Page 18 of Falling for the Felid
“You’re coming too. His Majesty’s idea. Or maybe it was Jared’s.” Eoin shrugs. “Either way, you’re on duty Thursday night.”
I scowl. “Based on how happy you look, it’s clearly going to be a fun time.”
Sighing, he perches on the edge of my desk. “It probably won’t be so bad,” he admits. “I just never figured that I’d be socializing with my boss.”
I huff. “Yeah.” When he doesn’t say anything else, I add, “So what is it? A gala? Fundraiser?” Maybe I’m wrong about this. There’s a super slim chance it’s?—
Eoin shakes his head. “A hockey game. The human kind.”
Ansas pulled it off, then. “Don’t I have to deal with hockey enough already?” I whine, earning a glare.
“That’s partly why we’re going. Jared and his friends want a night out, and he figured this would be a good way for you to learn about the game. Plus he had an extra ticket.” He shakes his head again. “I don’t know—I disassociated while Raðulfr was telling me about it.”
Alarm begins to stir in me. “It can’t be that bad.” Admittedly, I’ve only seen bits and pieces of training and a few YouTube clips, but it’s a popular sport.
“We’re going to ahumangame, Ari. In an arena full of humans… and Raðulfr.”
I do a fast risk assessment in my head. “It’s going to be fine,” I assure him, mostly convinced of it. “Jared’s human, and the rest of us are elves. There’s no chance of horns or anything accidentally being revealed. The king and Dáithí are sensible, and even if they decide to have a wild night, between us, we can manage them. It’s all good.”
“What about the kitten with anger issues? How are we supposed to manage if an adult felid decides to shift and have a tantrum in the middle of all those people?”
Angry denial surges, shocking the heck out of me. Taking a steady breath, I push down the instinctive emotions. I can unpack where they came from later.
“Do you mean Felix Ansas?” I ask carefully, still not wanting to give away just how much I already know about these plans.
“Who else would I mean?” Eoin gets off my desk and starts pacing, and I’m grateful that everyone else left. “He’s known for having a short fuse, Ari. I don’t need him going off while he’s with our king.”
“Be fair. He’d never hur?—”
“No, I know.” He waves me off. “I don’t mean he’d hurt the king. But we don’t need him fighting withanyonewhile he’s with the king and consort.”
It’s an unfamiliar feeling, this urge to defend Felix, and I’m pretty sure if any of my teammates knew about it, they’d be shocked. Everyone knows how hard I was on him.
“I doubt he’d want to endanger his friendship with Jared by putting Jared’s partner at risk. And he might be known for his short fuse while he’s playing hockey, but we didn’t find evidence that he’s violent any other time. Not unprovoked, anyway,” I add, because there was that time he beat the crap out of his boyfriend’s house.
Eoin turns to look at me, his brows raised. “Since when are you his champion?”
I shrug awkwardly. “I’m not. I’ve caused enough trouble for him that I think I owe it to him to be a voice of reason. But if you think my judgment is?—”
“Relax,” my boss chides. “I was worried about your judgment when you were frothing at the mouth to string him up. This”—he gestures to me—“is the Ari I’m used to. If you believe we can trust Felix not to be a security risk, then I trust that.”
Now I feel bad for not telling him from the outset that I knew about this plan. “Eoin?—”
“So, Thursday night. Hockey game. With the king and consort, Dáithí, and a felid shifter who has every reason to hate us both. Not to mention the twenty thousand humans we’ll be surrounded by.” He pulls a face. “Sounds fun, right?”
When he puts it that way…
CHAPTER NINE
Felix
Jared askedif I wanted them to pick me up for the game, but I said no. I figured that if it turns out to be a complete disaster, I won’t want to be stuck with them for an awkward ride home.
I think I need to work harder on the whole positive vibes thing.
Ignoring the people around me as they make their way into the arena, I take a couple of deep, measured breaths—from the diaphragm, the way my dad told me. He had a lot of “helpful” tips for me when I started puberty that have turned out to be only kind of helpful. Deep breathing is no match for rioting hormones.
It is, surprisingly, pretty good at dispelling negative thoughts, and the antsy-sick feeling in my stomach settles.
