“You Warriors are powerful. You’ve immense strength, speed, and other abilities added to each individual power given to you by your god. In times of great need, all of you will band together and fight.” Rhys paused then. “Why is it when the battle is over, you’re one of the first to run away?”
“I do better on my own.”
Rhys shrugged one shoulder. “And now that Charon has found Laura?”
Phelan glanced over his shoulder into the foyer. He could no longer see Charon and Laura, but he didn’t need to. He had caught sight of them heading up the stairs, their arms wrapped around each other seconds earlier.
He was happy for his friend, yet there was a part of Phelan that felt lost. Charon had been as alone as he was. Now things would return to what they had been before he met Charon.
“I’m happy for him,” Phelan said. “He’s wanted her for a long time. They look good together, do they no’?”
“They do. I know what it’s like.”
“What?”
“Not quite knowing what to do with the friends who’ve found their mates.”
Phelan sighed, suddenly weary of hiding his feelings. “Is it difficult to cope?”
“Aye, but their happiness makes it easier.”
“I’ll worry about that once I know Wallace is really dead. Until then, I’m going looking for him. Now, sod off, Dragon, I’ve hunting to do.”
He gave Rhys a friendly slap on the shoulder and strode out of the mansion. Phelan had no idea where he was going. Once he found his Ducati he had stashed in the forest, he’d set out on the roads and just drive.
It’s what he had always done.
Con stood under the overhang of the stillhouse with Rhys and Guy. “What do you think?” he asked.
“Phelan willna admit it, but he’s lonely,” Rhys said.
Guy leaned a shoulder against the building. “Malcolm is difficult to get a read on.”
“So you discovered nothing?” Con asked.
Guy snorted. “I didna say that. I said it was difficult.”
“Well,” Rhys urged when he didn’t continue.
Guy looked out through the rain at Phelan. “As long as Larena is around, Malcolm will fight with the Warriors.”
“And if she’s no’?” Con asked.
“She’s the only thing holding him to the Warriors or the Druids. I’d like to say he’d feel responsible to help them should the need arise, but I’m no’ sure I can.”
Con looked at the sky to see Tristan flying low. “Of all the Warriors, Malcolm spent the least amount of time with Deirdre. I didna think she’d get her hooks in him so quick or so deep.”
“I think it stems from what happened to him before his god was unbound,” Guy added.
Rhys nodded. “Could be. With all the time Phelan spent in Cairn Toul before—and after—his god was unbound, there isna a darkness in him like there is Malcolm.”
“What is it about Charon that got you to change your mind about helping them, Con?” Guy asked.
Constantine looked at his fellow Kings and grinned. “He went back to the village he was raised in. He made sure they were safe, that they were never without jobs. Charon made a name for himself with his businesses all the while keeping what he is a secret.”
“He did what we did,” Rhys said with a nod of understanding.
“If Fallon or the MacLeod brothers had no’ stepped up to lead the Warriors, I do believe Charon would’ve taken the challenge.”
Con left Rhys and Guy to make his way to the hidden entrance into the mountain behind the mansion. He shook off the rain and walked to a cavern on the right.
There he paused beside the massive cage that held the four sleeping silver dragons. It was only the magic of the Kings that kept the Silvers from waking and destroying man as they had been before being captured.
Male laughter filtered down to him from one of the corridors. He listened for a moment, then turned on his heel to find the Kings who had decided their time of resting was over.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Laura walked out of the bathroom and came to a halt. She smiled as she stared at the drop-dead gorgeous male who reclined on the bed with his eyes closed and nothing covering him.
She let her eyes run over every delectable inch of Charon’s muscled form. The last of the bite marks from the selmyr were healing, and the fact he was lying there with his eyes closed told her how exhausted he was.
Though she was loath to disturb him, she wanted to be beside him. Laura quietly walked to the bed. The only sound was the wooden floor creaking beneath the rug.
She glanced at the bed to find Charon’s chocolate gaze riveted on her. Her heart skipped a beat at the desire she saw.