Velvet Haven

time for bed.
    She shut off the kitchen light, leaving the light on above the oven, then padded across the living room floor to the couch. She stripped out of her shirt and jeans, silently laughing at the bird, who seemed to be spying on her through the metal bars of the dog crate. As she reached for the tank top she’d laid out she had the sudden feeling someone was watching her.
    Whirling in a circle, Mairi hissed, “Who’s there?”
    Silence . Even the bird stood still as a statue, its head cocked to the side as if listening with her. She was definitely spooked. Even the fine hairs on her arms were raised.
    Mairi searched the apartment but found nothing other than the bedroom window she’d forgotten to close before leaving for the club. Maybe it was the brush of the curtain against the wall she’d heard? After checking on Rowan one last time, Mairi quietly tiptoed back into the living room, where she dropped onto the couch and covered herself with a light blanket.
    It was hot in the apartment, despite the fact it was only May. The heat made her skin prickle against the worn fabric of the couch. It felt abrasive, like steel wool, and she flopped onto her back, trying to find relief.
    Above her, the ceiling fan quietly turned, giving her momentary periods of relief from the heat. While her body was fatigued, her mind was active. She couldn’t stop thinking about
    Bran, about what he had done to her in that room. Reliving that orgasm was all she wanted to do. Dreaming of what else he might have done to her quickly followed. Soon she was fidgety, her body alive and craving his touch. Damn him, she had wanted more— needed more .
    Her last thought was of him, looming over her, his mismatched eyes glowing with excitement, his heavy cock lying against her thigh . . . when he lowered his head to her breasts she saw the side of his face, heard the deep, velvety rumble of his voice against her skin and realized, as the moment of sleep washed over her, that her dream lover had at last arrived . . .

CHAPTER ELEVEN

    Slipping through the holes of the crate, Bran hobbled to the edge of the counter and jumped down. He was too weak to shift into a man, his wing too damaged and his magical stores depleted. Thank the goddess Mairi hadn’t possessed an iron cage, otherwise he’d be confined for the night. Iron was deadly to the Sidhe, and he wouldn’t have been able to risk touching it.
    Mairi . . . He glanced at her restless body sprawled out on the couch. How had she found him? He couldn’t fathom it, and finally didn’t try to understand. A part of him already knew why she had.
    They shared something. Something he had never once before experienced, and it wasn’t only sexual attraction. He couldn’t explain it, but felt it coursing along his body. Even as she had tended his wing he’d felt her energy pulsing through his feathers, down the bone and into his blood. Her careful caresses had been the furthest thing from sexual, yet he’d felt his body come to life as though he were taking her inside him. His people had a term for that kind of magical bond: Chosen Fate . A lover, a destiny , that the universe had created solely for one person. Bran had only ever known one person lucky enough to have found his Chosen Fate, and that was Daegan.
    But Mairi couldn’t be his. His curse wouldn’t allow it. Which made him wonder, if she wasn’t to be his in that way, what was she?
    He decided not to think about that, and instead chose to make his own search of the apartment. Someone had been here. He smelled it, a different scent from Rowan and Mairi. Yet the dog, Clancy, had not perceived the intruder. Which made Bran wonder if he was dealing with something immortal. But who?
    Suriel . The bastard’s name was cropping up all over tonight.
    With a glance, Bran summoned the dog. Clancy dragged himself up from his arthritic haunches, his nails clicking on the tiles. Lowering his head, he allowed Bran to climb on, then down his back.
    “Show me around,” he ordered and Clancy obeyed. It hadn’t been easy to get the beast to come to heel. He’d been highly protective of Mairi, and while Bran respected that, even welcomed it, he could not allow the dog any sort of dominance while he was in his raven’s form. Especially a raven with a mangled wing.
    In the end they had come to an understanding. Bran would not hurt Mairi and Clancy would not eat him.
    Meandering around the apartment atop Clancy’s back allowed Bran to