reversed—I mean if it can be reversed. God, I hope it can be reversed.

Anyways, this is good news.

Great news even.

Maybe Mom is going to stop looking at me as if I’m about to sprout babies and put her attention on Elaeya instead.

She doesn’t look much older than me though, maybe she’ll want to wait too. But Kaden and her have a good age gap. I hope it won’t mess anything for them. They didn’t mark each other. It doesn’t mean it’s going wrong though. Darren and I didn’t mark one another until weeks after we met. It doesn’t sound long before going for such a commitment, but in retrospect, we could have made that move a lot sooner.

Around mid-afternoon, I decided to call it quits. Elaeya had looked like a rabbit in the headlights for most of the day, but now she looked like she had capitulated to her fate.

I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a girl be more exhausted than thrilled at shopping. High-end, all-paid shopping.

So I let Sam pick the bags and put them in the car. And we went back to Kaden’s.

— Kaden —

I had managed to return home after lunch. I had expedited everything that I could so I would not be away for too long, but it turned up I came back first. I should have thought about it, with Eva in charge of shopping.

As I had a little bit of spare time, I took some of the books that my father lent me out, and I began studying.

I had called Mrs. Reynolds to be assigned here exclusively. A lot of the staff usually came and went from one building to the next, but I didn’t want to expose Elaeya to too many people yet, so I decided to limit my house. Mrs. Reynolds had been doing this for decades, she was discreet and not prone to gossip—and as she was a widow, she was willing to take a room here and take care of all the shifts, which suited me fine.

The girls came back an hour before dinner.

Sam came in, his arms loaded with bags, and brought them to Elaeya’s room.

Eva rushed in and kissed me on the cheek.

“Hello, and goodbye. Darren just got his schedule freed, so I’m gonna leave you too lovebird together while I’ll try to salvage our romantic day,” Eva told me, went to kiss Elaeya on the cheeks too, then left in a rush.

Sam left not long after.

“You look tired,” I told Elaeya.

“I do not think I will need to go shopping for the next decade,” she told me.

“Don’t let Eva hear you.” I took her hand and pull her to the living room, to sit comfortably on the sofa. “Come.

We sat next to one another.

She let her head fall on my shoulder and closed her eyes.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Just tired,” she muttered.

I slipped my arm around her shoulders to make us a little more comfortable. She straightens automatically.

“Sorry,” she said.

“Don’t apologize,” I told her. “I don’t mind.

She turned to look at me, but her eyes stopped on the books on the coffee table. I’ve seen statues more energetic than her at that very moment.

“There are things I had to understand,” I explained.

“When?

“Yesterday. After dinner. My father figured it up.

She nodded, her eyes still on the books.

“What will you do now?” she asked me.

“It depends,” I admitted.

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