And I didn’t love him that way.
But in the five years she’d been queen, only Seth had been in her bed. She was happy. Why was she reacting to Chela this way?
Aislinn cleared her throat and said, “I’m sure the Dark Court misses you. I expect them to come here once they learn that you switched your loyalty to Summer.”
Chela laughed. “Let them. I answer to no man. No Hound does. We are our own masters, and we make our beds where we choose, for however long we choose.”
“Gabriel—”
“Fathered children with countless mortals,” Chela said. “He had needs that are not my own.”
“I thought you two were mated?” Aislinn rarely felt her mortal roots as clearly as she did when trying to understand centuries-long relationships. In her life, short as it had been, she’d loved one man. She’d never really dated before Seth.
Other than sort of dating Keenan.
Seth was gone only a few months, and I was ready to . . .
Chela seemed to take pity on Aislinn’s awkwardness. She said, “I loved Gabe for over six hundred years. He was my mate, my leader in the Hunt, and if I had any desire to have pups, I’d have had his. I would have bathed in the blood of any who harmed him.” She smiled in that way of people remembering things they were not sharing. “He liked to think I’d object if I discovered his mortals, if I knew he’d had yet another pup. So—” she shrugged “—I kicked his ass from time to time and reminded him where he was to bed down each night.”
“But you didn’t really mind?” Aislinn surmised.
“Monogamy is a mortal concept, Ash. It works for Donia and Keenan because they were so wrapped up in mortal matters. Maybe it will work for you and Seth because youweremortals.” Chela shook her head. “Hounds? Not really built for it. I like the look of you, the scent of you, the way your eyes dilate when you see me looking.”
“So you came to my court because . . . ?”
“Because you smell like trouble and hunger,” Chela answered. “If that means you’ll send us out to hunt, great. If it means that you’ll expand your territory and start a fight with other courts, great. If it means you realize you ought to learn to fight better, I’m here for that, too.”
Aislinn nodded, thinking that was the end of the answer, but then Chela put a hand out to stop Aislinn. Chela’s hand was outward, palm flat, but not quite touching Aislinn’s stomach.
“But if it means you want to explore the thoughts that are making you blush?” Chela added. “I’m betting there’s a lovely room at the top of these stairs that was designed just for me, so you know where I am if you decide that.”
For a moment, the bluntness of the Hound left Aislinn silent, but then she straightened her shoulders and said, “There is. A room, I mean.”
“Show me.”
Aislinn’s voice was breathy as she echoed, “Show you . . .?”
“Whatever you want.” Chela’s hand dropped. She stepped around Aislinn and bounded up the stairs. Her voice filtered down the stairwell. “No requirements, Ash. No anything. Just an open door if you decide to act on it.”
By the time the Summer Queen had her expression under control, she’d started up the stairs and made it almost to the top floor. She made a mental note that she was only breathless from the exhaustion not from Chela’s words, but lies weren’t the domain of faeries. Aislinn could only think that in the privacy of her own mind and even then, as a question.
Mortal hang-ups about propriety clouded Aislinn’s mind, and threaded through them was the fact that Seth undoubtedly already saw this potential future thread. His future-seeing was sometimes more frustrating than his months upon months of absence. He was gone half of every year, away in Faerie with the High Queen, and then when he was here in the regular world, he traveled all the time seeing to the needs of the Solitary Faeries.
And I am left alone.
Untouched.
Unloved.
It was no wonder that the thought of uncomplicated affection had her heart all aflutter, and her body whispering, “Why not?”
Chela stood at the wall that had been removed and replaced with a window. It was one of the few major renovations Aislinn had done up here. The entire living room wall was gone, and in its place was a wall of glass. The center of that glass wall opened to the fresh air, and a balcony woven of the branches of a nearby tree leaned against the building.
“Ani and Tish, Gabriel’s daughters, used to talk about hating to feel trapped,” Aislinn said. “Ani was worse, and she was more Hound than human. So I thought you might feel that same way.”
Chela nodded, staring out at the park where Summer held revels and danced.
Aislinn had thought Chela might like the view, but now she was doubting herself. “If you hate it, I can—”